By Paul Koch –
Being a hearer of the Word is not my usual position. I am a speaker of the Word, one called to proclaim the living Word of God to others. I’m a pastor, the guy up front, and I’ve grown accustomed to that role over the years. It has become somewhat comfortable.
By Paul Koch –
We have all known those people who seem to take joy in tearing down what we’ve built up. Perhaps it is the kid at the beach that just can’t help kicking over the sandcastle that you just finished building. Or it is the big sister who knocks over your stack of blocks. When we grow older, these people are still around. They call themselves realists or even pessimists. You speak of something you have accomplished or some great adventure you want to do and all they want to do is tear it down. They attack your planning or your foresight or the practicality of it all. We don’t like to be around those people. We don’t like to spend our days with those who won’t let us dream a little, those who seem intent to kill what we love. Perhaps, this is why prayer and worship are so difficult. Maybe this is why it is uncomfortable to faithfully proclaim the Word of God. Because if we are honest, no one seems more persistent to tear down the things you love than your Lord Jesus Christ.
By Paul Koch –
Ever since my first foray into the study of theology proper, I have heard professors and pastors alike say that the church’s liturgy can operate as a sort of safety net for Gospel. After all, the liturgy contains confession and absolution, leads through the reading of the Word, and culminates in the Sacrament of the Altar. Therefore, if everything else is a complete wreck—if the hymns that are sung are weak and repetitive nonsense meant only to pull at the heart strings; if the people sitting around you are bothersome and annoying little twits; if the sermon preached misses the mark, wandering off into a pointless Bible study or self-help pep talk; you would still have the body and blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, the Gospel, so you would be okay.
By Paul Koch –
I remember years ago, I think it was when I was still in high school, we had a class assignment where we wrote out our own obituary. Now, that may sound a bit dark, but I think the goal of the exercise was to cause you to think about your future: about what sort of person you would want to be and what sort of things you might want to accomplish in life. To start, you would think about what you would want people to say about yourself. This might reveal what sort of characteristics you value most, and so you would want to work on them. Would they say that you were kind or compassionate, trustworthy, or even wise?
By Joel A. Hess –
You have seen the small white sign as you have pulled out of plenty of church driveways. “You are now entering the Mission Field.” Inspiring, right? Surely it was put there with good intentions. What better than to remind folks who are leaving the Church service that there are people out there who need Jesus? So don’t be a lazy, so and so. You have work to do. Or is the grace and peace Jesus just gave you a bad investment? Or did you think it was just the pastor’s job to witness to and serve the community?
By Paul Koch –
The great Reformation of the church is, in many ways, an explosion of what was falsely imprisoned. That is, it was the result of what happens when you try to bottle up something that simply cannot be contained. In this case, what was bottled up was the simple and beautiful Good News of Jesus Christ our Lord. For this is a message that is a living and active thing, and so it presses out against the bars of its imprisonment and bows the walls that surround it. And when it finally breaks free, it comes with such force that it changes the landscape. Everyone from the peasants working the fields to the kings and emperors in their mighty palaces are touched by its power. It plays a role in the affairs of the state and brings comfort to the conscience of the downtrodden and oppressed. The Reformation was about more than some monk nailing 95 Theses for debate to the local church door. It was about more than a bunch beer drinking Germans refusing to get in line behind the Pope. This was an explosion of the Gospel. An explosion that continues to this very day.
By Paul Koch –
In 1849 Wilhelm Löhe wrote an examination of the relationship between the pastoral office as it comes to us from the pages of the New Testament and the congregations that hold firm to those very Scriptures. He made note of a trend he had observed in the church, a trend that I fear has never abated, a trend that does great damage among the people of God.
By Joel A. Hess –
Sell all your stuff and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Seriously!
I’m not sure most people take Jesus’ response to the rich young man seriously. The guy asks a valid question. Bravo to this kid. What do I have to do to inherit eternal life? That’s the question! It’s the question behind all religions. Every single one. It’s the problem too. We are all dying. We don’t want to die, and that’s it. Or worse, we don’t want to entertain the possibility that we will literally never see our dearly loved friends and family again.
By Cindy Koch –
In a time of war it makes perfect sense. You take the resources you have available and turn them into weapons against the enemy. Fighting for survival, everything hinges on the destruction of the other. Yes, it makes perfect sense to take the good gifts of God and craft your weapon to win the war. And what war do you find yourself fighting? What weapon are you crafting to fight the enemy?
By Joel A. Hess –
That’s really all you want to know, right? What’s the rule, Pastor? What can I do? What can’t I do? Just tell me, and I’ll do it. Just say it. Or, is this is a good reason? What if he does this? What if she does that?
