W W W. H I G H E RT H I N G S . O R G
/ FA L L / 2004
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Contents T A B L E
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Tell What Jesus Did By Rev. Klemet Preus How do you communicate the message of the Gospel of Christ? What does the Bible say about the way we speak the Good News? Test your knowledge with this informative article.
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The god of the City By Rev. Tim Pauls Graffiti on a concrete wall becomes a sermon for the religion of the 21st century: you are god. Read on to see just how pervasive this belief truly is.
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Flowers for Andy By Kathy Luder Kathy’s best friend comes face-to-face with grief and tragedy. How will Kathy help her friend through this ordeal?
13 A Family Feast By DoRena Stuckwisch A grassroots Higher Things retreat leaves this 17-year-old writer reflecting on fun, feasts, and the best Supper of all.
15 Not Nearly Enough
By Gene Edward Veith
We all have friends from different Christian traditions. How exactly are Lutherans different?
18 A Fourfold Hallelujah! By Rev. Bill Cwirla This poetic sermon sweeps us into the hallelujahs of Revelation 19.
22 Highlights from the City of God Conference in Seattle, Washington
COLUMNS 16 Letters to the Editor 20 MINING THE RICHES: Cutting to the Heart of the Matter By Rev. Jeffrey A. Ahonen 26 Pulse: Comic Books By Rev. Scott Stiegemeyer 28 Email Information/News and Notes 29 Ex Cathedra Am I a racist? Can a Christian be a vegetarian? Is it normal for an 18-year-old girl to be boyfriend-free? Check out the latest advice in this issue’s column.
30 The Catechism: Vocation: The Great Promise By Rev. David Petersen
HigherThings Volume 4/Number 3 Fall 2004 Executive Editor REV. TODD PEPERKORN Assistant Editor JULIE STIEGEMEYER
Editorial Associates REV. TIM PAULS REV. DAVID PETERSEN REV. ERIK ROTTMANN REV. SCOTT STIEGEMEYER DR. GENE EDWARD VEITH Art Director STEVE BLAKEY
Business Manager LYNN FREDERICKSEN
Bible Studies Editor REV. TIMOTHY SCHELLENBACH Subscriptions Manager CYNTHIA HALL
Marketing and Grants Director PAM KNEPPER
HIGHER THINGS, INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS President REV. KLEMET
PREUS
Vice President REV. MARCUS
ZILL
Executive Director REV. DANIEL WOODRING
Secretary SANDRA
OSTAPOWICH
Treasurer LYNN FREDERICKSEN
REV. WILLIAM CWIRLA REV. BRUCE KESEMAN SANDRA OSTAPOWICH SUE PELEGRINI REV. TODD PEPERKORN REV. KLEMET PREUS JEFF SCHWARZ MOLLIE ZIEGLER REV. MARCUS ZILL Higher Things Magazine ISSN 1539-8455 is published quarterly by Higher Things Inc., 2026 22nd Ave., Kenosha, WI 53140. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the editor-in-chief of Higher Things Magazine. Copyright 2004. Printed in the United States. Postage paid at Fort Wayne, Indiana. For subscription information, write to: Higher Things Magazine, P.O. Box 8098, Fort Wayne IN 46898 or e-mail to Subscriptions@higherthings.org. For general information about Higher Things, Inc., please e-mail info@higherthings.org.
