Stop Being Easily Offended by the Truth.

JD Vance is right and people need to suck it up. This article points out the degradation of our society. Our society is so narcissisticly driven that it considers having many children bad. Instead our country seeks to be like that "cat lady" because cats are easy. Anyone can set out food and water and kitty litter for the weekend so that you can selfishly indulge your ways. Our own LCMS has a distinct problem in being the "oldest" denomination in the U.S. The statistics are startling as to how many LCMS members are parents!

Our own synod needs to pay attention to what Vance is saying because children are a gift from the Lord, indeed he calls for man to have a quiver of them! For example then, we need to stop personifying our pets. They are pets, not children. They do not have souls and there is no promise that Lassie will be with you in heaven.

Now there is no doubt that many are struggling with loneliness by not having your children around anymore. The solution is not to be deceived to think that your pet is a good surrogate. It is definitely not comfort dogs. Stop it. Instead, go be near your children and spend time with your grandchildren or help your church's young families so that they may be encouraged to have more children! Children do not put your parents in a nursing home, but in your own home and in so doing each will be built up. 

We need to stop being offended by the truth. Our Synod President, Rev. Matthew Harrison, was not wrong when he said a few years ago that we need to start having more babies.  Sometime (or is it most times?) The truth is hardest to hear. The great prophet, Jeremiah, was probably one of the most disliked prophets. Not because he was mean, but because he spoke the truth. His time as prophet spanned many decades and he saw his nation go from the top of prosperity to the pits of despair when Jerusalem was leveled. 

He warned, from the beginning of his prophecies, "Amend your ways and your deeds." Repent. Turn from your sin, and believe in the Lord God with your whole heart. The message today is no different. The call to repentance and to know the error of your sin is for one purpose, that you may receive the forgiveness of sins. 

Jesus died for the sins of the world. Why would you reject it? For the satisfaction of your made up "truths"? May it never be! Stop being offended and hear the Word of the Lord.  

 

 

Encouraged by God: We Are Reproved, Rebuked and Exhorted in the Word.

 

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” These words that Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:1-4 get to the heart of the third commandment in order that he may preserve the elect and keep any from falling.

What is the third commandment?  Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.  What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. (small catechism)

We are certainly in the days of people not enduring sound teaching, having itching ears for preachers who will tell the hearer what they want to hear.  Too many people have rejected the truth and believed myths, that is, they embrace concocted stories of wicked people as good.

Thus, the third commandment is important and reiterates why it is important for the head of the family to teach this simply to his household.  As the head of the house does, so also will the family.  Therefore, the third commandment is God teaching you to make time (and not excuses—that’s what the devil teaches) to have the freedom to come together to hear and use God’s Word, and in response, to praise God, to sing and to pray. (LC I, 84)

The Jews had lost the purpose of the Sabbath.  They made strict laws about what one could do and not do, how far one could walk, or anything that might be considered work.  Jesus one time in Mark 2 finds the Pharisees accusing his disciples of breaking the Sabbath as they plucked heads of wheat and ate the grain.  Jesus concludes, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” 

You see God does not need the Sabbath day.  Man needs the Sabbath day.  We need our rest and not just physical rest.  We need a holy rest, a rest in the Lord as Luther says, “For the day (any day) needs no sanctification for itself.  It has been created holy in itself.  But God desires the day to be holy to you.  Therefore, it becomes holy or unholy because of you, whether you are occupied on that day with things that are holy or unholy.” (87)  God has made it holy, It is our profane use of it that makes it unholy.

You need your rest and nourishment in the Lord.  You need what God seeks to deliver to you for on the Sabbath.  He delivers to you forgiveness, life, and salvation through the means of grace on this holy day.  This is particularly important in the midst of your “busiest” time for the devil seeks to make you believe that you can do without this holy day.

So what constitutes a holy day?  It is to occupy ourselves with God’s Word and exercise ourselves in the Word.   Who, then, is this for?   Luther states, “We don’t keep holy days for the sake of intelligent and learned Christians. They have no need of holy days. We keep them for the common people, manservants and maidservants, who have been attending to their work and trade the whole week.  In this way they may withdraw in order to rest for a day and be refreshed.”  (83)

Who are the intelligent and learned?  They should obviously include the pastors but also during the days of Luther, they included the rich who were the patrons of the pastors.  They could attend the daily offices and receive the sacrament every day of the week if they so chose!  Today there is hardly anyone so intelligent and learned though, because in our mammon inflated world, man is more concerned with making more money and accumulating more belongings.  Moreover, man allows every excuse to entrap themselves inside the devil’s kingdom, this world.  Satan seeks day and night to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against this and every commandment. 

