CHI Award: Dr. Rast

Photo courtesy Concordia Historical Institute.

Congratulations, President Rast! Concordia Historical Institute (CHI) recently held their 2018 Awards Banquet and our very own Rev. Dr. Lawrence R. Rast, Jr. received the 2018 Award of Commendation in recognition of his contribution to the field of Lutheran archives and history, specifically for the article, “Reflections on the Effects of the Reformation in American Lutheranism.”
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The article appeared in CHI’s quarterly publication, CHIQ, in the Fall 2017 issue (Volume 90, No. 3). You can purchase a copy of the full issue or just a pdf of the article here: https://concordiahistoricalinstitute.org/concordia-historical-institute-quarterly/.

MDiv Call

James A. Neuendorf received his call today during chapel. He has been placed with the Board of International Mission (St. Louis, MO, Missouri District) as a missionary to Puerto Rico.

James’ path through the Seminary looks quite a bit different than that of his fellow seminarians. He and his wife, Christel, were serving as career missionaries in the Dominican Republic when he began his studies to earn an MDiv. However, the mission did not want to lose him in the field, so his degree was scheduled to take six years to complete: distance education (and the occasional intensives in Fort Wayne) and vicarage for four years while in the Dominican Republic, then two years on campus to complete his MDiv.

I did it in a year and change,” he said, referring to his on-campus time. “So I guess I was at the Seminary both longer than usual, but shorter than planned. It was pretty intense.” He did it so that he and his wife could return to the mission field full-time as soon as possible. Christel remained a career missionary to the Dominican Republic while he focused on studying (she split her time between the two countries), though she was also recently transferred to Puerto Rico in anticipation of James’ call.

In the final words of the “Charge to the Candidate,” spoken today by Dr. Gieschen:

“The Lord bless thee from on high, and make thee a blessing to many, that thou mayest bring forth fruit, and thy fruit may remain unto eternal life. Amen.”

James Neuendorf receives his call papers from Dr. Gieschen as Dr. Pulse (who announced his placement) looks on from the pulpit.

Convocation: Lutheranism in Latvia

The preacher for daily chapel this morning was the Rev. Romans Kurpnieks-Logins, a pastor and District Dean from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia (ELCL). His accent, you may have noticed, is very strong. “I think in Latvia, and then translates in English,” he explained during yesterday’s hour-long convocation on the challenges and opportunities for proclaiming the Gospel in Latvia’s post-soviet and post-modern culture. He has been here on campus with us for the fall quarter as he studies for his Master of Sacred Theology (STM), and will be returning at the end of this week to his family and congregations in his home country.

Latvia’s oldest cathedral is over 800 years old and was built by the Roman Catholic Church, but the country’s cultural identity is Lutheran and can be traced back to the Reformation. “Riga,” Rev. Kurpnieks said, speaking of Latvia’s capital city in the early 1500s, “decided very quickly to be Lutheran.” It happened one day that the Roman Catholic monastery held a procession outside of the city walls, opening the large, heavy gates (times were dangerous in the 16th century and the gates were a necessary security measure) to let themselves out. “They went out to have procession, city government closed the doors on them, and that’s how Lutheranism came to Latvia,” Rev. Kurpnieks explained succinctly.

The ELCL is the largest denomination in Latvia (followed by Roman Catholicism and then the Russian Orthodox Church), and the only Lutheran church body in the country. “Just one Lutheran church in Latvia, so you don’t need to say confessional or conservative,” Rev. Kurpnieks said, describing the difference in Lutheran identity in Latvia as compared to the United States and other nations. “I thought every church, congregation, and pastor use incense.”

However, in becoming a pastor and then a District Dean, Rev. Kurpnieks’s world widened and he found that it wasn’t so. “I discovered that the Lutheran world is not only in Latvia or congregation where I am, but is much larger with many, many problems.” The ELCL is in association with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), whose doctrine aligns similarly with the theological liberalism of the ELCA here in America.

At a LWF conference, Rev. Kurpnieks discovered his fellow attendees scrutinizing him as they discussed topics like abortion, euthanasia, gender roles, and marriage. “All of them look at me because they know I am from Latvia and they know my Archbishop,” he said. Archbishop Janis Vanags, the head of the ELCL, “is famous,” as Rev. Kurpnieks put it, “for what he does not do.”

