Why did Jesus die?

       Greetings to you all. I am slowly crossing more papers and projects off my huge list of everything to do in the next two and a half weeks. I think I will actually make it through. Other than slaving away at homework, I did get to play basketball for a couple hours yesterday. We played knock out for a while to warm up. If you do not know what knock out is, it's just a game where everyone lines up, the first two guys each have a ball, and as the game goes on, if the guy behind you makes their ball before you then you are out. So you shoot from the original line, most commonly the free throw line, and if you make it you pass the ball to the next guy in line. If you miss, you have to rebound the ball and try to make it from anywhere, most commonly a lay up. It is a fun game with a lot of running while chasing the ball and getting back to the back of the line so you are ready for your next turn. To mix it up just for a fun twist, we played from the three point line for a while and then we moved it back to the half court line. So everyone's first shot was from the half court line and then if anyone missed they had to run the full half court to rebound and keep shooting until they made it and could pass it back. Now it's not hard to figure out a half court shot is almost impossible to make; however, I made two. But before I brag myself up, our friend Ben Riley who is one of the most athletic guys I have ever met, made over ten half court shots. It was impressive and ridiculous all at the same time. Then once we were all warmed up from running around during knock out, we played several full court games of either 4 on 4 or 5 on 5. It was a blast, but I am sore today.
         I got some awesome news this morning. My good buddy from college Logan just found out he will be doing eight weeks of student teaching in St. Louis. I joked with him that I guess the Lord doesn't want me to make it through the seminary after all. Logan and I have had some crazy but fun times together. It will be so much fun having him around again. Next quarter might just be the best quarter of my life. Erin will be back in classes and around all the time again. Logan will be here. I will have an easier load of classes, and spring IM's is softball which is my favorite. I just have to make it through two and a half weeks of classes, enjoy my two week break and then have ten wonderful weeks of spring quarter.
        I am going to share with you a paper I wrote for Systems II. It is the same class that I wrote the paper on the real meaning of Christmas that I shared with you. Our last assignment was we had to either pick one specific Gospel or examine all four Gospels together as to why Jesus died. I used the Gospel of Luke and wrote my paper. The class doesn't do grades on the papers; they are all just pass or fail, and I passed. So here is my piece on why Jesus died according to the Gospel of Luke.

