Advent Devotion

See, the Lamb, so long expected,
Comes with pardon down from heav’n.
Let us haste, with tears of sorrow,
One and all, to be forgiv’n;
(LSB 345:3)
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For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
(Psalm 116:8)

As we continue our Advent preparation to celebrate the birth of our Lord, we find that the world has already quickly moved on to the festivities; already there are lights, carols, parties, trees, and every other sign of the Christmas season. Already we hear the songs ring out: “Joy to the World!” “Peace on earth! Goodwill to men!” Amid our joyous preparation, who would weep? Who would, as the hymnist writes, “haste with tears of sorrow?”
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The season of Advent, and the celebration of Christmas that follows, are indeed times of great joy. They are also times of great sorrow because, even as we prepare for Christ’s coming, we know the reason for His coming: us. He is coming because of our sinfulness and rebellion, and to suffer punishment in our place. The infant we await is, as John the Baptist cries out, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
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So why the joy? Because our souls have been delivered from death, and the tears of sorrow that we shed have been wiped away by the Lamb. The birth of Jesus shows us that God does not forget His promises, and His promise has been fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son. This is the reason for our joyous preparation for His coming, even as we bear in mind the reason for it. Let us give thanks to God for the gift of His only Son as we prepare to gather around the manger and see, along with the entire Church on earth and in heaven, the Lamb so long expected.
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Let us pray: Gracious Father, in Your Son You have given us the Lamb who takes away our sin. Bless our season of Advent as we prepare for His coming, that we may receive with joyful hearts the salvation He has won for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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(Written by Theodore A. Hoham, Sem IV)

Convocation: IVF

It was a full house for today’s convocation on In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), hosted by the CTSFW Life Team and taught by Dr. Donna Harrison, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist currently serving as Executive Director of the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologist (AAPLOG). Soft-spoken and eminently knowledgeable, Dr. Harrison has testified before the FDA, for multiple congressional hearings, and to the UN on the status of women. We are blessed to be able to claim her as a fellow Lutheran.

Dr. Harrison began her lecture with two warnings: 1.) That her job is not to answer theological questions but to provide scientific information (“I am likely to raise more questions than I answer,” she explained), and 2.) That the topic is a difficult one, bound up in the grief of infertility and the very real possibility that the facts she is presenting will hurt those who have already gone through the process of IVF. She urged anyone with questions or concerns to speak with her further.

She shaped her talk around several major claims made by supporters of IVF. That:

1. IVF is as natural as conception.
2. It’s safe for mothers.
3. It’s safe for babies.

Unfortunately, none of these are true. In natural procreation one egg is produced, sperm is naturally sorted, the womb prepares naturally for implantation, and God decides who lives. In IVF, 10-30 eggs are produced using a hormone to stimulate the ovaries, the doctor selects sperm based on which looks most viable, the womb has to be prepared artificially, and the Doctor decides which embryos live (which can include performing selective embryo reduction, in which a child growing in the womb is poisoned and killed with potassium chloride to keep things safer for the mother and other child or children who also successfully implanted).

Risks to the mother include Overian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (affecting 1 of 3 women), complicated deliveries, increased risk for ovarian cancer, and possibly increased risk for breast cancer. As to the babies, there are increased instances of preterm delivery and birth defects, including a 70% increased risk of perinatal death and a 4x increased likelihood of stillbirth. Furthermore, from a 20 year review of IVF in the UK, studies found that of the 3.5 million embryos created, only 1.3 million were transferred into the womb (meaning 61% were either discarded or frozen and stored). Of those transferred into the womb, 200,000 result in live births—meaning only 5% of the babies created through IVF were born.

Dr. Harrison urged the correct use of the word “baby” and “children” to stand in for embryo (“Every embryo is a child”) and the unscientific “fertilized egg” in these contexts. Take, for example, this quote:

“In the current practice of IVF, some patients may create more fertilized eggs than they need…”

Apply the correct language, and this is how it reads:

“In the current practice of IVF, some patients may create more [children] than they need…Human [children] that are discarded every day as medical waste from IVF clinics could be an important source of stem cells for research,” according to a team of researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston.

The financial cost is also high: $20-30,000 for each fresh cycle. Take into consideration that the live birth rate typically takes 3-5 cycles, you’re looking at a $120,000 bill. Doctors can cut down on costs by fertilizing multiple eggs at once (only $6,000-$11,000 per frozen, though only 3 of 10 embryos survive the thaw 100% intact), which is why IVF is done the way that it is. It is not economically feasible to do just one egg at a time; no doctors out there are doing so. And because IVF is a manufacturing process, a child isn’t so much a gift as a product. Dr. Harrison called it the “hubris of eugenics.” “When you look at your children as a product, you expect perfection,” she said. “There is an expectation of a perfect child, but every time a sinner is born.”

