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Religious Liberty: Free to Be Faithful

Religious Liberty: Free to Be Faithful – The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Q: What is religious liberty?

A: Religious liberty is the right to live, practice and worship according to one’s religious beliefs. It is a liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Q: Is our religious freedom really being threatened?

A: Nearly two centuries ago, the founders of the Missouri Synod came to the United States seeking religious freedom. Like immigrants from many nations and many faiths, they found that freedom under the First Amendment of our U.S. Constitution. Today, however, that precious freedom is being eroded, and we must speak out now to preserve the right to live — not just worship — according to the teachings of our faith.

Religious Liberty: Free to Be Faithful was created as a response by LCMS leaders to increasing intrusions by government into the realm of the church. Recent examples of such intrusion include attacks on the biblical definition of marriage; orders allowing for same-sex “marriage” ceremonies on military bases; and requirements that social service agencies with governmental contracts consider same-sex couples as potential foster care and adoptive parents, even if such practices violate church teachings under which the agencies operate.

The tipping point was the inclusion of a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as the health-care reform act, requiring the health plans of many religious employers to cover birth control drugs and procedures, including those that can cause the death of an unborn child. This provision is causing a conflict of conscience for many religious employers and individuals.

It is important to note that the LCMS takes no position on PPACA as a whole, for that is a matter for government, not churches, to decide. Our concern as Lutheran Christians and citizens of the United States, is to distinguish carefully between responsibilities God entrusts to the church (e.g., Matt. 28:19; Gal. 6:10) and those responsibilities He entrusts to governing authorities (e.g., Rom. 13:1–6; 1 Pet. 2:13–14). As a Christian church, our concern at this time is to retain the freedom to put our faith into action, backing up our verbal witness to the Gospel with deeds of love and compassion that are obedient to God’s Word. At the same time, as Christian citizens, we accept our responsibility to support with prayer, respect and taxes the work that government seeks to accomplish.

Q: What can I do?

A: Because we are on the cusp of national, state and local elections, the LCMS encourages all members to follow their consciences and sound reason in supporting candidates, legislation, and social and political efforts they believe would improve society and safeguard our precious religious liberty.

Here are some things you can do:

  • Pray for our country, for our president and other officials, for those who serve in the armed forces, and for all those who work to preserve freedom, peace and justice in this and every place (1 Tim. 2:1–2).
  • Educate yourself about the many issues that our country is facing and the positions of parties and candidates.
  • As you gain further knowledge on the issues, participate fully in the political process, and let your representatives know that these issues are important to you.
  • Engage in informed, respectful discussions with friends and family, always being prepared to
    give an account for the sure and certain hope of eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus — a hope that no earthly event or power can undermine (1 Pet. 3:15).
  • Be sure to exercise your right to vote this November.Q: Is this something the church should be speaking about? What about the doctrine of the two kingdoms?

A: Lutherans affirm Scripture’s teaching that God rules and works in two different ways in different “realms” or “kingdoms.” God rules and works in His church through His Word and Sacraments, through which He creates and strengthens faith in Jesus Christ and love for one’s neighbor. God rules and works in the world He created and in secular human societies through earthly authorities and laws. Human laws benefit society when they reflect both the law that He inscribed onto the human heart and His gift of human reason.

As Christian citizens, we are called to fulfill the duties of citizenship. It is our responsibility as individual Christians to participate as fully as possible in the political system according to consciences formed by God’s Holy Spirit. While the church is not called by God to exercise political authority, it is incumbent for the church to proclaim and bear witness to “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27b ESV). The “whole counsel” includes God’s will in such areas as care for the poor, marriage and family, sexuality, and the preservation of human life at all stages of development. The discussion of such issues in the public realm offers Christians a unique opportunity for careful reflection on God’s will and design as they seek also to be responsible Christian citizens.

Q: I would like to learn more about this. Where can I find more information?

A: Visit www.lcms.org/freetobefaithful to get information and resources for church and home use. The LCMS’ “Religious Liberty: Free to Be Faithful” campaign serves to arm church leaders and lay members with Synod resources for taking informed action to protect the freedom of religion.

