Pious Lutheran

The Mealtime Prayer , Fritz von Uhde, 1885 Living the Christian Life with Intentionality Moving from the abstract to the concrete How to be both a hearer and a doer How overcoming the world leads us into action Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! What does it mean to be a Christian? This is a valid question which Christians must be able to answer. Last Sunday I talked a bit about evangelism and why and how we Christians do that. But this question today is one that the hearer needs to have answered. Because if being a christian isn’t any different than not being a Christian, then why would they want to be one? What’s more, before someone becomes a Christian, they need to know what they’re getting themselves into. Before people join a club they need to know the cost and what they’ll have to do. The church is much more than a club, since this is the body of Christ, therefore they must know the cost of discipleship. When great crowds were following Jesus, He turned and...

Reading the Bible,  Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1755 Theology has consequences Introduction to Postmodernism. A person’s beliefs shape their behaviors. God’s Word shapes our minds, and therefore shapes our behaviors. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! So many things are changing very rapidly today; it practically gives a person whiplash. It’s almost hard to believe how dramatically and quickly things are changing. Just in the past couple of decades, for example, sodomy and transgenderism went from being somewhat unheard of and unacceptable to the majority of the population, to today where if you don’t accept these perversions you’re considered a hateful bigot. A century ago, when clothing was much more expensive, when do you think men wore suits and top hats and women wore big dresses? Practically anytime they went out in public. The same was mostly true just half a century ago. Now many people don’t even own anything nicer than a pair of jeans. Half a century ago n...

The High Priestly Prayer , Eugene Burnand, 1901 Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Often when Jesus speaks in the Bible He’s speaking to mixed groups of people: strong believers, and people just curious, and those who hate His guts. But our readings the last two weeks and this week are spoken exclusively to His inner circle, the apostles. What’s more, these words were spoken on Maundy Thursday, immediately afterwards Jesus said a prayer and was arrested and crucified. This was His farewell discourse, His final words spoken to faithful Christians who were going to have to live in this world after He ascended to heaven. These words are extraordinarily applicable to us faithful Christians gathered here.  Eburg: [These words are also very applicable to the four young people being confirmed in our parish today. You have spent some years learning from Jesus, and today you are prepared to make a public confession before the church that what you have learned is good, ...

"Christ Taking Leave of the Apostles" by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1255-1319 “ In the world you will have tribulation. ” Ain't that the truth! The world is filled with tribulation! Especially lately it seems everything is all mixed up and confused, just one big mess. Globally, the world is rather tumultuous. We sometimes get under the impression that things will always be as they are currently, as if the days of war are long past us and couldn’t come again. But Christ prepares us: “ You will hear of wars and rumors of war. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet. ”  Nation will always rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom; they will rise and fall. Just as nations have always conquered other nations and taken their land, the same will one day happen in our land, it’s inevitable unless Christ returns first. Not only is our world broiled up internationally, but within our own country there is much unrest. Things have not been wel...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! “Prayer is a joke, a waste of time; stop praying about it and just do it!” Or so says the scoffer who mocks Christ. For many of the heathen in our world, prayer is a joke, and in their minds it’s no different than virtue signaling without ever actually doing something about the problem. And I suppose they believe that because prayer is treated like a joke by many Christians, who do use it in order to virtue signal without ever actually even praying.  There is some truth to the heathen’s mockery. Consider how often we say we will pray for someone, just to make them and ourselves feel better, but then never actually do so. Consider how often we write on social media: “#praying,” in order to show others our spirituality, but then we never even pray. In that same vein, why do we tell people we’re sending them our thoughts and prayers? That doesn’t make any sense, the only One who hears our prayers is God, not the person who needs...

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Did you know, one of the greatest privileges that the Christian has is prayer with God. Direct vocable access to our creator and redeemer has been given to us. Many consider it a sign of prestige to have a direct line in order to call and speak to the president of the USA or the Queen of England. To be able to simply pick up your phone and dial the president is incredibly powerful! You would have the president’s ear! Dear Christian, you have sometime far better, more powerful, greater honor: you have God’s ear. When you speak in the name of Jesus that’s been placed on you at baptism, God listens.  What a magnificent comfort, that in this world of suffering and shame and futility, God would listen to your requests and give you exactly what you need. Why is it that prayer is such a great privilege and comfort? Prayer with God gives us unexpected joy and peace. How tragic it is then that many in these last horrendous days...