Martin Luther King Jr.

The Confession of St. Peter
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 18, 2010

The Lord be with you

In the Church Year today is set aside as “The Confession of St. Peter.” On the secular calendar used in the United States today is used to remember Martin Luther King Jr. This post deals with Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon. King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches (the ELCA and the Episcopal Church USA). King became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech, raising public awareness of the civil rights movement.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his murder in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

Confession of St. Peter

The Confession of St. Peter
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
January 18, 2010

The Lord be with you

In the Church Year today is set aside as “the Confession of St. Peter.” On the secular calendar used in the United States today is used to remember Martin Luther King Jr. This post deals with the Confession of St. Peter found in Matthew 18:13-20, Mark 8:27-29, and Luke 9:18-20. This is where Peter confesses Jesus to be “the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” In each of the Gospels that record this event it is a turning point in the story. From this point on Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem and Holy Week.

The confession of St. Peter did not arise in the imagination of Peter’s heart but was revealed to him by the Father. The reason this confession is important is seen in Jesus’ response: “You are Peter [Greek Petros], and on this rock [Greek petra] I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18). As the people of God in the Old Testament began with the person of Abraham, the rock from which God’s people were hewn (Isaiah 51:1-2), so the people of God in the New Testament would begin with the person of Peter, whose confession is the rock on which Christ would build His church. But Peter was not alone (the “keys” given to him in Matthew 16:19 were given to all the disciples in Matthew 18:18 and John 20:21-23). As St. Paul tells us, Peter and the other apostles take their place with the prophets as the foundation of the Church, with Christ Himself as the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). The confession of Peter, therefore, is the witness of the entire apostolic band and is foundational in the building of Christ’s Church. Thus the Church gives thanks to God for St. Peter and the other apostles who have instructed Christ’s Holy Church in His divine and saving truth.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

Christmas Truce 1914

Epiphany 2
January 17, 2010

The Lord be with you

I have just finished the book Silent Night, the story of the World War I Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub. It recounts how, for Christmas 1914, the common soldiers in the trenches of WWI stopped fighting and celebrated the Lord’s birth. They sang Christmas Carols and other songs, they shared food, they buried their dead, and in many places even played soccer together. Sadly those who were in no danger of losing their lives, the politicians and Generals far from the front, were incensed by the peace and ensured that it would end. The blood of soldiers was a small price to pay to satisfy their greed. This soldier lead Christmas peace was an opportunity to end the war years before it actually ended, which would have saved the flower of the youth of all countries involved. The men who were fighting and dying realized that “at each end of the rifle, men were the same.”

The book is well written and well documented. It is not told in a story format, but more as an investigation of events as they happened along the entire front. Therefore this is not a warm and fuzzy book, nor is it overly grizzly. It is a “just the facts, maam” book, filled with excerpts from diaries and other firsthand accounts. Oh, and so you know, it was the Germans that instigated the peace. In the book, at least, the Allied Command and politicians were the most against it and worked hardest to end it, though the German Command did the same as well.

I can recommend this book as a fascinating window into a few days in 1914.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

P.S. The photograph is an actual picture of German and English troops taken Christmas Day, 1914.

Worship for Epiphany 2

Thursday after the Baptism of our Lord
January 14, 2010

The Lord be with you

This coming Sunday is the Second Sunday after the Epiphany. The appointed lessons are Isaiah 62:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; and John 2:1-11. Psalm 128 is the appointed Psalm. Verse 5 is the antiphon. The sermon, based on the Epistle lesson, is titled “THE Mark of the Spirit.” We will be using Matins (page 219) for our liturgy. Our opening hymn will be “From God the Father, Virgin-Born” (LSB 401). The sermon hymn will be “O Holy Spirit, Enter In” (LSB 913). The closing hymn will be “All Depends on Our Possessing” (LSB 732). Better Noise (see the link on the right-hand side of this page) has each of these hymns. “From God the Father, Virgin-Born” is a new hymn for Lamb of God, and we will be singing it each week for the next few weeks, to learn it. The hymn was selected by our hymnal review committee. While it may be new to us, it is hardly a new hymn. “From God the Father, Virgin-Born” was written sometime between the 5th and the 10th centuries, in Latin. So this hymn must certainly be considered a “good old hymn.” I could find no videos of the hymns on YouTube.

We are in the Epiphany Season, which always begins on January 6th. The length of the Epiphany Season varies, depending on the date of Easter. As Easter comes early this year (April 4), we will have only 6 Sundays in the Epiphany Season. The word “epiphany” means “manifest,” “to make obvious,” etc. What is being made obvious in the Gospel lessons throughout the Epiphany Season is that Jesus is the Son of God. That Jesus was a human being was obvious to all with eyes in their heads. He ate, he slept, he bled, he died, and was able to do all else that people do. That he was the Son of the Father could not be seen (and still cannot be seen) with human eyes alone. It had to be revealed; it had to be made obvious. So the Gospel lesson for the First Sunday after the Epiphany is always the Baptism of our Lord, where the voice of the Father identifies Jesus as His beloved Son. The Gospel lesson for The Second Sunday after the Epiphany is always Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana. Certainly no mere human could do this. The Last Sunday after the Epiphany is always Transfiguration Sunday, where Jesus is transfigured with some of the glory he had before the incarnation and again the voice of the Father identifies Jesus as the Son of God. Each week throughout the Epiphany Season, as you listen to the Gospel lesson, ask yourself, “How does this lesson reveal that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Father, God in the flesh?”

