the Word at Work, the magazine of the Institute of Lutheran Theology, Epiphany 2013

Epiphany 2013, Vol. 2.1

The magazine of the Institute of Lutheran Theology

Adoration of the Magi BartolomĂŠ Esteban Murillo 17th Century

ILT

Board of Directors

G. Barry Anderson, Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court

Contents: The Word at Work p3

Beginning to See the Light

Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Baltz Pastor, St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, Galena, IL

Rev. Dr. Dennis D. Bielfeldt, Ph.D.

p4

To Be Announced!

Paul Erickson, Entrepreneur/Investor, Sioux Falls, SD

Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Baltz, D. Min.

Meet One of our Graduates

Debra Hesse, Family Farmer, Moses Lake, WA

Dale A. Swenson

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The Lifelong Learner

Dr. Doug S. Dillner, Ph.D

Dr. Hans J. Hillerbrand, Professor of Religion, Duke University Rev. Mark Richardson, Interim Service Coordinator, Augustana District, LCMC; Associate Pastor, Christ the King Lutheran Church, Hutchinson, MN Fred Schickedanz, Real Estate Developer, Calgary, Alberta Rev. Kip Tyler, Senior Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Master, Omaha, NE, and Chair of the Board

ILT

Staff

Rev. Dr. Dennis D. Bielfeldt, Ph.D. President and CEO president@ilt.org

Rev. Eric J. Swensson Marketing eswensson@ilt.org

Dr. Doug S. Dillner, Ph.D. Academic Services ddillner@ilt.org

Thomas R. Sandersfeld Development sandersfeld@ilt.org

Rev. David R. Patterson Director of Information Services and ILT Productions dpatterson@ilt.org

Marsha L. Schmit Communications mschmit@ilt.org

Rev. Timothy J. Swenson Student Services & Admissions admissions@ilt.org Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Baltz, D. Min. Evangelism and Outreach fbaltz@ilt.org

Threasa A. Hopkins Administration thopkins@ilt.org

Rev. Douglas V. Morton

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The Glad God

Rev. Dr. George H. Muedeking, D.D., Ph.D

From Christmas to the Cross

Pr. David R. Patterson

p10

Holiday Preaching

Rev. Tim J. Ryearson

p11

Necessary Ingredients!

Constance J. Sorenson

p12

The Ruins of Christendom

Rev. Timothy J. Swenson

p13

The Gift at Christmas: Christ and the Gospel in Luther's Church Postils

Rev. Eric J. Swensson

p15

Since the Beginning

Marsha L. Schmit

Four Additional Means to Support ILT in 2013 that Benefit You as Well

Mike Ridder Finances Rev. Dr. Charles L. Manske Consultant

Rev. Douglas V. Morton Theological Publications & Theological Librarian dmorton@ilt.org

Kathy Murrin Grants

Constance J. Sorenson Congregational Services csorenson@ilt.org

Carl R. Deardoff Library, Productions

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p6 The Necessity of Educating Pastor-Theologians

Denia T. Hynes Support Staff

Colleen M. Powers Library

Marsha Schmit - Managing Editor Robert Murrin - Editor Charles Kulma - Graphic Design and production

Institute of Lutheran Theology 910 4th Street, Brookings, SD 57006 Phone: 605-692-9337 • Fax: 605-692-0884 Web Site: http://www.ilt.org

Beginning to See the Light

By Rev. Dr. Dennis D. Bielfeldt President, Institute of Lutheran Theology “As the days lengthen, the weather strengthens.”

Oldtimers use to say this on the northwest Iowa farms of my youth.

I remember always being amazed by the fact that the days got colder when the light grew longer. It seemed to me that more sunshine should bring warmer air. Why the paradoxical result of colder temperatures with increasing sunshine?

I now know how it is that high pressure systems descending from the arctic affect northwest Iowa temperatures much more than the increasing angle of inclination of the sun’s rays. As it turns out, there are rather precise physical causes for this phenomenon. What seemed odd at first turns out to be wholly predictable.

In this Epiphany time of longer days, we celebrate a wholly unpredictable event: The revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus the Christ. Just as unexpected and unpredictable as the Fall of God’s creation into sin, is the reconciliation of God’s fallen creation in the God-man, Jesus Christ. Just as reason can find nothing in creation that logically implies the Fall, it can find nothing in fallen creation that implies its salvation. At one level, a paradox is simply that which counters prevailing expectation.

But there is a deeper paradox in this season of Light. It is not just that one does not expect God to unite with human flesh; reason does not help us see how it is even possible! This kind of paradox sets the head buzzing.

Men in a town can either shave themselves or go to the town’s one barber. That barber is the man who thus shaves all and only those men who don’t shave themselves. But who shaves the barber? There are two possibilities. He can either shave himself or go to the barber. (He is thus either a member of, or not a member of, the class of all men in town who don’t shave themselves.) But if he shaves himself then he is by definition not shaved by the barber; yet if he is shaved by the barber, then he doesn’t shave himself. The paradox is real because he is the barber.

Something like this is at work when considering the light of Epiphany. God is God and thus not a human being. A human being is a human being and thus is not God. Yet the divine that never can be human and the human that never can be divine are

united in one person: Jesus the Christ. This being is as impossible as the one barber of the town, who in shaving himself, is not shaved by himself, and who in not shaving himself, is shaved by himself. God, in being man, is not God and man in being God is not man. Yet in the light of Epiphany, we affirm that to be God is to be the God who is man and thus not God. Our faith is grounded in a paradoxical affirmation of a different order than mere non-expectation. Our faith rests on something that, at a logical level, simply cannot be. The light of reason is thrown back upon itself and in its darkness understands that Christ is the true light that illuminates the world; it recognizes that it is only in the darkness of reason that human beings really do begin to see the light.

Within the Institute of Lutheran Theology’s Christ School of Theology, students have opportunity to explore deeply the paradox of the Infinite becoming finite in Jesus Christ. In order to understand what reason cannot understand, students are pushed to think about what can be understood. Such an education is not new. It is, in fact, in this way very much like the education that Luther received at Erfurt. We believe that Luther got a very good education and that if theological education now was as rigorous as it was then, things in the Church would be quite different.

The old-timers knew that what was not initially expected with the weather is actually what is. Here in the Christ School of Theology we seek to unpack how that which reason rejects is what God has actually done. We believe it to be important work. To proclaim the Word in our increasingly suspicious times demands that we know exactly what it is that we are talking about.