One such excuse is the false belief that I can worship whenever, wherever, and however I want.  In such a belief they flee to their gnostic, false insights and interpret Scripture to suit their itching ears saying, “Jesus says, ‘For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.’”  Now obviously that is passage from Scripture, but you would be wrong to say, “See, God says I can worship however I want.”  But this is a false teaching.  The words “are gathered” is not permission by God to go to your hunting cabin, or your lake home, or your basketball tournament and say we are worshipping God.  You are not the decider of how you will gather.  But rather it is God who is the decider as the verb is clearly passive thus denoting that you are gathered where God would have you be gathered.  And God has decided how you will be gathered, around Word and Sacrament with your called Pastor.  So that you may be devoted to the hearing of the Word. 

Secondly, do not abuse yourself to think that if you put in one hour you have thus fulfilled this commandment.  It is not remember the sabbath hour, but day!  Therefore, hear Luther, “Likewise those fussy spirits (people) are to be rebuked who, after they have heard a sermon or two, find hearing more sermons to be tedious and dull.  They think they know all that well enough and need no more instruction.  That is the sin that was called akadia (better known as sloth).  This is a malignant, dangerous plague with which the devil bewitches and deceives the hearts of many so that he may surprise us and secretly take God’s Word from us. (99) For example, this is what the devil does in the parable of the Sower.  This spiritual laziness has been exacerbated by the Corona virus, which is not a plague upon the world, but upon the church.  When we encourage people to watch the Divine Service online and not participate in the holy things of God we teach people to profane the Word of God by being couch potatoes.

               A final example of the wicked rejection of remembering the Sabbath day by keeping it holy is this insistent belief that I can worship God however I want.  Thus, I am free to work on Sunday, because Jesus has fulfilled the law.  This antinomian (anti-law) view abuses what Scripture teaches. For example, Paul says in Romans 14:5-6, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.  The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.”  This is not a permission to abandon going to the Divine Service.  Rather, it teaches that every day is actually a sabbath day.  Thus, if you absolutely believe that you “need” to work on Sunday, you, as a Christian, are called to observe another day as the Sabbath.  Because again as Jesus said in Mark 2, “The Sabbath was created for man.”  Therefore, routinely set a day as your Sabbath.  If you absolutely MUST work on Sunday, talk to your pastor and set up a day in which you may hear the Word and receive the Sacrament. 

               There is no excuse.  Work, play, family, or any other good gift from God will be abused by the devil to make you think that you do not need a weekly Sabbath.  In fact, if you think of yourself as an intelligent and learned Christian, you will ask that every day be a day in which you may hear the Word of God from your pastor, but since this is not possible in most of our churches let us set aside several hours a week for the sake of the young and at least a day for the sake of entire multitude to be concerned with being engaged with God’s Word so that we may carry it in our hearts and upon our lips as Psalm 119:11-13 teaches us.  

               “For the Word is so effective that whenever it is seriously contemplated, heard, and used, it is bound never to be without fruit.  It always awakens new understanding, pleasure, and devoutness and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts.  For these words are not lazy or dead, but are creative, living words.  And even though no other interest or necessity moves us, this truth ought to urge everyone to the Word because thereby the devil is put to flight and driven away.  Besides, this commandment is fulfilled and this exercise in the Word is more pleasing to God than any work of hypocrisy, however brilliant.”  (101-2)  These concluding words of Luther give Christians the sincere hope of the Gospel and a deep love for our God who would not want us despair, but live in the sure promise of the forgiveness of sins delivered to us in the Divine Service.  See you on Sunday so that we may be encouraged and lifted up by God through his most holy means.

It’s No Big Deal! Or Is It?

 

               “You shall not misuse name of the Lord your God.” We continue our study with the second commandment.  It is often overlooked, but is very important in the life of the Christian.  Its focus is simple as can be heard from the meaning.  “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by his name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”  While it is very simple on paper, in practice, we fail often.  Let us parse this meaning to gain a clearer understanding.

               Don’t curse which leads us to think that this commandment talks about using profanity, but that is not what this commandment is about.  That does not let you off the hook!  Paul teaches us clearly about our use of words in Ephesians 5:4, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”  This is more a conversation of the eighth commandment, but there is an aspect of the second commandment that is here. 

               First of all, we are called to use our God’s name rightly (more on that at the end) but too often God’s name is used improperly and impiously.  For example, someone is upset and they yell out, “Jesus Christ!”  Why did they yell it?  Are they calling upon Jesus for help?  Certainly not, rather it is used out of anger, similar to Moses striking the rock in the wilderness with his staff before the people when he was told to speak to the rock.  For this offense alone he was not permitted to enter the promised land!  How much more so when we blaspheme God by misusing his name!  Derivations of God’s name like Gosh or Jeez, an acronym like OMG, or a phrase, “for the love of God” are all misuses of his name, but we haven’t even come to the worse misuse yet.