He does not, for example, ordain women. Before this Archbishop the ELCL had done so, but he put an end to the practice and the church body made it official in their constitution in 2016. It puts the Latvian church in a very different position to their brothers in the LWF. While out with a friend later (a fellow pastor from Chile), Rev. Kurpnieks declared: “I was in minority.”

His friend turned to him. “You weren’t in minority. You were alone!”

Latvia itself is a very different case. Culturally Lutheran, many Latvians claim they are Lutheran in much the same way that Americans often claim they are Christian despite their belief (or unbelief), because it’s a historical part of the national identity. “It’s easy life as Lutheran in Latvia,” Rev. Kurpnieks explained, but then added, “Not so with youth. But we have many opportunities.”

The lost youth may be due to Latvia’s history with the Soviet Union. Located on the border of Russia, Latvia was occupied and annexed by the Soviet army in 1941; many of their church buildings were seized and repurposed as storage spaces and garages, and their pastors martyred. A handful of churches remained open during Soviet times, but for those ministers who refused to work with the KGB, their lives ended either immediately or in the Gulags. Rev. Kurpnieks spoke of a woman in his congregation who remembers when her father, a Lutheran pastor, was pushed out of a third floor window by the KGB.

Rev. Kurpnieks grew up in Soviet times, and was not baptized until he was in his mid-twenties. He and his wife had been together for five years when “Suddenly, for some reason, we wanted to get married,” he explained. “I don’t know why—no, now I know: it’s God’s will.”

They wanted to have a church wedding in one of the beautiful, centuries-old chapels owned by the Lutheran Church. The pastor said okay—on his terms. Within four weeks, they were baptized, confirmed and married. The next Sunday they attended Divine Service. “I was immediately—” at this point Rev. Kurpnieks mimed the motion of grabbing someone and holding them in a tight hug, then went on. “God took me and there was no question. I don’t know how to explain. I never struggle with the importance of the Lord’s Supper. Now I realize there is much struggle.”

“Many people come like this,” Rev. Kurpnieks, speaking from his own experiences as a pastor. “They say, ‘we want fast’—usually because she is pregnant.” Though they are unbelievers, many Latvians also want their children baptized because that is how it’s been done for centuries. They also hold annual cemetery celebrations in Latvia, a festival going back to ancient times in which every Latvian goes to the cemeteries to care for the graves. They also set up tables among the gravestones and gardens for eating, drinking, and dancing. “In every place—even in Soviet times when the church was punished—they always invite pastor to say something,” he explained. The pastor always prays and sometimes holds a small ceremony; just one more opportunity to speak of Jesus.

“They come themselves,” Rev. Kurpnieks went on, explaining the evangelical landscape in Latvia. “We don’t need to go to the streets. They ask themselves. Pastors don’t have time to go do missionary work because people come.” And every time they come the answer is always the same: yes, we will perform this marriage/baptism/etc., but you must take confirmation class first. “I am a boss,” Rev. Kurpnieks said, “if they want something.”

Following the Soviet devastation of not only the church’s property but of her under shepherds, the Lutheran Church in Latvia is poor. Latvia has nearly 2 million people but the Lutheran Church there has only 42-43,000 registered members across 298 congregation. Most of them are small with less than 50 members in attendance on a Sunday morning. These 298 congregations are served by only 112 pastors, most of whom have at least two parishes (and still others three or four depending on their size). Rev. Kurpnieks himself has two while simultaneously serving as District Dean over 23 congregations.

“I made ten times more before,” Rev. Kurpnieks said of his life prior to the pastoral ministry, “but I am very happy.” He fought the call for years, feeling unprepared financially (students at the seminary in Riga, Latvia, have full-time jobs and attend classes in the evening, many of them knowing they will work for multiple parishes for no money save what they earn at their day jobs), but God in His great wisdom made an under shepherd of Rev. Kurpnieks anyways.

Now he is finishing his studies in the Master of Sacred Theology program. He is a “first fruit” of the CTSFW STM program in Gothenburg, Sweden, as Dr. Masaki described him. Six other Latvians are in the program. And why the STM Program? Why CTSFW? “I really don’t know better Seminary in the Lutheran world,” Rev. Kurpnieks said. “I don’t say that just because I am student. I start this program just to be sure I promised to do what I say in my ordination vows: ‘I will continue my studies.’”

