• Learning to See the Devil
and Praise Christ
• What Are You Worth? • Really Receiving
D A R E
T O
B E
L U T H E R A N
Higher Things
Inside this issue:
W W W. H I G H E RT H I N G S . O R G
/ FA L L / 2009
Worship, Theology, and Roller Coasters… Where do I sign up?
www.ctsfw.edu/christacademy H I G H E R
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Join guys like you, guys who have been encouraged to consider serving the Church as a pastor.
✠ Worship together ✠ Study together ✠ Play together
For more information about Christ Academy, please call us at 1-800-481-2155. You can also find information at the seminary’s Web site www.ctsfw.edu/christacademy or e-mail christacademy@ctsfw.edu June 20–July 3, 2010 Concordia Theological Seminary ✠ 6600 N. Clinton St. ✠ Fort Wayne, IN 46825
Contents T A B L E
O F
FEATURES 4
6
A Love for Life
By Mr. Dennis Di Mauro You might have heard someone say it before:“I know the Church opposes abortion, but why exactly? That word isn’t even used in the Bible!” So, is that true or not? Mr. Di Mauro breaks down the history of the argument against abortion and gives you some helpful tools in giving a faithful testament to the sanctity of human life.
Really Receiving
By Ms. Sandra Ostapowich Is God sexist? After all, He said only men can be pastors.That doesn’t seem fair. But is it about fairness, or is God talking about something better? Ms. Ostapowich explains why God gave the Office of the Holy Ministry to men alone.
10 The Easy Steal
By Mrs. Emily Olson Let’s face it: writing papers for school can be a chore.There’s the research, the writing, the proofreading . . . yawn. But wait.There’s Wikipedia and Google and SparkNotes too! After your teacher has read the forty-seventh essay on The Scarlet Letter, will she even notice that you stole a line from a Web site here and there? Mrs. Olson talks frankly about cheating on homework.
12 Worth
By Rev. Tim Pauls Does saying you’re a poor, miserable sinner help your self-worth? A lot of people say,“No! It hurts.” But what does God say? After a few tangles with the Ustabe Lutherans, Pastor Pauls tells how, in Christ, you’re worth an awful lot.
14 Happy Being Grounded
By Rev. George Borghardt III There’s no worse feeling than getting caught by your parents doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing.There goes your car, your phone, the Wii.You are so, so busted. But there’s hope.Your parents still love you. And that, as Pastor Borghardt explains, is really just God doing what He does best: forgiving.
20 Gritty Love
By Mr. A. Trevor Sutton “My religious vocation somehow draws the sorority sisters to me.” If that quote doesn’t make you want to read on, Mr. Sutton talks about what to do when love hurts, life is painful, break-ups occur, everybody knows, and it seems as though the world is over. (Hint: the love of Jesus isn’t quite so fickle at all.)
Volume 9/Number 3 • Fall 2009
24 Learning to See the Devil and Praise Christ
By Rev. Esko Murto If you’ve ever wondered,“Why do bad things happen to good people?” your answer probably wasn’t,“It’s the work of the devil.” But Dr. Martin Luther understood just how dangerous and evil the devil is, and he wasn’t afraid to say so. He also knew that hearing the Word, receiving the Sacraments, and praying helps to fight the devil. Pastor Murto gets real on just how powerful the devil is and how merciful our Lord is.
26 POW!
By Miss Adriane Dorr Your confirmation day is supposed to be memorable.There’s usually a lot of cake, your smiling family, and a few presents to open. But there’s never, ever supposed to be slapping involved . . . and certainly not by your pastor! Miss Dorr got slapped on her confirmation day. It’s true. Read on to find out why.
COLUMNS
22 Christ on Campus: What’s the Rush?
By Rev. Marcus Zill Fraternities, sororities, pledges, rush week,Taco Bell, all-nighters: congratulations! You’ve made it to college. But before you sign your life away to organizations you know nothing about and frat houses you’ve never been in, know before you pledge. If you’re heading out to college soon, you’ll want to read Pastor Zill’s warning against making oaths that disobey the Second Commandment.
28 I Am Not Ashamed of the Law
Rev. David Petersen Talking about the Law isn’t all that enjoyable. After all, it shows us our sin, and none of us likes to be reminded of how awful we are. But hold that thought. Pastor Petersen is here to tell us how the Law also reminds us of how worthless are our attempts to win our own salvation and just how badly we need a Savior.
