Tuesday, July 29, 2014

The Sweet Sounding Lie

I saw a clickhole gif thing on explaining divorce using gifs from Orange is the New Black (it was not good enough to merit a link - links here are not based on grace), but the text of it got me thinking.  To sum, it was the parents explaining why they got divorced, and basically it could be summed up as:

24 years is a long time to love each other... but don't worry, we still love you.

Literally - 24 years is a long time to love someone.  We still love you.

So... what happens when the kid turns 24?  What if the job isn't there and she wants to move back home?  Sorry kid, 24 years is really too long to love someone?  Or do you get until 26 if you are a child?

It was so utterly... whitewashed, so utterly dishonest.  People do not get divorces because they don't "love" each other (well, they do, they choose not to serve and care for each other - which is what love actually is) - people don't get divorced merely because the "feeling" is gone.

That sounds too sweet. 

People get divorced because of hatred and anger and infidelity and betrayal and violence.

That's not 24 years is a long time to love someone.  That's I'm selfish, I'm greedy, I'm stupid, I'm jealous, I just don't care.

Reading that piece, it was utterly emblematic of what we do with sin and its impacts. We try to spin it with a sweet sounding lie.

It's not selfishness - we just don't love each other.  Easy come, easy go.
It's not death - it's passing on.
It's not disdain - it's I'm too busy.

We could go on -- all trying to beat around the bush and not deal with sin.

Sin is sin.  And it is nasty and horrible, no matter how we poorly try to cover it.  And here is the thing - Satan loves the poor covers.  Why?  Because if you aren't a sinner, you don't think you need Christ.

You don't need Christ to deal with the sweet sounding lie -- after all, He came for sinners, and you're just a sweet smelling rose in such a hard world.

No.  You are a sinner.  See it.  And then see Christ Jesus.  He has died for that sin, and it is no more, and He gives you life.  Not one of denial - but one of forgiveness, one where you face down temptation instead of willy-nilly rolling along in denial. 

Be honest about your sin - for you have an honest Savior.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Trinity 6 Sermon



Trinity 6 – June 27th, 2014 – Matthew 5:17-26

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost +
          As Christians, as those who pay attention to our Lord’s Words, we ought to pay attention to that which He commands.  That’s not an earth shattering statement – all of us here know that we ought to try to behave, strive to show love to our neighbor.  And yet, what is the reality?  So often, we just don’t even bother.  And more than that, we justify our bad behavior – we start playing fast and loose with the Word of God – we ignore it, we twist it to serve our ends, rather than learning to love and serve God and neighbor.  Jesus will not let that stand.  And our Lord Jesus today teaches and demonstrates the two major errors, the two major ways in which a Christian can ignore, can twist God’s Word of Law in a harmful way.

          First, our Lord says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  God in His Word has told us many things about how we are to live, what we are to do, how we are to behave.  He has given us the 10 Commandments, and there’s a very good reason why even 3500 years after Moses we still sit down with our children and teach them the Commandments to this day.  God’s desire that we lead decent lives has not changed.  However – that doesn’t mean that Christians aren’t tempted to. . . pretend that the Law doesn’t really matter any more.  Note what Christ warns against – Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.  There is the temptation amongst Christians to. . . relax God’s Law.  To shrug off what He has commandment, to just. . . ignore the Word of God where it becomes uncomfortable.  This is the classic “liberal” error when it comes to God’s Word – to just ignore what you don’t like.  A place where this is obvious today comes up with the 6th Commandment.  A lot of discussions in a lot of places on Homosexuality relax, to use Christ’s Word, what God has said about Homosexuality.  A lot of places are relaxing on the issue of premarital sex.  There is a whole facet, a whole wing of the Christian Church that is systematically chipping away at Scriptural ideas of morality.

          However, this is not just a time for me to lambaste all those liberal Churches out there.  They might do this openly and publicly, but consider in your own life the times where you yourself are tempted to. . . relax God’s Law.  God says, “Love your enemy” – but we can… not apply that to this particular enemy who has us really upset right now.  Or how often do we ignore or forget that we are to be patient and kind and rather justify and defend our anger because *they* were just messing things up.  The temptation remains for us to cut ourselves some slack when it comes to right and wrong – and that is dangerous, because when we do that, it’s not just a small thing, it’s going directly against the wishes and will of God.  Thus, as Christians, we are to be on our guard against ignoring the parts of God’s Word that we don’t like.

          There is another error that Christ warns us against – and this is the opposite error of what we just discussed.  Our Lord says, “You have heard it said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.’”  Our Lord here is attacking the Conservative, legalistic error.  The Pharisees were by in large rather conservative folks – and the big danger that they had was while they took Scripture seriously, they didn’t see its fullness, they didn’t understand and apply it to themselves, and so they became smug.  They would hear the 5th Commandment and say, “Well, I haven’t murdered anyone, therefore I’m doing all right.”  And they became legalists, they became focused on how they DID the Law so well.  The thing was – they really hadn’t.  In their arrogance they assumed that they were righteous, when in reality their righteousness was lacking.  Note what Christ does here – He ties murder to anger.  Anger leads to murder, and so if God tells us not to murder, clearly He would want us to avoid the anger which could lead us to murder.  And this is clear from the Scriptures.  Consider the first murder – Cain slaying Abel.  Before Cain murders Abel, God says to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?”  Be wary of anger and where it leads.  Jesus isn’t teaching anything new – He’s teaching what had been taught from the beginning – but the problem was that when too many folks looked at God’s commandments, instead seeing God’s Law as showing them their sin, showing them what they needed to struggle against – too many folks simply viewed God’s instructions as a mere checklist.  And pride and arrogance crept in.  In fact, they would add extra things to their checklists that weren’t in Scripture, like a good Jew would wash his hands a certain way.  Does this not happen today?  Are there not churches out there that have this same pride and arrogance with how they keep the Law, are there not churches out there that add their own little rules and say, “you aren’t a good Christian if you smoke, or if you drink, or if you do this or that”?  Rather than focusing on what the Scriptures say, people can go off on their own smug self-righteous ego trips, pointing out how good they are.