This is not an unusual conversation that confronts a pastor at least a couple times a year. How often I have had a man or woman tell me they wish their spouse either cheated on them or beat them so they would have a good reason for divorce.
By Paul Koch –
God had delivered His people Israel from the house of slavery in Egypt. He had led them through the Red Sea on dry ground and brought them to the foot of Mt. Sinai. On the mountain Moses received from the Lord His 10 Commandments, and after some setbacks with a golden calf they constructed there the Tabernacle, the tent of meeting in which rested the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat. God who had dwelt on high now dwells right in their midst. This is huge. The location of God presence wasn’t something they just dreamed about, they now knew exactly where to find Him. And yet, as they finally move on from that mountain, as they begin to make their journey towards the Promised Land, the people of God begin to complain.
By Paul Koch –
The concept of F-You Money flows from a new take on the American dream. No longer is it simply about climbing the social-economic ladder to achieve a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. It’s not merely about doing better than your parents did or setting up your own children to have a better life than you. F-You Money is about being free to give your boss the finger, to quit and walk out without any sacrifice to your lifestyle. It means you are not beholden to another for your time. If you don’t want to do something, you don’t have to do it, period.
By Joel A. Hess –
This past week I had the pleasure of talking to a young lady at a bar about Jesus. She wanted to talk about President Trump. She said she was studying the heartland, the Midwest, to find out how in the world we all could vote for him. Yes, she blatantly assumed that everyone in the Midwest voted for Trump. All the while, she sat in a bar in St. Louis, a city that likely did not unanimously vote for Trump, like most cities. She also assumed that all conservative Christians voted for him as well. She didn’t even ask if everyone sitting there voted for him. She just assumed. Of course, how many Midwesterners assume that all the residents of coasts voted for Hillary? There is a lot of assuming out there. You know what they say—assume makes a donkey out of you and me. This country is full of them, and I’m the worst. Lord have mercy.
By Marc Engelhardt –
(This post continues the recaps from Christ in Common, which is a discipleship discussion that takes place in my context. Christ in Common is a good example of how we purposefully approach the discipleship triad of Foundation, Worldview, and Practice. Remember, as recaps, these posts hit highlights of what the group discussed in person, so they are short and may seem to make some jumps occasionally. If you pull out the Word and study the Foundation mentioned, you should be able to fill most gaps.)
By Cindy Koch –
He doesn’t know.
You know the answer. You want him to know the answer. You know it will help. You know it’s the only thing that will help.
By Paul Koch –
Prayer is an interesting thing. It is something that most people do, to some degree or another. Every time there is a massive tragedy on the national level or personal tragedy that only a few close friends know about, people will offer you or the victims their prayers. And it’s not just your faithful church going devout grandmother who speaks of prayer. It is the long delinquent member, the willful and blatant sinner who hasn’t been to church in years. People who will never otherwise identify themselves as Christian publicly will still speak about “sending their prayers” or “having you in our prayers” or some sort of combination that makes them feel like their contributing to alleviate the suffering of another person. And I think the reason that people do this, if they actually offer up a prayer, is that they don’t really know what else to do. When faced with incredible grief they begin to plead with God because there is no other recourse available to them.
By Bob Hiller –
Have you ever been to funeral where people got up and spoke negatively about the deceased? Almost never. When friends and family gather to mourn the loss of those they love, they always speak well of the person. As you leave most funerals, you’d almost think that there is no such thing as sin in the world. The wages of sin is death, we’re told, so it is a true mystery to everyone present why this pillar of morality, joy, and laughter is about to be laid six feet under!
By Paul Koch –
Life in the church can be a strange thing. I mean, we gather together in this place every Sunday. You sit in your usual spots and have your favorite hymns and go through the typical routine. But when you stop to think about it, this place is sort of odd. It’s quite different from life outside of these walls, and I don’t mean that it is all sunshine and rainbows in here, or some sort of utopian escape from the drudgery in life. Church can be fun and enjoyable and uplifting, but it can also be disappointing and hurtful. In many ways a church isn’t all that different from a family. It has highs and lows, good times and bad. What makes it odd is that you don’t have to be here. There is no law binding you together in this place. You could go somewhere else. You could just as easily have slept in and done something else with your day. But you are here; here with one another sitting among this wonderful hodgepodge of saints and sinners that make up the church.
By Paul Koch –
Do you confess the Unaltered Augsburg Confession to be a true exposition of Holy Scripture and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church? And do you confess that the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Small and Large Catechisms of Martin Luther, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord—as these are contained in the Book of Concord—are also in agreement with this one scriptural faith?
By Hillary Asbury – This month’s illustration is based on Hebrews 4: 12-16. For the word of God is […]
