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Your Cross is His Cross • The Immeasurable Mercy of God • Five Compelling Reasons to Check Out the Psalms • Our Neediest Neighbors • The Creeds: Faithfully Passing the Baton

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. h i g h e r t h i n g s . o r g / S U M M ER / 2 0 1 9

“I pray the catechism every day . . . and ask God to keep me in his dear, holy Word, lest I grow weary of it.”

Read devotions on the Small Catechism.

- Martin Luther

cph.org/devotions

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H I G H E R

https://books.cph.org/devotions-on-the-small-catechism/download-sample

Contents T A B L E O F

HigherThings

Volume 19/Number 2/Summer 2019 Bible Studies for these articles can be found at: higherthings.org/ magazine/biblestudies/

Volume 19/Number 2 • Summer 2019

Executive Editor

Katie Hill Art Director

Steve Blakey Editorial Associates

Rev. Greg Alms Rev. Paul Beisel Rev. Gaven M. Mize Rev. Dr. Matthew Richard Copy Editors

Kay Maiwald Dana Niemi Bible Study Authors

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Rev. Aaron T. Fenker Rev. Joshua Ulm

Special Features 4 Your Cross Is His Cross

By Rev. George F. Borghardt Rev. Borghardt dispels the notion that carrying your cross is some burden or care you must choose to endure in this life for the sake of Christ. To be sure, we do contend with those things this side of Heaven but this is not what Christ means in Matthew 16. The real focus is on His Cross, rather than ours.

6 The Immeasurable Mercy of God

By Rev. Aaron T. Fenker Judge not, and you will not be judged…a verse so often quoted in an effort to point fingers or defend ourselves that we miss the Good News of God’s boundless mercy in the very next verse. Discover this delightful truth for yourself!

8 70 x 7: Not Your Average Math Fact

By Rev. Eric Brown It may seem daunting beyond belief to imagine forgiving someone 70 x 7 times. And if it were up to us, that would be the reality. Rev. Brown shows how the ever-flowing fountain of God’s love and mercy toward us is exactly what He pours into us for others by the work of the Holy Spirit.

10 Hi, It’s Your New Pastor

By Rev. Harrison Goodman A newly installed pastor himself, Rev. Goodman gives us insight into what it feels like to be the new pastor on the block and how we as parishioners can bless our new pastors as well as encourage those long-time pastors God has gifted to us.

14 5 Compelling Reasons to Check Out the Psalms

By Rev. Joshua Ulm Our liturgical worship is steeped in the Psalms and not without reason. There are 150 of them, each one unique and packed with powerful prayer language. Rev. Ulm persuasively explains why delving into them daily is so spiritually edifying.

20 Our Neediest Neighbors

By Timothy Sheridan If you’re not quite sure how to handle an encounter with a homeless person, Timothy helps to put it all in perspective and points us, as always, to Jesus.

22 Teach Me Your Way, O Lord

By Stephen Brynestad Stephen asserts that learning is a natural part of the Christian life and encourages us to have teachable hearts through receiving God’s Word and Gifts.

___________ Board of Directors President

Rev. George F. Borghardt Vice-President

Rev. Duane Bamsch Treasurer

Mr. Kurt Winrich Secretary

Rev. Joel Fritsche Mrs. Becky Clausen Deaconess Ellie Corrow Rev. D. Carl Fickenscher Mr. Anthony Pellegrini Rev. Chris Rosebrough ___________

Executive Council Executive Director

Erica Jacoby

Dean of Theology

Rev. Aaron T. Fenker Business Executive

Connie Brammeier Media Executive

Sandra Madden Conference Executive

Regular Features 28 Catechism: Liturgical Catechesis The Creeds: Faithfully Passing the Baton By Rev. William M. Cwirla God has promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church and the Creeds are an integral part of that. Rev. Cwirla explains that, just like in a relay race, each generation of Christians is privileged to pass on the faith to the next one.

30 Bible Study: Hi, It’s Your New Pastor

Be sure to check out this sample of one of our student Bible studies which links up with Rev. Harrison Goodman’s article on P. 10.

Crysten Sanchez Marketing and Development Executive

Patrick Sturdivant

Higher Things® Magazine ISSN 1539-8455 is published quarterly by Higher Things, Inc. P.O. Box 155 Holt, MO 64048. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the executive editor of Higher Things Magazine. Copyright 2019. Higher Things® is registered trademarks of Higher Things Inc.; All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States. Postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri. For subscription information and questions, call 1-888-482-6630, then press 4, or e-mail subscriptions@ higherthings.org. (This phone number is only used for subscription queries.) For letters to the editor, write letters@higher things.org. Writers may submit manuscripts to: submissions@ higherthings.org. Please check higherthings.org/magazine/ writers/ for writers’ guidelines and theme lists.

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70 X7 NOT YOUR AVERAGE MATH FACT By Rev. Eric Brown

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“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

AGAIN!