"Therefore it is a high article to believe that this infant, born of Mary, is true God; for nobody's reason can ever accept the fact that he who created heaven and earth and is adored by the angels was born of a virgin. . . . Nobody believes it except he who also knows this faith, namely, that this child is the Lord and Savior."

-- Martin Luther, "Sermon on the Afternoon of Christmas Day 1530," Sermons I, Vol. 51 in Luther's Works.

Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959, p. 212.

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To Be Announced!

By Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Baltz Director of Evangelism and Missions I have a son who works part-time in a hardware store. He reported that some members of the local Jehovah’s Witnesses church came into the store, looked at the Christmas season decorations for sale, and said to one another in words too loud not to be overheard, that the Bible does not command us to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Now if that means there is no, “You shall celebrate the birth of Jesus,” they are right. But the minute we ask what the angels in Luke 2 were doing, we know the answer: they were celebrating—with singing! And what of the shepherds? Of course, they were celebrating, also. “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had

heard and seen, as it had been told them (Luke 2:20). The birth of Jesus is to be celebrated! What part of “good news of great joy that will be to all the people” don’t some people understand?

Just as the angels and the shepherds must be understood as celebrating, they must also be understood as announcing. As the angels appeared to tell the shepherds, the shepherds told others starting with Mary and Joseph, but not limited to them at all.

The birth of Jesus is to be celebrated, and it is also to be announced.

Meet One of Our Graduates

By Dale A. Swenson Greg Longtin is a 2012 spring recipient of the Pastoral Ministry Certificate from the Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT). He states, “I was able to take the information I used in class and immediately use it within the context of worship. I am very pleased with the quality of the education I was receiving at that level and glad that I chose ILT over other options available.” The self-described “hands-on” learner successfully employed the lessons of “Lutheran doctrine and emphasis on how you can use this as a pastor.”

For many years a call to ministry had nagged at Greg, who is fifty-one. As a youth in Crookston, Minnesota he had served the Catholic Church as an Altar Boy on a regular basis. “My first feel for a call was sometime when I was about sixteen, during the time I was an altar boy. My parents made church an important part of our lives, and we attended mass and religious studies on a regular basis,” recalls Greg. However, when he met his wife-tobe and attended a Lutheran church with her, he was impressed to find that the lay people knew a lot about their denomination and why they did most of the things they do. Greg and Judy married on September 4, 1982, and joined the Lutheran church.

“This call came back to me from time to time up to the

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point in 2009 when the urge to respond to it became impossible to hide away,” Greg notes.

In 2009 Greg and Judy sold their business of seventeen years and their house. They left church life at Hopeful Lutheran Church in Florence, Kentucky where Greg had been involved with education, council, maintenance, developing their website, and served as worship leader in various capacities and as council president during a one million dollar building addition - packed and moved to Columbia, South Carolina where Greg started toward a Masters of Divinity degree at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary-ELCA. But Greg’s discernment process found him challenging his choice of seminary. He felt called to a mission ministry and was “ready to follow where God would send [him].”

He and Judy moved away from campus housing in January of 2010 and began a part-time contract call with a small group of people who had left an ELCA church in Easley, South Carolina. The relationship blossomed into a regular contract call as of August 1, 2012 and Greg was ordained on August 25, 2012.

Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Easley, South Carolina called Greg to a parttime call (he also works at Target as a sales associate). The church was formed in January of 2010 with

ngtin

Greg Lo

Continued on page 5

The Lifelong Learner

By Dr. Doug S. Dillner Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Every morning I read the Wikipedia front page. It is a particularly enjoyable way for me to get the gray-matter energized. Each day, Wikipedia has a “Featured Article” and a “Did you know” section, both of which can transport me, along with my morning coffee, to points here, there, and everywhere, and it is usually much more enjoyable than reading about the current political skirmishes in D.C. Today, I ran across a page about Lifelong Learners. It begins, “Lifelong learning is the ‘ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated’ pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. Therefore, it not only enhances social inclusion, active citizenship and personal development, but also competitiveness and employability.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifelong_ learning, retrieved 29 November, 2012) Please allow me to take a few minutes of your time to unpack this in light of what ILT can provide.

All of the students who come to ILT appear very self-motivated to enhance their futures by learning more of God’s plan for their lives. One of our students was moved to begin taking Open Studies classes with ILT because he wanted a deeper understanding of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He did this as a way of personal development as a Lutheran Christian. Interestingly, this first step led him to make a choice to matriculate into our Master of Divinity (MDiv) program so that he could become a pastor!

Amazing where the Lord takes us, is it not? Wonderful how this hunger to learn more led this individual toward a (second) career

as a pastor through his initial choice for personal development!

I have learned that curiosity can do more than kill a cat.

Curiosity can be the first, very small step toward a whole vista of possibilities in life. Moses showed curiosity when he said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned” (Ex 3:1-3 ESV). What would have happened if he was not moved by his curiosity? Well, I am sure he would have found another way to achieve his ends. But all of us must strive to be sensitive to the nudges of God in our lives, like Moses’ curiosity with the bush.

Maybe you are curious to find out more about how to evangelize?

As you will recall, we are told—specifically—to do this in Matt 28: 18-20. Well, here is a first step; ILT is currently offering a course entitled “The Story of Evangelism.” The synopsis reads: The history of the church is to a great extent the history of its evangelism. This course follows the evangelistic activity of the church from its roots in the Old Testament through its emergence in the New Testament and on through the centuries to the present time of unprecedented conversion to the Christian faith. The story includes periods of church expansion as well as decline, movements to celebrate and events to repudiate. Theologies and practices of evangelism will be discussed, and also the related discipline of apologetics. Students will learn lessons from the successes and failures of the past for their evangelical ministry today.

Interested? It is easy. Simply sign-up as one of our “Open Studies” students and there you are! You may well find that this moves you to a new episode in your life—one, perhaps, placed before you by God? Visit our “How to Apply” section under “Students” in our menu bar at www.ILT.org, and see what enhancement God has in store for you. Are you a Lifelong Learner?

Meet One of Our Graduates, continued from page 4 about twenty-eight people. It currently has a membership of about sixty-five and worships around thirty every week.