“The Jesus Christ Evangelism Explosion” – Luke 7:11-17

23. September 2012
The Sunday of the Widow’s Son
Luke 7:11-17

And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.

Back in the 60’s (and for the LCMS the 80’s—always late to the party) Coral Ridge Presbyterian Pastor D. James Kennedy made popular an outline or technique for evangelism. Everything revolved around two questions: 1) Have you reached the point in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die tonight you would go to heaven? and 2) If you were to die tonight and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into heaven,” how would you answer?

The point of these questions were to expose any thought that works could gain your entry into heaven. Rightly, this provided the opportunity for the interrogator to confess Jesus Christ’s blood as our merit and our entry into heaven for His sake. After the baby boom explosion of the 50’s, Pastor Kennedy was looking for a technique to continue the rapid expansion of Christianity. Unfortunately, the already decreasing birthrate and the rise of generic easy-believing Evangelicalism yielded no such growth.

There is no such thing as a magic bullet for sustainable church growth, despite what the multitude of gurus will tell you. True Christianity is marked by confession, discipline, faithfulness, persecution, and cross-bearing. It is sustained through unremarkable gifts of Word, preaching, forgiveness, water and Word washing, and body and blood under bread and wine. From a business or pragmatic perspective, we’re nuts. We’re committed to a cult that has little benefit and costs more than it seems to put out. Without a multitude of programs and other busyness, the cost of keeping these doors open is outrageous.

Yet, here we are, gathered at the feet of Jesus, listening with baited breath to His every Word, hungering and thirsting for righteousness or at least the crumbs of which fall from His table and into our mouths. It is outrageous that this would be enough and or would be worth the effort. That’s what your neighbors think. Why bother with the effort of Sunday morning when you can watch somebody more “uplifting” or at least with a better light show? Why put money into the plate when the whole enterprise is doomed to fail? Why commit your time and energy in service to the church and her ministry? What’s the point in the end?

That’s where Dr. Kennedy’s questions fail today. People don’t seem to care that much about heaven or dying. At best, they’re mildly curious. If there is even a god, why would he even ask if you’ve been bad or good in this life? Your friends and family are more concerned about their best life now and don’t even care if there is a life to come. In religious parlance, this theology is called annihilationism. They think: when you die, you go into the great abyss or are absorbed back into the one life force. No one has any personal value and is utterly disposable in the end.

The Holy Gospel gives us a glimpse draws our eyes away from magic bullets, programs, strategies, and revitalization onto the real work of Jesus’ own ministry and therefore the ministry here at Grace. First, from Jesus perspective everyone matters. No one is immaterial or unnecessary. He gives life purposely and generously. Soon afterward [Jesus] went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow,  and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Jesus goes to Nain in Galilee. Can anything good come out of Nazareth (of Galilee)? Nain, which means green pastures, never looked so from the Jerusalem side of the fence. Jesus had already healed the most unlikely of people, the Centurion’s servant. What’s he doing with Gentiles? Now, Here’s Jesus in Nain of all places visiting a widow with her dead son. Jesus fulfills the Psalmists word: The Lord protects foreigners and helps the fatherless and the widow, but He frustrates the ways of the wicked. (Psalm 146:9)

Nain, full of heathens, is without likelihood of conversion, we think. They are ill-prepared, having a lack of moral compass, the right worldview, nor any of the Old Testament foundation. They are hardened by centuries of unbelief and are lazy slobs. Better to go into faithful Judea and enter her synagogues. They’re a hard-working bunch, with fat wallets and warm bodies.

No, not Jesus. He goes to the widow, cold in her sorrow with no one to support her in those final hours. Her husband has died and now her only son is lost to the abyss. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” The Lord did not think: “This is sooo typical for Nain. Deadbeat dads and grieving widows. When are they going to get their act together and take care of themselves? Why should I bother with this woman? She can’t financially support my mission trip and I bet she’ll take off the moment I give her a bit of good news. Better not waste my time on her.”