       When looking at the reason Jesus died, there are multiple possible answers. However, looking at Luke’s Gospel specifically, I am going to focus in on one reason Jesus died. Luke includes Jesus birth, temptation, ministry, work, Passion Week from the triumphant entry to the resurrection, and ends with the ascension. With such a broad and complete overview of the life and work of Christ, we get a great insight to why He came, why He did what He did, and why He died.
       In my opinion, Jesus states His own purpose for His work and ministry in Luke 4:43 when He says, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” Jesus mission was to bring the kingdom of God to His people. In fact, the phrase “kingdom of God” is used thirty-two times in the twenty-four chapters of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus constantly refers to the kingdom of God in His teachings, miracles, parables, and discussions with the disciples. Luke 8:1 again expresses Jesus traveling city to city, village to village proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Luke 9:2 tells us that Jesus sent out the disciples to proclaim the kingdom of God and heal. Luke 9:11 it is Jesus again who is proclaiming the kingdom of God and healing. These are just a few examples of Jesus’ primary focus while He is here being to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.
        Jesus, being the King of Israel, the Davidic King who was promised throughout the Scriptures of the Old Testament, has come and brought the reign of God with Him. In the foretelling of Jesus birth, the angel tells Mary that God will give this child to be born the throne of David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. This is the King who has been promised for so long, and now that He has come, He has taken the throne that is rightfully His once and for all. He has brought the reign of God with Him and this is the kingdom of God Jesus speaks of so much in Luke. When the Pharisees ask Jesus when the kingdom of God will come, His response is that the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. The King has arrived and He is the King who will reign for the rest of eternity.
       So why does Jesus coming as the King of Israel, bringing the good news of the kingdom of God with Him, create so much opposition? Luke shows us through multiple examples the little things Jesus does that leads up to the ones who not only hate Him but actually scheme to kill Him. In Luke 5 we get the first hint of this opposition to Jesus. In the story of Jesus healing the paralytic, before Jesus heals the man, He first tells him his sins are forgiven. This is when the Pharisees charge Him of blasphemy for the first time. They make the realization that if only God can forgive sins, and this man is claiming to forgive sins, then He is claiming to be God. This is why they accuse Him of blasphemy, because He is clearly not God as He is sitting there in front of them as a human. Then in Luke 6 we see Jesus further the Pharisees uneasy feelings about Him as He both eats and heals on the Sabbath. Not only does Jesus and His disciples eat on the Sabbath, Jesus follows up by claiming that the Son of Man, Him, is the lord of Sabbath. Then on another Sabbath, Jesus heals a man’s withered hand. These are such wrongful acts to the Pharisees because they still obey the 613 laws dealing with circumcision, cleansing, and Sabbath. They have clung to these laws and strived to obey them perfectly for so long. And now Jesus publicly breaks these rules. In their minds, the King of Israel should keep these laws better than anyone else, not openly disobey them. However, Jesus is showing them that He is what matters, not their laws, but they do not take this well.
       To really poke the bear, Jesus directly speaks woes against the Pharisees, lawyers, and scribes. In Luke 11:37-54 Jesus is eating with Pharisees and lawyers when He tells them everything they are doing wrong and should be ashamed of. He doesn’t hold back either and really lets them have it. Then in Luke 20 Jesus does the same thing to the scribes. There are several other times in Luke when Jesus heals or eats on the Sabbath. He eats with sinners and tax collectors. He tells parables that make the Pharisees and the scribes the bad guys. Then during His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus’ disciples are crying out “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” The Pharisees tell Jesus to rebuke His disciple, because again they see this as blasphemy. The relationship of the Pharisees and Jesus in the book of Luke is one of constant tension. They are always asking Him questions to try to trip Him up or trap Him, but He always has an answer that confuses them or leaves them speechless. They had to be careful because the people loved Jesus, His miracles, and His teachings. However, it all comes to a boiling point in Luke 19:47 when Jesus clings out the temple. The chief priests and scribes were now completely fed up and sick of this guy named Jesus and they sought to destroy Him.
      Jesus knew these would be the very ones to kill Him though. Over three times Jesus foretells His death. Luke 9:22 He gives the very specific details when He states, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed.” Then in Luke 9:44 He says that He will be delivered into the hands of men. In Luke 17 Jesus states that He must be rejected by this generation. And again in Luke 18:31-34, He directly tells His disciples for the third time, “He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him.” Every time Jesus speaks of His disciples He uses terms like “rejected” or “handed over” and “be killed”. He never once says the Son of Man must die, or lie down His life in Luke. He knows the only reason He is going to die is because they do not accept Him.
       Luke shows us through His Gospel that Jesus came to be the King of Jacob, He was sent to bring the good news of the kingdom of God to all people. Through this work and ministry He was opposed as the Son of God, opposed as the one whom God sent to have authority over sin, death, and even the law. The Pharisees, scribes, and chief priests dislike and contesting of Jesus early in Luke’s Gospel builds and increases to full hatred and seeking to kill Him. This builds up to the point where they do indeed successfully kill Him. The more He heals, the more He claims to be “lord of the Sabbath”, the more He forgives, the more He claims to be God, the more He teaches about the kingdom of God, the more He outwits, outsmarts, and insults them; all of this adds up to the elders, scribes, and chief priests finally having enough of Him and having Him killed charges of blasphemy.
       So Jesus was killed on the cross because He was rejected by these religious leaders. They did not want Him to be the King of Israel, they did not believe He was God, and they delivered Him to be killed for this rejection. Luke continues to show us this same motif even through the crucifixion. In Luke 23:28-29 Jesus tells the women who were crying for Him as He headed up to be killed, “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!” And then in verse 31, “For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” He is saying that if they act this evil and wicked while the Son of Man is present, how much more wicked and evil will they act once He is gone. Then on the cross Jesus cries out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He knows they do not realize who they are actually killing. They do not realize they are rejecting the one true king. Even the centurion standing by Christ as he dies states, “Surely this man was innocent.” Even he knew that Jesus was everything He claimed to be, making Him innocent of blasphemy.
       So Jesus is killed on the cross and His corpse is placed in the tomb. How then does the resurrection work as justification for Jesus? The resurrection of Jesus is His justification because He did what He said He was going to do. Luke shows us this in chapter 24, with the angel’s announcement of, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee.” Jesus told you He would be killed but then rise again on the third day, and the resurrection is His words made true. Then later in Luke 24, He tells the men on the road to Emmaus, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” He has not only fulfilled His own promises and foretelling, but He has also fulfilled the Scriptures of the prophets who told of the Davidic King to come. He is the king who was promised and He did what that king was sent to do. He is unlike every other king, even David and Solomon could not restore the people Israel back to the Father. But Jesus did! He is the messiah, the King who finally reigns triumphantly and eternally. This is His vindication.
       Finally, why is this good news? Jesus says it best Himself in Luke 24:44-47. Jesus tells the disciples, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” The repentance and forgiveness of sins proclaimed in His name to all nations is the good news. Our King reigns triumphantly over the entire world, over all nations, over all peoples. And as we live under His reign, we are included in that repentance and forgiveness of sins. Our relationship with the Father, which was broke at the fall, is now restored by our King who clears us of our debt, by forgiving us all our sins. This is our good news; it’s the good news of the kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim. Through His rejection and His vindication, He has proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God to us His people and has called us to proclaim that same good news to all nations.