Greg continues his education with ILT pursuing a Master of Arts in Religion degree. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Dakota (1985) in theater design (technical, production, sound, and lighting). Greg’s previous jobs include Technical Director of a theatre, Theatre/Equipment Manager for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati, Ohio,

outside sales rep for a lighting company, and owner/operator with Judy of a custom bed linens business (primarily for the boating industry). Judy has a BS degree in Consumer Clothing and Textiles from the University of North Dakota and currently works as the Embroidery Shop Supervisor at Entire Image.

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The Necessity of Educating Pastor-Theologians

By Rev. Douglas V. Morton Director of Theological Publications & Theological Librarian The word “Pastor” is Latin for a feeder, a herdsman, particularly a shepherd.1 A “Theologus” (Theologian) is one who treats of the Deity and of divine things.2 At the Institute of Lutheran Theology, we use the hyphenated term “PastorTheologian” to describe what we believe pastors are supposed to be. Possibly the closest we come to this hyphenated word in the Bible is “Pastor-Teacher” in Ephesians 4:11-16: “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love” (NASB).

The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and in the Greek text of Ephesians, the words “apostles,” “prophets,” and “evangelists,” have the definite article “the” before them. The text says, “the apostles,” “the prophets,” “the evangelists.”3 However, the Greek text containing the phrase “pastors and teachers” has the definite article (“the”) only before the word “pastors.”

This could indicate that the definite article governs both the word “pastors” and the word “teachers.” Thus, “the pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11 would be one and the same, not two separate gifts or offices. Article XIV of the Augsburg Confession recognizes the teaching function of the pastor when it states, “It is taught among us that nobody should publicly teach or preach or administer the sacraments in the church without a regular

call.”4 It is not that God gave the church “pastors,” and that he also gave the church “teachers” (although there are teachers who are not pastors), but rather that God gifted his church with those who were “Pastor-Teachers.” Australian Lutheran exegete John Strelan writes, “Pastors and teachers are not two additional groups, but one group whose work is to be teaching shepherds.”5 Shepherding God’s people means teaching God’s people. In other words, those who shepherd God’s people are to be PastorTeachers or Pastor-Theologians. A Pastor-Theologian cares for God’s people. However, included in that caring is teaching God’s people about God and divine things.

We at the Institute of Lutheran Theology exist to educate pastors who care for their people by teaching the truth of the Gospel.

In other words, we are here to educate Pastor-Theologians. So often in today’s world, the Pastoral Ministry is seen as little more than glorified social work, or as leading the congregational organization. A pastor is expected to be a “good buddy” to parishioners, someone who can counsel them and help them with their self-esteem. Also, a pastor is seen as one who can make sure the wheels of the church organization run correctly and smoothly, just like any CEO. Yet the true responsibility of a pastor (also known as elder, bishop, and presbyter) in a congregation is to be able to proclaim both Law and Gospel without mingling or confusing either,6 and to teach the people so that they no longer will “be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.” They are to teach the people so they will “grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ.”

The young pastor Timothy is told, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15; NASB). A “Bishop” (remember, this is another name for a pastor) is one who is “able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:20). Paul admonishes Timothy to “retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:13; NASB). He is called to “preach the word” (2 Timothy 4:2). And when Jesus sends his disciples out into the world, they are to disciple all people by baptizing and “teaching them” (Matthew 28:19-20).

William Smith and John Lockwood, Chambers Murray Latin-English Dictionary (Edinburg: Chambers; London: John Murray, 1976), 511.

Ibid, 754.

3 This is difficult to translate into modern English, so most English versions leave out the definite article from the text.

4 The Augsburg Confession, XIV in The Book of Concord, trans & ed. by Theodore G. Tappert. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 36.

5 John G. Strelan, Ephesians in the ChiRho Commentary Series (Adelaide, South Australia: Lutheran Publishing House, 1981), 55.

Words in bold are Strenlan’s emphasis.

6 One Nineteenth Century Lutheran Pastor-Theologian and educator of future pastors says the following concerning the importance of properly distinguishing Law and Gospel: “Rightly distinguishing the Law and the Gospel is the most difficult and the highest art of Christians in general and of theologians in particular.

It is taught only by the Holy Spirit in the school of experience.” [C.F.W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1929), 42.]

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Continued on page 7

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The Necessity of Educating Pastor-Theologians, continued from page 6 In our day and age, teaching is no longer seen as something of utmost importance for a pastor. Feelings and experience are much more important. I guess this goes along with an age that no longer believes God has spoken to us propositional7 truth, since it is believed by many that words cannot carry truth because truth is experiential and dependent upon each individual person.

In other words, what may be true for me may not be true for you, or vise-versa. James Sire notes, “The basic postmodern attitude toward belief is that a belief that fits a person is fine for that person. No story is more privileged than another.”8 Thus, for many, the Scriptures may point to truth, but they cannot express this truth in words. So, for many pastors who have been taken in by this way of thinking, the idea of being a theologian who actually teaches truth is not taken very seriously.

We take truth seriously at the Institute of Lutheran Theology.

Thus, we take the revelation of God in Scripture seriously. The late Philosopher-Theologian Francis Schaeffer noted that, since God is a personal God, and since he is the one who has created man in his image, “…there is nothing that would make it nonsense to consider that He would communicate to man in verbalized form. Why should He not communicate to man in verbalized form when He has made man a verbalizing being in his thoughts as well as in communication with other men?”9 Schaeffer continues, “Why should God not communicate propositionally to the man, the verbalizing being, whom He has made in such a way that we communicate propositionally to each other?”10 In reality, there is no relationship with anyone without some kind of communication between the parties. As author Gene Vieth says, “Merely basking in each other’s presence is not enough.

Merely feeling strongly or having strong affection for the other person is not enough. A couple has to talk with each other, not one or the other, but both partners have to talk or the relationship will die.”11 In our case, if God does not communicate himself to us, we will never actually truly live, but remain dead in our “trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Thus, God reveals and communicates himself to us by Word. He does this first in Jesus, the Word

made flesh. The Gospel of John states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1; NASB). John goes on to say, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14; NASB). According to John, this Word actually reveals or unveils God to us. “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him” (John 1:18; NASB).12 This Word made flesh comes to us in the Gospel and this Gospel is the proclaimed Word concerning Christ. Thus, Paul writes, “So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word concerning Christ” (Romans 10:17; NASB, alternate reading).

However, we must get the proclaimed Word from someplace and this comes to us through the prophets and the apostles.13 Thus, ultimately, the Living Word Jesus, who comes to us in the proclaimed Word, must come to us from the written Word of Holy Scripture. Luther himself would say: “The Holy Scripture is the Word of God, written and (as I might say) lettered and formed in letters, just as Christ is the eternal Word of God cloaked in human flesh. And just as Christ was embraced and handled by the world (in der Welt gehalten und gehandelt), so is the written Word of God too.”14 Like Luther, we at the Institute of Lutheran Theology take seriously the importance of the Word—the Word made flesh and the proclaimed Word, which are both derived from the written Word. Thus, we must take Theology seriously since theology truly is “sermo vel ratio de Deo, a word or rational discourse concerning God.”15 It is here we see the importance of the pastor being a theologian—one who speaks concerning God and divine things.

Thus, we see the ministry as much more than a “helping profession.” It is more than leadership that helps make the congregation run efficiently. The ministry is the “ministry of the Word.” When the Apostles discovered they had far too many pressing duties on their plate, they told the Jerusalem congregation to “select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task” (Acts 6:3; NASB).

7 “It is a property of propositions that they have truth values.” [ P. H. Matthews, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 300.] Thus, a proposition states something that is ether true or false.

8 James W. Sire, “On Being a Fool for Christ and an Idiot for Nobody: Logocentricity and Postmodernity,” in Christian Apologetics in the Postmodern World, ed.

by Timothy R. Phillips & Dennis L. Okholm. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 120.

9 Francis A. Schaeffer, The God Who Is There: Speaking Historic Christianity into the Twentieth Century (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1968), 92.

10 Ibid.

11 Gene Edward Veith, Why God’s Word Is All We Need (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2000), 10-11.

12 The apocryphal writer Sirach asks the following question about God: “Who has seen him and can describe him? Or who can extol him as he is?" (Sirach 43:31; NRSV). John 1:18 answers this question by stating it is Jesus, the Word made flesh, who has fully done this for us.

13 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20; ESV).

14 Quoted in E. F. Klug, From Luther to Chemnitz: On Scripture and the Word (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1971), 29.

15 Richard A. Muller, Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1985), 298.

Continued on page

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The Necessity of Educating Pastor-Theologians, continued from page 7 Why did they do this? Because the Apostles declared, “we must devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4).16 Now, words imply a message, and that message is Jesus Christ and him crucified. Words put into a sentence make propositions.

These words and the sentences they make mean something.

They convey something. Without words, our knowledge of God would be totally insufficient.

For instance, we would know little of who God truly is—and we would know nothing of what God has done for us in Christ—if it were not for the propositional word we find in the Scriptures.

True, God does have his Book of Creation, where we see evidence of God in the things he has made. If we did not have the Scriptures, the heavens would still tell us “of the glory of God” and “their expanse” would still declare to us “the work of His hands” (Psalm 19:1; NASB). We would still see God’s “invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature… through what has been made” (Romans 1:20; NASB). However, this kind of knowledge is very incomplete. Without the words of Scripture, we would not know God as the Heavenly Father who has rescued us in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. This Word made flesh comes to us through the proclaimed Word, and this proclaimed Word we get from the words of Holy Scripture. The fact is this preaching of Christ and his salvation must ultimately come from Holy Scripture if it is to be a saving word. Feelings do not cut it here. Experience can lead astray. Visions can deceive. We learn only of Jesus and what he has done for us and for our salvation through the propositional words of Scripture.

Thus, one theologian writes: “While the Christian faith centers in a Person, we are also fundamentally people of a text.”17 In other words, the proclaimed Word must have Holy Scripture as its source. Anything short of this is what Luther would call “enthusiasm,” a fanaticism that separates the Holy Spirit’s work from the “external Word.” Listen to Luther: “In short, enthusiasm clings to Adam and his descendants from the beginning to the end of the world. It is a poison implanted and inoculated in man by the old dragon, and it is the source, strength, and power of all heresy…Accordingly, we should and must constantly maintain that God will not deal with us except through his external Word and sacrament. Whatever is attributed to the Spirit apart from such Word and sacrament is of the devil.”18

Any word delivered by the pastor must ultimately be obtained not by experience, not be feeling, not by dreams, not even by philosophical speculations, but rather from God himself in Holy Scripture, if it is to be a word that builds up believers, a word that does not lead astray. In reality, a pastor who is not a theologian (in the sense of one who digs deep into the words of God in Holy Scripture in order to find the Word made flesh) is no longer in the “helping profession,” but rather is an “enthusiast” who has become a danger to the congregation.

Thus, we at the Institute of Lutheran Theology take seriously the words of God that come to us in Holy Scripture. These words deliver God to us as he has revealed himself in the Word Jesus Christ. From Holy Scripture we receive the glorious word of forgiveness given to us in Christ. For instance, look at how Scripture describes both its main message concerning Christ and its power to bring us to faith in this Christ: “And that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15; NASB). It is from these sacred writings that the pastor is able to declare an external forgiving word of Jesus. Certainly, the pastor does not always have to express this message in the exact same wording as Holy Scripture, but the message must line up with and be in agreement with Holy Scripture.

In reality, all people are theologians in one sense, since all people do some kind of thinking about God and divine things.

Even atheists are theologians, since they think and speak about how God must not exist. Since all people are theologians, this means that pastors are also theologians whether they realize it or not. Thus, the question is: What kind of theologian is the pastor?

The Institute of Lutheran Theology exists to educate pastors who understand the Word made flesh as he is found in the written Word, the only norm for our faith and life.19 The Institute of Lutheran Theology exists to educate pastors and other church workers to use the tools of research so they may dig deep into the Holy Scriptures and think through what these Scriptures say so they might have a sure word of God to speak to their congregations.

The Institute of Lutheran Theology exists also to educate pastors and others to see the importance of those in the church who have gone before us, and to discover how they interpreted this word. In particular, we are concerned that our students are taught to develop a deep understanding of the evangelical doctrine of the Gospel as we find it in the Lutheran Confessions.20

Here are the two sides of worship. First, the sacramental side (the Word), and second, the sacrificial side (Prayer). Or, as Luther said in his sermon at the dedication of Castle Church in Torgau in 1544: “[T]he purpose of this new house may be such that nothing else may ever happen in it except that our dear Lord himself may speak to us through his holy Word and we respond to him through prayer and praise.” [Martin Luther, “Sermon at the Dedication of Castle Church, Torgau 1533,” in Sermons I, Volume 51 in Luther’s Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 333.]

