North Star News 10-30-2014

October 31 is Reformation Day because on the eve of All Saints Day (that is, on October 31) 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  This event is the symbolic beginning of the great 16^th century upheaval called the Reformation.  Reformation Day is observed by Lutheran churches throughout the world but the idea that the Christian community is always to be reforming and occasionally needs a major overhaul is one that Christians of every denomination recognize.  There is an old Latin slogan “ecclesia semper reformanda est secundum verbum Dei” which means “the church is always reforming according to the word of God.”  So it was in 1517, and so it is in 2014.

            Luther’s 95 Theses were presented as propositions for debate concerning how the church could be more faithful to the witness of the Bible and the teachings of the early church.  Luther felt the practices of Christians had veered off course in his day, so he said “let’s talk about it.”  He truly wanted to reform the church through debate and persuasion, not divide it into hostile camps.  His sole purpose was to be faithful to the Bible and the early fathers, and his 95 Theses were meant to begin the process of returning to the ways of old, not to start something new.

            The first of the 95 Theses is this:  “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent’ (Matt. 4:17) he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”  This thesis is saying that individual believers are also to be reforming themselves constantly in light of the teachings of the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  If life is a journey from birth to death, and then on into eternal life, there are many times when a course correction is needed.  The only way to know if a person is on the right road is to consult the road map that God has given us in his Word.  Each day believers should be asking themselves, “is this the right thing to do?” or “is this the direction God wants me to go?” or “does this square with the teachings of Christ?”  Repentance is examining life, sometimes making a small change in direction, and sometimes starting on a whole new road..  As Psalm 119:105 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

            John the Baptist also preached repentance, just as Jesus did.  According to Luke 3, after one of his fiery sermons there were many who could see they needed a course correction, so they asked John, “what should we do?”  To the multitude he said, “share what you have with those in need.”  To the tax collectors he said, “be honest in all your dealings.”  To the soldiers he said, “don’t exploit your power and plunder the people.”  (I am paraphrasing here.)  John was a man of keen insight, so when each group of people came to him he knew just what course correction they needed.  He spoke to each one about the place where they were about to veer off into selfishness, dishonesty, intimidation, or whatever it might be, and he pointed them to a better path.

            One prayer that would be good to use at the beginning of each day is found in Psalm 25:4 “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.”  The roadmap for life is found in the Bible which is readily available everywhere.  The guide for life is the Holy Spirit whom God has poured out upon “all flesh” – young and old, women and men, high and lowly. (Acts 2:17-18)  As surely as the church needed reform in the 16^th century, we need repentance and reform in the 21^st century.  What is one “course correction” (or reform, if you will) you could make today so that you are on the path the Lord wants you to travel?  Think about it this Halloween.

North Star News 10-23-2014

Election day will be on November 4 this year, and I hope all of you who are eligible will vote for the candidates of your choice.  We are blessed to live in the United States of America where those who rule over us in government are chosen by the people and serve successive terms of office only as long as the people wish to re-elect them.  We have had presidents who were re-elected by huge margins such as Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, and we have had presidents who lost their bids to serve another term such as Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter.  This is not a presidential election year, but we still have the opportunity to retain or retire our governor, senator, congressman, and many other officials.  If they are not re-elected they return to being ordinary citizens with no governmental power anymore.

            When we move from the realm of government to the realm of faith there is an entirely different dynamic.  Despite the fact that pastors and evangelists continually invite people to make Jesus the Lord of their lives, Jesus Christ does not hold the title of Lord by the vote or decision of the people.  This is his title by divine right, and no vote can ever change it.  What pastors and evangelists are really doing is challenging people to see the reality of who is Lord and then live accordingly.  In Philippians 2:9 it says that because of Jesus’ obedience up to and including his death on the cross, “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”  There was only one vote for Jesus, but it was the vote that mattered because it was God the Father’s.  Jesus Christ is Lord for all eternity!