Preview of the Lessons

Isaiah 62:1-5: Isaiah lived and prophesied from 740 to 681 BC. This means that he saw the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrian Empire (722 BC). He worked, though, in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Kings that ruled Judah during his lifetime were: Uzziah (who died in 740), Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh. Manasseh outlived Isaiah by many years. Isaiah is sometimes called the Evangelist of the Old Testament. While he certainly has passages of judgment, his clear gospel messages are what have drawn Christians to this book over the centuries. This reading is one of those Gospel sections. Isaiah has seen the coming captivity of Judah by the Babylonians, a nobody-nation at the time of Isaiah. This passage looks forward to the deliverance of God’s people. The deliverance of OT Israel is a type of the greater deliverance Jesus accomplished by his death on the cross. So, while this reading certainly had meaning for the OT people of God, giving them hope in their dark times, it also continues to have meaning for the NT people of God. The “righteousness” and “salvation” that goes forth from the people of God ultimately is Jesus (1). This is not self-righteousness. It is not how to live in order to please God. It is pure grace. This righteousness (Jesus) goes forth to the nations (2) bringing all who receive Jesus salvation. The people of God receive a new name (2), which is “Christian.” Verses 3-5 speak of just how precious believers are to the Lord, and how blessed we are by the Lord.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11: This will actually be the text for the sermon, so I’ll be even briefer in my description. This is one of the well-known “gift-lists” in the New Testament that are so popular with Pentecostal and Charismatic groups. These groups began in the first decade of the 20th century in Los Angeles, CA. The movement is now global, probably touching every major denomination. Most who read this already know that I think this movement is supported by a faulty understanding of the Bible and at its best driven by human emotions. This lesson will help us see that a truly “Spirit-filled” person is focused on Jesus, not the Holy Spirit, not Spiritual gifts, and certainly not on ourselves. We will also see that a truly “Spirit-filled” person gets involved in service. Enough said for now. Come Sunday and hear more.

John 2:1-11: This is the standard Gospel lesson for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany. Jesus attend a wedding with his early disciples (Jesus has not yet picked the 12, but the ones with him will become part of that group). The wine runs out. Mary, the mother of our Lord, asks Jesus to help. Jesus does, turning water into wine. The text ends with the disciples believing in Jesus. This lesson has been used many ways through the centuries. Jesus presence at the wedding is used to underscore God’s approval of marriage. Mary turning to Jesus in a time of need has been used to remind us to turn to Jesus in all our needs. Jesus obeying Mary and helping has been used to remind us that we are to honor, serve obey, love and cherish our parents and other authorities. That Jesus turned water into wine has been used to remind us that having a glass of wine is not, in and of itself, sinful. But the main point of the text is that Jesus “manifested his glory” and because of that his disciples believed in him. This belief was not that Jesus was a human being, a good teacher, a great showman, a dutiful son, that Jesus thought drinking wine was okay, etc., but that he was the Messiah, God in the flesh. Sure, their understanding was imperfect, but whose understanding isn’t imperfect. Sure, we have a greater understanding because we live after the cross, but they already believed that the Messiah had come, and that Messiah was Jesus who “manifested his glory” that day.

Sunday’s Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, who governs all things in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the prayers of Your people and grant us Your peace through all our days; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Gradual (Psalm 117:1-2a; 96:8)

Praise the LORD, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love towards us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!

Verse (John 2:11)

Alleluia. This, the first of his signs, Jesus Did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. Alleluia.

Introit

Psalm 128 is the appointed Psalm for the day and we will be using it instead of the appointed Introit.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

Great Music

Wednesday after the First Sunday of Epiphany
January 13, 2010

The Lord be with you

There is a great new music CD published by Concordia Publishing House tilted Evening & Morning the Music of Lutheran Daily Prayer. It is a recording of The Seminary Kantorei of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN, singing Matins, Vespers, Morning Prayers, Evening Prayers, Compline, and the Litany from the Lutheran Service Book. It is intended as an aid for those who use the Treasury of Daily Prayer for their personal devotions, but maybe they can’t sing all that well. However it is wonderful even for those who don’t use this daily devotional resource. Pop this puppy in on your drive to work and arrive relaxed. Listen to it at the end of the day and feel your stress melt away. You will want to chant along with the services you know, and you will love to just listen to the services you don’t know yet. Click here for a link to Evening & Morning on the CPH webpage.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

Two Powers in Heaven

Monday after the First Sunday of Epiphany
January 11, 2010

The Lord be with you

I have recently finished the book Two Powers in Heaven by the Jewish scholar Dr. Alan F. Segal, publisher Brill Academic Publishers, Inc., © 1977. The sub-title is Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism.