17 J.A.O. Preus III, “Sources of Lutheran Dogmatics: Addressing Contemporary Issues with the Historic Christian Faith,” in A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times. Edited by Michael S. Horton (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2000), 36.

18 Martin Luther, Smalcald Articles Part 3, Article 8, Paragraphs 9-10 in The Book of Concord, trans. & ed. by Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 313. Italics added for emphasis.

19 The Lutheran Formula of Concord declares: “We believe, teach, and confess that the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testament are the only rule and norm according to which all doctrines and teachers alike must be appraised and judged.” [Epitome, Part 1, Paragraph 1 in The Book of Concord, trans. & ed. by Theodore G. Tappert. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 464.]

20 While the Scriptures are the only “Norm” and “Source” from which we get our teaching, we at the Institute of Lutheran Theology believe that the Lutheran Confessions give us the Scriptural teaching as it comes from Holy Scripture.

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Continued on page 14

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The Glad God

By Rev. Dr. George H. Muedeking In every generation the Lord calls forth churchmen of extraordinary insight, wise understanding and theological discernment. The Rev. Dr. George H. Muedeking is one such churchman.

Each Sunday I am blessed by his worshipful presence in our sanctuary… and his marvelous singing voice. On a few Mondays, I am blessed again by an e-mail from this delightful brother with a profound thought or two about the previous day’s sermon. Many of you will recall George’s service to the Church Militant as editor of FOCL-POINT; editor of the Lutheran Standard, the official publication of the American Lutheran Church; and professor of Functional Theology at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. His editorial pieces for the Lutheran Standard were always filled with solid food for the hungry soul…never did his column settle for milk. In every place of service, George has sought to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, build up the Body and glorify our Father in heaven. It is my honor to know and love George as an elder in the faith and my brother in Christ. At ninety-six years of age, George has a wealth of life experience as a churchman and fully devoted follower of Jesus. I have every confidence that you will be blessed by his contributions to this magazine.

– Dr. Bruce Wilder, Senior Pastor, Faith Lutheran Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico

During Thanksgiving week I was thinking about thanking.

Among His blessings was surely that of a faithful church.

Replacement theologians were budding, taking the place of my withering ninth- decade companions.

How merciful of our Lord—and just in time. A brazen, defecting, and Bible-ignoring Lutheran institutionalism was clearly ascendant amongst us. The under-shepherds had fled the secularist encircling wolves, abandoning their flocks to clichés of doctrinal inclusivity, and replacing evangelism with social activism.

Yet a surprisingly, large band of Lutheran loyalists were emerging, demonstrating that truth would not be shoved from the throne. God had not really forsaken His people.

Evidently we do not have to grovel before an Unjust Judge, incessantly pleading that He return to His Church. This Judge, this Leader, this Head of His Body does not wait to be cajoled. How divinely guided then was I that week: I happened upon Psalm 13:5 as I did my daily Bible reading in Luther’s German Bible.

Instead of the too-familiar English rendition, “my heart rejoices in your salvation,” Luther’s daring words were: mein Herz freut sich, daß du so gerne hilfst. Yes, yes! A God who “so gerne,” so gladly, so happily, so eagerly helps! That is the God in full charge of the His people’s future. He will ever supply us with faithful, loyal under-shepherds. Thanks be to God.

From Christmas to the Cross

By Pr. David R. Patterson Director of Information Services and ILT Productions Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8, ESV).

Have you enjoyed your Christmas? Did you enjoy the presents, the parties, the songs and the food? I know I did. But in the midst of my enjoyment of the season, I can’t help but feel a little troubled about it all. Now, I’m not really bothered by the secularization of Christmas, nor its commercialization. In our

fallen world, this is just to be expected. Rather, I am troubled by how whole-heartedly we, as the Body of Christ, embrace the frivolity and the joy of the season, and then try to find a way to make it Christian. We look up with the shepherds at the angels and proclaim with them, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14).

We wish to lift the Christ child from the manger and hold Him in our arms and express our love and joy at His glorious coming.

Now there’s nothing wrong with that in and of itself, but I can’t help but feel that in our quest to make our celebrations Christian we are trying to grasp the glory of God and perhaps, if for just a short time, share in that glory.

But we read in Paul’s letter to the Philippians that “God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). This word “grasped” is the one that really troubles me. ' You see, the word we translate here as “grasped” is harpagmos which literally means “a thing seized or to be seized, booty, to deem anything a prize.” How many of us if we are honest with Continued on 10

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Holiday Preaching

By Rev. Tim J. Rynearson Faculty Member It seems like preaching on holidays should be simple. It’s the holy days! It’s the time for the church to proclaim the core of God’s Word. Jesus has come. He died for our sins. He rose to give us life now and in eternity. What could be easier than preaching on the major holidays?

Actually, as any pastor knows the holidays can be quite difficult for preaching. To begin with, pastors tend to be physically exhausted after all the preparations, the Christmas programs, perhaps the extra services. There is also the challenge of meeting people’s expectations. Once I put together a creative Christmas Eve Service that I called “reverse tenebrae.” Instead of putting out candles through the service, I had people bring candles from home, which they lit as they read one of the prophecies from Scripture of our Lord’s coming. We ended up surrounded with the Light of the World. Well, many enjoyed the service, but some who came complained that they just wanted the simple liturgy. “Why do they have to keep changing things?”

On top of all these challenges is the desire to say something new and fresh about the well-known account. As a friend of mine says, “Everyone has a good Christmas sermon; but only one sermon.” (I’m not sure if this is a challenge for the people or just an internal problem for the pastor.)

In any case, how do you preach on holidays?

One way I handled the problem during Lent was to write the Easter Sermon before Ash Wednesday. It worked really well that year, but I’m too much of a procrastinator to do that regularly!

Maybe a person could at least outline the sermon for the

culminating service of the season before the season starts.

Another way is to preach on the variety of texts that are appointed for the day. For example, at Christmas there are several worship services that could be held. We don’t do them all here so I sometimes use another one of the services for the chief service. I also have looked back at old hymnals to see what was chosen in past years to get ideas for other texts. I still always use the Christmas Gospel (and frequently from the King James Version), so I make sure we have continuity, but other texts can amplify the wonder that is Christmas.