          But again, this is a danger for us today.  We here strive to take God’s Word and His Law seriously.  And the danger is that we can assume that we know what we need to know – we hear the commandment and we think we’ve got it down – but we forget to think about the implications of the commandment.  This is one of the beauties of the Catechism.  Luther would keep us from falling into this trap – because in the explanation he states not only what we are to avoid, but what the commandment implies what we are to do.  Take the 5th Commandment.  We should fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.”  If we aren’t to kill, then we aren’t to harm, and if we aren’t to harm, then that implies that we are to help.  In every physical need.

          When it all boils down, the danger is that we misuse God’s Word, especially when it comes to the Law.  We can act as though God’s Law doesn’t matter and flat out ignore what God says; or we can become prideful in how we are good Christians, and stop thinking, stop mediating on God’s Word, and become unrepentant and arrogant.  But the truth is this – God’s Law is deep, it is profound, and whenever we hear a commandment from God, we should search ourselves to find out how we fall short of that commandment – for each of us has sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, and there is not one who is righteous, no, not one.  Whenever you hear a command of God, it should be obvious to you that you haven’t done it like you ought - and if you don’t think that, then you aren’t reading God’s Word rightly, you aren’t listening.  Our Lord says, “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  That’s the standard, that’s always the standard of God’s Law.  We dare not relax it, we dare not ignore it.

          And we, dear friends, are by no means perfect.  That should be obvious to all of us.  And the consequences of the Law still hold – the wages of sin is death.  What Christ says here is true – Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  In and of ourselves, our righteousness is never that high.  Whenever we hear God’s Law, we see our lack and our need to repent – every time.  However, we also hear something else in God’s Word – our Lord speaks and says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  There is One who is truly righteous, whose righteousness has exceeded that of any of us, who lived the perfect life, doing all that was pleasing in His father’s eyes, and that is Christ Jesus our Lord.  And what Jesus does is that when He goes to the Cross, He is making a trade.  There at the Cross, Christ Jesus takes up all of your sin, all of your lack of righteousness, and there He receives it’s wages in full and dies – but He does this so that in exchange for your sin, He can give to you all of His Righteousness.  Consider this – you are Baptized, you are joined to Christ.  Your sins have been washed away from you, and Christ has given you His righteousness.  When God sees you, He sees Christ.  Every good, every wonder that Christ has done, that’s what God beholds when He sees you.  When God looks at you, He sees the life of Christ Jesus – and it shouldn’t be a surprise that it is this way.  What happens when we commune – we receive Christ, we receive His Body and Blood, His very life, so that our sins are forgiven, removed from us, and so that we are filled with all that He is.  We see and understand the depths and the wonders of Christ’s forgiveness for us, His great love for us – that He has indeed made us to be righteous – a righteousness that we will finally see in full on the last day.  May we see this ever more fully as well!

          And so dear friends, I warn you not to ignore God’s Law, but rather I encourage you to examine yourself in light of God’s Law – knowing that the light of God’s Law will shine on many-a-nasty spot.  But when you see these flaws and errors, in humility and faith repent of them, for God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  When we see our sins, we learn to not trust in ourselves (which can only lead to disaster), but rather to cling to Christ Jesus, who in great joy and gladness freely gives to us His forgiveness.  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost +

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Self-Congratulatory Christianity

This is what I am wearied of.  I am wearied of Self-Congratulatory Christianity.

I am wearied of all the talk about my growth, my progress, how I get to love and do X, Y, and Z.

It's all self congratulations.  It's all how great I am.  It's all how healthy my faith is.  How great my "walk" is.

And then I read this:

Matthew 9:10-13: 
And as Jesus[a] reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

See how good I am... see how I am making the most of my Jesus opportunities, see how healthy I am and how I'm becoming healthier day by day!

See how little I need Jesus -- congratulate me on how little I need Him anymore.  Congratulate how I don't need Him to come to me, a poor miserable sinner -- now I can give myself to Him, I grow closer and closer to Him all the time by my improvement and growth and my wisdom.

Jesus calls sinners.  Why would I congratulate myself on forgetting this fact?

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

I Love the Law

I love the Law.  I do.  I love how relentless it is, how deep it is.  I love how its perfection just blows apart any attempts or thoughts I might have at self-righteousness.  And I think of this especially every year as the 6th Sunday after Trinity approaches, and we get Matthew 5:17-26 as the Gospel lesson.

My sinful flesh loves to think it's pretty good.  After all, I've tended to make pretty good choices in my life.  I've been well disciplined and have exercised much moral restraint - certainly moreso than is typical of my generation.  Ah, see my wisdom!  See my goodness!  See my devotion to God and my progress!

Or so my flesh, my pride, my ego whisper in my ear.  And oh, how I could feel so good about it!

And then the Holy Spirit wields His Law, and that perfect Law takes that pride, that arrogance, and blow it apart and it kills it.

So you haven't killed - been angry ever?  BOOM!
So, you've never had an affair or fornicated - ever lusted?  BOOM!
So you're truthful - ever grandstanded?  - BOOM!

On and on it goes.

This is the wonderful thing about the Lutheran approach to the Law.  We don't reduce it to a check list.  We don't treat it as a mere guide - it's not merely some sage advice to help us be healthy, wealthy, and wise.  It's not just there to make sure we make good choices in life.

Think on the Ten Commandments in the Small Catechism - not merely a list of do nots, but do's... and full, and continuing, and unrelenting.  And if we are not to be workers of lawlessness - if we let the Law hit us with its full force, we see that we FAIL.  We are sinful.  We are left to echo Peter - Depart from me, for I am a sinful man!  No thoughts of how good or obedient we've been, no protests about how we've made at least decent choices.  We are sinners.

As we sang on Sunday: "The Law reveals the guilt of sin and makes us conscience stricken."   

And I love this - because my old sinful flesh NEEDS to be killed, it needs to be drowned daily by contrition and repentance.  And why?  Thusly the song continues: "But then the Gospel enters in the sinful soul to quicken.  Come to the Cross, trust Christ and live; the Law no peace can ever give, no comfort and no blessing."