No, not Jesus. Compassion is that sinking feeling in the gut that compels us in love to mercy, care, and sympathy. Do not weep. The most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of places during the most unlikely of events, a widow in Nain walking in funeral procession, is the recipient of Jesus’ compassion. Jesus ignores the demographics and the chances of success and does His Messiah thing.

Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Earlier Jesus said to Levi after He called him to be a disciple: 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. (Luke 5:31-32) Here Dr. Kennedy was right. People are sick and they don’t know it. They need to learn how sick they are to appreciate the healing remedy Jesus has in mind.

The problem is that the people Jesus evangelizes aren’t merely sick. They’re dead. Like the young man in coffin dead. Being processed to the tomb, to be buried six feet under. Not just the man, but his mother is next to dead. Even the procession, the crowds following Jesus, and his very disciples. All walking dead. And thus, Jesus is always about forgiveness of sins leading to the resurrection of the body.

St. Paul says it this way: And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. (Colossians 2:13) And also: God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4)

The problem with evangelism programs, schemes, techniques, marketing, and the like is that it doesn’t take the state of people seriously. Everyone has intrinsic worth, for whom Jesus died (John 3:16). Jesus is relentless in His pursuit of you. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9). So, Jesus died for all. He does not consider any demographic, status, or even hardness of heart to stop evangelizing all.

Jesus evangelizes all relentlessly but recognize that he doesn’t approach them like a salesman would the potential customer. He’s not on a mission to convince you to believe in Him. Why not? Because you’re dead in trespasses. Dead people don’t listen. Dead people aren’t interested in a savior. Dead stay dead. Unless they’re called from the tomb by Jesus. Unless they hear Jesus’ voice calling out “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

Death and resurrection is what its all about. Knowing this frees us in the call to be evangelists. We can talk about the content, share in strategies, learn how to defend the Christian faith, and the like. In the end, we have not the ability to convince anyone to believe. Not through Dr. Kennedy’s two questions. Not with clever preaching. Not with generous charity. Not through works of mercy. Dead people don’t care.

Conversion requires is a miracle which comes only by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t just true for our efforts to witness to Jesus Christ crucified in our community and world, this is true for even our children and for you. Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4)

Holy Baptism is the time that Jesus said to you “Young man or woman, I say to you, arise!” Out of the grave of the font you arose to new life in Christ. That’s why all this Jesus stuff makes sense to you and not to the unbaptized multitude. They’re still dead, unable to love God or neighbor. How can you convince a dead person to believe? It’s not happening unless the Lord himself grants new life.

Therefore, you see that Jesus cares not about the who or the where of His evangelism program. Everyone is loved by him even while dead in their trespasses. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) Even while we were dead, Christ loved us and sought to save us. And when? That’s immaterial, too. No one is innocent. All are equally condemned and need the full atonement of Christ’s blood. Jesus comes and touches the young child newly born and says “arise!” He touches the teenager’s bier and says “arise!” He calls out the middle-aged yuppie “arise!” He even says to the elderly man whose doubts overwhelm him “arise!” We cannot by our own reason or strength come out of the tomb or call Jesus Lord.

The beautiful thing about the death and resurrection methodology of Jesus is its all on Him from start to finish. When the Holy Spirit calls by the Gospel, enlightens hearts through preaching, absolution, baptism, and supper, Jesus works as promised. His Spirit calls, gathers, sanctifies by what seems most outrageous and too simple to ever work. He works through His means of salvation. Everything else is nice fluff.

You can package the Gospel anyway you like. You can learn the helpful techniques of the Christian apologist. You can learn about the worldview of the other religions. You can try being more casual or more formal with your church services.  You can play music that sounds more appealing and less German. You can give hugs, shake hands, and be a friend. Its all been tried before.

In the end, nothing makes a dead-in-trespasses person become an alive-in-Christ person without Jesus himself preaching, forgiving, and calling out “Young man, I say to you, arise!” Its just what we confess: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. I believe that Jesus has done it all for me, has given me life and salvation by the Holy Spirit in baptism, and keeps me in this faith and communion through the Holy Christian church, which is Christ’s own body.