My favorite way to preach the holiday is from different points of view. “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Luke 2:20). As Mary pondered what she had just experienced, so I like to ponder what it was like for the people in the inn, the shepherds, the angels, the people in the town, Joseph, Mary, or even God the Father. Certainly, this involves some speculation, and I need to come back to the facts of the Biblical account, but spending some time thinking about how others dealt with the birth of our Savior helps me to come up with a fresh approach to the timeless story.

Finally, it comes down to making sure that I understand - as well as my congregation - the reason for the season. Often, that phrase is used to talk about Jesus. I use it in a different way. The reason for the season is my sin, the sin of my congregation, and the sin of the world. If it weren’t for our sin, Jesus would not have had to become one of us and suffer and die in our place. It always comes back to Law and Gospel.

Difficult preaching on holidays? Sure, but not nearly as hard as what our Lord went through on those holidays!

From Christmas to the Cross, continued from page 9 ourselves are trying to seize God as our own. He is my God. When we look at the one true God, incarnate and lying in the manger, we see God in a manageable, cute, and cuddly package, one that we can take as our very own. We can do that, but it won’t help us. The baby in the manger cannot save us. The baby in the manger is helpless to save us. No, we must wait thirtythree years for Jesus to grow up. It is not the baby in the manger who can save us. It is just the route He took to get here. God the Son “made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). Here is where we are to find our savior. Not cute and cuddly in the manger, but battered and torn on the cross. This is where the glory of God is revealed to us. Not in the baby in the manger or in the choir of angels or in the adoration of the Magi, but in His suffering and death for us on the cross.

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No, don’t feel bad about enjoying your Christmas holiday. It is okay to celebrate, to give gifts, to party and sing. But remember this isn’t IT. Our faith is not based simply on the fact that God came to us and was laid in the manger. Our faith is based upon the man who suffered and died on the cross for our sins, who was raised by the Father on the third day, forever conquering the power of sin and death. This is not God in a cute and cuddly package that we can take for our very own. This faith in the man who is God dying on the cross cannot be grasped or seized by us. This faith must be given to us by the Father. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11, ESV).

Necessary Ingredients!

By Constance J. Sorenson Director of Congregational Services Being the Associate Director of DTC Relations is a good fit as equipping the saints is extremely important to me. The person in the pew - that’s you and me need to have knowledge to build up our faith and ILT’s Word at Work is specifically for that purpose. I want to share some thoughts with you that my dear friend, Dr. James Kallas, wrote a few years ago for the FOCL newsletter. Jim is now retired after serving thirteen years as New Testament professor at Cal Lutheran, Thousand Oaks, and was the former President of Dana College, Nebraska, and has just finished writing another book, Biblical Chaos, Holding Opposites Together in Tension.

He wrote: “Luther said the three ingredients of faith are notia, assensus, and fudicia. That initial step was notia, knowledge. Faith does not begin with emotion. Faith does not depend upon how we feel. Faith begins with education, awareness, knowledge, an emphasis not on how we feel, but on what Jesus did.

Thus it was that the university system, the jewel of western civilization, came into being. It was not a product of the state; it was the fruit of the church. Bologna, the oldest university in Italy, was founded by the church. Oxford and Cambridge were products for the church and the deans of the university were the dons of the cathedral. Harvard began when a Presbyterian pastor took a few boys into his home and began to train them to be evangelists for Jesus. On the seal of Dartmouth are the

words of John the Baptist, ‘a voice crying in the wilderness;’ and the word of Jesus was to be made known to the Indians of the area.

“From the beginning, this majestic crown of the Christian world was a product of the church. Centers of education were outposts of evangelism. Dedicated believers in Jesus took the most far reaching, the most all-encompassing and the vastest thing they could grasp, the universe, and they founded the university. In addition theology was the queen of the sciences.

Jesus was the center and goal of that educational adventure.

Faith began with knowledge. Christianity permeated the curriculum. It was not a fringe, not a department. The Gospel was not taught as if it were just another topic in a box along with other topics. It was itself the box! Professors were not called to be deluded by the inane assertion that truth was like a race horse, all you had to do was put competitive ideas on the track and the best would automatically win. You had to fight for what you believed in. The very name they gave the faculty, the head, was “professor!” One who professed, believed, was permeated by the truth of Jesus and that allegiance which soaked his soul would shine out in all that he said. His job was not to pat other points of view in tolerant approval, but to maintain the primacy, the exclusivity, the metaphysical and life-changing truth found in Christ Jesus alone.”

These passionate words about our early universities and schools of theology and their roots are vitally important to us. Education is the beginning of faith, and we at ILT are committed to bring that to the people in your churches. The people must know before they can assent and say, “This I believe is true” and then live their lives in total trust in Our Lord, Jesus Christ.

"Christ has two witnesses of his birth and kingdom; the one is the Scripture, the written Word; the other is the voice or the word preached orally. The same word Paul calls in 2 Cor. 4: 6, and Peter in 2 Pet. 1:19, a light and lamp."

-- Martin Luther, "The Story of This Gospel and Its Spiritual Interpretation," The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. 1.1-2. Edited by John Nicholas Lenker. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000, p. 371.

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The Ruins of Christendom

By Rev. Timothy J. Swenson Director of Student Services An Institute of Lutheran Theology Conference was held October 22-24, 2012.

Nearly fifty people gathered at the Old Sanctuary in Brookings, South Dakota for this important discussion on life in the twenty-first century, wherein Christianity does not enjoy the respect of or the establishment within our culture as it did in the opening decades of the twentieth century. Embedded in a post-modern culture, this postChristendom era shares several of its features: 1) a retreat into the self as a measure of all things, 2) a retreat away from objective truth, and 3) a retreat from the objective reality of God as a being distinct and separate from the self. Three pairs of presentations and responses stimulated much discussion from the gathered participants. The first pair— Dr. Jonathon Sorum and Dr. Jack Kilcrease—tackled the first issue of the self-retreating into the self. Here, law and gospel preaching break through this “in curvatus in se” (being curved in upon one’s self). Dr. Sorum used the writings of Phillip Reif and his concept of vias (a culture's way of being in the world at a

particular stage of its development) to lay this out for the crowd.