I need Christ.  Satan, the world, my flesh - they seek me to forget Christ, to take comfort in myself, my "strength", my "goodness".  And it's all lies - but the Law of God bursts through those lies, destroys them - and then I am left with Christ and Him alone - and Christ saves me.

I love the Law, I rejoice in it - because it drives me to Christ.

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Sermon - Trinity 5



Trinity 5 – July 20th, 2014 – Luke 5:1-11

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
          There are times when I will read a text, and thoughts of all the lousy, horrible ways people will treat that text and preach on it go flashing through my mind.  I read the Gospel text for today, and thoughts of some preacher droning on excitedly about how God’s gonna give you a great catch of fish in your own life if you just do X, Y, and Z zip through my head – as though that’s even the point of the text.  I doubt we can look to this text to be the “Christian Guide to Growing Your Business” when the last verse is “they left everything and followed Him.”  If anything, it’s about how your business isn’t the most important thing, even if you are making ginormous catches of fish.  If you’ve grown up in America, you’ve been surrounded by a culture that gives you all sorts of expectations about wealth and power and what success means – and it’s always more and more and more.  Bigger and newer and better.  We aren’t taught that here in this text.  Rather, let’s pay close attention to the text, and see what is going on.

          “On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on Him to hear the Word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and He saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.  Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, He asked Him to put out a little from the land.  And He sat down and taught the people from the boat.”  The set up here is completely practical.  You’ve got a large crowd wanting to hear Jesus preach – well, how are you going to accomplish that?  Unless Jesus wants to be shouting at the top of His lungs all day, you need to do something.  So what do you do?  You bring them up on the shore – where you have that downward slope to the lake creating a little amphitheater – plus if you go out on the water you get a nice acoustic advantage – and so Jesus drafts Peter.  Let me borrow your boat.  And out they go, and Jesus teaches.

          “And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’”  Alright – the sermon is done.  Wer’e about to go home!  Right?  Wait… fish… work?  Now?  Peter is confused – “Master, we toiled all night and we took nothing!”  And Peter is possibly cranky.  He’d been up all night, and it had been a lousy night, they hadn’t caught anything.  And now this Fellow who had drafted his boat and made him listen to a long sermon when he was already tired tells him to fish now… in the day light, when the fish – if there actually are any in this stinking lake – are all going to be much lower, and all you’ll catch are a bunch of weeds, so we’ll have to clean the nets again and it will be an utter waste.  Jesus tells Peter to do something which to all the world seems utter foolishness.  But Peter continues, “But at Your Word I will let down the nets.”  And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.  They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.  Christ’s foolish plan pays off.  It’s a humongous catch – one cast of the net topping what you would get for two boats in a full, busy good night.  The other boat has to hurry on out there, they are swimming in fish – almost literally, as in if they don’t hurry to shore the boats are going to sink.

          So – what ought Peter’s reaction be to this?  Should he give loud praises to God for God’s abundance?  Or maybe he ought to try and offer Jesus a job – you know, You’re pretty good at this finding the shoals of fish gig.  We could make a killing with You.  Or should Peter just marvel at how wondrous this is – isn’t that the nice pious thing we are supposed to do?  Sigh and say, “Oh, wasn’t that nice”?  That’s not Peter’s reaction.  “But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’”  There’s Peter’s reaction.  When the enormity of what is going on sits in – when he doesn’t have to scramble to just keep the boat afloat, what does Peter do?  He confesses his sin.  He confesses his sin and asks Jesus to leave, to go and never come back.  He confesses that Jesus is Lord – this is God here in your boat, this is the Messiah… and sinners are not worthy to be next to the Messiah.  Sinners are not worthy to be in God’s presence – there is no worth or merit in Peter, nothing that God would want or should want with him.  So… just go… go before my sin gets me killed.  Let me at least live, let me just get back to the normal, everyday life at hand with nights of frustration and empty nets.  Do not smite me, a sinful man.

          What Peter says here is wise, wiser than most of our reactions would have been.  There is power and might in that boat, power and might in Christ Jesus – and you don’t mess with it.  We teach our kids not to play with matches – you certainly don’t play with them around a gas station!  Things could go boom – and right there, in that boat, is God Almighty – and you don’t play around with God, you don’t treat Him all casual.  You don’t mess with that – you don’t gamble with God – know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and when to run.  Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.  That is fantastic earthly, human wisdom there on Peter’s part.  But Jesus has something else in mind.  “And Jesus said to him, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.’  And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.”  I’ve got something else in store for you, Peter – oh, and you too James and John.  You are going to be disciples, you are going to be My students and servants, and I will use you to catch men.

          So what now?  Shall I go then into the 5 practical things you here can do to catch men?  The 7 simple steps – here’s when you let down those Gospel Nets to make sure you just pack ‘em in!  Oh, there is so much clap trap out there that misses the point, the object of the lesson.  First Corinthians nails what the point is – “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”  You know what the point of the Gospel lesson is?  What God does, what Jesus does looks and seems stupid.  Apart from faith, Jesus looks like the world’s biggest idiot.  He does.  Fish in the middle of the day – dumb.  Look, you’ve got the secret to fishing, but instead of making money hand over fist – walk away.  Dumb.  Seriously, Jesus, spend two weeks fishing and finance Your preaching for years – not what He does.  You know what that would be like – “Oh look, it’s a gusher – eh, I’ll not pump that well, I’ll just walk away.”  By worldly standards, that is dumb.  And using Peter – calling James and John to be disciples?  Dumb.  Now, don’t get me wrong – Peter, James, and John aren’t idiots – you don’t run your own business if you are stupid.  But if you were going to start the new religious revolution – why not get some well respected Pharisees to be your disciples, or some people who are already popular?  Instead, fishermen from Galilee. Jesus, you could have picked better disciples – these were weak.

