Northwoods Seelsorger

The death of a child inflicts a uniquely heavy blow of grief. Yet such deaths become so much more painful when the death is preventable. Add to this a misunderstanding of healing and faith and you end up with a recipe for a most unfortunate tragedy. A little over a week ago an 11-year old girl by the name of Madeline Neumann (also called "Kara") died from an untreated condition of diabetes. She died as her parents prayed over her expecting all the time that their little girl would recover. Contrary to usual stories of children dying due to medical neglect over faith issues, this couple was not a member of the usual cults that reject treatment, such as the Christian Scientists, or the Jehovah's Witnesses in the case of blood transfusions. The newspaper simply recorded that "The family believes in the Bible, which says that healing comes from God." Since this was a local death (in a nearby city), we discussed it at last night's youth meeting along with...

Yesterday's Good Friday worship put me face-to-face with the reality of sin and death. The full weight of that ancient curse of sin rested fully on and in His tortured dying body. Yet before his last breath escaped the promise of new life emerged. It is finished. The mission to defeat sin and death was completed. In full. Their curse rendered empty. News of my uncle's death last night reminded me how much the comfort of the cross and the empty tomb means to the believer. Since the mid-80's my family has been affected by death again and again: uncle in '84, grandfather in '86, father in '88, mother-in-law in '99, uncle in '01, mother in '02, grandmother in '06, and now my uncle in '08. I know that I am not alone and many suffer the same grief. My uncle's death was especially difficult in that it was a sudden logging accident. All at once he was gone. No good-byes. No time to prepare. Tomorrow, however, I will rejoice in...

In the institution of the Lord's Supper Jesus instructs His church that "this cup is the new testament in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins." Newer translations of the scriptures often translate the word diatheke as "covenant" instead of "testament." Footnotes will tell us that the word can be rendered either way. So which to use? In all the hymnals I have used over my 20+ years of ministry the words of institution have always included the word "testament," obviously favoring the KJV translation and the subsequent tradition that followed, much like we have with the wording of the Lord's Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm. However, aside from tradition, Martin Chemnitz, the great "father" of the Lutheran church, in his substantial defense of the Supper, based much of his argument for the real presence on the use of the word "testament." Testament, as in "Last Will and Testament," ...

For those who observe Lent and Good Friday, this season of the Passion of our Lord brings the reality of the cross into full view. We cannot ignore it. All the pain and suffering is right before our eyes. However, as I intimated in a previous post regarding Holy Week, I sense that many Evangelical Christians are uncomfortable with this to the point they actively push it away. They sing of His atoning death, but they do not want any visible reminder of it. Thus, they make much about their preference for the "empty cross" verses the traditional crucifix well known to Roman Catholics and many Lutherans. One argument is that "Jesus isn't on the cross anymore." True enough. But as one article pointed out in defense of the crucifix, Jesus also isn't in the manger either, yet we continue to put up Nativity scenes each Christmas. So why the singular rejection of the crucifix? Probably in part because it makes us uncomfortable. We cringe at death and suffering. An...

As a pastor who is also a firefighter I understand the power of symbol. The same symbol can evoke both positive and negative reactions depending on the background or attitude of the person observing. But you can't entirely predict what that reaction will be. Wearing a clerical collar can get me cold stares or polite people holding doors for me. However, some objects with symbolic value do not necessarily bring out negative reactions. They simply identify, or so I thought. Like the Roman Catholic rosary, for example. At least until this latest trend picked up by the RNS showed differently..... Police say rosaries are newest gang symbol By Esmeralda Bermudez ALBANY, Ore. -- Never did Jaime Salazar imagine that wearing a rosary-like crucifix to school would provoke a national stir. But when the 14-year-old and his 16-year-old friend, Marco Castro, were suspended recently for refusing to remove the religious beads because they were “gang related,” it thrust Oregon into th...

We sing it Sunday after Sunday in the latter half of the Sanctus (L: "holy") prior to receiving the blessed Sacrament, but how many people honestly know what HOSANNA means? The same goes for Hallelujah ("Praise the LORD/ Yahweh"), or my favorite, Sabaoth (as in the older Sanctus, which means "host" or "company" in reference to the "angels and archangels" of the Proper Preface, and is often mistaken for the more familiar "Sabbath). For my sermon this past Sunday I did some research on this word and was surprised by the variance in interpretation. The word comes from Psalm 118:25 , which was chanted by the Palm Sunday pilgrims praising Jesus as he came into Jerusalem, and it means "save, now" in its basic sense. However, there is obviously more than one way to take this word. One school of thought, which I found in many references, is that the people were in effect saying "God save the king!" True, the pra...

[Note: A similar article to this will be shared with my department at their next meeting. During this Lenten season when we are meditating on the significance and meaning of the Passion of our Lord and the Cross at Golgotha, it seemed like one way to offer a witness to the department that captured their interest and yet was not too heavy.] [Editorial Note: In response to a recent comment on this article I have made some changes to the original version of this article especially in regard to references to the so-called St. Florian's Cross. For any confusion the previous unreferenced information may have caused I apologize. I hope that the changes are satisfactory.] THE STORY OF THE MALTESE CROSS In many ways the familiar symbol to the right requires no explanation. It is the universal insignia of firefighting nationwide. Yet the precise origins of this symbol are less clear. The most popular explanation proposes its beginning in the far distant past of medieval Crusaders fi...

Northwoods Seelsorger has finally caught the attention of the press. Well, not the mainstream press, as such (I'm really not that important!), but at least a smaller religious weekly called Christian News . In an article from the February 25 edition entitled "The Jesus Hoax: the LCMS Teaching Incarnational Theology," author Jack Cascione accuses me of falsely defending "incarnational" as a valid word. For those who may not have read my original article responding to the issue (which he references), you may find it here . While I am tempted to develop a detailed response defending my position, I am content to allow the original article to stand on its own. Not only that, the issue really isn't my own. I only responded. I only called for reasonableness. With all due respect I believe that Pastor Cascione has taken his concerns about this word well beyond the reasonable, creating an issue where none should exist. This is especially so when he equates...