Miracle Sermon

Greetings.  Here is my miracle sermon I said I would post.  The text is Luke 7:11-17.  It is in the pericope for third Sunday after Pentecost, but again I am preaching it on February 10th.

           As an offensive lineman my favorite block was a chop block.  A chop block is only legal on the line of scrimmage.  A chop block is when you dive at the knees of the guy lined up across you.  You literally cut the legs out from underneath him and he has no choice but to fall on top of you and be taken out of the play.  As an offensive lineman I loved the chop block because all I had to do was dive and lay there and I had successfully made a clean block.  As a defensive lineman, this is literally the worse block that you can have done to you.  You are trying to get across the line to tackle the ball carrier and out of nowhere a 225 pound offensive lineman is lunging forward aimed straight at your knees hoping to sweep you off your feet so you cannot do your job that play.  Your legs are literally cut out from underneath of you and you can do nothing about it. 

             That is what this sermon is about, when life chop blocks you.  When you are going along and everything seems to be going your way, everything seems like it’s going according to plan and bam your knee feels that helmet hitting it knocking you to the ground.  When life cuts your legs out from underneath you and you can do nothing about it. 

            Our Sermon Gospel reading for today is Luke 7:11-17 where Jesus raises the widow’s son in Nain.  However, the text I want to specifically look at is verse 13, “And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”  Jesus is traveling from Capernaum to Nain.  In Capernaum, He was ministering to a large crowd of people.  While He was speaking to this large crowd, a Centurion came to him with the request of healing his sick servant.  Jesus did heal the servant and the crowd witnessed this miracle.  So as Jesus and His disciples traveled to Nain, the large crowd followed them.  Just as they get to the city gate of Nain, Jesus and his crowd are met by a funeral procession, carrying a young man’s body outside of the city to be buried, as was custom.  Jesus sees the mother of the boy who has passed away and sees that as she walks behind the men carrying the open coffin, she is crying.  She is crying because she is mourning the loss of her child, her only child in fact.  However, she is also crying because she knows that she is now all alone.  She is a widow so her husband has already passed away.  And now her only son has passed away too.  Even though she is surrounded by this large crowd of people who have gathered around her, she knows she is alone.  Not only will she go back to an empty house after the burial, she has no one left to care and provide for her.  It was their culture at this time that the male of the household would provide for all the women.  When this widow’s husband died, it became the responsibility of her son to provide her with food and shelter.  Now that her son is dead, she has no male left in the family to provide these things for her.  As she mourns the loss of her son, her legs are cut out from underneath her and there is nothing she can do about it.   

            Life chop blocks us all doesn’t it?  We are running along with everything seeming to be just fine when all of a sudden we are hitting the ground helplessly.  Life has lunged at our legs and taken us down, and taken us down hard!  The recession of the 2000’s left a lot of people unemployed and looking for work in order to support their families.  The 2012 statistics for new cases of any type of cancer was just over 1.6 million.  That is just new cases and does not include the ones who have been battling it for years already.  And it doesn’t have to be something as life changing as unemployment or cancer.  Maybe you totaled your car in a wreck and are now dealing with the burden as you have to manage with only one car until you find a new one.  Or your child is sick, so you have to stay home and take care of him or her even though you are already behind at work.  You find out your mom or dad is in the hospital and it is not looking good.  All of these are ways that this evil age we live in has chop blocked us and taken us out of the play.  Instead of making the tackle and being the hero of the play, we are rolling around on the ground trying to get back to our feet.  This is where we go wrong; we begin to think it is up to us to pull ourselves back up to our feet.  And as we struggle to pull ourselves back up, we get frustrated.  That frustration increases as we struggle more and more.  Then we get angry and either cuss and swear or take it out those around us.  We blame our families, or the authority of our boss or the government, or we even blame God for letting this happen to us.  Maybe we lay awake at night because of the stress and frustration, and we wake up tired and even more stressed the next day.   We say things we regret, we snap at people who had nothing to do with what’s wrong, and we lose all self control over our emotions and actions.  Our legs are cut out from underneath of us and we think we have to do something about it.       

            But we see in our text how Jesus handles this situation.  As He is leading the crowd into Nain and sees this woman crying, Luke tells us, “When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her.”  Jesus sees her crying and knows she is morning the loss of her child, but He also knows she is worried about her future.  He has compassion on her and tells her, “do not weep”.  Jesus sees this woman who has been chop blocked and is lying on the ground trying to get back up.  Out of the compassion he feels for her, He extends His arm out to help pull her back up to her feet.   Jesus puts His hand on the bier, and tells the dead boy, “Young man, I say to you arise.”  The man sat up on the bier and began to talk to those around him.  Jesus, having compassion on this widow, not only brings her son back to life to show He has authority over death, but He also restores Her provider and care taker back to her to show her she is not alone.  He is the one who helps her back to her feet.   

