Culture news: When women become the men they hated

Elizabeth Scalia has a very interesting piece in which she discusses recent opinions about the results of the sexual revolution. She writes:
"The sexual revolution promise that women could “have it all” has always been oddly paradoxical: It encouraged women to find their best selves by aping men and conforming to traditionally male valuations of worth and relevance. Mistaking the word “equal” for the word “same,” these “hookup feminists” have become precisely the shallow, insincere, career-fixated, people-users that early feminists decried. From spare button-down shirt in the office, to meaningless sex, Don Draper has not disappeared; he has just changed his name to Donna. Women replace men, but the story—contra Schakowsky—stays the same."

Mark's thoughts: Seeking God's Will? - A Lutheran Perspective

Recently a non-denominational church that I pass as I take my children to and from school had the following message on their sign: “Ask God your questions, and then listen for the answer.”  Christians often wonder about what God’s will is for their life.  As we consider decisions in life like our vocation and the person we marry, Christians are often told to “seek God’s will.” They are encouraged to look for ways in which God is directing them toward this will. Often this is something that becomes a burden for Christians, when in fact it never should be.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus Christ taught us to pray, “Thy will be done.”  As Christians, we certainly want God’s will to be done.  We are confident that God will carry out His will.  After all, He is God.   We trust that He controls the course of history, for as Paul told the crowd at Athens, “And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place” (Acts 17:26).

The more difficult subject for many Christians arises when they begin to think about specific matters in their own lives.  Here again, Christians certainly believe that God has a will for them and they want His will to be done in their lives.  But in the Christianity that has been shaped by American evangelicalism, there is often a belief that God has a specific will for our lives and that it is our responsibility to seek it; to discover it.  Specific life decisions like, “Should I choose this career?; should I take this job?; should I marry this person?; should I move to this place?” become occasions when Christians think they must work to “discover God’s will” for them.   They must seek God’s will for their lives.  Christians turn to intense prayer and reflection as they look for something inside of themselves that tells them this is the “right” decision.  Or they look for external events and signs that God is using to help them find the “right” decision. They do this because there is the fear that somehow they may make the wrong decision and fail to do God’s will.

This is an activity that is based on what we do.  It is based on the notion that if we pray hard enough we will get a sense of direction or peace.  If we look hard enough at the signs around us, we will discover guidance or confirmation.  But since this is based on what we do, it is a matter of the Law.  And the Law doesn’t bring peace or certainty.  Instead, it brings the questions of whether we have prayed enough; of whether that feeling is strong enough; of whether that feeling is still there; of whether we read those signs correctly. The Law is about doing, and so it constantly sends us to do more.

As Lutherans, we realize that God only reveals His will in one place – in His Word.  If we want to know God’s will with absolute certainty, then we look to Scripture.  God’s will is that He “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).  God’s will is that “everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:40).  We can know God’s will for how He wants us to live life as we listen to our Lord Jesus and the apostles explain the Ten Commandments.  We can know God’s will for how His Means of Grace are to be administered in our midst.

Yet when it comes to the individual decisions of life like whether I should take this specific job or whether I should marry this specific person, Scripture does not provide any guidance. God’s will on these matters simply has not been revealed and we do not have His promise that we can know it.

Instead, we are free in the Gospel to make the best decision we can.  We are free to use the gifts God has given us in gathering information and making the best decision possible.  Naturally, God’s will revealed in Scripture will be an important part of this information.  So for example, we will not choose bank robber as our career!  But in most decisions we will end up using “sanctified common sense.” 

Certainly, our decision process will involve prayer.  We will ask for God’s guidance in deciding and pray that His will be done.  But this doesn’t mean we will expect some kind of feeling from God to tell us a decision is the “right one” or that we will expect to see some sign in the world guiding or confirming our decision.  Instead, our prayer is simply faith putting the First Commandment into practice as we acknowledge that we fear, love and trust in God above all things.  We will make our decisions in the confession and trust that God is God and we are not.  James put it this way, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (James 4:13-15).

We make the best decision we can, and then we go forward, walking by faith.  We can do this because God’s great “Yes!” to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20) gives us the assurance that God works for our good no matter how things may appear. God’s ability to weave together our contingent decisions into His divine purpose is wrapped up in the same mysterious working by which He was able to elect us in Christ from all eternity.  Paul tells us, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

God's great "Yes!" to us in Christ gives us the assurance that God works for our good and that our decisions can't get in the way of God carrying out his will. It is comforting to know that our bumbling can't prevent God from doing what He wants to get done.  We needlessly torment ourselves if we worry about figuring out what God’s will is on these kinds of specific life decisions.  We can’t know it.  What we do know is the love God has revealed in Christ, and this guarantees that God is working for our good.  So pray, “Thy will be done.”  So make the best decision you can.  And then walk in faith, knowing that God will work out His purpose.