Within Rabbinic Judaism, as it is expressed in the Mishnah (compiled around 200 AD) and the Gemara (compiled around 500 AD) (the Mishnah and Gemara together comprise the Talmud) there was a polemic against a position known as “two powers in heaven.” Segal reviews first the Talmudic evidence, and then the extra-Rabbinic evidence in an effort to identify what group(s) this polemic was against.

Excluding biblical evidence, the earliest written evidence Segal considers is the Jew Philo (20 BC – 50 AD) who described the “logos” as a mediator and even as a “second god.” He also considers the New Testament witness and the witness of the Church Fathers. He reviews “Merkabah mysticism,” a form of Jewish mysticism that emerged after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 AD. Segal considers what can be known about Gnosticism in his target time as well. This is not a complete listing of the types of information Segal considers, but this sampling indicates that he was thorough.

Belief in “two powers in heaven” was the charge/heresy the rabbis accused groups/people of who broke with monotheism. Sometimes they were accused of believing in “many powers in heaven.”

While tentative, he concludes that a “radical Gnosticism superceded rather than preceded Christianity as a target for the rabbinic debate.” In other words, while certainly Christians came to be accused of this belief, they were not the original targets. Instead, Rabbis modified a pre-existing category to fit the Christian Faith.

Professor Segal’s book is well written, well researched, well foot-noted, and has had a significant impact on the understanding of this topic. However it is not a book for everyone for two reasons. First, he has to assume a general knowledge of Jewish history from say 500 BC to 500 AD, and many (most?) people simply do not have that knowledge. If he didn’t make this assumption the book would be two or three times longer. The second reason is that he has to assume that the reader is familiar with standard abbreviations used in the Talmud and other ancient documents. This includes a general knowledge of traditional dating for the material found in the Talmud. Still, I enjoyed the book.

You may be wondering why a Lutheran Christian pastor might be interested in the arguments of Jewish Rabbis from 200 to 500 AD. First of all, the Talmud represents the main-stream view of Rabbinic Judaism, and this tradition became Orthodox Judaism. Therefore the arguments they developed became the standard Jewish arguments for countering Christianity. If you plan to reach out to Jewish people today, knowledge of the standard counter-arguments to a Christian understanding of many Old Testament passages can be quite helpful. If you know where the land-mines are, so to speak, it is easier to diffuse them. This was not why I read the book. It was, though, a pleasant side-benefit.

The reason I read the book was to get a clearer picture of the diversity of thought among the Jews in the first few centuries of the Christian Era. It is obvious to anyone who reads the New Testament that there were divisions among the Jews. There were Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Rabbis, Essenes, Hellenized Jews, and so on. It is also clear that some Jews quickly embraced Christianity while others quickly rejected the Faith. If we continue to consider what happened historically in the first few centuries AD, we find that in many areas Judaism actually disappears as entire Jewish populations become Christian. My question was: What was the intellectual milieu in the Jewish community that allowed Christianity to find such a positive responsive?

I think many tend to view First Century Judaism through anachronistic eyes. That is to say, we tend to think of First Century Jews as being pretty much like Twenty First Century Jews. However this book demonstrates that there was a great deal of divergence of thinking in the Jews of Jesus’ day. Often this difference of thinking centered on Old Testament passages that spoke of Jesus. However these groups did not put it all together. When someone like St. Paul came along and showed how Jesus was the being these passages were speaking of, many Jews received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As Segal observed, “This leads one to suspect that Christianity was the first to synthesize the various divine agents at creation by identifying all of them with the Christian messiah.”

It seems that when Paul wrote “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman …: (Galatians 4:4), he meant more than just the Roman Peace, Roman roads, or the general use of the Greek language throughout the Roman Empire. He also meant the mind-set of many Jewish people; people who had been pondering the plural references to God, people who had been pondering the “Man of God,” “Angel of the Lord,” and so on, passages in the Old Testament. Who knows how many times Paul’s experience in Berea (Acts 17:10-12) was repeated by other Believers as they shared the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus with Jews in the first few centuries after the Resurrection of our Lord. May the Lord of the Church continue to bless efforts to reach all people, including Jews, with the message of salvation.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

The Cappadocian Fathers

First Sunday after the Epiphany of Our Lord
The Baptism of our Lord
Commemoration of Basil the Great of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa, Pastors and Confessors
January 10, 2010

The Lord be with you

The Gospel lesson for the First Sunday after the Epiphany is always one of the accounts about the baptism of Jesus (just like the Gospel lesson for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany is always the wedding feast at Cana). This year the First Sunday after the Epiphany just happened to fall on January 10, which also happens to be the Commemoration of the Cappadocian Fathers (which these three men are also called). They were leaders of Christian orthodoxy in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in the later fourth century. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa were brothers; Gregory of Nazianzus was their friend. All three were influential in shaping the theology ratified by the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD, which is expressed in the Nicene Creed. Their defense of the doctrines of the Holy Spirit and Holy Trinity, together with their contributions to the liturgy of the Eastern Church, makes them among the most influential Christian teachers and theologians of their time.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert