W W W. H I G H E RT H I N G S . O R G
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WINTER
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Contents T A B L E
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6
O F
A Meditation for the Feast of Sts. Adam and Eve By Rev. Heath R. Curtis
HigherThings
An unusual encounter with a vicar’s cat leads to some startling revelations late one Christmas Eve.
Volume 4/Number 4 Winter 2004
Mary, the Mother of God By Sandra Ostapowich
Executive Editor REV. TODD PEPERKORN
Whoa! Wait a minute—can we refer to Mary as the mother of God? Sandra Ostapowich examines this seemingly small point of theology and finds rich meaning in understanding the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7
Putting the MASS Back in Christmass By Rev. George Borghardt III “Jesus is the reason for the season” and “Keep Christ in Christmas!” are familiar sayings at Christmastime. But what about keeping the “mass” in Christmas? Pastor Borghardt explains what the other half of the word “Christmas” is all about.
8
Does God Discriminate against Women? By Rev. Dwight Hellmers In a letter from a father to a daughter, Pastor Dwight Hellmers addresses some questions about issues that reflect on women, the Bible, and feminism.
11 If You Give a Mouse a Swimming Pool . . . By Kathy Luder A Thanksgiving dinner which begins with high hopes and gourmet grandeur ends up with some lessons about thankfulness and swimming mice.
13 Registration information for the 2005 Dare to be Lutheran conference in St. Louis, Missouri. 17 I Met This Great Girl Online By Rev. Alan Kornacki, Jr. With nearly 1 billion Internet users worldwide, stories of crime and abuse of this tool increase as usage increases. But many also have positive experiences. Read about one pastor’s experience and how—with much care and caution—the internet can be a place to meet some wonderful people.
20 The Business of Killing By Michael Todd Fieberkorn Fieberkorn, a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force, shares his experiences as a commissioned officer in the armed forces and reflects on his vocation as a soldier.
22 Have a Material Christmas By Dr. Gene Edward Veith God became flesh in Jesus Christ and was born into this world as a baby to suffer and die on the cross and rise physically from the dead. Are these basic truths of Christianity contrary to popular beliefs today as portrayed in books like The Da Vindi Code? Read Veith’s latest column to explore this very important topic.
COLUMNS 23 Letters We Wish People would Write to the Editor 25 Ex Cathedra In this issue, Ex gives advice on great pick-up lines and how to make plans after graduating from high school. Check it out!
26 The Catechism: An American Christmas By Rev. David Petersen
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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Mary, the Mother of God By Sandra Ostapowich
H
old up. God has a mother? Isn’t that another one of those idolatrous Roman Catholic doctrines that Lutherans reject? No way is Mary that special, and no way does God have a mother. Mary is only the mother of Jesus, only mother to Christ.The mother of God? That’s just taking things too far…right?
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Well, we’re Lutherans. What does it mean to say that Mary is the mother of God? Most importantly it means that God became man and entered this world to save us from our sins exactly the same way that the rest of us normal humans do—through the wombs of our mothers. God didn’t humble Himself a little bit and become a semi-man, semi-divine being like the false gods of other religions.The infinite, almighty, eternal God became a tiny, helpless, vulnerable baby Boy to die for you. To say that Mary is the mother of God is to say that Jesus is fully man and fully God, just like we confess in the creeds. He’s not partly man and partly God with cool divine super powers and minor human flaws. He isn’t a god who just looks like a man. He really is a man and He really is God. The catechism teaches that Jesus is,“True God, begotten of His Father from all eternity, and true man, born of the Virgin Mary.” He is true God, without beginning or end, just as divine as the Father and the Spirit. And He is also True Man, right down to being born from a mom, just like every other little baby born on this earth since Cain and Abel. So what’s the problem? The problem is that we’d much rather that God stayed up in heaven where we think He belongs, putting His nose only in the business we want Him to, never noticing our sins. We prefer a god who isn’t like us at all, who is completely foreign, even alien to us. We want a god who doesn’t have a mother, a god who doesn’t suffer, and most definitely a god who doesn’t die.
But thank God that isn’t the kind of God we have! We have the only God there is, who is God in the flesh, the One who gave us Himself. God is one of us so that people could not only touch God, but beat God, and drive nails into God’s hands and feet to hang God upon a cross to die.Yes, Jesus, Mary’s Son, God in the flesh was so fully man that, on Good Friday, God died on the cross for your sins and mine. When Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, the grave was empty. God didn’t just become a disembodied ghost when He rose, leaving His dead humanity in the tomb to rot and decay. His body rose from the dead too.Thomas put his hand in the resurrected and glorified flesh of His wounds. And when God ascended into heaven, He didn’t just float out of His body.The disciples watched Him go up into the sky as far as they could see until the clouds blocked their view. Jesus, God the Son, seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty is still fully man and fully God. In 451 AD, the Council of Chalcedon confessed Mary to not simply be the bearer of Christ (christokos), but the bearer of God Himself (theotokos). Thank God, since this is what Scripture says! It is Mary’s Son who is special, not Mary. Her Son is Jesus, God Incarnate, Savior of the world. Mary is His mother, the mother of God. Sandra Ostapowich lives in Plymouth, MN with her son, Isaac, and is a member at University Lutheran Chapel in Minneapolis.
Putting the
Mass
back in “Christmas”!
ou’ve heard the expression,“Keep Christ in Christmas,” haven’t you? That couldn’t be more true! The world has no problem talking about “God” at Christmastime, but wants to find God somewhere else other than on earth, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying and sleeping in a manger. For us, the big deal about Christmas is that Jesus has come into the flesh. We most definitely should keep Christ in Christmas!
Y
But no one ever says not to take the “mass” out of Christmas, do they? What does the “mass” mean? Did your Lutheran alarm go off when you first read the word “mass”? Did you think,“That’s Roman Catholic”? That’s not a bad thing to think for we have many disagreements with the doctrines of the Roman Mass. But we Lutherans do celebrate mass every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.The Divine Service in our hymnal flows from Luther’s Deustche Messe, his German Mass. When the “mass” is celebrated by Lutherans, this means simply that the Lord Jesus gives us what He won on the cross by grace alone at His Supper. So we are gathered together by our Lord Jesus on December 25 to celebrate the Mass of Christ. What’s the connection between Jesus being born in the manger and the Lord giving us His Body and Blood in the Sacrament? Answer: everything! Christmas is the church feast where we remember that the Babe of Bethlehem is born not to stay in the manger, but to go to Jerusalem. Mary’s Boy is born to die, born to be sacrificed for your sins and mine on the cross. He reconciles God and sinners by giving His life for the sin of the world. But we can’t go back to the manger
that first Christmas Day no matter how hard we try. Nor can we go back to the cross when grown-up Jesus died on Good Friday. Nor will we find Jesus there! So what does Jesus do? Christmas is the day when the Babe of Bethlehem comes to us not in the manger but in His Body and Blood at the Sacrament. Jesus came that first Christmas not in heavenly splendor, but wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger. He was born so down-to-earth, so one of us, so ordinary. He came to earth not with thunder and lightning, but humble, meek, and lowly. Jesus is God with us, God one of us, God for us.
By Rev. George F. Borghardt III Jesus comes to you at Christmas not in heavenly splendor. He comes to you in ordinary, down-to-earth bread and wine. He comes not with thunder and lighting, but with the forgiveness of sins put into your mouth. Dr. Luther said it this way, “If now I seek the forgiveness of sins, I do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there… But I will find in the sacrament or Gospel the word which distributes, presents, offers, and gives to me that forgiveness which was won on the Cross” (AE 40, 214). We don’t go to the manger to find God on Christmas; we go to the Sacrament where God delivers Himself to us, into our mouths, in, with, and under the bread and wine. But don’t we have the Lord’s Supper often and not just on Christmas? Yes! The good Lutheran question is,“What does that mean?” It means that every celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a Christmas celebration! Our Lord Jesus loves us that much that He gives us His Body and Blood not just on Christmas, but every Divine Service. Don’t let anyone take Christ out of Christmas. And don’t let anyone take the Lord’s Supper out of Christmas either! Jesus desires to come to you in His Supper. This Christmas, He breaks into your world, not wrapped in swaddling clothes, but bearing His salvation in His Body and Blood given and shed for you for the remission of all your sins. Take Eat, His Body. Take Drink, His Blood. A blessed and merry Christ’s Mass to you! Rev. George F. Borghardt III is the assistant pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Conroe,Texas.
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The Business of
“Get in step,
soldier!”
I heard the cadre member call out.
“I’ve never been called that before,” I thought to myself. I was scared, nervous, and anxious. I was taking the traditional first steps of a basic cadet entering the United States Air Force Academy—marching with others in formation up the “Bring Me Men” ramp to the place I would call home for the next four years. It felt awkward at first—the yelling, the marching, the uniforms. Though I didn’t think much about it then, those were the first steps I took towards entering the profession of arms. As a
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By Michael Todd Fieberkorn
Killing member of the United States military, my vocation would be filled with duties ultimately related to the killing others. Five years later I am now a commissioned officer, a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force. Since those initial steps onto the Academy’s terrazzo area, I have often reflected on the nature of the profession I have entered. In simple reality, the ultimate goals of a military officer are to meet strategic national objectives, which almost inevitably means taking life in the process. What’s it like to know that the job I go to every day is responsible for killing people? What goes through the Christian soldier’s mind as he takes life under the orders of his nation’s military? After all, doesn’t the Bible contain the commandment,“Thou shalt not kill?” As the global war on terrorism rages, we constantly face the realities war brings. Each day we receive news of another loss of life, another battle, another conflict. Is war justified? Is taking life in war breaking the Fifth Commandment? These are good questions for Christians to ask, and good questions for Christians to be able to answer. First, it is good to make a distinction between the word “kill” and the word “murder.”The Bible does not explicitly forbid all kinds of killing; the word used in the Fifth Commandment is the Hebrew word for “murder.”We can all understand the distinction between killing in war and murdering a person. What is forbidden in Moses’ law is murdering. It is important for all Christians to realize that God uses armies of nations on earth to carry out His own objectives among us.The soldier’s job is a vocation God uses just like the farmer or the plumber. He works through the farmer to feed us, through the plumber to fix sinks. God uses the soldier to provide safety and wage war. We read in Romans,“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is not authority except that which
God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (13:1).“For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong… for he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment to the wrongdoer” (13:3a,4). Notice that all in authority are there because of God’s providence. The leaders of our nation and the leaders of our armed forces have a divine appointment from God. They are his agents to protect us and to “bear the sword,” punishing evildoers. People have posed the question over the years about whether a Christian can be a soldier. Is the military a valid profession for the Christian man or woman? Some pacifist groups and faith traditions believe all war is wrong. Some argue that waging war and killing is incompatible with Christianity, and that no solider could really have saving faith. It was enough of an issue in Luther’s day that he wrote an entire treatise on the subject, Whether Soldiers Too May Be Saved. Luther’s answer and our answer is “Yes.” Reference a conversation Jesus has with a Roman centurion in the gospel of Luke: Jesus encounters a humble centurion and, after hearing what he has to say, tells a crowd,“I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel” (7:9). Make no mistake about it. Uniformed men and women serving in our military today are in the business of killing people. And yes, many of these men and women, like me, are Christians. We carry out our vocation in confidence, knowing we work for God and under His authority. In the spiritual kingdom, we are Christians saved by grace, called to love our neighbors, and save the lost. In the earthly kingdom, we are soldiers armed and ready, called to protect the innocent and provide justice by bringing God’s wrath upon those who do evil. It is a unique and honorable calling, serving as God’s agents on earth, a member of the armed forces. Michael Todd Fieberkorn is a Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force and is currently serving as an Acquisitions Officer at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH, where he resides with his wife Angela. His current assignment includes managing the development of new technology for Global Hawk, and unmanned aerial vehicle currently employed in the Global War on Terrorism.
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