Commemoration of Emperor Constantine, Christian Ruler and Helena, Mother of Constantine

Today we remember and given thanks for Emperor Constantine, Christian Ruler and Helena, Mother of Constantine.  Constantine I served as Roman Emperor from A.D. 306 to 337. During his reign the persecution of Christians was forbidden by the Edict of Milan in 313, and ultimately the faith gained full imperial support. Constantine took an active interest in the life and teachings of the church and called the Council of Nicaea in 325 at which orthodox Christianity was defined and defended. His mother, Helena (ca. 255-329), strongly influenced Constantine. Her great interest in locating the holy sites of the Christian faith led her to become one of the first Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Her research led to the identification of Biblical locations in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and beyond, which are still maintained as places of worship today.

 Collect of the Day:

Almighty God, through your servant Constantine, your Church flourished, and by his mother, Helena, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem became a holy place for many pilgrims.  Grant to us this same zeal for your Church and charity toward your people, that we may be fruitful in good works and steadfast in faith.  Keep us ever grateful for your abundant provision, with our eyes fixed, as Helena’s were, on the highest and greatest treasure of all, the cross of Christ; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Pentecost Tuesday

During the octave (the eight days) in which we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, today is Pentecost Tuesday.  We continue to rejoice in the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom Christ poured out upon the Church on Pentecost.  The text for today tells of how the Spirit dramatically showed that the Gospel was to be preached to non-Jews in Palestine - the Samaritans.

 Scripture reading:

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17).

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and ever-living God, You fulfilled Your promise by sending the gift of the Holy Spirit to unite the disciples of all nations in the cross and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  By the preaching of the Gospel spread this gift to the ends of the earth; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Life News: White House counsel knew about IRS targeting pro-life groups and didn't tell President Obama?

The Wall Street Journal reported late Sunday that "White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler learned about the inspector general’s conclusions during the week of April 22, including that IRS agents had directed unfair scrutiny towards Tea Party groups and others who were seeking tax exemption."  However, President Obama has said that he didn't learn about the IRS actions until the public did on May 10.  How likely is it that President Obama's chief lawyer learned about information that was certain to be a scandal for the administration and didn't tell the President?

Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost

Feast of Pentecost

                                                                                                            Acts 2:1-21

                                                                                                            5/19/13

            I have spent a great deal of time in my life learning foreign languages. During high school I took Latin and German.  In college at Concordia, Ann Arbor I took Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Latin.  During the time between college and seminary I look Latin at Indiana University. 

While I was student at Concordia Seminary, I was of course putting that training in Greek and Hebrew to good use.  During my first two years in St. Louis, I also took Greek and Latin classes at nearby Washington University.  After finishing the Master of Divinity degree to be a pastor, I continued on for another year at the seminary in order to earn a Master of Sacred Theology degree.  I really hadn’t done all that much with German for several years, so I had to brush it up in order to pass the German exam and also to begin using it in reading German sources for my research.

When I went on to doctoral work in New Testament Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX I had to pass a Hebrew exam and a Greek exam – the latter of which required me to be ready to sight read anything in the New Testament.  I had to pass a German exam.  And then during the summer after my first year there I had to teach myself to read French in order to pass the French exam.

            I have spent a lot of time learning different languages.  However, I should add that there is a common denominator among all of my language efforts – and it is one that my son Matthew finds quite amusing.  All of my work in learning languages has been directed at reading them.  All of my work has been directed at reading texts – texts of Scripture, theology and biblical scholarship.  The truth is, that after all of this work with languages I can’t speak one of them.

            Now in some cases this isn’t surprising since they are dead ancient languages. In the case of French, I can read a French book but I have no idea how you really pronounce the words.  Only in German can I understand a little of what it is said, and respond with some rudimentary sentences. But I would never make the claim that I can communicate in it.

            The experience of the disciples on the Day of Pentecost was very different.  In our text,God pours forth the Holy Spirit in order to advance the work of the Gospel – the proclamation about the crucified and risen Christ.  On that day, through the work of the Spirit, the disciples were able to speak in foreign languages that they had never studied. In this event, God announced that something new had begun.