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By Rev. Klemet Preus H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 4
How do you communicate the message of Jesus? What does the Bible say about the way we speak the good news? Test your knowledge of Holy Scripture. Take the following true false test:
Christians share Jesus with others. n True n False Christians reach out to others with the love of God. n True n False Christians tell others what Jesus did for us. n True n False
ometimes I think that pastors or Christians tell others what Jesus did for us.True theologians make things much In Mark 5 Jesus cast some demons out of a man and sent the demons into some pigs. Afterwards the man more difficult or complicated wanted to go with Jesus, but the Lord said,“Go home to than they are. We talk about sharing your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for Christ or reaching out. Not only are you.”The same word is used of the women who saw the tomb and then went and “told all these things” to the meanings of these expressions a empty the apostles. Some of the bible translations use the word bit hazy, but they simply are not the “report” instead of “tell.” For example in Acts 15 Judas and Silas “reported” to the churches what the leaders had way the Bible talks. In the Scriptures written. We should tell or report what Jesus has done and God makes communicating the good what the apostles wrote. It’s like talking to your friend about the latest Kathy Luder story. Tell them what happened. news of Jesus very easy. Let’s see Why is this so important? It’s important to use the what the Bible says. Here are the word “tell” because God wants forgiveness to be simple. We use the Bible word “tell” because salvation is easy answers to the true/false test.
S
Christians share Jesus with others. False Nowhere in the Bible does God ever say that we should “share Jesus.”We are to share our worldly goods with others, share in the sufferings of Christ by suffering for His sake or, my personal favorite, share our wealth with those who catechize us. But the word “share” is not a word which refers to communication. In fact when we talk about sharing Christ it can give the impression that we are giving half of Him away and keeping half for ourselves like when we share a piece of pie. Of course share can mean “inform” like when we share our thoughts or share our feelings, but then “sharing” Jesus becomes so personal we hesitate. It’s almost something like “sharing” a secret.There’s got to be a better more biblical word.
Christians should reach out to others with the love of God. False Nowhere in the Bible does God ever say that we should “reach out” with the love of God. In the Bible the word “reach” is used more literally like when Jesus reached out and grabbed Peter when they were walking on the water. But there the word means more like stretch out and who ever heard of “stretching out” with God’s love? In the Bible “reach out” is a description of posture more than a communicating of the gospel. It is true that Webster’s dictionary does say that the seventh definition of the word reach is “to have influence upon or to impress.” And we might say that the governor “reached” millions of people with his televised speech. But, it’s not the normal way we use the word “reach” and the bible never talks this way. There’s got to be a better more biblical word. When you think about it, words like “share” and “reach out” are not the way we normally talk. If you were asked to inform your parents about what happened in school today how would they ask you? Would they say,“Share with us your day.” Maybe, but probably not. How about,“Reach out to us with news of your day.” No one talks this way. If your parents wanted to know about your day they would probably say,“Tell us about your day.”The word “tell” is a normal word. And that is the word the bible uses: Tell.
to understand. God forgave the whole world by sending Jesus to live and die for us and rise again. He gives this forgiveness through his holy word – whether it is spoken by you, Martin Luther, St. Paul or Jesus Christ Himself. It’s simple to understand. When we use words like “share” or “reach out” it almost sounds like there is more to it than simply speaking the message of Jesus. We tell our friends that Jesus forgives their sins but we wonder if we have really “shared” Jesus. We tell our friends that Jesus rose from the dead to open heaven, but we wonder if we have really “reached out” to the other person. And we begin to doubt. It’s not ourselves we doubt but the word of God. God keeps it simple because faith should be simple. Someone told you.You believe.You tell someone. God will work through the message of Jesus which you speak. It’s also important to use the word “tell” because God wants to make talking about Jesus simple for us. God does not use unusual words to describe how Christians communicate the good news about Jesus. He does not make the job complicated by forcing upon us a vocabulary that is either weird or unclear. God makes it very simple.“Tell” other people what Jesus has done. Don’t worry about sharing. That’s not the bible word. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t reached out. Communicating Christ has little to do with posture. Rather, tell. Report what you know from the book. It’s easy. Forgiveness may be simple to understand and to tell but it was not simple to earn. Jesus had to carry all of your sins to the cross.This was not easy. Christ pleaded to be relieved in the garden because this was a hard thing He did for us. He carried the heavy load of our guilt to the cross in his body and suffered terribly for us. He poured out his blood painfully for you.What Christ did was the most difficult thing any man has every done. He suffered for you. He suffered for the people to whom you tell his story. For Him it was difficult. For us it is simple – simple to know, simple to tell. Rev. Klemet Preus is pastor of Glory of Christ Lutheran Church in Plymouth, Minnesota. He is the President of Higher Things.