            Jesus does the same thing for the disciples.  He tells them three times that he is going to have to die in the book of Luke.  However, when He is crucified the disciples do not remember these warnings.  They see Christ hang on the tree, breath His last, and be put in a tomb.  They’re swept off their feet as they try to figure out what to do next now that their Lord is dead.   After all this time, the Lord they had followed and served is gone, and they are scared for their own safety, lost on what to do next.

            However, just as Jesus extended His hand and pulled the widow back to her feet by raising her only son, God pulls the disciples and us to our feet by raising His only Son.  God does not leave us rolling around on the ground.  He sees us when we are flat on our face and He has compassion on us and tells us, “Do not weep.”  Yes Jesus died on the cross, but He rose from the dead, leaving that tomb empty on Easter morning.  He has victory over all sin and evil of this present age.  He is the one true provider for us who gives us our daily bread and forgiveness of sins.  He does this for us now and forever, because He lives to never die again.  God provides for us in all times, and He does it through His only Son who has been raised from the dead and victoriously pulls us back to our feet. 

            When Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection he said, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?”  He brings this same message of good news to us.  Any time we feel flattened, taken out of the play, or just completely helpless, we do not need to be troubled or have doubts in our hearts. Instead we put our trust in the one who provides for us, the one who never leaves us alone, and the only one who is able to pull us back to our feet.  In His name, Amen.  

Fruit of the Spirit

       Greetings.  I just want to forewarn you I am down to three weeks left of the busiest quarter of my seminary career.  On top of being busy, I will be writing at least three or four papers a week, so writing blog posts might not make the top of my priority lists.  I will try to keep putting up short posts at least but no promises.  Life has been good even in spite of the busyness.  Erin came back this last weekend and we had a great time together.  I did liturgy at church and got through Psalm 2 and 23 in Bible study.  I got a 91 on my miracle sermon after finally breaking down and doing it the way the professor wanted.  I will post the manuscript maybe tomorrow. I am going to preach it February 10th, and have to video tape it for class.  I will try to find a way to post the video up here too.  I am in the process of writing a parable sermon now, with my parable being Luke 18, the persistent widow.  Depending on how it comes out, I will try to post it as well.
       My thought for the day is short and simple because I need to go to bed.  My good friend Logan from college was messaging me online tonight.  He is in his student teaching phase right now and is finding the real world of lesson plans and working stressful and time consuming.  As he was venting about how busy he was, I tried to help with a simple quote.  It is from a country song, but I am pretty sure I have heard it other places before too.  The quote is, "Idle hands are the Devil's workshop."  We have all experienced this haven't we?  We find ourselves bored or just think there is nothing to do.  Before we know it we are stressing over what we should be doing, thinking about others in a judging tone, maybe fall into old habits of drinking, smoking, or other bad habits.  The Devil loves when we tell ourselves there is nothing we need to be doing.  In a way, the busy pace of life keeps us active and doing what we should be doing.  The trick is to learn to everything we do faithfully so as we stay busy, we are doing what we actually should be doing and serving the Lord.
     Well while I thought this was going to be short, I couldn't help but notice this fits in perfectly with what we were discussing in Pauline Epistles class today.  In Galatians 5 where Paul lists the lists of sins first and then the fruit of the Spirit, Dr. Kloha led us to a very important point.  I am not going to go through the entire exegetical break down but the point is the list of sins is plural.  It is a list of things we are supposed to avoid.  However, the list of the fruit of the Spirit, while there are multiple things, the word fruit is singular.  You see a Christian's main focus should not be all the things we are to avoid. Instead the focus should be the fruit.  What does this fruit look like, well love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control are all verbs that take place in our  relationships. See as Christians we are not to concern ourselves with what we are not supposed to do or even what we are supposed to do, but rather being a Christian is just a state of being where the fruit of the Spirit flows from us in every relationship.  We do not make a check list of "I didn't do any of these things today" and we do not make a check list of "I accomplished these things today."  Instead, we just are what God made us, a character in the narrative of the Gospel.  We are a Christian which means we are the fruit of the Spirit in everything we do.  Look at Luther's explanation of the Ten Commandments in the Small Catechism. He tells us that yes these are things we are not suppose to do, but even more important they are just simply the way we are supposed to live in our every day interactions.  Being a Christian is a state of being, being faithful, being the fruit of the Spirit.  This is what we are called to be, and we do it even when life keeps us busy.
Dear Heavenly Father, 
Please give us Your Spirit to guide us and be with us, so that we may be the faithful ones You have called us to be.  Help us to see the busyness of this life as a blessing that allows us to do what we need to do.  Help us to be the fruit of Your Spirit even in these times.  Most importantly help others to see Your grace, love, and mercy through us and all we do.  In Your Son's name we pray, Jesus Christ our Savior, Amen.   