               What does it mean to curse except to damn something or someone? To say, “God damn you,” is a grievous offense to God!  For what you are wishing is that God would send that person to hell.  God desires that no one go to hell.  Yes, he created hell, but it was created for the devil and his minions who rebelled against God.  There is no doubt that many will sadly suffer in hell because damnation is reserved as the place of judgement for those who reject Jesus Christ.  We must also remember the words of Jesus from John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

               God’s desire is to save all mankind as Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:4, “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Indeed, Christ has paid the price, but those who are condemned are those who do not believe.   Thus, the truth must go forth.

               Likewise, God does not want us to swear frivolously or thoughtlessly.  Again, this is not talking about profanity, but rather refers to taking an oath on the name of God.   How often have you found yourself saying, “I swear I didn’t do it.” “I swear on my mother’s grave.” “Pinky swear!” Jesus says in Matthew 5:37, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”  What the Jews were trying to do was get around swearing by God, and swearing by something “lesser”, and so he says just quit it all together and save true swearing for important things.

               Swearing is not bad, though, when done rightly and done with thought of importance.  You are permitted to take an oath, for example, in marriage, to join the military, or in a court case.  You even took an oath at your confirmation to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it!  (notice big C not little c Church meaning that of the universal church.) These oaths are done in the highest regard as on something bigger than yourself.  You should never enter an oath inadvisably or without planning.

               Satanic arts are to be avoided at all costs.  To say words as though you are casting a spell, to engage in reading your horoscope, fortune telling, tarot cards, and Ouija boards are never to be used. It hands over to the devil that you can predict the future which God clearly says you cannot.

               Lying also is condemned here, “children should be trained early to shut falsehood.  They should especially avoid the use of God’s name to support falsehood.  For where children are allowed to do as they please no good will result.” (LC 1, 69) It should be made clear that it is talking about the harmful lie as opposed to the playful or obliging lie.  The playful one is what actors do on a stage.  The obliging lie is when we lie for the sake of someone’s good, for example Michal lies when she says that David had threatened her with death in 1 Samuel 19:17.  It is obliging because it not only serves the advantage of someone else, who would otherwise suffer harm or violence, but also prevents a sin. (Luther’s Works vol. 2, pg. 291-2)

               The gravest offense of the second commandment is false teaching.  It is a misuse of God’s name to teach false theology within our Christian churches.  It is particularly condemned here because Christians, in particular pastors, can do great damage if they lead people astray into false belief, despair and other great shame and vice.  An example from just a couple weeks ago is the ELCA’s recent synod convention in which they used Indian pagan worship practices called “a prayer to the four directions” and various other practices in the midst of their worship service.  There has been untold harm done within churches of this unchristian denomination since its creation in 1988.

               Our lectionary from a couple weeks ago drives this point home.  In Matthew 7:21 Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” Jeremiah 23:16 says, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.”  The point?  In both instances, it is a command by God to speak the Word of truth rightly and not to deviate to the left or right as he commanded in Deuteronomy 5:32.

               Now let us learn and focus on how to keep this commandment.  Luther teaches, “call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”  What he means is that we are to use it only in a proper sense.  When necessary, we use God’s name to take an oath.  In your everyday use of language do not flippantly use God’s name in callous, impious, thoughtless speech but save it for when you confess the faith.  In so doing, others will take notice.  They will notice your reverence and piety and respect you all the more. 

When you speak God’s word rightly others will desire to know what this faith is that you have.  We don’t make up answers to someone’s questions, but admit when we don’t know.  In so doing, we show that this Christian faith is an ever-growing gift. 

Finally, we also teach our children this Christian faith and not just one hour a week.  For that is the true honor of His name, to look to it and call upon it for all consolation. (70) If we spend only one hour in God’s Word and do not confess it to others, we truly do misuse the name of the Lord our God. Your have been created anew in Holy Baptism so then your hearts have also been changed.  What proceeds from the heart is what the heart believes, and since you have been born from above in Holy Baptism, we are called to have His Name come forth from our lips.  In so doing we show the world what we sing in the hymn, Lord Thee I Love with All My Heart. “Let no false doctrine me beguile; let Satan not my soul defile.  Give strength and patience unto me to bear my cross and follow thee.”  (LSB 707)

Give thanks to God who preserves you in this faith and hold fast to his command “to use His name for truth and for all good.” (64) “For the first things that spring from the heart and show themselves are words.” (50)  And that is what this commandment is all about, the use of our words.  For God’s name cannot be misused worse than for the support of falsehood and deceit.  (52)  When we focus upon the words that we speak, we then realize how often we have the opportunity to uphold his holy name as he leads us to live in Godly virtue, confessing Christ to the world so that it will not be lost and despair without the hope of what we ourselves know and hold fast to: the forgiveness of your sins through Christ alone.  What wonderful encouragement you have from God to speak rightly his name for all to believe.