So here’s the Jesus Christ Evangelism Program: go and disciple all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them of all things Jesus, forgiving their sins and eating together. That’s how dead people become alive people. That’s evangelism, the Jesus way.

Oh, and it does work, as outrageous as it might seem. When a dead man rises to life, here’s what happens: Then fear came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” And this report about Him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region. May the same report of your own resurrection travel from your lips throughout the whole region of Dyer and to the ends of the earth. God truly has visited and redeemed His people.

In Name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana

The Sunday of the Deaf Mute ’12 – Mark 7:317-37

26. August 2012
The Sunday of the Deaf Mute
Mark 7:31-37

In the holy name + of Jesus. Amen.

When the Word of God speaks, the Word of God works. Jesus, the Word incarnate, speaks and thus does. Jesus’ miracles are not simply a result of some inborn supernatural powers. His touch is powerful but what gives his fingers that great ability? Even the hem of his garment seems endowed with magical pixie dust, stopping the woman’s bleeding, but surely it is not the fabric itself that does this great thing?  The spit of Jesus placed on the man’s tongue works breaks the bonds that keep him from speaking, right?

The hands of God formed the heavens and the earth. “He’s got the whole world in his hands,” we sing. When you read Genesis, where does God use his hands? Only when He forms the man from the earth. This man of dust is still dust. His chest does not rise and fall. The newly created blood doesn’t pulse through his veins and arteries. There is no life in him. The supernatural creating of Adam from nothing still lacks life. Adam is no different than a potter’s vessel, lifeless and fragile. He is lovingly created, beautiful but inanimate.

It is not until God breathes on the stick figure that he comes to life. For God, to breathe is to speak. He said, “Let there be” and there was. God breathed His Word on all that He had made and it was. Awesome hands, fantastic imagination, but still lifeless until He speaks “Let there be!”

Many of the old baptismal practices attempted to create today’s Gospel. Immediately after the little exorcism that still begins our rite, the priest would touch his thumb to his spittle and then the nostril and ears of the one to be baptized. He would say “Ephphatha” which means “be opened!” The change of touching the nostrils instead of the mouth was made quite early by the Church, at least by the fourth or fifth century. St. Ambrose said: “For the sake of propriety the nostrils are touched instead of the tongue.”

It is nice to remember today’s Gospel in the context of baptism. Anytime Jesus works with water, especially His water, we ought to recall Holy Baptism. Is the priest’s spittle somehow endued with spiritual power? Is this precious bodily fluid a holy water? What makes the water holy anyway? And also, does Jesus spitting and touching the man’s tongue or sticking His fingers in the deaf mute’s ears do anything?

It’s not that it couldn’t but that it didn’t. The man was just as deaf and mute after Jesus’ earthy touch. Remember that they brought to [Jesus] a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. The good friends of this man wanted Jesus to touch him. They wanted a miracle from those magic hands. Their faith was weak with a faulty view of the means of God.

That’s not how Jesus works. He uses hands, spittle, garment fringes, water, fish, bread, and wine to do great things. These things are powerless of themselves. As we confess with Holy Baptism, it is not the water that does such great things but the Word of God in and with the water that does them. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

The seeming magic spittle, tongue touching, and ear stopping did not do any great thing. They pointed to the place where healing would happen. When Jesus speaks, the Word of God does the healing. For the sake of His cross and resurrection, our heavenly Father hears His intercession. The Father hears the Spirit of Jesus sighing and crying out “Be opened” and does what the Son asks.

When water is poured over the infant, the toddler, the teenager, or the adult, sin is drowned and death destroyed. Not because the water alone washes away sin or kills death but rather the water with the Word “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” does this. The Word works through water.

So why not just say, “Ephphatha” and be done with it? Why not simply do what is needed without the friends bringing the man or the man receiving the ear and tongue treatment? Jesus cares about your faith. While He very well could make all things well, He desires for you to know and believe that is He that does great things for you.

