Pious Lutheran

The Broad and the Narrow Path,  Charlotte Reihlen & Paul Beckmann, 1886 The Word is Life and Light The Word has given much life and light to our christian forefathers The incarnate Word is Jesus He gives life and zeal through His Word He gives light and a direction in life through His Word How did our congregation get here? We are at an interesting stage of congregational life here in the midwest. Most congregations in the midwest have now been around for over a hundred years, including this congregation. This means that none of us founded this congregation, and those original founders died decades ago, so our personal knowledge of this congregation’s founding is quite distant; we can read about it, if we can speak German, but we didn’t experience it. It is fascinating to consider everything which went into founding these midwest Lutheran congregations, and the incredible sacrifices which were made by the individual members. It was common that congregations didn’t collectively ...

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...

Cleansing of the Ten Lepers,  Codex Aureus Epternacensis, 1035-1040 Jesus cleanses our flesh and our souls. The cleansing power of Jesus’ word and cross. Jesus cleanses our flesh. Jesus cleanses our souls. A mark of Christianity is purity. I know purity sometimes gets scoffed at, but it’s pretty important. We filter our water to cleanse it of impurities. Or how would you react if after eating a couple of cookies I told you they were 99% pure, and I got most of the mouse poop out of the flour? Or it was a little disconcerting when I learned a couple months ago that all rice is infested with rice weevil eggs and larvae; you can't eat a bowl of it without eating bugs hidden inside of the grains. Obviously impure food grosses us out, like finding half a worm in your apple. But wormy apples aren’t the end of the world, they’re just gross. The impurities which are worth worrying about are those which dwell in our flesh and our souls. When Jesus cleansed the ten Samaritans of their lepros...

The Healing of Ten Lepers , James Tissot, 1894 It’s a painful realization when you discover that you’re helpless to resolve a given situation. Chronic illness, permanent disability, death, terminal illness, natural disaster, all these things are terrifying because try as we might, we can’t fix them, we’re helpless. Ultimately this is why the covid crisis over the past year and a half has been so unsettling in many ways: it’s a problem we can’t fix. We 21st century Americans tend to believe that we’re at the height of civilization, knowledge, and technology. There’s nothing we can’t accomplish if we set our minds to it. When we compare ourselves to our forefathers just 100 years ago, we’ve changed so much! Many people lived without electricity, indoor plumbing, automobiles, and modern medicine. But look at us now! We can fly across the world in hours, perform heart transplants, access the world’s libraries from a palm-sized device, and live comfortably whether the temperature is -20 or ...

Last week we considered how Jesus is like the Good Samaritan, binding up injured sinners and caring for them, how He sets them within the hospital of the church. Today we continue to see how Jesus is like a good physician. Jesus makes sinners well and then sets them on their way. One day, “as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed.” Without touching them, without doing anything strange, without even coming near them, Jesus healed these ten lepers. The only things that He did was come into their presence while journeying to Jerusalem and speak to them, commanding them to go to church. Then before they had even accomplished what He commanded, He had mercy upon them and healed them.  So it is with people like us. We too have been afflicted with a terrible leprosy, a leprosy...

For a moment this morning, I’d like us to consider what the life of one of the ten lepers from our Gospel lesson might have been like. Just to make it a little more relatable, let’s give one of them a name, maybe a good Hebrew name like Jacob. Jacob was a regular down to earth loveable guy. He was born and raised in the village. He had a good job, working alongside his brothers and cousins, and lived in the same neighborhood as the rest of his siblings. After some time he found a wife and was married, he loved her very much. They had children who were just beginning to get to that age where they were having lots of fun as a family.  Jacob had a good life. A few bumps and bruises along the way, but overall it was a life filled with joy. He had a good job, with a great boss. Jacob was never gonna be rich, but he found that didn’t matter considering the wife and children he had, he felt like the richest man on earth. He had a good life. But one day his upper arm started to itch a...