          This is what Paul calls the foolishness of God.  In fact, this is what you see from Jesus constantly.  Love your enemies.  Pray for those who persecute you.  Don’t worry about what you eat or what you will wear.  Behold, I am sending you out like lambs among lions.  And then to tick off the leaders, to remain silent before Pilate when falsely accused – to the world, rank stupidity.  And it leads to what the world thinks is the dumbest, most foolish thing in the world – the Cross.  “For the Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing” – thus the wagging tongues at the crucifixion!  “He saved others; He cannot save Himself!”  It seems utter folly.

          And the utter folly seems to continue in Christ’s Church to this very day.  What do we see when we look around?  A small church that’s smaller than it was a decade ago, in [a wheat field that stopped being a town 100 years ago/ a rural community that is shrinking], with a preacher whose got a speech impediment and a lisp.  Well there’s a crackerjack idea!  And if we think like the world, like the mighty and haughty – this right now seems like a silly thing.  Nothing new with that.  What does Paul write to Corinth – “For consider your calling, brothers; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”  But that worldly standard misses the point.  “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  Do we see, do we realize what happens here?  Christ Jesus died upon the cross, He rose again, He atoned for the sins of the world.  And what happens right here in this place?  The power of God is exercised for you, you who are being saved, right now, this instant.  This font, right here – the baptisms that take place here overthrow the powers of Hell, cast Satan out.  The world out there doesn’t get that – but it is the power of God for salvation, for your salvation.  A simple liturgy, a short sermon – Lord have mercy – I forgive you – peace be with you – and what happens?  The fall itself is undone, and you are no longer merely sinners doomed to death, but you are forgiven and given life, life everlasting, you will rise again even if you die because of Christ.  The world doesn’t get that.  Or the Supper, Holy Communion.  What does the world see – nothing but a bit of bread and wine and a pastor doing some hand waving mumbo jumbo.  Yet what is it – it is Christ Jesus Himself giving you His own Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins, for the strengthening of your faith, so that when you rise to eternal life on the last day you will reign with Christ forever when all the stuff of this world is turned to ash and forgotten about.  Because Christ Jesus will not depart from you, o sinner.  Instead, He comes to you today in His Word, and with that Word of the Cross He forgives sinners and makes them to live, to see and have a life beyond what the world blabbers about – this is the wisdom of God – to save you, here, now to catch us men and women for eternal life.  And if the world doesn’t get it – oh well.  The world never has.

          We get a wonderful truth taught and shown and given to us in our Gospel lesson, dear friends.  It’s not a promise of earthly wealth or power – it’s not the secret for more prestige, whether personal or for this congregation.  It’s a truth that the world just cannot fathom.  Though you are a sinner and deserve nothing good from God, God in His Wisdom has sent Christ Jesus to the Cross, so that He can forgive you, come to you in His Word, and bring you, forgiven and resurrected, to be with Him for all eternity.  This foolishness of God – where by He takes poor miserable sinners like us  and makes us to reign eternally with Him – it is for your good and benefit.  God grant us faith to see this and cling to Christ ever more!  Amen.  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Commissioning of Jennifer Griffith, Deaconess



Commissioning of Jennifer Griffith, Deaconess – July 13th, 2014 – Mt. 25:31-46

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
          To be a Christian is to be a servant.  Indeed, to be a human being means you were created by God to serve – Adam was created and placed in the garden to tend the garden, to care for it, to serve.  Eve was created as a helpmeet, to help and rightly serve Adam.  There is a reason why Paul begins almost every letter talking about how he is a bondservant of Christ.  It is who he is – it is who you are by virtue of your baptism.  When Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment, He says that it is to love God, but that a second one is like unto it – a second one is so tied up completely with loving God that you cannot mention loving God without mentioning it – love your neighbor.  Serve your neighbor.  Care for your neighbor.  And just incase we weren’t taking Jesus seriously, did you note how He describes the end, the final judgment?  “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to Me.”  Your service to God isn’t defined by some abstract thoughts, or how you feel about God – it is defined, shaped, shown precisely by your service to your neighbor.

          And of course, after the fall, that service to the neighbor is rather messed up.  Sin, your own sinful flesh, cries out for you to serve not your neighbor, but yourself.  And let’s face it, there are just some people we tend not to like, and we don’t want to serve them.  We want to turn the cold shoulder, be cold, be uncaring, insist on our own way to their detriment, shake our heads at them.  Use how mean they are as an excuse to be mean and cold and callous to them!   Or sometimes it’s just indifference, we can’t be bothered.  We are too important, we are too “busy” with things that really don’t *need* to be done but provide a nice sounding excuse.  Or sinful flesh calls out for us to look out for number 1.  You are Christians, you know you are to fight against those sorts of selfish desires.

          To help and aid the members of this congregation fight against their sinfulness and to help and aid the members of this congregation in their own works of love and service to each other and the community, St. John’s, Covington, has called Jennifer Griffith to be her deaconess.  Know what this is, what this means.  Deaconess Jennifer is not here simply and merely to do stuff for you.  While she is a servant – for that is what “deaconess” means, and while she will serve, her service doesn’t mean you here don’t have to serve anymore.  Consider it this way – if someone were to walk up to you and say, “Well, I don’t need to pray – we’ve got that Pastor Griffith fellow to pray – he can just do it.  I don’t need to study God’s Word – that there bearded fellow can just read the Word and I’ll go fishing instead” – if someone said that to you, that wouldn’t fly.  Likewise, you are not going to get to say, “I don’t need to serve the congregation – we’ve got Deaconess Jennifer for that – I don’t have to serve the community – the Deaconess does that for me.”  That’s not what a Deaconess is or what a Deaconess is for.