            At the Feast of Pentecost as we listen to the account from Acts about the sound like a violent rushing wind, tongues as of flame and foreign languages being spoken it is easy to rush right into talking about the meaning of this event.  But first this morning, I want to talk about waiting. Ten days ago we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord.  On that day the Scripture readings from Luke and Acts told of what happened prior to Jesus’ ascension.

            The books of Luke and Acts are really Luke-Acts – it’s a two volume set.  The end of Luke and the beginning of Acts contain an overlap as they both describe the ascension of Jesus and the instructions that Jesus gave to the disciples. In Luke we hear, “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. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’”

In a similar manner Acts says, “And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.’” And then Jesus added, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Our Lord promised that the disciples would receive power as the Holy Spirit came upon them – as they were baptized with the Holy Spirit.  He said that they would preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth – to all nations.  And he commanded them to stay in Jerusalem until they received the Spirit.

Now, Jesus had ascended.  The disciples were in Jerusalem waiting.  It was a time marked by tremendous uncertainty. First of all, they didn’t know exactly what they were waiting for.  “Clothed with power from on high”; “the Holy Spirit will come upon you”; “baptized with the Holy Spirit” – what exactly did that mean?  What would that look like?  How would they know when this had happened?

And then beyond the nature of the event itself, the disciples didn’t know when it was going to happen.  Literally the Greek says, “not after these many days.” It’s so vague that some individuals involved in copying the manuscripts by hand in the fourth and fifth centuries added “until Pentecost.”

How long is “not many days”?  We don’t like waiting. And we really don’t like waiting when we don’t know how long it is going to be – when we don’t know the time when the wait will end.  Yet we find ourselves waiting for very important things. We wait to see if a treatment is going to bring relief.  We wait to see if we are going to get a job or get into a school. We wait to see how a situation is going to develop in the life of a loved one.   When we face these kinds of situations in life, we get impatient.  We get impatient with the situation … and we get impatient with God.  We may begin to question how he does things.  We may begin to get angry about the wait.

The disciples waited faithfully. They trusted Jesus’ word. And on the tenth day Jesus kept his word.  It was Pentecost – one of the three great festivals that God had commanded his people to observe. We learn in our text that when the day of Pentecost arrived, the disciples were all together in one place. Suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. In addition to this sound, there also appeared divided tongues as of fire on each one of them. The disciple were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the ability.

They began to proclaim in different languages the mighty things that God had done in Jesus Christ.  The sound attracted a crowd, and some mocked the disciples saying that they were drunk.  But Peter announced to them that nothing could be farther from the truth.  After all, it was only 9:00 a.m.! Instead what was happening was a fulfillment of God’s Word.  Peter said, “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions,

and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”

            The disciples had waited, and now God had done something dramatic.  He had poured forth the Holy Spirit.  He had done it in a way that announced a new era in his plan of salvation had arrived.  This new era had begun in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  In accordance with God’s plan Jesus had been put to death on a cross. But Peter went on to say, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

Jesus Christ had died on the cross so that there could be forgiveness of sins for those who repent – for those who confess their sin and look to him for forgiveness. He had been raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father. And now as the exalted Lord he had poured forth the Holy Spirit upon his Church.

You got up this morning and came to church like you normally do.  It’s the same thing that we do Sunday after Sunday, week after week after week.  It all seems so ordinary.  But our text for the Feast of Pentecost reminds us that we do not live in ordinary times. We live in the time when the resurrection of Last Day has already begun in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We live in the last days – the end times – because the risen and ascended Lord has poured forth the Holy Spirit.

This same Spirit has given you new life.  You were born again of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism.  And this same Spirit continues to sustain your faith and life in Christ.  He does this through the Word of God – as you hear it proclaimed and as you read and study it.  He does this through the word of Holy Absolution as Christ forgives your sins. And he does it through the body and blood of the risen Lord which you eat and drink in the Sacrament of the Altar.

And because Spirit has given you new life; because the Spirit sustains you in this life through the Means of Grace, as a child of God you are now to follow the leading of the Spirit.  As we heard Paul tell the Romans last night in the epistle lesson for Pentecost Eve, “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

To be led by the Spirit is to live as someone who knows what time it is – someone who knows it is the Last Days. It is to live as someone who knows what Jesus Christ has done and what this means for us.  As Paul said later in Romans, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.”