HigherThings Volume 9/Number 3/Fall 2009 Editor REV. TIM
PAULS
Managing Editor ADRIANE DORR Art Director
STEVE BLAKEY Editorial Associates
REV. GREG ALMS REV. PAUL BEISEL REV. BART DAY Business Manager KEN SCHULTZ Financial Manager
CONNIE BRAMMEIER Subscriptions Manager
ELIZABETH CARLSON Webmaster STAN LEMON
“Men may rise on stepping stones Of their dead selves to higher things.” – Alfred, Lord Tennyson ___________ Christ on Campus Executive REV. MARCUS ZILL
Conferences Executive REV. GEORGE BORGHARDT
III
Internet Services Executive REV. MARK BUETOW Publications Executive CAROLYN COCKEY
___________
Board of Directors President REV. WILLIAM
CWIRLA
Secretary SANDRA OSTAPOWICH
REV. JOEL FRITSCHE REV. DAVID KIND REV. BRENT KUHLMANN SUE PELLEGRINI JEFF SCHWARZ KEN SCHULTZ ___________ Higher Things Magazine ISSN 1539-8455 is published quarterly by Higher Things, Inc., 5009 Cassia, Boise, ID 83705. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the executive editor of Higher Things Magazine. Copyright 2009. Printed in the United States. Postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri. For subscription information and questions, call 1-888-448-2359 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 http://higherthings.org/magazine/writers.html for writers’ guidelines and theme lists.
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by Sandra Ostapowich
H I G H E R
Really Receiving
(Among others,The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod has faithfully confessed that only men may serve in the Office of the Holy Ministry. Popular? No. Scriptural? Yes.With Ephesians 5:22–32 never far away, Ms. Ostapowich writes about women and the pastoral office. –Ed.)
I’d have made an awesome pastor. At least, that’s what I once thought. It was pretty much the only thing I could think of becoming when I grew up. It totally made sense. After all, I was a huge church nerd. It wasn’t even enough for me to go to and do everything I possibly could at my own church. I went to my friend’s church youth group and Bible studies before school too. Naturally, I believed that the Lord was calling me to be a pastor. Boy, was I wrong! God making me female should’ve been my first clue. It may be an astonishingly obvious statement, but men and women are very different. Not only is there the whole anatomy thing, but there are a plethora of vocations that go along with being one or the other. For example, a man can’t ever be a mother. God has set it up for men to be fathers instead. And He only calls men to be pastors. It’s not because men are somehow better than women. Scripture actually teaches that to illustrate Christ’s love for the Church, women were created for men to take care of and serve. And the vocation of pastor is perhaps the most servant-oriented in the Church. When we walk into a room, we tend to think of the person standing up front wearing the fancy clothes as the one in charge.That’s where the buck stops. He talks, and people listen. Not so when it comes to the Church. The guy up front, the pastor, doesn’t get to say or do anything simply because he wants to.The only true authority a pastor has is the Lord’s. He says as much in the Absolution: “As a called and ordained servant of the Word.” It’s not like he’s the lead singer of a band or the lecturer at a personal growth seminar while we in the audience sit in awe of him and his glinty-toothed, dynamic amazingness. Remember, we’re at church on Sunday mornings to be served by God through His Word and Sacraments.That’s why it’s called the Divine Service. The Lord Himself instituted the vocation of pastor to deliver His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Christ to us. It’s kind of like a pizza delivery guy, only with Word and Sacraments instead of the pizza. My mistake was that I thought being a pastor was just about being that person up front and center, leading a service, preaching a sermon, communing, and teaching people about Jesus. But I was looking only at the outward aspects of being a pastor, as though it was like any other job. I liked doing all those things and figured that with enough education and practice I could do them well enough to be a professional pastor. But vocations don’t work that way.The Lord gives us people to serve in all sorts of ways whether or not we think we’re good at it, have the training, or even want to do it, but because His Gospel will be proclaimed through us to those our vocations serve. Being a decent speaker, educated in theology, and reasonably able-bodied
doesn’t mean anyone should be a pastor—male or female—but being a man to whom the Lord has called and given the vocation of pastor does. God has set them up to be the providers, the protectors, the sacrificers.The rest of us receive. No doubt you’ve heard the saying, “It’s better to give than to receive.” It’s generally a good idea to put someone else before ourselves, considering others’ needs more important than our desires. But when we’re dealing with God, there’s nothing we can possibly give Him that He needs. He really is the One it’s impossible to find a gift for because He already has everything. He is the One who has the gifts for us. The Church is the Bride of Christ; she is the one the gifts are for. She perfectly and faithfully receives all that Jesus has to give her, and she knows without a doubt that she is the most beautiful, perfect, sinless, blemish-free, beloved woman in His whole entire universe. His Word and Sacraments make it so! She trusts her Bridegroom, Jesus, to always do what is best for her, even giving His own life in the process. Not only are we women part of the Church, but the Bride of Christ is the perfect icon of Christian femininity as well.Yes, we have ways that we serve others through our other vocations. We are daughters, sisters, classmates, teammates, friends, girlfriends, citizens, neighbors, babysitters—and maybe even one day, wives and mothers and grandmothers and great-grandmothers. We even serve others at church in all sorts of ways. But first, and most importantly, we receive. Receiving means trusting that what you’re receiving is ultimately for your good and to bring you to Christ. It means knowing that the Lord takes care of you through the men He’s given to serve you and sacrifice for you. There’s no way we can do any of that on our own, no matter how much we try. In fact, Luther tells us that faith is really nothing more than receiving gifts from God. The life of faith is all about receiving. So it makes sense that the Lord would, in His infinite wisdom, create woman to receive all the gifts He has for her in His Word and Sacraments and from the men He sets apart to stand in the place of His Son and deliver them not just to her but to the whole Christian Church: His Bride. So while the world might argue that women would make awesome pastors, we’re so much better off being women. Sandra Ostapowich is the Secretary of the Higher Things Board of Directors. She serves as the Christian Education and Youth Director at Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Loveland, Colorado.You can e-mail questions and comments to her at ostapowich@higherthings.org.
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So You Got Yourself
Grounded. Now What? By Rev. George Borghardt III
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You did that thing that you did, and you thought you got away with it, but you didn’t.You were late; your parents were there waiting.They read your e-mail and found out that you did that with you-know-who, and they weren’t very pleased at all.You drank that, you smoked that, you did that, and you are sooo busted. They met, they decided, they ruled.You’re pretty much grounded until the Lord returns. So, now you’re sitting in your room with or without your phone and your iPod, depending upon the ruling of the parental counsel. What about Jesus? You’re always given to ask that question. Does your faith in Him have anything to say about your sitting in your room? Yes! In fact, how you handle being grounded says as much about your faith and salvation as how you got yourself into the predicament that got you grounded in the first place. First, who put you in your room? God did. He did through your parents. When you deal with Mom and Dad as a son or daughter, you are dealing with God.That’s the Fourth Commandment. God gave Mom and Dad to you to speak through them. Yes, your parents sometimes fail to measure up to what God would have them be.They may raise their voices or get mean.They can be too harsh.They can say things just to enrage you. If parents are peeking over your shoulder as you read this, this is where I tell them,“Repent.” But it’s not your place to tell Mom and Dad where they are wrong when you are the one that did wrong here.You sinned. You failed.You know you did.You did what they told you not to do. When you did that, whether or not there was a Word of God saying,“Thou shalt not go to that party” doesn’t matter. They speak for God.They are the voice of God for you. When you failed them, you failed Him.That’s that Commandment number 4 again, isn’t it? You see, God’s Law doesn’t care why we do what we do. It doesn’t care about exceptions. It only cares about obedience. We didn’t do what we should do and did do what we were commanded by God not to do. So, leave your explanations behind.They won’t save you. No, only Jesus saves you from your sins.You don’t hide your sins from Him. Don’t hide them from Mom and Dad. Be completely honest with them. Remember that they are in the place of God for you.Tell them exactly what happened, even the stuff they don’t know that you got away with.Tell them everything.They’ve been around and back again, and you might be surprised how compassionate they can be. And don’t get distracted by how they found out what you did. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t delete the e-mail, and they read it in the recycling bin. It doesn’t matter that they went through your stuff. If you hadn’t done wrong, if you had been trustworthy, they wouldn’t have had to do that. Set all of that aside.You messed up.You sinned. Confess what you’ve done to them and to Him. Hold nothing back. Empty it all out, and ask for forgiveness.
Forgiveness: that’s where Jesus breaks into the world where we sin and get grounded, where He comes to us as parents and teenagers, and delivers to us what He did for us on the cross. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” Don’t stop until you’re empty and all that you have is “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”That’s where we confess our sins and trust God for mercy in Christ. You see, being in Christ is no guarantee we’ll live perfect lives.We’ve all messed up, sinned, and fallen short of what God expects of us in His Law. Being a Christian is being washed of what you’ve done wrong, forgiven of the evil you do. “I forgive you.”That’s Mom and Dad’s word for you.That’s what God has for you. He has forgiveness. He has mercy. He has grace. That “I forgive you” probably isn’t going to get you out of solitary confinement or your unlimited Xbox time back.You’ve lost that for a while.That’s not what your heavenly Father was after anyway. He wants that “I forgive you” to bring your relationship with your parents and God back to where it should be: centered solely on Jesus. Your parents forgive you. Cling to that word. It’s God speaking and forgiving through your mom and dad.They forgive you. God forgives you too.Trust that word of forgiveness. And if you are still troubled by what got you thrown into your room, ask Dad to take you to see your pastor.Your pastor will announce to you the Lord’s forgiveness in Holy Absolution.That forgiveness, spoken by God’s called servant, is just as valid and certain as if Christ your dear Lord dealt with you Himself. It’s the same forgiveness that Mom and Dad gave you.The only forgiveness that saves is in Jesus. But, if you need to hear God’s servant forgive you in Jesus’ name, don’t sit there troubled. Hear it from Jesus’ mouth through your pastor. Then, back to your room you go, but this time forgiven.This time, you are restored to God and to Mom and Dad, freed from what you’ve done. Long after you’re out of your room on either good behavior or time served, you’ll look back and thank God for being grounded. God saved you from what you were doing. He showed you His grace in Christ Jesus. And He restored you. He really does love you that much in Christ. Happy being grounded! It’s a gift to be caught but a greater gift to be caught and forgiven. Rev. George Borghardt III is the Associate/ Youth Pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Conroe,Texas. He also serves as the Conference Executive for Higher Things.
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