          All Christians are given the task of serving others.  You have been given by God various vocations, various callings.  Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, neighbors, friends, workers, bosses, teachers, students.  Members of this congregation, part of this community.  You all have many hats to wear – and that can be a tiring, wearying thing.  We all know that.  St. John’s has called Deaconess Jennifer so that her members will grow and learn to wear those hats, juggle those duties better, learn to love and serve their neighbors better.  And your old sinful flesh will often… dislike that.  If I can give a simple example by way of analogy.  When I was in college I worked in the Athletic Department at OU as a writing tutor, and Bob Stoops was the newly hired coach.  And I worked in the evenings, and the players would come in after practice, and there were times they were a bit miffed at what Coach Stoops had just put them through in practice.  But it made them better football players.  When I’d look at their papers and make them rewrite this sentence or rethink that section, they’d be miffed at me (at which point I was kind of glad for that 300 pounder to be worn out by practice), but it made them better writers.  Likewise – Deaconess Jennifer has been called here not to “do” this congregation’s service, not to “do” the service you all are supposed to be doing – but to coordinate, to train, to encourage you in your service – and even to get on your case a bit if needed.  She is here for your good, for your blessing, to help you do better the things God has given you to do.  Remember that.  Show her the love and respect that is her due, and remember that when she asks you to do things, suggests things for you to do – that’s her job, and it is for your good.

          Likewise, Deaconess Jennifer – remember why you are here.  You are here to help and serve the members of St. John’s grow in love and kindness.  And there will be times that will be difficult – when your requests and encouragement don’t meet with the responses you are hoping for.  When this or that seems to stagnate, or when it would seem to be quicker and easier for you to just skip them and do things yourself.  You are here to help them serve and grow in service, not to be their replacement or substitute.  Strive to help them to see and know all the boundless opportunities God gives them to love and serve their neighbors, so that that they find joys in serving in ways of which they have no inkling of now – that is why you are here – to help guide and teach them the joys of love and service.  Even when they frustrate you.

          Now, with what I have just said, things may seem, daunting.  Ugh, this preacher just said that the Deaconess is gonna make us work.  Ugh, this preacher said that this congregation’s gonna make me work!  The reality is this – life in this fallen world is hard – that is what sin does.  It makes things hard.  And sin isolates us – Adam and Eve were created by God to work together, to serve together – but as soon as sin comes in, there’s finger pointing and hatred and isolation.  Sin looks precisely like someone being hungry, but given no food, naked but not clothed, sick or in prison and not visited… hurt and wounded and not cared for… sorrowing and not comforted… needing to learn but not taught… wanting to serve but left out.  Isolated, alone.  And our sinful flesh will try to deceive us, try to tell us that is a good thing to be on our own, to have our way – but it’s not.  I, as the Circuit Visitor, am pleased beyond the ability to say that St. John’s has called Deaconess Jennifer – because this will be good for this congregation, good for her/you.  You will have such encouragement to fight against that inertia of sin, you will get to see growth in people you love and care for – you all together will learn to see past the selfish and hateful lies of Satan more and more.  This is a blessing, a blessing I wish more congregations would realize and take advantage of – but our old sinful flesh can be stubborn and lazy and cantankerous.  And your old sinful flesh will act up in the years to come, that’s just the reality of life in a fallen world.

          Over and against that, in the midst of when things are hard and difficult, remember who you are.  You are the baptized children of God.  You are those who are washed and redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb.  Christ Jesus has died for you and all your sins are forgiven, they are no more.  Even as they rear their ugly head, Christ has already defeated them.  You are His – you’re the sheep.  He has claimed you as His own already, your life has already been consecrated unto Him, your hands already move at the impulse of His love.  This is the truth – You are forgiven, you are God’s Child, you are redeemed.  And you will hear this truth preached week in and week out by Pastor Griffith from this pulpit, you will sing out this truth week in and week out in the liturgy and hymns here, you will taste this forgiveness from this very altar.  And now, with your Deaconess, during the rest of the week, the fruits of that forgiveness will flow.  The Holy Spirit who has given you faith, who has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, sanctified and kept you in the faith – the same Spirit by whom you confess that Jesus is Lord has given you gifts and talents and skills, and He will work through you all together, deaconess and congregation, to bring those forth more and more.

          My dear friends in Christ – this is a joyous day.  God is going to work in you and through you goodness and mercy that none of us here can predict or see, the Spirit will use you as His instrument, making you servants.  In this, Deaconess Jennifer will be your aid, your guide – rejoice in this, and when those moments when it seems hard arise, return here to this place, hear Christ Crucified and Him preached and proclaimed to you and for you, be refreshed by forgiveness.  Christ Jesus who died and rose to give you life everlasting has in his great love for St. John’s and for Deaconess Jennifer brought you together to enrich your lives now, to enrich this congregation, to enrich this community.  All thanks be to God for His great and underserved love towards us, His unworthy servants!  In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit +

Trinity 4 sermon



Trinity 4 – Luke 6 – July 13th, 2014

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
          We have to do something!  There is wickedness, there are bad people out there!  Cheats!  Liars!  People trying to take away our liberty!  Terrorists!  Sharia Law!  You know how that business is – we better boycott them and close them up!  The world is messed up, and by George we’ve got to do something, we’ve got to fix these problems, and by fixing I mean swinging the heavy hand of the hammer, crushing our enemies and driving them back into the shadows away from good, God Fearing American Society!  Heard any of that lately?  Thought any of that lately?  Or for those of you with a more liberal bent, we could decry the war on women, the rich stealing our health care, the evils of the 1%, out with the pitchforks, we need the glorious revolution!  Occupy, Occupy, Occupy! Oh, and boycott that business as well!  That’s the chatter of the world – that’s what the talking heads tell us.  And it’s also what we end up thinking, it can be how we approach things closer to home.  Did you hear about what he did…well, I never.  Oh, you know what she is like.  I can’t believe they would be so stupid.  We have been trained with an “eagle” eye to scope out flaws and errors, to beat people down for them, to shun them, to belittle them – and maybe even to crush them.

          “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.  Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven, give, and it will be given to you.”  What is your life to be, oh Christian?  What is your day to look like?  What is to dominate your thoughts – mercy or condemnation?  Forgiveness or judgment?  You see, when our Lord says that we are to be in the world but not of the world, He is not speaking merely to abstaining from vile and gross and open sin – it’s not merely “Don’t kill, don’t have affairs, don’t rob banks”.  He is calling you away from the world, the way the world thinks, the way the world operates.  He is calling you away from a life, an approach of judgment and condemnation.