The second pair—Dr. Mark Hilmer and Dr. Dan Lioy—looked at how the Word of God establishes Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Dr. Hilmer surveyed the bible, drawing out Christ as the Word of God present throughout the scope of scripture. The third and last pair—Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt and Dr. George Tsakiridis—dealt with scripture’s revelation of the one true God as an objective reality who engages in theophysical causality. Dr. Bielfeldt drew on the theological and philosophical tradition, demonstrating the historical nature of having a God who creates and then acts to establish things within that creation. Much discussion ensued; the gathered crowd participated nearly as much as the paired presenters.

The conference concluded with a panel discussion about how the presentations could be applied to preaching in the parish.

At the end, the participants were gratified, knowing they’d contributed to an important conversation for addressing these post-Christendom times. The conference proceedings will be published as a journal and in DVD video format. Watch the Institute’s website for announcements this winter.

Fall Theological Conference in Brookings SD

Dr. Jack Kilcrease & Dr. Jonathan Sorum fielding questions

Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt giving a lecture at the Conference

Informal discussion between lectures

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The Gift at Christmas: Christ and the Gospel in Luther’s Church Postils

By Rev. Eric J. Swensson Director of International Partners and Marketing Now it is evident that the Gospel teaches nothing but the foregoing two things, Christ and his example and two kinds of good works, the one belonging to Christ by which we are saved through faith, the other belonging to us by which our neighbor receives help. Whosoever therefore teaches anything different from the Gospel leads people astray; and whosoever does not teach the Gospel in these two parts leads people all the more astray and is worse than the former who teaches without the Gospel, because he abuses and corrupts God's Word.

–Martin Luther, Church Postil for Christmas Day, Luke 2:1-14 “For unto you this day is born a Savior” has to be just about the most wonderful words in the world with the possible exception of “Christ is risen!” and “I love you.” Christmas is for many people the best day of the year, even more popular than Easter.

Rather than get theologically correct and tell people Christmas would not be a big deal without Easter’s “Christ is risen” let us take the time to make an evangelical point people can remember this year, and that is “For unto you.” Let me explain.

In 1521 Martin Luther received an assignment from Frederick the Elector to write a collection of sermons on the Sundays of the church year, especially the Easter Sundays. The necessity was that many of the pastors of the new evangelische church had never written a sermon and didn’t know how. In the past they were content to read the Epistle and Gospel and a sermon by someone like John Tauler. Many of those sermons were admirable but at times not evangelical. It was hoped Luther would provide good examples of what an evangelical sermon should be.

This was a significant year for evangelical history. Luther began these sermons after he had received a death warrant from the Pope and in another year he would come under the double ban with the Emperor’s condemnation. However, after that Luther would be whisked away to Wartburg where he would add some more sermons to the Postils while he was translating the New Testament into German.

In a way the Church Postils was a Christmas gift from the Elector to Christian posterity. Luther began the series with Advent and wrote some wonderful sermons where he laid out his understanding of the Gospel in most simple terms. Have you ever wondered if your sermons or the sermons you are hearing are true to Luther’s ideal? Just go to Google and read some of Luther’s Postils, then decide. One thing I noticed right away is that Luther thought the Gospel was a very specific thing

concerning the gift Christ is for each of us and how each of us is to go out and be a gift to our neighbor.

There is a sermon for each Sunday in the season of Advent and six sermons for the various services connected with the observance of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well as the special days that follow. I commend them to you to read for devotion at your leisure. Below find some excerpts to whet your appetite.

The text for the 1st Sunday in Advent was Matthew 21:1-9. In reference to Zechariah, Luther says the Church (“O Daughter Zion”) received a twofold gift from Christ. The first is faith and the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer’s heart and the second gift being Christ himself. We hear echoes of the spirituality found in his famous treatise “On Christian Liberty” which was written at the same time. Luther tells us that because of the gift of Christ himself, the Church “may glory in the blessings given

by Christ, as though everything Christ is and has were her own.

This is getting close to what we can share with others as the “real meaning of Christmas.”

In his first sermon on Christmas Day (Titus 2:11-15) we have another tip on what we can tell people why Christmas is such a wonderful thing, “The people are to be taught who Christ is, why he came and what blessings his coming brought us… Christ did not come to dwell on earth for his own advantage, but for our good. Therefore he did not retain his goodness and grace within himself. After his ascension he caused this to be proclaimed in public preaching throughout the world.”

In the next Postil (Luke 2:1-14) Luther continues to stress what makes the Gospel good news, explaining again that it contains the gift of faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit so that we might truly believe and that it is necessary that we understand that Christ is a gift. The example of Christ giving Himself for us is a gift and our being a gift by following the example of Christ is part of the Gospel. All of this is to be understood clearly first before the subject of good works is addressed.

This is the principal thing and the principal treasure in every Gospel, before any doctrine of good works can be taken out of it. Christ must above all things become our own and we become his, before we can do good works. But this cannot occur except through the faith that teaches us rightly to understand the Gospel and properly to lay hold of it. This is the only way in which Christ can be rightly known so that the conscience is satisfied and made to rejoice. Out of this grow love and praise to God who in Christ has bestowed upon us such unspeakable gifts. This gives courage to do or leave undone, and living or dying, to suffer everything that is well Continued on page 14

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The Necessity of Educating Pastor-Theologians, continued from page 8 Even more, the Institute of Lutheran Theology exists to educate pastors and others so they may understand the importance of the Gospel Word and how it relates to the everyday pastoral ministry.

“Crux sola est nostra Theologia.” This is how Martin Luther described the kind of theology taught and promoted by him and the other Reformers at Wittenberg. It is translated as, “The cross alone is our theology.”21 Ultimately, what we at the Institute of Lutheran Theology seek to do is to educate pastors and other church workers so they may understand not only the importance of theology in general, but the theology of the cross in particular.

This theology of the cross is of utmost importance in their preaching, teaching, counseling, equipping, leadership, and all other aspects of ministry. Current pastors and those who are studying for the pastoral ministry must ultimately understand what Paul means when he writes, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:20; NASB).

Martin Luther wrote that “true theology and recognition of God are in the crucified Christ.”22 In reality, only in Christ can we become true theologians, and only in Christ and him crucified do we have a sure word of God’s love and forgiveness that the world so desperately needs. This word comes to us in the

proclaimed Word, which is ultimately grounded in the written Word of Holy Scripture.