Our prayers go with Rev. Kurpnieks as he returns to his home, his family, and his congregations in Latvia; to our brothers and sisters across the seas; and to all those who are “as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:10).

SMP Completion

Today after chapel we recognized the two men who completed the Specific Ministry Program in the past year, as we do at the end of the Good Shepherd Institute Conference each year. In the words of Dr. Carl Fickenscher, Director of Pastoral Formation Programs:
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“The Specific Ministry program was created by the Synod to provide pastors particularly to those settings which cannot afford or for other reasons provide a residentially-trained pastor. We have two men who have completed the program. Both of them are serving in their calls and are in absentia. We are delighted nevertheless to thank God for their service to us:
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“Daniel L. Dockery, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Glen Arbor, MI, Michigan District

“Joshua J. Parsons, Saint John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Midland, MI, Michigan District
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“We thank God for their preparation for the Office of the Holy Ministry through the Specific Ministry Pastor’s Program and we pray for their continued faithful ministry in their places. God be with you all.”

Left to right: Dockery and Parsons.

Luther Hostel: The Hidden God

Wind and rain have made this second day of Luther Hostel a cold and dreary one; the first picture posted here is what the entryway to Luther Hall looked like late morning, right before Dr. Fickenscher began his talk on “Sharing the Gospel in Time of Suffering.” The second is of our Luther Hostel attendees during the lecture.

The theme of suffering as viewed through the theology of the cross has shaped every discussion for this year’s conference. In this particular session, Dr. Fickenscher began by speaking of the difficulty of Deus absconditus; in English, the “hidden God.” God’s Word doesn’t say everything. It says everything God wants it to say, but there are things He has hidden from us, for our own good. “But we also don’t say just trust God, shut up,” he added. “We look past the hidden God to see what God has revealed.”

And what has God revealed? In the New Testament, when Jesus confronts suffering the usual result is immediate, miraculous healing. In the Old Testament, we are more often than not told why suffering has come–often as a punishment, sometimes for some other reason (as in Job’s case). But how does that speak to us now? In this present age we receive neither immediate deliverance from our particular sufferings nor an explanation for them. We cannot read God’s mind and to do so – to presume to tell those (even ourselves) in suffering that God is punishing us for this or that sin, or to promise what God doesn’t promise (as in the prosperity gospel, which claims that the right kind and amount of obedience to God will earn a Christian both financial and physical health) – offers neither truth nor comfort.

Yet we also shouldn’t settle for promising less than God promises. That the cross of Christ accomplished the forgiveness of sins and life eternal for those who believe in Him is most certainly true. The sure and certain hope that his wife is in heaven gives the widower comfort–and yet the suffering of the survivors remains. He knows that she’s all right, but how will he take care of his children without her? “You’re still preaching to people who are not dead,” Dr. Fickenscher pointed out. “Does God promise anything else to us? What can we say in addition?”

“Comfort in all trials,” one attendee finally answered. “Peace.”

“Ah,” Dr. Fickenscher said, grinning. “And what does ‘comfort in all trials’ mean? And ‘peace’?”

He soon answered his own question with the Gospel. “Every good and perfect gift comes from God. The sin that cuts us off from God – from all good things – has been nailed to the cross. We are reconciled to Him, once more joined with Him who gives every good and perfect gift. God is all loving, all powerful, all knowing. He wants to give us the best. He knows what is good, and not just what we think is good. He knows that for me today is not my day to be in heaven. He knows why taking my children now is best for me. Or why taking care of my children on my own is best. God is giving me right now everything that is truly good for me.

“It’s best to understand this now when it’s not the worst time,” Dr. Fickenscher continued. “Hear it now, so that when tragedy strikes, you know God is taking care of you in the best way. You swallow hard and you know that He is with you. And the next day you wake up, swallow hard, and know that He is with you. Because of the cross we are reconciled. God is with us right now. Giving us whatever is really best for us right now.” In the theology of the cross, we have true comfort and peace in suffering.

All Saints’ Day

Ceiling fresco in Saint Paulin Church in Trier, Germany, painted by Christoph Thomas Scheffler sometime after 1734. The picture itself is a composite of 11 photographs, put together by Wikimedia user Berthold Werner in 2008.

Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
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12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
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After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
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Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
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“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
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Revelation 7:2-17