Luther spoke of the larvae Dei, the masks of God. God works but often hidden behind masks. He nurtures you by your parents. He keeps you from being alone with a spouse. He consoles you with good friends. He feeds you by the farmer. He heals you by the physician. He catechizes you by your pastor. He governs you by civil authorities. He protects you with the law.

We (and most of the world) are tempted to think these things come in an of themselves. They are instruments or masks of God, given to you to provide for you exactly in the way God has promised. God is at work blessing you through all his various masks. What then if you are not as blessed as you think you ought to be? What if your parents are dead? What if your spouse has left you? What if the friend has stabbed you in the back? What if you go hungry or continue to be sick? What if your pastor has neglected you? What if the government has betrayed you? What if your safety is in jeopardy as the neighborhood has gone to hell? Does this mean God has abandoned you?

This is the problem with relying upon the mask rather than faith that trusts God is at work behind them. When you don’t have them, you think God is absent. Repent. God works when and where He wills according to His good pleasure. He will never abandon you to death. He will always provide for your every need and well supply them. He is at work preserving your life both for service now and into eternity.

Repent and believe. It is not the means that do these great things but the promise of Jesus that does them. What Jesus says, Jesus does. It doesn’t require His touch, His burial shroud, or His loving embrace. Jesus does when Jesus speaks. The pinky in the ear or on the tongue does not do such great things but the Word “Be opened!” does them.

When Jesus speaks, the chains that bind tongues are released and we proclaim his name. When Jesus speaks, ears are unstopped and are once again listen. When Jesus speaks, Satan’s accusations are silenced. When Jesus speaks, troubled souls are comforted. When Jesus speaks, sins are forgiven. When Jesus speaks, death is destroyed. When Jesus speaks, heaven is opened to all who believe. When Jesus speaks, it is finished.

Jesus does great stuff with His body and not just spitting, touching tongues, stopping ears. He is the Son of God whose divine natures is united personally with his human nature. That means His body is like ours in every way but without the condition of sin. Unlike us, Jesus knows his body is given to be used for others. His body also has the Word promise: “Your seed shall crush the serpent’s head.” When he heals this deaf and mute man, the serpent is wounded. When he hangs from the cross, dead, the serpent is crushed. When he touches the man’s ears and says “Be opened!” they were physically. Now he says to us “listen to me” and the multitudes come to know and believe eternally.

This is why Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they preached it. Jesus isn’t about keeping secrets but He is about making absolutely sure that you trust in His Word and not mere acts.

It is as if He had said, “Look, guys. I know you wanted me to reach out and touch your friend. And yes, I did stick my fingers in his ears and spit on my finger and touched his tongue. But listen, did you notice those things didn’t do anything? Did you notice your friend didn’t start listening or talking until I prayed to my heavenly Father and spoke? No, of course you missed that. You still think I’ve got a miracle touch. But just you wait. When I fulfill all that was said of me by Moses, the Psalmist, and the Prophets, then you’ll get it. When I speak to you through the mouth of my apostles, gifted by the Holy Spirit, then you’ll get it. You’ll have new ears that hear and new tongues that speak.”

Christians, listen! Hear Jesus and live. Listen and speak. Speak and sing of what He has done for you. he has done all things well. Deaf sinners are now hearing believers. Mute unbelievers are now bold Christian confessors. This is why Lutheran hymnody doesn’t sing about Jesus carrying us, touching us, or walking with us. Listen to any of the popular Christian anthems today and they sound like bad love songs written to Jesus. Our hymns sing of what Christ has said. He has spoken and we listen. We listen and then we sing. All things done well by the Word of God.

Even the most misguided person is God’s mask, work for His good and gracious will in this world. All are masks. Christians are special masks. Even misguided believers do a great thing by bringing their deaf mute (spiritually) friends to hear Jesus. And when all come into His Service, He speaks and they listen. When they listen, their ears are unstopped and their bond tongues loosed to speak and sing boldly of Jesus Christ crucified for them. Sins are forgiven. Debts are paid. Death is destroyed. The promise of eternal life is given.

Jesus says, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened!” And it is so. Thanks be to God!

To God alone be the glory. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
Grace Lutheran Church
Dyer, Indiana