            At several points in his earthly life Jesus was deeply unpopular.  When he delivered his first sermon in Nazareth where he had been brought up, the people were so angry at his broad concept of God’s mercy for all people of all nations that they forced him out of the synagogue and almost threw him over a cliff.  (Luke 4:29)  Later on, when he delivered his teaching about being the Bread of Life it is reported “after this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him.” (John 6:66)  But when he asked the Twelve if they, too, wished to leave, St. Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”  St. Peter would not be swayed by popular opinion.  He knew the truth.

            St. Peter had this sense that, no matter what anyone said, Jesus was, is now, and always will be Lord.  He remembered that Jesus had once said to him and his eleven companions, “You did not choose me, but I choose you.” (John 15:16)  So he never felt that he had decided for Jesus, but that Jesus had decided for him.  And Jesus has decided for you, too, whoever you are.  He wants you to open your eyes and see that he is the Lord of all.  He wants you to open your mouth and offer him the praises that are due to him and which saints and angels sing to him (Revelation 7).  He wants you to open your heart and obey him and his precepts willingly.  Won’t you acknowledge the “name that is above every name” today?  Won’t you live daily as a citizen of his kingdom?   Won’t you open your eyes to the truth no man can change?

            We have had 44 presidents of the United States.  They come and go.  We have had 40 governors of Minnesota.  They, too, come and go.  But there is only one Lord, and his term of office never ends.

North Star News 10-16-2014

October 18 is the feast day of St. Luke the Evangelist who is also known as Luke the Physician because of the greeting from “Luke the beloved physician” in Colossians 4:14.  Because of this single reference, St. Luke is the patron saint of doctors and surgeons.

            Right now doctors throughout the world are being called to watch closely for signs of the Ebola virus in their patients as an epidemic in west Africa threatens to engulf the world.  The American government through the CDC is calling for vigilance in observing the behavior of anyone who has even the remotest chance of having come in contact with an infected person.  Thousands of deaths in Africa and one (so far) in America are enough.  We don’t want a repeat of the great 1919-1920 Spanish influenza epidemic that killed around 20 million people worldwide, most of whom were young adults.  (My maternal grandfather’s first wife died then, leaving him with two little girls.)  In 1919 and now in 2014 keen observation is the key to containing the epidemic so infected persons can be quarantined and treated.

            As a physician, Luke would have had a keen eye for observation which is what made him such a good writer of his gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.  As he began his gospel, Luke wrote, “it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you…….” (Luke 1:3).  Luke, of course, was not one of the original followers of Jesus and thus not an eyewitness to Our Lord’s ministry (Luke 1:2) nevertheless, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he wrote an inspired and authoritative gospel account filled with many details that we find nowhere else.

            For Christians, it is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that is most important when reading his gospel or Acts (2^nd Timothy 3:16), but where did he get his information?  There are old stories that much of it came from St. Mary who “pondered all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19) and was the only human being to have observed Jesus through his whole life from birth to death and resurrection.  She was also present with the apostles at Pentecost, but as Luke wrote more and more about the Acts of the Apostles, he eventually came to rely on his own experience, for in Acts 16:11 he switches from the third person (they did this or that) to the first person (“from Troas we made a direct voyage”).

            Not many of us are physicians or writers, but we all would do well to follow the example of Luke in observing closely what Jesus said and did as recorded in the Bible.  There are many things that are said to be the will of God and many strange things that are sometimes attributed to Jesus or to divine inspiration, but in turning to the Bible the true Word of God is revealed.  As Luke himself wrote in his introduction, his purpose was that “you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.” (Luke 1:4)

            When we read the Gospels, we encounter Jesus as the man who took the children in his arms and blessed them, who had a deep concern for the poor and needy, who reached out to heal the sick and suffering, and who rose from the dead to live forever.  As much as Luke the Physician was concerned about healing the body, more than anything else Luke the Evangelist desired all to find spiritual healing through faith in Jesus Christ.

            Jesus himself said, “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”  So have a consultation today with the Great Physician himself (Jesus) in the writings of St. Luke and in the other books of the Bible.  You will find healing for what ails you.