          Let us be honest.  We love judgment, we love condemnation.  If a report of a heinous crime comes across the news, and the perpetrator is caught and sentenced,  are we more apt to say “oh, that punishment was far too harsh” or wish that he had gotten something a bit more severe?  If we watch a movie, don’t we want, expect the bad guy to get it in the end?  We love the comeuppance, the folks getting what they deserve.  We’ll even us that language – I hope they get what they deserve, I hope they get what’s coming to them – with nary a though about what we ourselves by rights deserve.  The self-righteous indignation flares up – we view ourselves as better than them, less worthy of condemnation, and so we are willing to dish it out, to hope for the worst for them, to just let them have it with both barrels.  Take that, you miserable sinner!  “For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”  Do you see how poorly the world and our flesh train us to live?

          Christ tells us a parable.  “Can a blind man lead a blind man?  Will they not both fall into a pit?”  Do you not realize, o Christian, that you yourself are a sinner?  It’s not that you are wise and know everything and have everything figured out, and thus you can tell people how it ought to be and smack them down when they don’t listen.  Do you not realize that you too are blind?  That the flaws you see in them you yourself have?  “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”  We listen to the ways of the world, we let the shrill and angry guide and shape us into being shrill and angry, we let the judgmental and condemnatory teach us to judge and condemn because we are not in fact above them, not better than them… even though we so often think we are.  We fall in to the same traps as the rest of the world, the same sins.  And in fact, not just the same sins – sins more vile than theirs.  “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you do not see the log that is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.’”  The speck of your neighbor, or the log of yourself?  The dust particle floating through the air, while ignoring the beam of wood as big as the doorframes in the back?  This is the depiction, the description of who we are according to our sinful flesh, what the world tries to shape us and mold us into being.  Harsh and full of condemnation and disdain – and yet worthy of condemnation and eternal disdain ourselves.

          “Be merciful, even as your Father in heaven in merciful.”  God is not out to get you.  His ways are above our ways – and while we in our earthly wisdom love punishment and destruction, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man, and this is for your own good.  Your Father in heaven is merciful to you.  He has sent Christ Jesus to take up your sin, to bear the weight and shame and guilt of it all upon the cross, to suffer and die for you, in your place, in your stead.  And now there is no more judgment left, no more condemnation left.  Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – that’s how Paul puts it in Romans.  Our Lord Jesus here is not merely going off on a finger wagging law kick here, telling you what you yourself need to do.  If that were the case, we would all be without hope, for we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  But Christ Jesus has come, and He has borne the weight, the punishment of your sin in your place.  God is merciful to you, and so Christ was judged in your place, He was condemned on account of your condemnation – and all the judgment in the world, all the condemnation in the universe is used up, filled up.  What then is left here?  Remove the judgment and condemnation from these verses and what do we hear?  Mercy and forgiveness.  While the world shouts at you, “Judge, condemn, dish out punishment,” Christ steps in, and He says, “I have taken all that, and only mercy and forgiveness remain.”

          And this He pours into your lap, this He gives you in good measure, overflowing, full, pressed down without any little air pockets of sin not covered.  You are forgiven, forgiven in full.  You are baptized, and all your sin is washed away.  You are forgiven, for Christ and Him Crucified is proclaimed to you here, now, today.  You are forgiven, for Christ and shed His blood for you and gives it to you in His Supper – this is reality.  He has called you out of the darkness of the world into His marvelous light.  He has made you to be not the world’s disciple, but His disciple.  “A disciple is not above His teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.  Be merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful.”  Christ Jesus is your Lord and He has purchased and won you from Sin, death, and this loud braying world with His precious blood – and He is now your Master, your Teacher.  And He will make you to be like Him.  When the world yells around you with hatred and anger and vengeance and destruction, when the would blind you with all this – He calls out to you again, and He fixes your eyes upon Himself.  You will be like Christ, because He is your teacher.  You will be merciful, because you are baptized and God is your Father.  You who were blind will be made to see, for Christ Jesus is risen from the dead, and He will make you to rise as well.  This is the promise, the is the reality that we look forward to on the Last Day, at the resurrection of the dead.  Then, mercy and forgiveness will be all that we see.

          And in the meantime, what does Christ do to us?  “How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you do not see the log that is in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.’”  Christ knows sin – He was nailed to that log in your eye, the log of the Cross.  He bore your sin, He knows it far better than you do – He took it up from you even before you were born.  He has taken it away from you, He has forgiven you.  And now, with the log out of your own eye, you see clearly.  You see clearly not to condemn, not to decry how terrible it is that these people keep getting specks in their eyes.  You see clearly so as to forgive.  The Son of Man came into the world not to condemn the world, but that it might be saved through Him.  Likewise, you who have Christ as your brother by the gift of baptism, who participate in His Body and Blood, you realize that the only reason you even know of any of your neighbor’s sin is so that you will love them and in mercy may forgive them, may restore them, may proclaim the realities of Christ to them.  You are forgiven, and you are now forgiveness people.  You have been mercied, and you are now mercy people.  This is the reality, this is what this place is.  You’ve been in the world with its junk and hatred and anger all week – forget all that, and remember who Christ says you are.  You are forgiven – that is the great reality, greater than anything you saw on the news or in your neighbor last week, greater than anything you will see in yourself in this week to come.

          And so dear friends, it is true, you and I are indeed poor miserable sinners, and by rights, we deserve nothing but condemnation.  But God in His mercy has chosen not to condemn you – Christ Jesus your Lord deals with condemnation for you upon the Cross.  You are out of that business now.  Rather, you are forgiven, redeemed, sanctified by Him.  And yes, the world, Satan, even your sinful flesh will try to make you forget that, try to sucker you back into their condemning games.  And often enough they will succeed.  But you are forgiven, that is the great truth, and one day Christ will come again, and that true will be all that we see.  Come quickly, Lord Jesus!  Amen.  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

It's All Going to Pot

It's all going to pot.