Available Resources

        Greetings to you all in the name of our good Lord and Savior.  I wanted to share with you that I can now say I have been pulled over on the way to church.  Sunday morning I was pretty tired.  I almost fell asleep standing in the shower I was so tired.  However, I got dressed, grabbed my cup of coffee and headed down the road.  I was doing pretty good staying awake even though I was tired.  I was about half way when I saw a cop sitting in the median.  I drove by him with no troubles.  After I got a ways past him, he causally pulled out and started driving behind me.  I had set cruise at the speed limit so I just kept going.  For half a second I dozed off and I just barely crossed the white line on the shoulder.   I quickly corrected myself and reached for my coffee.  However, I noticed flashing lights in my rear view mirror.  So I pulled over and he pulled up behind me.  He came up to my window and said he saw me cross the line and just wanted to make sure I wasn't falling asleep.  I told him I was OK and had just drifted a little.  He asked me where I was going, so I told him, "Highland.  That's where my field work church is."  We got into a causal conversation about me being at the seminary and serving at Hope Lutheran every Sunday as he looked over my license.  He was very friendly about the whole thing and even made the comment we need good ministers.  He shook my hand, told me to be careful, and let me go on my way.  The funny part is for the first time in my entire life when a cop pulled me over, my heart wasn't pounding.  I was actually cool and comfortable because I knew I hadn't done anything wrong.  So I didn't get a ticket or anything and can say I have been pulled over on the way to church.
       The not so funny part is as I drove away I realized I hadn't asked him if he was a Christian.  Here I had a beautiful chance to do just some subtle witnessing, and I dropped the ball.  If I could redo it, I would have asked him if he was a Christian, and seen where the conversation went.  I also wish when I told him thank you and have a good day, I would have offered to pray for him at church.  I should have told him that I would pray for his safety as he spent his Sunday doing his job.  I did pray for him even though I didn't tell him I would.  I just need to get into a better habit of not missing chances to witness.
        I did get a chance to share some good news with the visitor we had in church Sunday.  He has been a Lutheran his whole life, but it was still good to have him in Bible Study with us.  My study on the introduction of the Psalms and Psalm 1 went much better this week.  We got through some pretty important stuff and I think they are enjoying it.  The one lady told me I give her so much information to think about its a good thing she has a week to reflect before she comes back for more.  I asked her if I was throwing too much at her at once and she said no she liked it, it is just so much to process.  So I hope our study continues to go well.
       I did want to share with all of you a wonderful resource that is available.  If you go to I Tunes U and search for Concordia Seminary, we have our own page.  Here you will find all kinds of amazing resources.  The ones that most of you might get the most enjoyment out of are the Lay Bible study Institutes and the Chapel Sermons.  The Lay Bible study Institutes are seminars that professors lead for lay people in the evenings on campus.  I have attended a few of them and they are normally always very good.  The Chapel sermons are just that, sermons from the daily chapel services.  I love this feature because days I don't make it to chapel, I can still listen to the sermon.  I just thought I would share that with you so you know it is out there.  If you need help finding it let me know.
       My thought for the day is one of the points we covered over Psalm 1.  I am not sure if I shared this with you last quarter when I was in Psalms and Writing class, so if I did I apologize.  However, I think it is really cool so I will share it again.  This was a test question and the following response is my answer that got ten out of ten points.
     What is the Theology of Rivers in the Bible?
              Starting with the Psalter, the first place we see a river is in Psalm 1.  In verse three the imagery of a tree transplanted by a canal describing the righteous.  Some places translate this as planted, but from Psalm 92 we know it is really transplanted.  Also, this “river” is actually a canal of waters.  This means it is hand dug, flow controlled, and most likely not going to run out of water.  It is a constant and intention supply of water for these trees so they can flourish.  Then we can look at the first river in the Bible, which is in Eden.  In Genesis two, we see this garden as paradise for Adam and Eve; they have everything they need in the garden, including this river that is their water supply.  It is the source of life for the whole garden because everything needs water to stay alive.  This “life source” comes from the garden which is also where Adam and Eve walk with God and are in His presence.  So the theology of a river in the Bible is that it flows from God’s presence (temple)  and gives life.  In Ezekiel 47:1 the water is flowing from the temple.  Again, this river that flows out and gives life is literally flowing out or bubbling up from the temple, God’s house.  We can see this in the New Testament too.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus is seen as the perfect Torah and Temple.  In John 1, the word became flesh, shows Jesus as the Torah, and later in John 1, Jesus is actually referred to as the tabernacle.  He is the traveling temple of God.  Then in John 3:5 Jesus tells Nicademus that unless you are born again of water in order to enter the kingdom of God.  In John 19:28, Jesus says I thirst.  This is ironic because the one who is the temple of God from which the river flows has dried up.  As He hangs on that cross with all the sin of the world on Him, He has dried up.  However, in John 19:36, when Jesus’ dead body is speared, the blood and water come gushing out.  This is the river that flows from the temple and gives all life.  Jesus has paid the price for all sin, and this is the new river of the new covenant that gives life to all.  This is the very river that flows that allows our baptism of water and the Word to give us the life of Easter morning.  Finally in Revelation 22, we see the new Jerusalem and once again the river of water of life flows from the throne of God and from the Lamb.  This is the theology of rivers in the Bible. 

