Pious Lutheran

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins , Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, 1788-1862 Equipped for the long night of waiting Since Jesus isn’t coming immediately we are called to endure a time of waiting We endure by being equipped with the oil of the Spirit, which is gifts of the Spirit Now all who claim Christ’s name will be saved if they don’t endure But those who endure shall be welcomed into the heavenly marriage feast Homesteading, so to speak, is gaining in popularity in recent years. This isn’t a new phenomenon, since there was a big Back to the Land movement in the 60’s and 70’s, and before that around the years of World War II many Americans were encouraged to produce their own food in order to help with the war efforts. While some folks were successful and continued this lifestyle for decades, many people didn’t make it beyond a year. Moving to the country and producing all or the majority of your food and what you need, subsistence farming, turned out to be harder than what th...

Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins , 1616, Hieronymous Francken II The readiness of faith while awaiting Jesus’ return We must always be ready for Jesus to return by having faith Jesus’ return is joyful and hopeful news for the faithful We mentioned this last week, but it happens again this week; at the end of a long project we need two things: encouragement and sobriety. Last week the encouragement was a reminder of God’s abundant forgiveness, and the sober warning was a reminder that we must also abundantly forgive each other. Last week was about God’s abundant grace, this week is about the readiness of faith while we’re awaiting Jesus’ return. So the joyful and hopeful encouragement is that Jesus is returning. The sober warning is that we must always be ready for Jesus to return by having faith. In St. Paul’s letter to the church at Thessalonica it appears as if the Thessalonians understood quite well that Jesus’ return was imminent. “ You yourselves are fully aware that the da...

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow, 1788-1862 How wonderful it will be when Christ, our Bridegroom, returns and we enter with Him into paradise! That’s what our beautiful hymn of the day, which we just sang, is all about. Philipp Nicolai, the author of that hymn, was a zealous and staunch Lutheran pastor of the 16th century. After being driven out of his first parish by Roman Catholics, in 1596 pastor Nicolai became the pastor in a small town of 2,500 people called Unna in Westphalia, Germany. But the next year a plague broke out, and between July of 1597 and January of 1598, six months, 1,400 people died. Over half the town in just six months! At times he was burying more than 30 people a day. Yet, it was during that time, while sitting in his office overlooking the church graveyard, which he said exuded an evil smelling vapor, that he wrote a 400 page book of consolation and hope titled Mirror of the Joys of Eternal Life . In that book he wrote the...

  Christ said, “ The Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. ” Thus, the church is like the ten virgins, sitting outside of the bride’s house awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom to bring them into the wedding feast. St. Paul wrote: “ Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. ” Thus, the church is also like the military, armed and prepared for battle, ready for anything and everything, at a moment’s notice! As the virgins, which were like bridesmaids, our job is to wait for the bridegroom and when he comes we carry lamps to enlighten the darkness. As soldiers of the cross, our job is to be prepared for an enemy assault, by keeping our gear, minds, bodies, and hearts in tiptop condition. In both cases our job is to be prepared, to be awake and alert. We’re waiting not for our enemies to attack (they’re already doing that), but we’re w...

“ But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’” There will come a day when Christ returns, with the sound of a trumpet, with the voice of an archangel, and we shall all be awakened from our slumber with that glad announcement. Jesus has ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty, from whence He shall return to judge the living and the dead, the wise and the foolish. He shall return just as the disciples saw Him ascend. Jesus Christ is our Bridegroom who will return to lead His holy church, the ten virgins, into the marriage feast of heaven with Him. This marriage feast is that glorious feast of victory of the Lamb of God who stands reigning upon His throne. This marriage feast is the new heavens and the new earth where we shall “ be glad and rejoice forever,” and “ no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. ”  My dear friends, there will come a day when this world is bu...