Nothing is holding, nothing is the way it used to be.  Morals are in decline.  Liberty is threatened.  The family and home is falling apart.  Your own body is falling apart.  And in none of it, none of it whatsoever, do you have any control.

You can fight against this.  Call for better teachers.  Get better lawyers.  Assert your authority and shift the paradigm.  Exercise and find better doctors.

And it still keeps falling apart - and there's nothing, nothing you can do to stop it.

Oh how your sinful flesh hates the wages of its sin.

Because that's all this is - it's all just death.  It's just sin messing with you directly, messing with the world around you.  It's sin bringing its wages in full.  And you know how sin started?

You wanted to be the one in control.  You wanted to be the one in charge.  You wanted to be like God, you wanted to be the one defining good and evil.  You wanted the freedom the serpent offered.  You wanted someone to blame when you failed, you wanted to cover your decaying flesh with leaves of your own choosing.

Sinful man has always wanted control.  Sinful man is insecure, because he knows he cannot hold, his position is not tenable.  You will die.  And you can't stop it.

So what?

Really - pause for a moment.  So what?

What if your worst fear about this life and what you can do about it came true?

You should know the answer - it wouldn't matter a lick, because despite what your flesh tells you, it's never been about your strength or your control.  You've been told this since you were young.

Little ones to Him belong, they are weak, but He is strong.
With might of ours could naught be done, soon were our loss effected - but for us fights the Valiant One, Whom God Himself elected.
Take they our life, goods, fame, child or wife - though these all be gone, they yet have nothing won, the kingdom ours remaineth.
The strife is o'ver, the battle done.  Now is the Victor's triumph won. 

In this world you will have tribulation, but take heart, Christ Jesus has overcome the world.

And when your see this tribulation, when you see the fears, do not listen to your flesh as it calls out for you to take control, assert your position and dominance -- lording it over others is the path of the gentiles, the path of death.  Rather, behold Christ Jesus.  Yes, you follow where your Captain trod, yes, you yourself take up your cross and follow Him.  So be it...

Jesus lives! And now is death but the gate of life immortal.
This shall calm my trembling breath when I pass its gloomy portal.
Faith shall cry, as fails each sense; Jesus is my confidence!

Trinity 3 Sermon - Luke 15:11-32



In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost +
          Today’s parable is now known as the parable of the Prodigal Son.  Son?  As in only one?  There’s not just one son in our story today, there’s two, two sons who wander away from and despise their father… two sons who are richly forgiven and welcomed by their father.  You see, the focus of this parable isn’t really upon either son – but upon the Father, the Father and his great, overwhelming, indeed, prodigious love, love for his two wicked sons.

          And yes, I did say two wicked sons.  Both sons in this story are troublesome and in the wrong.  To begin, the younger son.  And the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.”  Think just how insulting this would be.  Dad, I can’t wait for you to die so I can inherit stuff, just give it to me now.  And we know what this young son does – he runs off, he blows it on wine, women, and song.  And the way the story goes, it doesn’t seem to take him too long.  Think about that – burning through half of a rich man’s life’s work in just a short time.  Must have been wild.  Must have been wretched and wicked.  So we see that this younger son is off base, we get that.  But what about the older son – in reality he’s just as bad.

          Oh surely he’s not that bad!  He stays at home, he works hard, isn’t he a good kid?  When the older son hears that his brother has come home and there is a celebration, what does the older son do?  But he was angry and refused to go in.  The older son runs away too – runs off the fields.  Then when his dad comes out to “entreat him” – to beg him kindly to come back in, this older son tells his dad off.  “Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!”  Do you see just how wicked this son is?  Think about this – he snubs family, snubs his brother.  If I had snubbed my family like this, my mother would have tanned my hide.  And then consider how he talks to his father.  “Look”.  Those are fighting words.  And then he brags – I’m wonderful – but you dad, you are mean and unfair and you never gave me anything, not even something to share with my friends – not only do you treat me unfairly but you make me look bad in front of my friends too.  Do you see how lousy this older son is behaving – I mean, this is nasty rebellion – this is a guy dressing down his father simply because his knickers are in a bunch because his brother got some attention.

          They are both lousy – and at least the younger son has the good grace to recognize this fact.  Granted, he doesn’t realize it until he’s broke, stuck feeding pigs – and for Jewish folks, who thought pigs were unclean – this is about as low and bad and nasty as a job as you can get.  So you have the younger son who is wild, could care less, and hits bottom and realizes he needs help.  You have the older son who is prideful in himself, who is hateful, angry, and mouthy, just completely willing to dress down his dad.  I feel bad for the father in this text – both his sons treat him like dirt.  The one says, “I wish you were dead” and the other says, “You’ve never done anything for me, all you make me do is work.”

          But what does this father do?  When the younger son comes home, does he make him slave away in the fields?  Does the father become the cruel taskmaster the older son accuses him of being?  No.  Before the younger son can even apologize, can even start to beg, the father sees him coming and runs to meet him.  In Jesus day they wore tunics – they basically wore robes, dresses that went down to mid-calf.  He had to hike up his hem over his hips and run.  It would have been a spectacle, an embarrassment.  Dignified men didn’t run, and they certainly didn’t run to meet lousy no good brats like that younger son.  But with joy, without concern for his own pride, the father runs to meet the younger son.  What love!

          And then, there is how the father deals with the older son.  Here this father hasn’t seen his younger son in who knows how long.  And we know the father is so excited, so overjoyed to have this younger son back.  But then he hears that the older son, his other son, is upset.  So what does he do?  He leaves his younger son’s party, leaves the son whom he hadn’t seen in who knows how long, and goes to see this older, pouting son.  And when the older son is vile to him, lambastes him unfairly and unjustly, what does this father do?  Does he give him the back of his hand?  No.  Out of his great love for the older son, he speaks kindly, he speaks gently, he seeks to restore the love between brothers and remove this brother’s hate.  Do you see how this father is prodigious in love, how he is overflowing with love for both his wayward children, how he is patient and kind with them?