Dear Heavenly Father, 

Please be with all of us, that we may use the opportunities you give us to share Your good news.  Help us to read, study, and learn Your Word so that we may be rooted in our faith so we share the true message with everyone we meet.  Give us Your Spirit to be with us at all times.  In the name of Your Son we pray, Amen. 

Sheep or Goats

            Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord.  I forgot to tell you a funny story in yesterday’s post.  Last Friday morning, I got the privilege of meeting one of my adopt-a-student sponsors.  For those of you who do not know what that is, there are good people who send money to the seminary to the Adopt-A-Student program and then the seminary pairs them up with a student.  Their financial gifts go to the student’s account to help pay for school.  However, besides the money, most student and sponsor pairs build a relationship through thank you letters and cards.  I have built a pretty good relationship with all of my sponsors through me sending them letters about how life at the seminary is going and what I am all doing while I am here.  Then most of them have been very good about sending Christmas cards or letters in return.  I had one set of sponsors last year that now he is enrolled as a student here this year.  It has been fun getting to know him and his wife as they live here and begin their own journey to the ministry.  Well anyways, my one sponsor who is from California was going to be on campus for a meeting.  He worked it out through advancement that we would meet over a cup of coffee to get to know each other a little better.  We met Friday morning at 7:30.  His meeting began at 8, but we had a really good visit for the half hour.  Advancement had the kitchen staff put out a whole spread of coffee, orange juice, bagels, and danishes for us to eat and drink while visiting.  We each had some coffee and a bagel.  After we were done, I went downstairs with him and we said our goodbyes and I said thank you one more time.  This is the funny part.  As soon as he left for his meeting, I went right back upstairs and grabbed all the left over bagels and danishes.  I also drank a big glass of the orange juice and refilled my coffee.  As I stuffed my coat pockets with the bagels and danishes, I felt kind of like a homeless person and could not help but laugh.  Moral of the story is if you leave food out for a broke seminary student, do not expect any to be left when you come back.  I did thoroughly enjoy the visit and am very grateful for all the help this sponsor has given me, but thought I’d still share my funny story with you. 