North Star News 10-09-2014

October 13 is Columbus Day (a Monday holiday in the USA) because on October 12, 1492 Christopher Columbus landed his ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, on the Bahaman Islands, thus beginning the active relationship between the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern.  Before he died ships were traveling annually between Spain and the many islands in the Caribbean Sea.  But during his lifetime, and now in the 21^st century, Columbus was a controversial figure.  He was a brilliant navigator and visionary but a poor administrator and governor.  He made four trips to the New World but returned to Spain on the last one as a prisoner in chains.  (He was immediately released upon arrival.)  Today his legacy is noted in the name of a country in South America, a province in Canada, a university in New York, many towns in the USA, and a major street in Grand Forks.  But he is also seen as a villain of history in beginning European domination of the Western Hemisphere, bringing European diseases that decimated the population of the New World, and allowing cruel treatment of the native populations.  Minneapolis has removed Columbus Day from the city calendar.  My friend in South Dakota told me that in his state it has been renamed “Native American Day” to celebrate the rich heritage of the aboriginal peoples of America.

            All of this reminds us that the life of every human being is a complex combination of good and bad, strength and weakness, high ideals and sordid actions.  Columbus often wrote that he wanted to convert the native people he encountered to Christianity and brought priests on the ships he sailed, but then he also followed the custom of the day and enslaved those who opposed him causing many of the priests to turn against him.  It is a complicated and complex picture.

            Another active traveler who sought to bring Christ to the nations was St. Paul.  We call him a saint for his great evangelistic work for the gospel, but he had his struggles as well.  In Romans 7:21 he wrote about his ethical dilemma: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.  For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

            None of us will ever be as celebrated as St. Paul or as vilified as Christopher Columbus, but we all struggle to do the right thing and often find that “evil lies close at hand.”  This struggle to say and do the right thing will continue as long as we live, but we can read the written Word of God and call on the guidance of the Holy Spirit when we try to discover what is right and to do what is right.  Above and beyond that, we can rest assured that because of Christ, God “does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:10) but when we come to Christ “we find mercy and grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

            This Columbus Day not many children will recite the poem “in fourteen hundred ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” for it has gone out of fashion, but we can remember what a complex fellow he was.  And we can remember that no matter what a complex mixture of good and evil we are God still loves us.  We can ask him to guide us on the ocean of life, to protect us in the storms, and at the end to bring us to the safe harbor of life.  Put your trust today in him who walked on water and calmed the seas.

North Star News 10-2-2014

October 4 is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi (Italy) who died on the eve of this day in 1226.  After statues of the Lord Jesus Christ himself and his blessed mother, Mary, statues of St. Francis are the most common in the western world, often adorning gardens and lawns.  These outdoor statues reflect his great love of the environment, his teaching of respect and love for all of God’s creatures, and his care for the natural world.  Outdoor statues often show him with birds all around him.

But Francis was first and foremost a serious disciple of Jesus Christ.  He did not start out life that way.  He was born into a wealthy family and spent his early years living the rather extravagant and high-spirited life of a rich young man.  He sought to gain glory as a soldier and even fought in several battles.  But then the gospel of Jesus Christ began to take hold of him, especially during times of illness and his year as a prisoner of war.  He abandoned his wanton ways to embrace a life of poverty, prayer, service, and peace-making.  The simple rule he strived to live by was “to follow the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps.”  His father was not happy and tried several ways to persuade Francis to return to the world of commerce and wealth.  Finally, in a dramatic scene, Francis renounced all his wealth and even took off the clothes his father had provided for him and walked away.

Service to the poor, cheerful obedience, care for animals and the environment, and reform of the church are all part of his legacy along with an earnest desire for peace.  Jesus Christ himself had said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9), and Francis desired above all else to be a true child of God.  And so this former soldier who fought mainly for the personal glory gained in battle became a man of peace who sought nothing for himself except to be a child of God.