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The god o art way through the City of God conference in August, we hit the Seattle waterfront. And there, amid the tourists, piers and jellyfish, we came face-to-face with a sermon from today’s favorite deity. High up on a wall, someone had chalked in big letters,“you are god.” It may sound like the midnight mission of a nut-job, but I snapped a picture. It’s truly the religion of the 21st century.
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Not that it’s anything new: Satan tempted Eve, “You will be like God” (Gen. 3:5); and from there to Babel (Gen. 11:4) to now, man has wanted to take the Lord’s place. It’s the god of the city—no, not specifically Seattle. It’s the god of Babylon—the city used in Revelation to symbolize unfaithfulness against the one true God. It’s the site of idol worship, immorality, excess and more; and it all comes crashing down in judgment (Rev. 14:8; 18:21). Consider that statement,“you are god.” It sounds like a good deal. If you’re god, then you establish what’s true.You determine your code of behavior; and if you sin against your own law, so what? Write in an exception.You can take the Bible and decide what’s good. And frankly,“you are god” is the belief behind the notion that all gods lead to heaven, because you can only teach that madness if you think like this:“All gods lead to heaven because we say so, even if the gods say different. And if we decide what gods say, we’re bigger than they are.”That means that God is nothing more than a mental puppet, and you’re the one pulling His strings. In the short-term,“you are god”looks sweet to sinners. Sinners are very good at looking at immediate gratification, but not at looking ahead, say, until Judgment Day. Because if “you are god” is your creed, then you must put yourself to the test. Have you created all things? Are you faithful to
your word, eternally unchanging? Can you heal diseases? Can you defeat death? Can you raise yourself from the dead? If you can’t, then you’re a pretty lousy god. Do you really want a god only as big as you? Shoot, if I were good enough to be my own god, then I wouldn’t need one. But I can’t raise myself from the dead, so I certainly don’t want to settle for myself.
It’s a common problem, though, trusting in gods that are failures. Back in 2 Chronicles 25, King Amaziah defeated the Edomites; then he took their gods and made them his own.The Lord sent a prophet to the king, who asked,“Why have you sought gods of a people who did not deliver their own people from your hand?” In our day and age, we ask the world,“Why do you trust in yourself, when you can’t deliver yourself from death?” For now, though,“you are god” is the pop creed du jour. The world will promote this until the Lord returns, though it might abandon it for a while if disaster strikes. Not for long, though. When calamity hits, the world decides “there is no God” for a while. Then it says,“If there’s no God, it’s up to you.”Then it gets right back to “If it’s up to you, then you are god.”
By Rev. Tim Pauls
of the City
As Babylon continues its urban sprawl—as society continues to turn its back on the God of truth, we continue faithfully to confess the Word, rightly dividing the Word of truth between Law and Gospel. We keep speaking of the one true God so great that He created all things, yet humbled Himself to become man and die in our place. Be warned: there’s one thing Babylon doesn’t like, and it’s the proclamation of the one true God who exposes false gods and frauds.The Church won’t be popular. Along the way, though, many will come out of Babylon, saying,“I’m not god after all, but a poor sinner. Lord have mercy, for Jesus’ sake.” So here we stand, and with joy; because with Abraham, we’re just passing through, waiting for that city, which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10). We’re passing through because this isn’t all there is. This isn’t all there is because we’re not gods. Rather, we are blessed to be children of the one true God. He’s the One who created all things. He’s the One who heals diseases. He’s the One who has already proven His love for you at the cross. And He’s the One, the only One, who raises you from the dead. You’re not god. But you are God’s. And for the sake of Jesus, God is not ashamed to be called your God.That’s why He’s prepared His city for you (Heb. 11:6). Rev.Tim Pauls is associate pastor and acting school administrator at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Boise, Idaho. He is an editorial associate with Higher Things.
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