Northwoods Seelsorger

In his last major speech as leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan stressed religious unity, indicating that the problem in the world is that Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths are divided. According to the AP article in Monday's paper, he told the audience at Detroit's Ford Field "that Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammad would embrace each other with love if they were on the stage behind him." Now I don't want to be accused in any way of saying that our Lord Jesus is anything but the embodiment of love in its purest form, but I just can't picture Him embracing the "prophet." It's not that our Lord did not love Mohammad as he loves the entire world. It's not that He is hateful or spiteful of the "prophet." It's just that such an "embrace" would not be a real indication of true, godly love. And why is that? For the simple reason that it would indicate that our Lord accepted Mohammed's...

Well, the meeting of the bishops in Tanzania is over. They came from all over the world to discuss the state of the church. And it wasn't pretty. Apparently some in the rather liberal Anglican communion are fairly upset over the gay issue in the US. Upset enough to pass a resolution to put the US church on notice. U.S. News and World Report (March 07 issue) writes that the meeting of bishops told the US church "that it has until September 30 to desist from ordaining gay men or lesbians as bishops and to stop sanctioning blessings of same -sex unions. Failure to comply, the communique said, would result in the expulsion of the 2.3 million-member American church from the larger communion." (23) Wow! I didn't know they had it in them to take that kind of stand. However, we shouldn't underestimate the churches of the so-called "Third World." They are the ones who are putting their collective foot down and demanding accountability. It was the An...

Well, another Hollywood producer is taking a stab at Christianity. After 2,000 years the claims keep coming in. Conspiracy buffs grab hold of each new story as if this is the one to bring the giant down. The Da Vinci Code seemed to have all the markings of the ultimate weapon against the Faith, until good scholars simply unraveled the shoddy research upon which it was based. Now Producer Cameron, maker of the blockbuster Titanic , has a new movie to sink the Faith. He believes that the discovery, 27 years ago, of 10 stone caskets in an ancient cave in a Jerusalem suburb, has finally given the needed evidence. The names on the caskets include Jesua , son of Joseph and Mary, among others. Oh, and they also have DNA evidence, they say. You can read the latest TIME story here ("Jesus: Tales From the Crypt," February 23.) So what should we make of this latest salvo from the skeptics? Well, first of all, let's not forget that the Faith has been examined and att...

The first Sunday in Lent invariably begins with the Temptation of Christ. It seems an appropriate way to begin the season. As we journey again to the cross we are reminded of the cosmic struggle that began in Eden and comes to a titanic clash at Calvary. In Mel Gibson's movie The Passion , there is a scene at the end where the camera pans back away from Satan. As he recedes into the distance below he is screaming. It is the cry of defeat. He has discovered that the cross was his undoing. The one he thought he defeated in death ends up the victor. In the wilderness just after Jesus' baptism, Satan launched his first attack of a three-year war on the Messiah. I wonder how he reasoned out why Jesus was driven to the desert in the first place. Considering how he worked so hard to get Jesus to abandon the way of suffering and sacrifice for the easier road of cheap glory, I have to think that he understood - at some level - that there was a good reason to keep Jesus from...

So, have you heard about the EPIC church phenomena? The Tuesday post on One Apostolic and Catholic Church blog was very insightful in alerting me to this new movement, although I think that I heard about it before. Read " Contemporary Church = Baalam " and see the link they discovered to one of the EPIC church websites that is also LCMS . It is scandalous, to say the least. This church is currently using sex as a selling point to attract people. Check out the Yahoo News article here for more information. Admittedly the context of a news article is sometimes a bit deceptive, but his section really hit me: Epic Church wanted to take a closer look at the issue of sex because it is so prominent in our culture today. According to statistics given by ABC's Primetime Live in 2004, over 29% of adults in America said they have had sex on a first date. The Kinsey Institute also reported that, by the age of nineteen, 77% of girls and 69% of boys have been sexually act...

Many Lutheran parishes, I suspect, still do not practice the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. The resistance of introducing it, if it was not used before, would probably be: "That's too Catholic." For many older members would no doubt remember the old days when their fellow Catholic classmates at the local grade school would come in bearing that familiar "smudge" on the forehead. Yet the symbolism is still so powerful for anyone who has attended a Lutheran graveside committal service. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," the pastor intones as he reminds the people that the body is being committed in the "hope of eternal life." The reading from 1 Corinthians 15 (which is one of the two included in the pastor's agenda), points the listener beyond the grave, beyond death, even beyond that disembodied state they are now in, to the resurrection of all flesh, the ultimate goal of our salvation. There is a humbling feeling to realize tha...

My last post and the Bible study I am in the midst of regarding the Office of the Keys has sparked thoughts and questions beyond that specific realm. As was certainly hinted at, the public use of the Keys presupposes the Office that administers them, even though they properly belong to the Church, in a primary sense. I know that in addition to answering the obvious questions about confession and absolution and the need for such, I am also going to have to explain and teach the class about the scriptural foundations of the Office as well. Yet how many have honestly thought about the true scriptural foundations for the Office of Pastor? Any one who has studied the background of the pastoral office well knows the diversity that exists in the church catholic. Lutherans have always confessed that the Office is singular and that all other offices in the church are auxiliary and find their reason in connection with the one Office. Catholics, Episcopalians, Orthodox and others natural...