          The point of the parable is that this is precisely how God is with you.  Consider again for a moment the two sons, for they are pictures, images of how we ourselves might fall into sin.  You have the younger son, and he is greedy, he falls into gross sin, he could care less.  That happens.  He just seeks to serve his wants, his desires, “I’ll do whatever feels good” and cares for no one else. That’s one way Satan will tempt us – and that is a way of pain and suffering.  It breaks us and we fall until we hit rock bottom.  A lousy thing, but how many of us here have had to hit bottom with something?  This happens.  And then there is the older son.  He’s arrogant, he’s prideful, he thinks so well of himself – and what does this do?  It cuts him off, it isolates him.  Think about it – everyone else is celebrating together, having a wonderful time – and he’s off sulking in a field.  That’s what pride and arrogance do – if you walk around thinking you are better than other people, you end up alone.  How many of us have been there?  Just so sure that we were right and we were going to tell people about it, and we look around, and we are off by ourselves because we in our pride were wrong.  These sons show us simple, typical ways of sinning, and the end result for both of them are lousy.  One is down at rock bottom, the other is stuck off on his own.  Those aren’t good places to be.  So I will say this – be wary of your desires, for often they are bad and will lead you astray.  Be wary of your pride and arrogance, for that will lead you to kill relationships and drive you away from people.

          And note also how these two sons end up having flawed ideas of how they relate to their Father.  The younger son messes up twice – first he runs away from his father and doesn’t care whatsoever.  Can we all agree quickly that running away from God and ignoring Him is a bad idea?  But then, even when he has hit rock bottom, he still is messed up in how he wants to relate to his father.  “I will arise and go to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.  Treat me as one of your servants.’”  It was good for a bit – you are right young son, you have sinned, and you aren’t worthy.  But did you see where he goes too far?  Treat me as one of your servants.  He wants to tell his dad what to do, and he wants to work things out on his own.  That’s not the way it works.  He doesn’t get to work his way back into his dad’s good graces.  The father will have none of it – he welcomes back his son, brings him good clothes, a ring and good shoes, prepares a feast – all without the son doing anything.

          Dear friends, this is the picture of how God forgives you freely.  God’s forgiveness, God’s welcoming you back into His family, into His House, to His table and Supper never has anything to do with what you are going to do for God.  Works flow from forgiveness, but our works never cause forgiveness.  God’s forgiveness is all about His complete and pure love for you.  God loves you, plain and simple, and He desires to have you be with Him, forgiven and restored.  He’s not going to make you jump through hoops first, He’s not going to hold you at arm’s length – rather, when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  In fact, God is the one who does everything.  It is Christ Jesus who comes running down from heaven to you, who suffers the embarrassment and shame of the Cross and the grave so that risen again He might welcome you with open arms to your heavenly home.  This is God’s love for you.

          And again, the older son doesn’t understand how he relates to his father.  He too thinks it is all about what he himself does – look at how I have obeyed you and you never give me anything.  Listen to what the Father says, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  Son, how do I give you something when it’s yours already?  I am with you, and everything that is mine, the house, the fields, the goats and calves, they are yours already – don’t you see?  And the older son had been so worried about working, about earning his father’s respect that he failed to see that the father had given him every blessing already.  Now, do you see how this too can be a way that we misunderstand God?  God is not some cruel taskmaster – it’s not as though we must slave away and hope that God gives us something.  Has not Christ Jesus our Lord told us that He is with us always, even to the end of the age?  Have we not received so much goodness from God even before we think to ask for it?  This is God’s love for you – for He is with you, and all that He is, His goodness, His righteousness, His holiness, His love – this is yours.  And the problem is that so often we get focused on what we in our pride are going to do that we forget, we overlook what God has given to us already.  But the most beautiful thing is that when we sulk, when we pout – God comes to us and says, “You’re baptized, you are joined to Me, I am with you always, and everything, heaven itself is yours now.  Remember this, rejoice in this – rejoice in the good that you have and rejoice in the good that your brothers have.”

          This, dear friends, is the picture of God’s love for you.  Love that is overwhelming, love that is full, love that is complete.  There is nothing left for you to do to earn it – simply rejoice in the blessings of forgiveness and life and salvation that are yours, for Christ Jesus our Lord has won us all these things, and He gives them to us gladly and freely.  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost +

Saturday, July 5, 2014

More Lutheran than Lutheran!

Having a Lutheran identity is a great thing.  Really, it is.  I am completely proud of being Lutheran -- but what is that?  What does it mean to be "Lutheran"?

I ask the question, because so often the word will be bandied about on the internet - we will see that this or that is the "Lutheran Way" to do something, approach something - whatever.  And you know what - half the time, I can't recognize it.  Actually, more than half.

So, what makes something Lutheran?  What makes an approach Lutheran?  Well, I would point here to our confirmation for a start - do you confess the teachings of the evangelical Lutheran Church, drawn from the Scriptures, as you have learned them from the Small Catechism, to be faithful and true.

See - two spots.  The Scriptures and the Catechism (and you can expand this out to the other confessions).  To be Lutheran, it must be an argument based upon Scripture -- and an argument from Scripture in line with the Catechism (in other words if I misread Scripture to argue that Jesus isn't God, that's just out of bounds).

...

So, riddle me this.  Why when people discuss the "Lutheran" way... do their arguments so often start neither from the Scriptures nor the Confessions?  Why do they so often seem to be derived more along the lines of:

A.  I am a Lutheran.
B.  I, in my wisdom and observation of the world, think this approach is good.
C.  Therefore, this is now the LUTHERAN way.

More Lutheran than Lutheran.  And yet, utterly not Lutheran at all.

Sasse is right - to be Lutheran is to speak where the Scriptures speak and to be silent where the Scriptures are silent - for as Lord has warned through Jeremiah:

I did not send the prophets,
    yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
    yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council,
    then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
    and from the evil of their deeds.  (Jeremiah 23:21-22)

If they are not preaching the Word, if they are giving the visions of thoughts of their own heart, their own wisdom -- it's not Lutheran, no matter how "Lutheran" the person talking is.