Sacraments

Weep For Yourself

By Paul Koch –

As a father of five, I have become quite good at the using the gift of discernment. For I have learned that discernment is most needed when we are faced with excuses; and none are better at excuses than children. Not that I blame them. In fact, I think it is just part of life, part of growing up, part of the process that we all go through. You see, we begin to learn early on that things don’t always work out the way we imagined they would. We don’t always follow through on what we promised to do, whether it was to clean our room or get the dishes done. We don’t always follow the golden rule and we fail to treat our siblings with the kindness and respect that we believe we deserve. When the failures in life happen, our instinct is to make an excuse as to why we failed. We get pretty good at making excuses and we can even begin to believe them if no one challenges them. But that is where I come in. Part of the gift I give to my children is to check their excuses. I see if they are focusing on the real issue or if they are just trying to find an easy way out.

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Ritual and Fellowship

By Paul Nelson –

I am sitting in Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok waiting to check in for my flight to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. I am alone. My wife is jetting back to Hanoi, and because of several unexpected twists and turns, my colleague isn’t accompanying me to HCMC. Neither is my interpreter. I’ll reconnect with him at the airport in HCMC, as we’re on separate flights and departing different airports in Bangkok. In the meantime, I’ve had to negotiate my own way to the airport, the check-in process shortly, and immigration when I reach my destination. I’m in a city I barely know, clinging to a Wi-Fi connection as my only real means of communicating with anyone I know. And the vast majority of people I know are on the opposite side of the globe. It’s a strange feeling to be a stranger in a strange land, and this is the first time I’ve had to sit with this reality alone, without my wife or my colleague.  I’m not worried but keenly aware that I stick out here like a sore thumb.

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The Holy Spirit Has Hands

By Cindy Koch –

She spoke in a hushed voice so the other ladies at the table couldn’t quite hear. “Well, he really hates going to church on Sundays. He just wants to sleep in. I guess that’s just the way it goes.” She fake smiled and gave a cute little shrug, but her eyes stared desperately at me for a solution. Three other gals at the table were engrossed in another conversation, so I asked her to continue. 

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Crumbled Spires

By Ross Engel –

One of my favorite hymns in the hymnal is LSB 645 “Built on the Rock.” Musically, this hymn is a powerful one that almost begs to be played and sung at full volume. I recall my days in seminary when this hymn would make it into the singing rotation. The massive pipe organ made the pews and walls of the chapel shake and swell as the students and professors offered their voices to the triumphant sound of this Danish Lutheran hymn.

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I Am Not Ashamed

By Paul Koch –

St. Paul writes to the young preacher Timothy with words of encouragement and guidance. His words have been a blessing to countless pastors throughout the years even as they have been a comfort to the whole church of God as we struggle to receive and rejoice in the blessings of our life together. For while the church can be a place of immense joy and love and support, at times it can also be a place of division and separation and unrelenting judgment.

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Saved by Works

By Jaime Nava –

I had the crazy awesome privilege to baptize my daughter recently. I love baptisms in general. When it is my own kid, I’m over the moon. We had a number of visitors from both sides of the family to witness. It was awesome. Some of the members of the family come from different denominational backgrounds. Some are Roman Catholic. Others are Non-Denominational. I think there may be a Pentecostal in there somewhere.

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Counting the Cost

By Paul Koch –

We have grown accustomed to view church as sort of a nice, safe, and even neutral place in our lives. We come here on Sundays, sit in our usual seats, enjoy receiving of the gifts of God, and then head out about our day feeling a little more enriched, a little more uplifted, and a little more encouraged. Church may be compared to a hearty home cooked meal or a family reunion. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but it is fueled by a sense of belonging and joy. If nothing else, a good church is comfortable and makes us feel welcome. But there is far more to church than meets the eye, far more to our nice and safe gathering than can be detected from the outside. In fact, church has something very dangerous at its core.

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The Glory of God

By Paul Koch –

“It is the glory of the Lord to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” – Proverbs 25:2

About 8 years ago I first tried my hand at gardening. In the sandy soil of our home in southeast Georgia I built a small bed and planted a few seeds. That first year’s harvest was by all accounts a failure. I learned a lot about soil nutrients and proper water. But the second year was a little better, and the year after that, a little better. Each year I expanded my garden beds as well as my knowledge and understanding and I envisioned a backyard that would be more garden beds than lawn. I truly learned to love all that was involved in a garden,

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Playing God in the LCMS

By Paul Koch –

Join me for a moment, if you will, behind the veil into what is often considered one of the most disconnected and inwardly focused conversation available in the Church today. No, it’s not academics—discussing curriculum changes for empowering students through the liberal arts and professional studies for lives of learning, service, and leadership (though that would have been a good guess). No, it’s not a Twitter debate over the value of traditional versus contemporary worship. I’m talking about a Winkel of the clergy of the LCMS.