A Pastor-Theologian is ultimately one who has met the Word made flesh in this preached Word, which has its source in the written Word. It is this Word that is “inspired by God and profitable for teaching” (2 Timothy 3:16; NASB). It is this Word that delivers to us Jesus Christ and him crucified. Only a Pastor-Theologian such as this can truly deliver the one hope for the church and for the world. The Institute of Lutheran Theology exists for this purpose. In order to do this we must educate pastors who are also theologians. In particular, they must be theologians of the cross. Will you help us accomplish this task by your prayers for us, by your financial support to us, and by sending us those whom you believe God has called into the ministry of the Word? Will you partner with us so we may prepare Pastor-Theologians who can proclaim the Word made flesh as he is revealed to us in the written Word? In this way the light of the Good News may continue to shine brightly in the pulpits, classrooms, and other pastoral functions in congregations in North America and around the world.

John Nicholas Lenker, Luther’s Commentary on the First Twenty-Two Psalms, Vol. 1 (Sunbury, Pennsylvania: Lutherans in All Lands Co., 1903), 289.

Martin Luther, “Heidelberg Disputation” in Career of the Reformer: I, Volume 31 in Luther’s Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), 52.

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The Gift at Christmas: Christ and the Gospel in Luther’s Church Postils, continued from page 13 pleasing to God. This is what is meant by Isaiah 9:6, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,” to us, to us, to us is born, and to us is given this child. Therefore see to it that you do not find pleasure in the Gospel only as a history, for that is only transient; neither regard it only as an example, for it is of no value without faith; but see to it that you make this birth your own and that Christ be born in you.

So here is what I find to be the principle point and one that people can easily remember: the same way that Luther taught what is so essential for us to lay hold of concerning the meaning of Holy Communion, that each individual must believe it is also for him or her, this is how we are to understand the Gift at Christmas: “He does not simply say, Christ is born, but to you he is born, neither does he say, I bring glad tidings, but to you I bring glad tidings of great joy.”

Christ is born “for you.” This is the meaning of Christmas. Share it as the shepherds did.

We might also want to meditate on the following words from the

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Postil on Luke 2:1-14, and perhaps share it with those we gather with at Christmas. They are wise words on why it is we can come before the manger in true awe. We leave you to take this Good News into your heart deeply and tuck it away as it were, away in the manger of your heart, tucked away in safety to bring out and share at the right time: This Gospel is so clear that it requires very little explanation, but it should be well considered and taken deeply to heart; and no one will receive more benefit from it than those who, with a calm, quiet heart, banish everything else from their mind, and diligently look into it. It is just as the sun which is reflected in calm water and gives out vigorous warmth, but which cannot be so readily seen nor can it give out such warmth in water that is in roaring and rapid motion. Therefore, if you would be enlightened and warmed, if you would see the wonders of divine grace and have your heart aglow and enlightened, devout and joyful, go where you can silently meditate and lay hold of this picture deep in your heart, and you will see miracle upon miracle.

Since the Beginning

By Marsha L. Schmit Director of Communications I have been with the Institute of Lutheran Theology since the beginning and although my title has changed many times, the goal has always been the same. Getting the word out about the Institute! You see, I believe in what God is doing with ILT through the staff, educators, congregations and people like you who support the Institute through prayer and financial contributions.

In 2005, I was working part-time for the WordAlone (WA) Network. At the annual convention, President Jaynan Clark asked Pr. Randy Freund and Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt, then WA Board members, to draft a resolution for a possible WA House of Studies. It was proposed to and passed by the convention that a task force be appointed by the Board to work

on creating a plan for this Lutheran House of Studies. The task force introduced their proposal at the 2006 annual convention, and it was adopted. Many questions such as where this HoS would be located, whether or not it would be accredited, etc. needed answering but then the work began within the WA Network. Pr. Freund and Dr. Bielfeldt began their part-time work as WA staff for what is now the Institute of Lutheran Theology. They were joined by Nikki Berreth who was hired to be the administrator, and Pr. Freund and I contacted congregations encouraging them to become Designated Teaching Centers (DTC’s). I also started collecting names, addresses and emails and putting together the Word at Work newsletter. The part-time staff grew and so did the Institute. We currently have twelve staff members and countless others working to help ILT grow. The Institute of Lutheran Theology - a small beginning, significant changes, your prayers and contributions, and unbelievable growth.

God is good!

Four Additional Means to Support ILT in 2013 that Benefit You as Well 1. How can life insurance be used to benefit ILT? Making a charitable bequest (giving assets to ILT) is the simplest way to make a planned gift. You can specify in your will the amount or percentage of assets that are to pass to the ILT. Your estate will receive an estate tax deduction for the bequest. There is no limit on the amount of the charitable gift made by bequest, or on the amount that can be deducted for estate tax purposes.

2. I would like to give property to ILT, but continue to live in it during my lifetime. Is that possible?

Yes. You can deed your home, farm or your recreational home to ILT now, reserving the right to live there for the rest of your life. You would have the comfort of knowing that some day ILT will benefit from the value of your property without having to wait for a probate proceeding. You also would receive an income tax deduction the next time you file your taxes. During your life, you would continue to enjoy use of the property or rental income (if you choose to rent it out). You would continue to pay for the costs of maintenance, insurance and property taxes. At the time of your death, the property would be sold for the benefit of the ILT’s Endowment Fund.

Our Endowment Fund is located at the Lutheran Community Foundation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Foundation can give you more information on how this type of gift might work for you.

You can reach the Foundation at 1-800-365-4172.

3. Can I receive a charitable tax deduction for giving gifts of securities?

first bought it, and you have held those securities for more than one year, you can make a gift at a significant discount to you.

For example, assume that you paid $3,000 for stock in Acme Company six years ago, and that stock is now worth $8,000. If you sell the stock for $8,000, you would net about $7,000, if you are in a 20% capital gains tax bracket. If you then gave that money to the ILT’s Endowment Fund, you would receive an income tax deduction of $7,000.

4. How can we support ILT and supplement income with a gift annuity?

Some benefits of a charitable gift annuity: There are several reasons for choosing a charitable gift annuity: • Your charitable gift annuity can be established with $10,000 or more with a gift of cash, publicly traded securities or mutual funds.

• You receive ongoing quarterly payments that remain constant for your lifetime, regardless of shifts in the economy.

• Beneficiaries can be one or two people, even relatives or friends.

The ongoing payment amount depends on the gift size, the age of the payment.

Please call us for information on how we can help you with any of these. We have an Endowment Fund staffed with professionals in their field to help as well.

Yes. In fact, if your gift of stock or bonds has appreciated since you

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