As I prepared for our latest Bible study on the Office of the Keys, I knew that the biggest sticking point with some would be those words: "I forgive you...." How can a pastor forgive anyone his sins? Only God can forgive sins! That's true. But why must the "I forgive" be in opposition to "God forgives"? I liked the explanation of this point put together by the editors of the Higher Things magazine (Winter 2006). After noting that the pastor speaks these words in conjunction with "by virtue of his office" and "in the stead and command of Jesus Christ," as well as "in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit," they then go on to note the following: "Those words make clear that the pastor isn't the one forgiving your sins. He doesn't say, 'I'm Bert, and I forgive you in the name of Bert. If anybody says you're not forgiven, tell 'm Bert forgave you.' Effectively the words say, ...

In the recent Religious News articles, this one appeared regarding the future of the Lutheran (or Protestant) church in Germany. I'm assuming they are referring to the "state" church in this case, where the church and its pastors are directly funded by the state, since the financial support seems to come from payroll deductions. Luther's Spiritual Heirs Face an Uncertain Future By Niels Sorrells WITTENBERG, Germany -- Faced with declining membership and income, it's little wonder that Germany's Protestants see an overwhelming stretch ahead of them. And so they came here, 300 spiritual heirs of Martin Luther, to plot the future. No theses were nailed to any church doors. Instead, they talked about the church's future and discussed topics ranging from media branding to church finances. It's no secret that church attendance is dropping throughout Europe; Germany is no exception. What's key here is the actual number of people registered in t...

In my continued reading of Klement Preus ' book The Fire and the Staff: Lutheran Theology in Practice ( CPH , 2004), I ran across a wonderful quote that illustrated well the ideas in my previous post. The little story that follows was meant, in part, to demonstrate how practice can often affect doctrine, or the understanding of that doctrine. In this particular case it shows how infant baptism can be a powerful demonstration of God's pure grace in action. This account is about one of Pr. Preus ' former members named Tom. "[Tom] was raised Baptist but, upon the birth of his first daughter and the insistence of his Lutheran wife had been instructed in the Lutheran church. When I had the honor of baptizing his baby, I had talked to him extensively about the blessings of Baptism. One day Tom stopped by the house and gave me a tree to plant in the front yard . We started talking theology. 'You know, Pastor,' he drawled, as he turned the post hole digger for ...

When we discuss Baptism as Lutherans practice it, inevitably the question of faith is a point of issue. It is mainly such because Lutherans practice infant baptism, which assumes the possibility of infant faith. But is this really possible? Can infants truly believe? Some people believe that infants cannot have saving faith. Knowing that “faith comes from what is heard,” that is, the Word of God (Romans 10:17), they cannot believe that infants can hear and understand the Gospel in such a way as to have faith. For them it runs counter to all sound reason, experience, and psychology to believe that infants can believe. Yet, what is faith? Is it a conscious premeditated decision which we can quantify and quote? And how much knowledge or intellectual understanding is required for it to be faith? Obviously the quantity or size of faith is not a critical element, for Jesus once said that if we had faith “as a grain of mustard seed” we would be able to move mountains (Matt. 17:20). Also, fait...

Now Pastor Eckardt is admittedly not a scientist (his expertise is in matters liturgical and historical). However, he has had the courage to begin a small debate on the way scientists go about the matter of establishing "fact" in the scientific community, especially regarding the issue of global warming. We are taught in this era never to question science. It's findings, no matter how potentially flawed are "hallowed ground." Read his article. What thinkest thou? I'm not a scientist either, but do try to keep the record balanced as I teach the Faith. The article can be found on the Gottesdienst site here .

As I was driving back from the hospital this afternoon, I heard a preacher on the radio claim that Oprah Winfrey reaches more people through her TV program than any known minister today. She is viewed by some as a new Billy Graham, in terms of her spiritual influence on the masses. I didn't realize that her spiritual influence was so great. The preacher also noted that her theological orientation is certainly anything but classical Christianity. It would appear that she has more in common with the Unity school of thought with the idea of the "god within" versus the God of Scripture. On Wikipedia , one reads the following regarding Oprah's spiritual influence: In 2002, Christianity Today published an article called "The Church of O" in which they concluded that Winfrey had emerged as an influential spiritual leader. "Since 1994, when she abandoned traditional talk-show fare for more edifying content, and 1998, when she began 'Change Your Life...