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Sacrament-Shaped Hole

By Jaime Nava –

For the forgiveness of sins: that’s why we Lutherans have the Sacraments. We’re not talking man-made ordinances, either, like we’re accused of. Peter twice says that Baptism saves us (Acts 2:38, 1 Peter 3:21). Paul says that we are buried with Christ in Baptism and will also have His resurrection (Romans 6:4-7). He says that Baptism is now circumcision (you know, the thing babies didn’t choose at eight days old), not of the flesh but of the heart, not by man but by Christ Himself (Colossians 2:11-12). Confession and Absolution is also clear in the Bible. Whatever those men placed into the Pastoral Office forgive or don’t forgive has the same effect in heaven (John 20:21-23). This means you can expect to hear that you are forgiven the moment you confess your sins. We are also taught that we have koinonia in the cup we drink and bread we partake of in the Lord’s Supper. We have the forgiveness of sins, as Jesus said (Matthew 26:26-28). So let’s be clear. God gives tangible things that provide forgiveness that is felt, tasted, heard and not some floating mystical holy “maybeness” of emotion.

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Life Without a Preacher

By Paul Koch –

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 1:2

It seems like it might be good, wonderful even, to live a life without a preacher—without that one who speaks the Law and Gospel into our ears, holds that damned mirror before our eyes, and shows us the vanity of our earthy pursuits. To be without a preacher means I can focus on the here and the now, on what I can see and validate by experience.

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Soccer and the Rise of Theological Frauds

By Paul Koch –

Small talk at a recent wedding reception:

Guest: “So you’re a pastor, huh? I enjoyed that sermon. What sort of pastor are you?”

Me: “I’m a Lutheran. Missouri Synod, if you know what that is.”

Guest: “Lutheran, no kidding. I used to go to a Lutheran church, grew up in a Lutheran church. Do you guys still do the traditional stuff, or do you have a band?”

(Why do they always want to know if we have a band?)

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Proud Beggars?

By Paul Koch –

We like our beggars to be ashamed and humble. We don’t want them to be overly excited, bold, or desiring to have a conversation with us. When we come across the beggar on Main Street in our city’s downtown, we prefer that they just slide their hat or cup out asking for some change without making eye contact. After all, they aren’t offering anything to us. They aren’t providing some great blessing to society. They’re beggars—parasites sucking off the kindness and generosity of others. If they’re gathered in a group, laughing and joking around, we’ll likely pass them by. If they’re showing anything but abject humility and poverty, we don’t want to see it. And the worst of the worst is the beggar who doesn’t act like a beggar, the beggar who seems proud even boastful that he is a beggar.

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Drive Time

By Ross Engel –

Growing up in the greater Chicagoland area, one didn’t measure distance by miles. Distance was always measured in the amount of time it took to get somewhere. For example, when my wife and I were dating, I never would have said, “We live about 70 miles away from each other.” Instead, I would’ve said something like, “We live an hour away from each other.” Traffic and road types were always factored into the amount of time it took to get somewhere, since ten miles on one road might go by faster than five miles on another.

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I Don’t Have Time for This Crap

By Cindy Koch –

It creeps up every year. Unexpectedly, all of a sudden, our normal and comfortable daily routine merges into the fast lane. I always seem to feel this pressure in the Spring, when the school year is ending, the kids’ performances are scheduled, the end of the year parties are planned, and the world seems to be ending as we all say goodbye at a graduation of some sort. I’ll never know why the close of such things (that happen every year, by the way) call for so many homemade cupcakes and flower bouquets. I have a strange feeling we will all be here again next June, stressing out together at the end of another school year.

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She’s a Bride, not a Strumpet!

By Ross Engel –

Strumpet. Now that’s a word one doesn’t hear very often. Shakespeare used it in Othello and Jack Sparrow used it in Pirates of the Caribbean. If you’re not familiar with the word, perhaps you’ve heard “harlot,” “hussy,” or “demimondaine.” All these words share one thing in common: they refer to ladies of the night—someone who sells themselves for pleasure. They are euphemisms for the title “whore.”

One of my favorite professors in seminary often would say, “The church is the bride of Christ, not the culture’s whore.” Recently I found myself recalling the sentiment and considering this juxtaposition.

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