The Original Confession

Here, dear readers, is a wonderful quote from the blessed Dr. Hermann Sasse. I commend it to you for your contemplation and for your edification. Enjoy.

Kyrios Jesous Christos, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” This is the original confession of the church. With it the Christian faith once entered world history. To understand the sense of this confession ever more deeply is the great, yes, basically the only task of all Christian theology. To repeat this confession, to speak it in ever new forms, to translate it into the language of all times and peoples, to protect it against misunderstandings and reinterpretations, and to understand its meaning for all areas of life – that is that task of all confession building within Christendom. No later confession of the church can and wants to be anything else than a renewal of the original confession to Jesus as Christ and Lord. This is true of the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the confessional writings of the Reformation, and any confession in which the Christendom of the future may want to speak its faith. As this confession stood at the beginning of the church’s history, so it will stand at its end. Then will be fulfilled that great word of the apostle: “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:10f) *

* We Confess Jesus Christ vol. I by Hermann Sasse, Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis. 1984. page 9.

The End is Near

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. [Mark 13:31]

It’s that time of year again. The days are growing darker, wetter, and colder. The leaves are gone, and all but a few of the flowers have failed. The gardens are gathered in and laid to rest for another season. The growing season is done, and now we all take a breath and wait for the snows we know are soon to come.

It is a gloomy and expectant time for many. The colour is gone, the world seems muted and depressed. And what comes next some face with a certain stoic dread. (Are you really ready for all the bundling and shoveling ahead?) It is natural in the dreary last days of autumn for us to wander into thoughts of death, dying and the ending of all things.

And how could such thoughts not be at least a little gloomy? Change often brings about sadness. But it doesn’t have to. Change can also bring about wonderful benefits! Sure the lazy, hazy, days of backyard barbeques and family picnics is over, but soon they will be replaced by glistening white mornings filled with a quiet awe. Soon there will be skiing, sledding, snowmen, skating, and hot chocolate by warm fires with those we love.

Similarly, in the month of November  we Christians turn to the end of another church year. And with it comes the annual reminder that the days of this life and this world are measured and counted. That one day they will end. None of this will last forever. Some days as I look around at our sin-stained, dying, world I can’t help but think that this a good thing.

But instead of being saddened by the loss of what is, we look forward with bated breath for the glorious days to come. Days that will be ushered in with Christ’s return from heaven, when He comes to take us up to His home with the Father. Days glistening with wonder and awe. Days of rejoicing in the blessed company of those we love who have gone on before us. This is His unchanging promise in Holy Scripture. Though everything in this world will come to an end, this promise … indeed, all promises in Christ, will remain forever. For just as the Scriptures promised, even though Jesus died on the cross, it was not the end – but just the beginning of new and glorious days for those who follow where their Lord has trod. Yes the Word of the Lord will remain forever, and in Christ so will we. Without end.

A Question of Suffering

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read the story of Jairus and his dying daughter, and harboured just the tiniest bit of resentment for the sick woman who interrupts everything and causes this desperate man so much grief. I can see Him pulling and tugging on Jesus’ sleeve … Hurry Jesus … hurry … you can come back … she will still be here but my daughter may not … I can see him bouncing on his knees in his impatience to keep moving, to get back to his precious child before it is too late.

And then Jesus finally finds this woman after asking through the gathered throngs. She falls to his feet. They talk. She is commended and Jesus finally, finally, turns back to poor Jairus. But by then it is too late. For Jairus has seen them across the crowds. His servants have come to find him. And when his eye meets theirs he knows. Is the instant of his knowing an eternity for him? Does he let go of Jesus’ robe? Do his arms hang limp at his sides? Does he fall to his knees? Can he breathe? She is dead. He’s too late …

The natural human heart cries out at the injustice. There’s no cutting in line! Wait your turn. Triage, and priorities are what’s fair. But an old woman is healed, and the little girl dies. She had lived with her condition for twelve years, couldn’t she wait just a little longer? Couldn’t Jesus? It is very easy to be resentful at the perceived wrong.

Until …

Until you suffer like that sick woman suffered. Until you spend a year not being able to eat. A year of being at the whim and the command of doctors and prescriptions and tests and procedures. But not one answer to be found. And then you begin to understand. And suddenly you feel less resentment and more kinship. Less anger and more pity.

Suffering is suffering. The intense punch of tragic circumstances, or the long drawn out frustrations that lead a person to the point of despair and the proverbial end of the rope. Each is terrible in its own way. Terrible in a way that you would not wish on anyone – ever. But suffering in all its forms is a part of everyone’s life. That’s what sin does. It hurts us, it bleeds us, it kills us. It causes us to resent, to lash out, to decry the unfairness of it all. It causes us to feel that our cause is the right, our suffering is the worst, and our need is the greatest.

And then Jesus goes and has sympathy for everyone.

He stops and takes time for one and for all. Suffering makes no distinctions in this life and neither does Jesus. His grace is a gift for you and me alike. His healing, his help, his forgiveness and compassion are there for the sick woman and the dying girl, for the young and the old, the grieving and the frustrated. And that ultimate healing, forgiveness and compassion would find their place upon the ultimate source of suffering … the cross. There he bled for that sick woman. There he died for that dying girl. There he cried out “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” for me … for all those times I placed my own suffering above that of someone else; my needs before someone else; my sense of right and wrong in place of his own. There upon the cross Jesus bore all our infirmities to the grave that one day we might rise with him and Jairus’ little girl, forgiven and healed, just like that poor sick woman.

All The Good Stuff!

At the Maher household we are quickly approaching the season of Birthdays. It is a busy, but joyous time for our family. Birthday celebrations are a topic of increasing regularity and importance in our home. What kind of party would you like this year? Who will you invite? How many guests are we allowed? What would you like to eat? What activities would you like to do?

Birthdays are important events …  just ask my children. The celebration of life, the marking of milestones, the giving and receiving of gifts, fellowship and food – all the good stuff – it’s all there! So when was the last time you got really excited (little kid excited) about your birthday? When was the last time you made plans to really go all out and celebrate it?

What about the Church? Every year right around this time we mark one of the high festivals of the Church year … Pentecost. It is the story of the Birthday of the New Testament Church. And what a birthday it is! Life, gifts, fellowship – all the good stuff – its all there!

When was the last time the church got excited (little kid excited) about celebrating her birthday? What kind of party will we have? The very best kind. (The Divine Service) What kinds of activities will we do? The very best kind. (Sing, pray, rejoice, receive) What kind of food will we eat? The very best. (The Lord’s own Body and Blood) How many guests are allowed? (How many can you bring?) Who will you invite?

What would happen if we stopped looking at what we do here in church as just another chore, and started looking at it like children look at their birthday celebrations? Why don’t we find out …

Adding Something On For Lent

Over the past seven months I’ve been suffering from digestive issues that have yet to be diagnosed. All I can say so far is what my problem is not. Through the course of all the testing and retesting, I have been changing my diet in an attempt to pinpoint what might be causing (or adding to) my distress. I have at one time or another cut out all fats, all acidic foods, all gluten, alcohol, caffeine and throughout the long process nearly every kind of processed foods (junk food of every kind). None of it has made a difference so far, so now I’m off refined sugars for a while.

After more than half a year of giving things up, you can well imagine that when the season of Lent begins today and people in the Christian Church turn their thoughts toward fasting, and denial as a form of spiritual exercise, my heart will not be in it. Been there, done that – for six months already. And I don’t feel any better for it.

But then again, I don’t think I ever really have. I’ve done the Lenten fasting. I’ve given things up for Lent. Sometimes successfully sometimes not. But in the end what did I really gain from it all? In those instances when my cravings were more than a match for my will power I was left humbled and hollowed – feeling like a secret failure. In the one or two times when my will dominated my flesh I felt the temporary joy of being a better man … and then quickly went back to my old ways. Was I any better for it? Not really. Indeed, where my pride took hold I might even admit to being worse off for the whole experience.

But that’s the problem with giving things up for Lent … it’s not meant to be a measure of our devotion, or a work deserving of praise. It is really meant simply as a way to remove those obstacles that come between us and Christ. To put aside the distractions so we can more clearly see our saviour. But more often than not, that obstacle, that distraction, is ME … so what then? Even if fI could give up myself, it wouldn’t bring me any closer to Christ … just further away from me.