Instead the Spirit of Christ enables us to live in the way that follows our Lord – to live in the way of love.  As Paul wrote, “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  By the power the Spirit provides we are now able to offer the sacrifice of love as we help and serve those around us in our lives.

On this day, the Feast of Pentecost we rejoice that God has begun something new.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the outpouring of the Spirit, he has given you salvation and begun the new creation.  We live as people who know who we are because of the work of the Spirit – we are the sons and daughters of God.  We know what time it is – it is the Last Days because Christ has poured forth the Spirit. And we know what we are to do – we are to live in love as we follow the leading of the Spirit.     

           

           

           

           

           

             

Homily for Pentecost Eve

Pentecost Eve

                                                                                                                        Joel 3:1-5

                                                                                                                        5/18/13

            As you listened to the Old Testament reading for Pentecost Eve, it is understandable if you felt a little confused.  You may have found yourself wondering, “Aren’t we getting ready for the Feast of Pentecost?  Why then are we hearing about the Last Day?  Wouldn’t this be more appropriate for the end of the Church year?”

            After all, we hear in our reading, “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land.”  If you read a little further in Joel chapter 3, it would only confirm your questions because we hear there, “Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.”

            Now to be sure, this is language describing the judgment of the Last Day.  Yet the reason that we have this as our reading for Pentecost Eve is because it provides the setting for the words of the prophet Joel that are quoted by Peter in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost.  And in this fact we are reminded about how the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost announces that the last days have arrived.

            In the verses just before our text, the prophet Joel begins a new section.  He says, “And it shall come to pass afterward,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.”

            God speaks of how he will pour out his Spirit “afterward.”  And this rolls right into our text where God says, “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there.”  In the text of Joel it becomes clear that these events are related to one another.  Like other prophetic books, Joel leads us to expect that the outpouring of the Spirit is an end-time event.  It is an event that is tied to the final judgment that God will bring upon all nations when he vindicates his people.

            Tomorrow we will celebrate the Day of Pentecost.  On that day, as you know well, there was a sound like a mighty, rushing wind.  Tongues as of flame were distributed on the heads of the disciples and they were filled with the Holy Spirit in a new and dramatic way.  As a result of this, they began to proclaim the good news about Jesus Christ in the languages of the many different peoples who were present in Jerusalem.

            Peter began his sermon by responding to the accusation that what was happening was simply a result of too much alcohol.  He pointed to the true reason, and in order to do this he used the words of the prophet Joel.  He said, “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.’”

            Peter left no doubt about what was happening and what it indicated.  The events of Pentecost were caused by the Holy Spirit. And they were occurring because the last days had arrived – the end-times were here.  Peter went on to proclaim a message that focused on the death and resurrection of Jesus fifty days earlier.  Jesus had been crucified according to God’s plan.  But Peter went on to say, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.’”

            Joel’s prophecy and the events of Pentecost prompt us to recognize what God has done and what it means for us.  God has entered our world in the incarnation as Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. The Son of God has borne our sins upon the cross and died for them – he has received the wrath and judgment of God against sin that we deserved. And then on the third day, God raised him from the dead.

            More specifically, Paul tells us that through the work of the Spirit, Jesus’ body was raised from the dead.  He didn’t simply come back to life, but rather he rose as the second Adam in whom mortality and corruption have ceased.  In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the Last Day has already started.

The Spirit carried out this end-time event.  And on the Day of Pentecost God poured out the Spirit upon his church.  Because of Pentecost the Spirit who will raise you from the dead is now active in the world.  Paul tells us, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  Or as Paul told the Ephesians about Christ, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”  The presence of the Spirit within you is the guarantee that you will share in Christ’s resurrection on the Last Day.

The question then is whether we realize what time it is.  It is the last days – it is the time of the Spirit who has caused us to be born again in Holy Baptism.  Because of this we now live as people who are in Christ – we have been joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This means that through the work of the Spirit, the resurrection power of Jesus is at work in us.

True, the old Adam is still present too as we live in this time of the now and the not yet.  There are times when we live like “not yet” people instead of the “now” people the Spirit has made us to be.  And when we do, we return in faith to the forgiveness that we have in Christ.  We return to the source of our life in Christ - we return to our baptism.  Washed clean of our sins, we then arise once again to walk by the Spirit and not the sinful flesh.  We arise to live as the “now” people that God has made us through the work of the Spirit poured out on Pentecost.