Pious Lutheran

The Little Child Set in their Midst,  Harold Copping, 1910 The greatest is the neediest and the weakest Children are needy and weak; so are we all Because of our weakness we easily fall into temptation, so we must resist temptation God sends His angels to help us in our weakness A blessed feast of St. Michael and All Angels to you dear friends in Christ! Before we consider the significance of God sending angels, let’s consider why God would send angels to watch over us. Our Gospel reading began with the disciples asking a question of Jesus: “ Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? ” This is really an awkward question, especially when you read between the lines. They’re not really asking who is the greatest in God’s kingdom, because that would obviously be God. Their question rather is: Am I the greatest in God’s kingdom? Their question isn’t all that different from the question the mother of James and John asks Jesus, about them being seated at the right and left hand in par...

The Broad and The Narrow Path , Paul Beckmann, 1866 From anxiety to hope in God Anxiety and how we often try to fix it The only fix for anxiety is hope in God “ Do not be anxious about your life… Do not be anxious about tomorrow. ” Anxiety and worry are prevalent among us. Hope, the opposite of anxiety, is however in seemingly short supply. Therefore, today, I’d like us to move from all of this worldly anxiety to having hope in God, both for our own sake and for the sake of this sad world. I suppose the reasons for anxiety are numerous and maybe even logical. Inflation is terrible! If you’re older then you’re worried about your investments lasting you the rest of your life. If you’re younger, then you’re trying to figure out how to buy a house for 250k when 3 years ago it would’ve sold for 150k. As a congregation we look at the numbers and the demographic trends, and we worry about the long-term sustainability of our local parishes. With so many broken families today many worry about s...

Fruit of the Spirit Stained Glass Window at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin Walk by the Spirit We’re Not Epicureans. We’re Not Gnostics. We’re Christians who belong to Jesus. Thus, we follow the Spirit, and crucify the passions and desires of the flesh. “ Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ” We are often afflicted by two major errors today: Epicureanism and Gnosticism. Both of those are big weird words, but they help us understand the world around us and the temptations we ourselves fight against. If we’re to be the salt of the earth, we have to know the earth well enough that we know how to salt it. Epicureanism is named after its founder Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher. Epicureanism is, simply put, the belief that we should gratify the desires of the flesh. If you feel hungry, you eat. If it feels good, do it. This is clearly the mindset of many people today. Their motto is: Do what makes you happy. But as we read, the works of the flesh a...

Parable of the Good Samaritan,  Jan Wijnants, 1670 Who are God’s people? Intro: God’s people are decided by the heart, not merely by external qualities. History of the two kingdoms. The faithful remnant in Samaria is more faithful than Israel. Let us look to the faith in our hearts more than our external qualities. Today one of my goals for all of us is that by looking at the history of the two kingdoms of Israel and the Samaritans we might better understand the issues with Samaritans in the Gospels in general, and particularly the meaning of the Good Samaritan in today’s parable. Secondly, my bigger overarching goal is that we also ponder the question: who are God’s people? The lawyer asked Jesus: “ Who is my neighbor? ” Or from the Old Testament we might phrase it: “Who is my kinsman?” In other words, as Christians we might ask: “Who are God’s people?” The fact of the matter is that like prefers like. The Israelite lawyer would’ve preferred that his neighbors just be priests and ...