Throughout the church’s history there have been those who have felt that any image attempting to portray God in the form of a statue or picture was improper and against God’s own Word. This disapproval with “images” in church portraying the divine reached a feverish pitch in the Eighth Century when Emperor Leo outright condemned the worshipful veneration of images and relics, starting a period of iconoclasm, literally, "image breaking.” For the next 60 years the controversy raged in the church, sometimes condemning the use of icons, sometimes condemning the act of destroying those same icons. In the last “ecumenical” council, Nicea 11(787), iconoclasm was finally condemned, allowing Christians once again to enjoy these images as proper aids in worship without fear of the church condemning their use as “idolatry.” In Luther’s time the old controversy was once again renewed among those the reformers often referred to as the Schwaermer (The “Enthusiasts.”) These rather fanatical re...

I recently got wind of an issue in the PSW (Pacific Southwest) district where the district's committee on constitutions was apparently prohibiting congregations from using words such as "inerrant," "inspired," or "revealed" in the confessional subscription portion of their constitutions. This issue carried over into their convention, and then was passed on to the CCM of Synod by their president for an opinion. The CCM , it seems, does not take issue with this. Or did I read it wrong? Why would a district's constitutional committee be encouraging congregations to avoid such time-honored descriptions of our belief regarding Holy Scripture? You can read about the situation and see the pertinent documents here at the Concord site .

For many Lutherans who accept the scriptures at face value, and refuse to interpret them in light of popular opinion or current sociological trends, determining the legitimacy of homosexuality is not a problem. Openly engaging in a homosexual lifestyle is sin. It requires repentance. However, according to a recent (but undated) RNS article, deciding how to deal with "openly gay" clergy is a dilemma for the ELCA . And much of this comes from their dilemma of being caught between people who know it's wrong and their teachers who insist that the Bible claims otherwise. This issue has been brought up in convention, but to date without resolution. It seems that many laity are not ready to give up on what they know their Bible so clearly says. Gay Ruling Poses Tough Questions for Lutherans By Katherine Boyle (UNDATED) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America may be asked to change its policy on gay and lesbian clergy after a disciplinary committee removed an openly g...

In my previous two posts it has occurred to me that the critical and important issue at stake in this discussion is the starting point of sin. The philosophical underpinnings of psychology begin at a different point than theology (behavior, self-perception, relationships, etc.), and so it is no surprise when the two come at times to points of conflict. One 'school' of psychology seemed to find that correct starting point in the work of O. Hobert Mowrer . If you are interested, there is a very informative archived article from Time magazine, dated September 14, 1959, entitled "Sin and Psychology ." Mowrer saw the inadequacies of the old Freudian insight psychotherapies , which simply assumed that if people gained insight into their troubled minds they might find healing. Mental hospitals were full of people, who if the Freudian theory was correct, should have been saints by then, instead of the troubled souls they were. The old theories were not workin...

First of all, I would like to thank Isabella for her helpful comments on yesterday's entry. It is worth reading. In thinking about the topic of psychology and the church, I recalled a couple of resources that are helpful in defining the boundaries and role of the pastor in helping people in need. Back in 2001 I ran across a book in a bibliography of one of Veith's books that caught my eye. It was Pastoral Care Under the Cross by Richard C. Eyer ( CPH , 1994). This was by far the best book on pastoral care that I had read over the course of my ministry. I emailed the author and complimented him, and told him that this should be required reading for every seminarian. It now is, at least in Ft. Wayne (Does anyone in St. Louis know if it is there??) Writing from the perspective of a career hospital chaplain, Dr. Eyer takes you through the varied human experiences every pastor would encounter even in a more typical ministry. His paradigm is very Lutheran, and very helpf...

As a psych minor in college, I naturally saw a value to the broad discipline of psychology for my future ministerial work. However, even being within one of the synodical schools, I felt a 'void' in my academic pursuits . Two areas troubled me. One was the plethora of competing 'theories,' which demonstrated to me early on that this field was anything but a unified discipline (as I soon discovered later in life also applies even to the so-called "hard" sciences.) The other was the seeming unwillingness of my professors to let theology inform, or at least, dialogue, with this discipline. It wasn't until I came to the sem that the two areas converged, and I was allowed the freedom to view matters through both lenses. Since those days I have been aware of an ongoing debate in the church on the issue of psychology and theology. Again the views and theories abound, and some are simply in complete opposition to each other. There is the view, for e...

So what did Lutherans think of Mary in the Sixteenth Century? Today we hear precious little about the Mother of Our Lord, save those times when her presence is unavoidable, such as Christmas or late Advent. On the other hand, there appears also to be a revival, of sorts, in Marian devotion among some in Lutheran circles. In a review of Beth Kreitzer's 2004 book Reforming Mary : Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth Century (Oxford Univ. Press) in the January issue of the Concordia Journal , Dr. Timothy Maschke of Mequon gives a nice overview of the Marian views of our 16 th century predecessors . Preachers of this era (including Luther) retained the traditional Marian festivals for their Christological significance (Annunciation, Visitation, and Purification). However, the Mary in these early Lutheran sermons was not the Queen of Heaven or the great intercessor of mankind, but rather "an example of the faithful believer." They...