They did it again! Another Gospel lesson, and another question tossed out by people simply to test Jesus, simply to trap Jesus. Again! Another question about a point of Law, another chance to try to complain about how Jesus does this or says that. Tell us the greatest commandment, and then we’ll complain how you didn’t pick a different part of the Law. It’s the same old tired game. How many of these sorts of questions will Jesus put up with before He snaps and starts bringing down divine smite upon these people? Apparently the answer is “a lot”.You might guess 77 times or 70 times 7 times, but I don’t think even those numbers are high enough. Over and over Jesus points people to the love that He has for them, points them to the fact that He is the Messiah. This time Jesus answers that the greatest commandment is to love God, but this love of God means a second command must follow: love your neighbor—even the neighbor who keeps on trying to trap you with annoying questions. For Jesus, loving the neighbor means coming down from heaven, being born of the Virgin Mary, being the great David’s even Greater Son. It means pointing out God’s love for the world, God’s plan of salvation even to the very people who would arrange for Him to be crucified before the week is out. You see, when Jesus sums up the Law as “love God and love your neighbor”, He’s not watering down the Law. He’s not turning it into mere sentimentality or anything like that. Loving the neighbor is hard, because frankly sometimes our neighbor is a jerk. Sometimes they keep pushing and prying and poking and prodding. And oftentimes we use their jerkiness as an excuse to be a jerk right back at them. Instead of loving and serving the neighbor, we so often run the opposite way. We dehumanize them and objectify them; we belittle them or ignore them, just as they do to us. This is a nasty cycle. But Jesus is determined to see that His neighbor is loved. He is determined to see that you are loved. And so, He became man to love and redeem the very people we dehumanize or who dehumanize us. He Himself became the object of scorn and ridicule to rescue the very people that we objectify or that objectify us. He emptied Himself and made Himself nothing to win salvation for the people we belittle and treat as nothing or who tear us down. He wins salvation upon the cross even for the sins of the people we’d rather ignore or who ignore us. In fact, He does all of this for you. And this is because He loves you. Honestly. Simply. Fully. Even when you’ve done things that are annoying or foolish. He still loves you determinedly and doggedly. He will let nothing stop Himself from loving you—not sin, not Satan, not death, not the riches of all creation. Jesus loves you. He loves you as Himself. Of course He does, for He has baptized you into Himself and He gives Himself to you over and over and over again in His Supper. There will be times when you look at yourself, at some stupid petty sin that you have done, and you will think: “Again! I did it again!” And you may be tempted to think that maybe this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back— that this will be where Jesus will call it quits. Nope. That’s not how Jesus works. Over and against all the shame and guilt

and anger at yourself that you sometimes feel Jesus will still love you and forgive you. He truly and honestly loves you as Himself. Well, that’s all fine and good for Jesus. He’s the Son of God. He can hack it…we can’t. Remember that Peter posed a question of Jesus regarding this very thing: “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (Matthew 18:21) The question Peter asks Jesus seems quite reasonable. Really, it is, at least from a simple, worldly perspective. How many times do I forgive someone before it’s better to just cut them out of my life? How many times do I have to delete a comment before I just block them? How many times do I have to roll eyes before I can just walk away? In the world this is a very reasonable and practical question, and Peter gives what, from the world’s perspective, is a generous answer. Seven times? We have “three strikes and you’re out.” We have “once bitten, twice shy.” Peter seemingly exceeds our normal standards. However, forgiveness isn’t a worldly thing. Forgiveness isn’t just putting up with someone or ignoring them. Forgiveness is a God thing to do, and when God does something, God does it with over-the-top abundance. Not 7 times, but 70 times 7. And to show how overly abundant God is with mercy, Jesus tells a story. There’s a fellow who owes his king 10,000 talents. That would be like owing someone $5 billion. And the fellow begs, promises to pay the king back and he can’t, not in this lifetime. The king forgives him. Now, some might find this surprising, but it’s clear that the king is already stupidly generous—he keeps loaning and loaning money to this fellow already. Yet the king stays generous. The same fellow whose debt was canceled then shakes down a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii—say $12,000, which was probably the king’s cash in the first place. And things get nasty and mean and the second guy is thrown into jail. And that’s when the king’s patience runs out. That’s when the king throws the jerk into jail, not because of what he owed the king, but because he refused to be merciful as the king was merciful to him. The point is this: God is merciful, incredibly merciful. He’s so merciful to us we can’t even really see how deep and rich His mercy is. And so we need to be very careful in this life not to start putting limits on mercy. Once we start doing that, we can forget that God shows us continual and abundant mercy. We step away from that mercy. So no, instead remember at all times the great and overflowing love and mercy that God has for you in Christ that surpasses even 70 x 7. He’s not taking a count to see when He can cut you off from forgiveness, instead He is faithful and His steadfast love for you endures forever. Therefore Jesus will constantly focus you upon His forgiveness and mercy—not only forgiveness and mercy for your neighbor, but also His wondrous and full mercy for you. Rev. Eric Brown is the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Herscher, Illinois.