            My thought for the day comes from my Acts and Pauline Epistles class.  This is by far my favorite class this quarter.  It is a lot of work keeping up with translations and small daily papers, but Dr. Kloha is definitely in my top three of favorite professors and he just has such great insight into Paul’s letters.  He is from Chicago and one of the things he says most that makes me laugh every time, is that if he thinks something is non-logical or just ridiculous, he sweeps his hand in a motion of dismissal and says, “That’s just stupid!”  He also has a very cool definition of the term “gospel”.  To him, the gospel is the entire narrative, from creation to the second coming, of everything and anything that shows or expresses God’s grace within that narrative. Right now we are working through Galatians and looking at things like the New Perspective on Paul which is a pretty big debate in the Christian church right now, including Lutherans.  If you do not know what the New Perspective of Paul is and are curious, let me know and I will try to explain it and its applications and ramifications in a separate post.  So while looking at Galatians and going through all the important stuff we are learning, he asked the question of what is justification.  He then used the example of the Matthew 25:31-46.  This is the parable of the sheep and the goats.  Jesus separates the sheep and the goats.  He puts the sheep to His right and the goats to His left.  He praises the sheep for all that they did right and He curses the goats for all that they did not do.  Some theologians have made the wrong assumption that the sheep were put to the right side because of the acts that they did that the shepherd is praising them for.  They say the goats were cursed because of the things they did not do and that is why the shepherd put them to the left.  However, Kloha showed us very clearly that this is not true at all.  The sheep were already sheep and the goats were already goats before He separated them.  It’s not the acts or the lack of acts that makes them sheep or goats.  He praises the sheep for the things they did right, not because this is what made them sheep, but because they are already sheep and placed on the right side so He praises them for the things they did right.  Just like He curses the goats on the left side, not because the lack of works is what made them goats, but because they are already goats on the left so He is cursing what they did wrong.  You see our works or actions in this life are not the determining factor of our salvation.  Faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior is the only thing that matters for our salvation.  So using this parable of the sheep and the goats, and then using the New Perspective on Paul (NPP), Dr. Kloha asked, “When are we justified?”  I did not raise my hand but he called on me anyway.  I said that if we look at the NPP, then we are justified when we belong to the chosen race of God who is still in the saving covenant He made with them, and the factor that determines if we are part of that chose people or race is no longer circumcision or anything other than faith in Christ.  And if we say one has to have the Holy Spirit to be able to receive this faith in Christ as our Savior which brings us into the chosen people, then we were justified when God gave us His Spirit.  Dr. Kloha surprisingly seemed to agree with me.  So you see, when God gives us His Spirit and we accept the receiving of the faith in Christ as our Savior, we now belong to His chosen people and are therefore justified.  This is when we become sheep instead of being goats.  So now that we are sheep, we are to live a God-fearing life serving everyone around us.  These works do not make us a sheep or save us, they are just what we will be told we did right because we are sheep and placed to the right.  If you remember back to last year when I explained two kinds of righteousness (2KR), which I hope you do because in my mind this is one of the most important things every Christian needs to know, this fits perfectly with 2KR.  God gives us our salvation, our passive righteousness, and then we do our works for our neighbors, our active righteousness.  You see our passive righteousness is what makes us sheep that will be put to the right, and then our active righteousness is what we will be praised for.  The lack of the passive righteousness for those who are not part of the chosen people because they do not have the faith in Christ, these people are the goats that will be put to the left and cursed for the lack of their active righteousness.  Works and actions are simply what we will be told we did right or did wrong, but this comes only after we are already separated between those being saved and those who are not.  God does not need our works, but our neighbors do.  All praise Him who makes us His sheep by giving us His Spirit and bringing us to the faith in Christ as our Savior which brings us into His chosen race or chosen people who will be saved and have eternal life. 

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank you for sending Your Son as our Savior, our Savior who lived, died and lives forevermore for us.  We also thank you for sending You Spirit to us so that we may have this faith that brings us into Your chosen People.  We ask that You give us the strength and guidance to help us live out our active righteousness, but always remembering it is our passive righteousness that is our salvation.  Keep us in the one true faith until You call us home; the one true faith in our Holy Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit.  Amen.  

Burial Practices

           Greetings to you all.  I apologize that it has taken me 14 days into the new year for the first post.  I also apologize because this post is going to be a little longer to fill you in on everything.  However, you are allowed to read it in chunks if you do not have the time to read the whole thing in one sitting.  I had an amazing Christmas break.  I went home for to Iowa for the first week.  Nate, Kari and the boys came to Mom and Dad’s on that Friday before Christmas and JoAnna came home Saturday morning.  We had Christmas for the boys that Saturday because Sunday Nate’s family flew out to Denver to spend Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Bell’s.  It was a fun day of watching the boys open their gifts and just spending time together as family.  Then on Christmas Eve, JoAnna and her new boyfriend Steven, who will hopefully be a great addition to the family, came home.  We all went to church and then opened gifts afterward.  We spent that evening and Christmas day eating, playing cards, drinking, playing ping pong, and playing other games.  It was just a fun relaxing couple of days.  Then I spent the rest of the week sleeping in and seeing friends.  I headed to Nebraska on Saturday.  I met my buddy Bill in Omaha because he and his friend Jake were gun shopping. 

            We spent a frustrating seven hours realizing you cannot walk into any store to buy an AR 15 right now.  You cannot get any .223 caliber gun right now.  You can’t even find a .223 bullet on the shelf right now.  Since that day I have learned that everyone and their brothers are buying these rifles like hot cakes because everyone is scared of new gun laws being passed and banning them.  I heard a statistic last Friday that currently one million AR’s (assault rifles) are on back order.  Because of this huge demand, these guns have sky rocketed in price and I think they will continue to keep climbing in price.  I have two predictions about this event.  These are simply my thoughts with maybe not much logic but we will wait and see.  I think first of all the new gun laws are not going to outlaw AR’s.  At most, they will outlaw clips that hold more than five or ten bullets.  So secondly, if they only change the law on clip sizes, this will lead to a lot of brand new guns being sold privately for cheap.  I think that all these people who are out buying these back ordered guns that are marked up because of high demand during low supply, are putting themselves in debt, especially during the holiday season, just to try to get these guns before the laws change.  Once they realize the guns are still legal and they put themselves in this deep debt for a gun they can still go to the store to purchase at any time, they will be selling their brand new AR, which may have not even been shot, for cheaper than what they bought it for.  This now means private sale of a lot of guns for cheaper than you can buy them in the stores.  Now people who actually have the money to buy guns can buy them unregistered since it is a private sale.  This is secretly my hope of what happens so that one day when I actually have an income from my first call, I can buy one of these slightly used private sale AR’s with no paper work tracing it back to me.  However, for the mean time it is slightly frightening to think about the sheer volume of guns being bought by people who know nothing about guns.  The salesman at Scheel’s made the comment, “Nobody has sold as many guns as Obama.”  I laughed at that because it will go down in the history books as the highest rate of gun sales during his presidency.  I love guns and plan on owning several someday when I have money, but I am not so sure it is a good thing that everyone is out buying them up like candy.