His world, much like our world, was engaged in a great battle with Islam both ideologically and in ongoing wars.  In 1219 Francis traveled to Egypt to preach to the Sultan of Egypt and bring an end to the Fourth Crusade, but it was all in vain.  The Sultan remained a Moslem, and European Christians continue to try to conquer the Holy Land by force.  Yet his willingness to involve himself in the greatest conflict of his day and his idealism are admirable.  He knew that “all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  (Matthew 26:52)

He was more successful in preaching about inner peace through faith in Jesus Christ and service in His name.  From the days he rebuilt the church in Assisi to this very day there are those who find their way to peace with God through the teaching and example of Francis.  His mission is elegantly summed up in a prayer that is attributed to St. Francis which would be a great prayer to pray on Saturday.

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness joy.  Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.  For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.  Amen and Amen.

Newsletter October 2014

On October 26 we will again celebrate Reformation Sunday.  Lutherans celebrate the great reformation of the church on the Sunday before October 31 because on October 31, 1517 Martin Luther posted the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  It was the eve of All Saints’ Day and most people would be passing through those doors the next day for mass.  Many would read them or at least take note of them.  Martin Luther was a professor of Old Testament at the University of Wittenberg, and his 95 Theses are written in the language of the educated elite of his time.  He intended to start a discussion of reforms he felt were needed in the church.  He intended this discussion to take place at the university level with people who knew the Bible very well, who could quote many of the church fathers at length, and who could read not only German and Latin but maybe Greek and Hebrew, too – as Luther himself did.  Luther had a brilliant mind and was highly educated.  His father intended for him to spend his life working in the family’s copper mining business, but Luther instead mined the scriptures in the original languages and scoured the writings of the church fathers for the truth of God.

So Luther’s attempt at reformation was intended to engage the most nimble minds of his time.  Luther held his own in disputations over many points of doctrine and practice both with those representing the old order and those advocating a much more radical reformation.  But he also had a heart for the needs of the common man, and especially for the Christian family.  Once he renounced his vow of celibacy, he himself became a family man when he married Katherine von Bora with whom he had several children.  As a father and the head of his household, he was deeply concerned about the faith and knowledge of his children and the children of his community.

In the fall of 1528 he made a visit to several parishes in his native Saxony which led him to publish the Small Catechism in 1529.  In the preface he wrote, “The deplorable conditions which I recently encountered when I was a visitor constrained me to prepare this brief and simple catechism or statement of Christian teaching……Although the people are supposed to be Christian, are baptized, and receive the holy sacrament, they do not know the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed or the Ten Commandments….”  So he set about to rectify the situation.  In the preface he excoriated the local parish pastors who had so neglected the teaching of basic Christian ideas and encouraged them to emphasize the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer in their preaching and in their parishes.

Under the headings for his explanations of the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments he wrote these words, “in the plain form in which the head of the family shall teach them to his household” and thereby placed the teaching of the fundamentals of the faith right in the home.  (By the way, not all Catechism booklets have this phrase in them, but the authoritative version in the Book of Concord does, and many of us who are older remember reading these words in even the shortest Catechism booklet.)  As much as Luther prized the public preaching of the Word, at which he excelled, and as much as he taught the efficacy of the Holy Sacrament (Christ is really present here in an absolutely unique way), he also knew that practicing the faith at home was essential to a vibrant Christian life.

So Luther promoted faith at home.  He believed in daily devotions with the children and whoever else was in the house.  In addition to the five main parts of the Catechism (Commandments, Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Communion) he added morning and evening prayers to be said every day, and he added “Grace at the Table” which included not only a prayer before eating but a prayer after eating as well.  He encouraged, and practiced himself, a lively devotional life at home as well as an active church life.  He not only strongly encouraged vigorous singing at Sunday morning worship, but mentioned singing a hymn at the beginning of the day at morning devotions at home.

As we celebrate Reformation Sunday 2014 at the end of the month, let us consider this aspect of the Reformation and consider our own practice of the faith at home.  Some of us say grace at meals occasionally if not consistently.  Some of us have a daily devotion routine, now made even easier with the internet resources available.  And quite a few of us say prayers at bedtime or, perhaps, upon rising in the morning.  This year why not affirm what you are doing and consider what more you might do to practice the faith at home?  Take a look at those later parts of the Catechism in the back and put a 21^st century twist on them.  Old Brother Martin knew what he was talking about, and he practiced what he preached.