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Compelling Reasons to Check Out the Psalms By Rev. Joshua Ulm

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he book of Psalms has more chapters than any other book of the Bible and is only behind Jeremiah and Genesis in how many words it contains, which may seem intimidating at first. Although the Psalms are lengthy, they are overflowing with promises of Christ and His forgiveness, they demonstrate countless ways for you to speak to God in a variety of situations, and sometimes they even provide insight into God’s mighty works. Whether or not you’ve delved into the depths of the Psalms consider these reasons to consistently invest time in reading them:

1. The Psalms are all about Jesus.

————————————————— Luke 24 tells us that after His resurrection Jesus gave His disciples peace and “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” As He began to do this He said,“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (v. 44). From the mouth of our Lord we are taught that all the Scriptures testify about Him (and He specifically mentioned the Psalms)! In fact, when Jesus wanted to explain what He was doing and how it fit into the grand picture of God’s love for His people, the Psalms was His go-to book. The Psalms tell us of the LORD’s anointed (Jesus), against whom the kingdoms of the earth will not triumph (Psalm 2). They tell us that the LORD will not abandon His Holy One (Jesus) to death (Psalm 16). Psalm 22 is fulfilled during Jesus’ last hours prior to His death on the cross. The Psalms speak of a good shepherd (Jesus) who shepherds His sheep through death itself (Psalm 23). The Psalms tell us that the LORD is our light and salvation (Jesus) who is our stronghold, casting out fear. Jesus is everywhere in the Psalms and finding Him is exciting! If you want to hear about Jesus and His love, check out the Psalms.

2. The Psalms immerse us in the struggles of God’s chosen people. ————————————————— Do you ever wish you could get inside someone’s head to know what

they are really thinking? The Psalms often allow us to understand more than the events of Old Testament history. We get to hear the prayers and cries of the people of God throughout time! For example, Psalm 3 puts us into the story of 2 Samuel 15:14-17 when David is fleeing his son, Absalom. 2 Samuel gives us the narrative, but Psalm 3 gives us a peek into David’s heart as he cries to God “You O Lord are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head” (Psalm 3:3). Psalm 51 shows us how David responded when confronted by Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 12. This narrative gives us a basic understanding of the story: “David fasted and went in all night on the ground” (2 Samuel 12:16). The psalm goes further and tells us what David was thinking and praying! If you want to know more about God’s grace and love for His people and understand historical Bible accounts in a fuller way, check out the Psalms.

3. The Psalms teach us how to talk to God.

————————————————— Prayer is a critical piece of the Christian life, but it also something that we often struggle with. We are sinners, and the flesh wars against us, especially when we pray (Romans 8:26). God gives us examples and patterns for prayer throughout the Scriptures, especially in the Psalms. The psalmists prayed the Psalms. The people of Israel prayed the Psalms. Jesus Himself prayed the Psalms. And Christians throughout time have prayed the Psalms. When you pray through a psalm you get the joy of joining with the saints in

prayer. The Psalms give us a catalog of names (Lord, God, Redeemer, King, Rock, Shepherd, etc.) that we can use to address God in our prayers. They provide an example of echoing God’s Word and deeds back to Him in our prayers. They give us permission to bring ALL our requests to God. They remind us that even in the worst of circumstances our prayers circle back to God and His faithfulness. If you want to grow in your prayer life, check out the Psalms.

4. There is a Psalm for most every situation.

————————————————— We’ve all been at a loss for words. When a loved one dies, we often can’t think of what to say. When we sin, we often can’t put into words just how sorry we are. When we are joyful, sometimes we are so happy we are speechless. The Psalms can give us words when we don’t know what to say. When our heart is broken, the Psalms provide words for our pain (Psalms 22, 55, 102, 126). When our heart is full of joy at God’s works, the Psalms direct our praises to Him (Psalms 66, 68, 118, 136). When we sin and want to go before the Lord in repentance, the Psalms give us words of humble contrition and comfort in God’s forgiveness (Psalms 51, 38). When Satan throws our sins at us, the Psalms give us words of forgiveness in Christ to hurl back at him (Psalms 32, 103). When we don’t understand what is going on, the Psalms give us words to question and complain in faith (Psalms 10, 13, 73). If you don’t know what or how to pray in a particular situation, check out the Psalms.

5. The Psalms never get old.

————————————————— I have mentioned that the Psalms are meant to be prayed. But they aren’t meant to be prayed just once, they are meant to be prayed over and over again. They are written to be memorized, sung, and recited day after day, month after month, year after year and have been throughout church history. As you go through your life the Psalms are with you, and at the end of your life the Psalms are there as well. There are good reasons that pastors and fellow Christians read Psalm 23 at the bedside of sick and dying Christians. First, the psalm is about Jesus, reminding us of His shepherding care even in the face of death. But second, that psalm has been there for that Christian throughout his or her life, and even when death approaches, it sounds just as sweet as the first time it was heard…maybe even sweeter. If you want enduring, faithful, words that will last you a lifetime, check out the Psalms. There are so many ways to read, sing, and pray the Psalms. Set up a reading plan, pray a Psalm each day, attend Matins or Vespers at your local congregation, or just start reading. May God bless you richly as you check out the Psalms! Rev. Joshua Ulm is the pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church in North Olmsted, Ohio. He would like to credit the inspiration to write this article to Dr. Tim Saleska at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, who taught a course on the Psalms. S U M M E R 2 0 1 9 _ 15

2019 Summer - Higher Things Magazine (with Bible Studies)