            I will not step off my soap box and continue on with my Christmas break.  I spent the rest of the second week in Nebraska.  I got to hang out with college friends most of the week, including New Year’s Eve.  I helped Bill get some projects done around the house.  And I spent some time just relaxing and lying around in front of the T.V.  I made it back to St. Louis on Sunday the 6^th.  Reality of homework hit very quickly and it was right back into the routine of classes, work, homework, and the seminary life for me. 

            However this weekend was a special one.  For those of you have not yet heard, I now have a girlfriend.  We have been dating for two months now.  I had to wait until I told the parents in person at Christmas until I could talk about her on here.  Her name is Erin.  She is originally from Pennsylvania, just outside of Gettysburg.  She is at Washington University here in St. Louis now for the graduate program of Physical Therapy.  Part of her PT schooling is four clinical’s.  She is doing her second clinical all of January and February in Indianapolis.  She drove back this weekend though so we could see each other again since we hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas. We had a great weekend together and it was so good to see her.  Friday night she drove back after work, so I cooked supper for her.  Then we just hung out watching movies together in her apartment.  Then Saturday, we ran some errands together and then went to the movie Lincoln.  It was an excellent movie and I want to see it again.  Then Saturday night a group of our friends went out to supper with us and then we went back to one of their houses and played some games and just talked and had a good time.  Then Sunday, Erin and I went to church.  We were going to go out to lunch with Pastor, but it was sleeting and some bad weather, so I wanted to make sure Erin got going on her way back to Indy before it got any worse.  She made it back safely thank the Lord. 

            I also started my Bible study on the Psalms yesterday after church.  I had some introduction stuff, but I had not spent enough time preparing it.  I felt unorganized and it did not go as smoothly as I would have liked.  However, the people who attended said it went fine.  I also do not like starting new studies because all of the back ground and introduction stuff is best done through lecture.  I do not prefer lecture in Bible studies but it has its place.  I am excited to come back next week more prepared and start diving into some deeper material. 

            I have three or four really cool thoughts for the day that I want to try to keep posting over the next couple days.  The first one comes from Homiletics II class.  Dr. Schmitt was filling in for Dr. Lessing.  We were looking at one of Dr. Lessing’s sermon which used being buried with Jesus as the main illustration.  We were looking at all the different things you need to consider when choosing a controlling metaphor or illustration.  The first thing to consider is historical connotations.  Dr. Schmitt asked us if we knew any connotations to burial practices of the ancient world.  I had taken an archeology class in undergrad so I knew one of their practices was to bury the dead body in a temporary, shallow grave just outside of the town limits.  Then after a certain amount of time they would dig up the remains which would be basically only the bones.  They would put the bones in a bag and put the bag in the family cave were all the rest of the family members’ bones were already laid to rest.  I told this to the class.  However, then Dr. Schmitt did what he does best and brought some beautiful Gospel out of this example.  He explained to us about how in our modern culture being buried with Jesus doesn’t seem to have much significance to us.  We come from a culture where the burial practices are to put the body in his or her individual casket, in his or her individual vault, in his or her individual grave, marked by his or her individual headstone.  To think about Jesus being in our casket with us, just seems silly.  However, when you stop and think about the ancient burial practices it actually means something to be buried with Christ.  This means your bones have been collected and placed in His family’s tomb.  It means you are a member of His family and you will be for the rest of time.  To be buried with Christ in ancient concepts is good news and doesn’t seem silly at all.  This is why it’s important to consider all connotations of the illustration and clarify the ones you want to be the prominent ones.  I just thought this was such a cool thing that would not make sense to us individual Americans but has beautiful Gospel when looked at historically, that I would share it with you.  All praise be to Him who does make us a member of His family and brings us to the family plot to spend as our eternal resting place, through the life and death of His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for bringing us into Your family and making us Your own.  Please bless us all in the year 2013 just as you have always been with us giving us our daily bread.  Keep us all in the one true faith, until you call us home to be buried with Your Son, allowing us to live in Heaven with You.  In the name of Your Son we pray, Amen.