Pious Lutheran

  Loving the Unlovable Though our sins put us at enmity with God, He loves us. We are likewise to love others, even if we’re at enmity. In the course of life it’s a common occurrence that we meet people who are very difficult to love. Because we want to think of ourselves as good people who will go to heaven, we try very hard to justify ourselves and our unloving words and actions towards those people. Sometimes we sound a bit like the lawyer, who, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor? ” Because, if he could have a few people excluded from the list of those he has to love, he wouldn’t seem like such a terrible person. Nevertheless, Jesus teaches us a lesson in loving the unlovable. I’m sure you’re all well enough acquainted with the dynamics between Israelites and Samaritans. To put it simply, they hated each other. That enmity between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel went back centuries! So in the parable when the priest and Levite walked...

Martin Luther Preaching , from the altarpiece of the Church of Torslunde, 1561 The bold, confident ministry of a pastor The insufficiency of a pastor A pastor’s confidence in Christ Since I recently accepted the call to Our Savior’s, and my ministry among you is very swiftly drawing to a close, this sets me in mostly an awkward position of being a lame duck for the time being. On the other hand, however, since I have four final sermons to preach to you, this also sets me in a unique position to prepare you for your next resident pastor. In a way I can now preach to you in such a way that was more complicated previously. For example, it’s awkward for a pastor to preach about the office of the holy ministry, and what a pastor is, while he is the local pastor, because it requires him to talk about himself in a way that is uncomfortable. But since I’m departing soon, lot’s of things are already a bit awkward, so let’s lean into the awkwardness and address this very important subject. Parti...

Are you justified? Yes, I justify myself Therefore, I am not justified before God, only in my own eyes Yes, because He justifies me Through His sacrifice my sins are forgiven The first of Luther’s 95 Theses reads: “When our Master and Lord says: Repent, He wants the entire life of His believers on earth to be a continuous and ceaseless repentance.” The trouble is that repentance does not come spontaneously. We tend to like ourselves, or at least we tend to think that we are good people and we do good things. Maybe we recognize that we’re not perfect, we make mistakes, but we don’t like to think of ourselves as villains who intentionally do evil.  Rather than seeing ourselves as evil, we like to see ourselves as the hero or the good protagonist in our life. It’s common for us to look back on our lives and pat ourselves on the back, and even expect others to pat us on the back. Truthfully, many of us are offended when others don’t recognize our accomplishments. For example, when you ...

Jesus Wept , James Tissot, ~1886-1894 The Tears of Jesus They show us His love for the lost They teach us the seriousness of sin They give us hope in His grace Men are typically not given to tears in the same way as women. It’s simply not considered manly to cry, although that doesn’t mean men don’t cry. Given the infrequency of a man’s tears, it can signal a notable moment in his life. Thus, we see Jesus crying three times in the Bible, and it’s worth noting; He cried at the death of Lazarus, in the garden of Gethsemane, and here outside Jerusalem.  It says, “ When Jesus drew near and saw the city, He wept over it. ” It’s worth noticing the intensity of this moment. It’s not simply that Jesus became teary eyed or a little choked up, but He wept. Great sobs of sorrow welled up in Him as He spoke. When we read those words we should hear them as great emotional pleas, blurted out with sobs and tears. “ Would that you, ” He sobs, “ even you ,” another sob comes out, “ had known on thi...