So this Lent instead of worrying about what to give up, I will instead add something to my life. Jesus. Instead of spending my effort on avoiding me, I will devote my time to meeting Christ. This Lent I will Confession my sins and failures and seek Absolution from His precious Gospel. I will take time to remember my Baptism. I will set apart time to come to the altar of the Lord. As C.F.W. Walther once said:

Therefore let us not wait until perhaps in our last hour we must cast away all our own doings, all our own works, and all our own righteousness and worthiness, and cling only to the Word and the Holy Sacraments. Let us already now begin with casting this ballast from the ship of our heart, that our little ship may not sink and perish in the storms of temptation and death. Let us confide in the Word, which, in being preached, proclaims grace to all and which, in Holy Absolution, announces it to us in particular. Let us confide in our Baptism, by which already long ago we were received into God’s covenant of grace. For this covenant remains unbroken to all eternity. Lastly, let us confide in the consolation of the Lord’s Supper as often as we partake of it. There Christ gives us His body and His blood as incontrovertible pledges that we also participate in His redemption.

That first consolation remains even then, when our own heart condemns us. It affords consolation even in the hour of death, when our whole life accuses us, and the world and satan bear witness against us. It affords consolation even for the Day of Judgment; for what God Himself has promised, that He will and He must keep. Amen.

This Lent I will give up the need to give things up. This Lent,  I will add instead the promises and consolation of a gracious God. A God who has, whether in my sickness or in my health, added all things to my life through the gift of His Son. That way, even when my resolve weakens, and my intentions crumble under my weakness, my hope and joy and salvation will rest secure in the hands of the One gave up even His own life on the cross for me. I will add His promise, for the One who has promised, cannot do other than fulfill that promise in Christ.

Quotation from C.F.W. Walther, Sermon on John 20:19-31 Regarding Absolution, translated by August Crull, and printed in At Home in the House of My Fathers, 2009 CPH, Matthew Harrison editor. page 210.

When the right to choose, is chosen wrongly …

There was a brief splash in the Canadian news here recently when it was reported that in certain cultural communities the data seems to indicate that abortions are being used as a tool for gender selection. To put it bluntly, certain people are inclined to abort pre-born daughters in favour of having male children. And so, it was reported by the CBC, an editorial in the Canadian Medical Journal called for preventative intervention.

A fetus’s gender should not be revealed until after 30 weeks of pregnancy, says an editorial in the Canadian Medical Journal. This change in procedure for a fetal ultrasound, where the sex is usually disclosed to parents at 20 weeks, would help prevent female feticide, says Rajendra Kale, editor-in-chief of the CMAJ. [Read the rest of the story HERE]

As you can well imagine this raised concerns over stereotyping and/or invoking discrimination against certain people groups. It raised the question of whether information is a right or not. It raised the concern of whether or not there should be limits on freedom of choice. All of these are indeed, important questions to be discussed in their own right, but at best this particular discussion was frustrating to witness, and at times downright confusing to follow. Why?

Because all of these (rightful) concerns begin from an assumption that simply isn’t allowed to be assumed by those who hold to the right to free abortions.

Consider the following: How can a class of people (women/girls) be targeted by selectively terminating a non-person? Many calm their consciences by referring to the subject of the procedure as simply a mass of tissue (or use clinical terms like fetus to distance emotions), but in this case it is painfully obvious that what is being terminated simply isn’t anything of the sort. Why is it OK (even good some will argue) to kill both equally, but not one more or less than the other? The sex is medically irrelevant, unless it is being used to select out certain individuals? People should be free to choose – unless they choose wrongly?

The only moral conundrum here is why any of this news should be morally repulsive … unless of course what we are talking about aborting is NOT some lump of tissue, but an actual human person …  a son or (in increasing numbers) a daughter.It is only an issue if they are really people!

Abortion has always stereotyped against certain people groups – unborn humans.  Abortion discriminates against those who cannot speak for themselves. Abortion limits the freedom (to life liberty and happiness) of those conceived to others who simply choose not to give it to them. Why should we be the least bit surprised when this begins to spill over into unintended victims? Why should we be surprised when the wrong choice is then chosen wrongly?

Withholding information will not change anything. It will just cause there to be more late-term abortions (which are not normally practiced – but are certainly allowed here in Canada). Trying to foist some sort of ill-conceived, reactionary, and baseless morality upon the situation will not change people’s hearts or their desires for a male child. Trying to protect one class of human beings cannot be done while not recognizing the humanity of another. The only thing that will change such terrible situations and sad choices is a new-found respect for all human life, wherever you may find it. Spreading the knowledge that a person is a person whether in the womb, in the cradle, in school, in the hospital, or the senior’s center. Giving the freedom you and I enjoy to all who are part of this human race, whether they are boys or girls, born or not!

What’s Luck Got to Do With It?

I’m not a lucky person. But  I am not complaining. I’m simply stating a fact. I am not a lucky person. I don’t have an abundance of good luck that makes my friends and neighbours jealous of me, nor do I suffer from an inordinate amount of bad luck such that others must look at me with pity. I am not a lucky person.

But then again, neither are you. Really, no one is. No thing is. I don’t hold to ideas that some things are more or less lucky than others. Clover is just clover, no matter how many leaves it has, and Fridays are just another day, no matter what date they happen to fall on. Oh, and for that matter, thirteen is simply the number between 12 and 14, nothing more and nothing less (that would be 15 or 11 respectively).

So why do people get so hung up over a day like Friday the 13th? Wikipedia estimates some 17-21 million Americans are affected by a fear of this day … with an estimated economic impact of  $800-900 million in lost business.  Why does a day like today come with its very own phobia (friggatriskaidekaphobia)?   How did this date and day of the week acquire such bad reputations? Again, Wikipedia has a few theories:

One theory states that it is a modern amalgamation of two older superstitions: that thirteen is an unlucky number and that Friday is an unlucky day.

• In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the clock, twelve gods of Olympus, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, the 12 Descendants of Muhammad Imams, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners. (Was the last supper really the very first time these thirteen men sat down together for a meal? -me.)
• Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century’s The Canterbury Tales,^[3] and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s.^[6][7] It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday (at most one could argue here that friday was unlucky for Jesus, but not really for those whom his death brought salvation! – again, me).^[8]
• One author, noting that references are all but nonexistent before 1907 but frequently seen thereafter, has argued that its popularity derives from the publication that year of Thomas W. Lawson‘s popular novel Friday, the Thirteenth,^[9] in which an unscrupulous broker takes advantage of the superstition to create a Wall Street panic on a Friday the 13th.^[4] Records of the superstition are rarely found before the 20th century, when it became extremely common.

Here’s my theory … people believe in luck (good or bad) because they are looking for someone or something to blame other than themself. If it is all just a matter of luck, then it really has no ultimate bearing upon my merit or worthiness.  Didn’t get the job? It was just bad luck, not my lack of preparedness or qualifications. Don’t have everything your neighbour does? It’s not because maybe they deserve it where you don’t (or worked hard for it, where you didn’t) but simply because they have some sort of lucky streak that you never had.  See, if you just have luck then you never have to be responsible or accountable for where you are or what you are dealing with. If you have luck then everyone is on the same playing field and no one is better than me. I am never a bad person, Iam a good person with bad luck.

So let me state it again. I am not a lucky person … and neither are you. There is no luck, good or bad. There are good things that happen and bad things that happen, certainly, but the bad things happen only to bad people and the good things happen only to bad people. Yes you read that right. The bad that befalls us in this life is only the result (directly or indirectly) of our own badness. We Christians call it sin. Sin has broken us, our lives, our relationships and our world. There is no one else to blame for it than us.  We are not what God created us to be, not since the day Adam and Eve decided to go against His will.

But if that sounds extremely unfair, consider this … all the good that happens in this world happens to people who, in their sin don’t deserve one bit of it!  All the good that daily comes to you and me and everyone we know, comes through a God that loves us, broken as we are. All the good that happens to befall us is a gift of God through His Son Jesus Christ. That’s why He sent His Son to die for us on that particularly Good Friday. Why, in Jesus, we are told that even the bad that happens is really being used by God to bring about good.  Who needs luck when you have a promise like this?!

So on this Friday the 13th, forget all the excuses once and for all and consider the fact that you are neither lucky or unlucky. You are a sinner who has been saved by Christ. Neither this nor any Friday bring bad luck, but rather very Good News. You are a bad person for whom the very best person (God Himself) was willing to suffer and die. And in Him you are bad no more. In Him you are more than lucky – you are loved, and blessed, and called in Christ.