She added: “Never forget: IVF is an industry. It runs on business practices.” And while she firmly believes that the majority of her colleagues are compassionate individuals who truly want to help infertile couples have children, the financial incentives bring huge pressure and bias into the business. There are major financial incentives for sending women to IVF instead of the painstakingly slow and less lucrative option of NaProTechnologies, which seeks to diagnose and treat the underlying causes of infertility, so as to assist a couple in achieving pregnancy through the natural acts of procreation.

More and more pastors are routinely facing questions involving reproductive technologies. By understanding the science, our pastors (and deaconesses) are better prepared to apply God’s word to the realities of the IVF industry. For example, embryo adoption is touted as a moral solution (in fact, it was originally suggested by a doctor who is a member in AAPLOG alongside Dr. Harrison). And while it is unquestionably a good thing to rescue these babies from certain death, there is the possibility that it may increase the likelihood that a couple will choose IVF because they can justify their decision by feeling that they are also acting compassionately for others who struggle with infertility. So can we support embryo adoption without supporting the industry? “I don’t know,” Dr. Harrison admitted, looking out at the seminarians in the audience. “Those are the questions you’ll need to answer.”

Science itself cannot answer them. “Scientists only stop themselves after proving harm,” Dr. Harrison pointed out, adding that proving harm in the scientific community usually takes decades of research. “Science is unable to answer the question of ‘should we do this?’ It can only answer ‘Can we do this?’ We are desperately in need of theologians who can understand these issues so they can answer these questions.”


To learn more, visit www.aaplog.org. There are resources for finding pro-life physicians in your area (“Easier in the Midwest,” Dr. Harrison said. “Doctors on the east and west coasts are terrified of being outed and losing their jobs.”), and more information about the association itself and their position and research into abortion and life issues.

Advent Devotion

Startled at the solemn warning,
Let the earthbound soul arise;
Christ, its sun, all slot dispelling,
Shine upon the morning skies.
(LSB 345, st. 2)
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For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
(Habakkuk 2:3)

He Is The Vision

Habakkuk watched in horror as fellow Jews were taken captive by Babylon. “Why are you silent,” Habakkuk cries to our Lord, “when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?” Do we not pray the same thing? “Why are you silent when the despair of loneliness swallows me up in my dorm room?” Or, “when the stresses from class and work swallows me up in another marital spat?” The Babylonians are not at our door, but the devil is relentless, the world waits in the shadows, and our flesh plots against us. Why does the Lord allow this wickedness to swallow us up in guilt and despair when He has used His church to choose us as seminarians, vicars, church workers, or professors?
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Our Lord doesn’t remain silent. He speaks to Habakkuk and us of this future Vision. Don’t let the translations fool you—this Vision is not a “what” but a “who;” not an “it” but the “He.” It is Christ who will witness to the end, who is the Truth who does not lie. Yet, what good does a future vision do for us now?
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In this advent of suffering, the Lord points to the Vision to strengthen us. We suffer and ponder His delay; but our Lord tells us to wait and gives us strength in this Vision to endure. To endure until the trumpets blast that solemn warning, waking the dead as Christ appears like the sun, shining upon the skies to all below, coming to take us home. Wait, endure, pray; He will come at exactly the appointed time.
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Let us pray: Heavenly Father, strengthen us by Your Word to endure until the Vision comes at the appointed end time of this advent; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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(Written by Michael McGinley, Sem IV)

Advent Devotion

Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding!
“Christ is near,” we hear it say.
“Cast away the works of darkness,
All you children of the day!”
(LSB 345 st. 1)

“A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’”
(Isaiah 40:3-5)

John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” when he came “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3-4). A call to repentance, however, always assumes the hearers have something of which they need to repent. To “cast away the works of darkness” is to recognize ourselves as utterly unworthy of standing before God due to the sinful thoughts, words, and deeds that flow out of the darkened hearts of our sinful nature; but we who are children of the day (that is, we who trust in the promises of God) are made worthy. When John the Baptist declared “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, he was proclaiming that it is through this man, Jesus of Nazareth, that the obstacles to God are removed. For it is in the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ for our works of darkness that the glory of the Lord has been revealed.
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Let us pray: Heavenly Father, help us to dwell on the fact that “Christ is near” to us in Your Word and Sacraments, and that by grace through faith in Him, we are Your “children of the day.” Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
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(Written by Zachary A. Courie, Sem IV)

Concordia Seminary History

Concordia Theological Seminary

This great article from the Sangamon County Historical Society tackles a subject dear to our hearts: the Concordia Seminary campus when it was in Springfield, Illinois. There’s a photo of the dedication of Luther’s statue (one of the largest items that moved with us to Fort Wayne), and a rather entertaining rundown on the strictly frugal Rev. Friedrich August Craemer, president of the Seminary when it moved to Springfield in the 1870s.

(Plus the bonus line: “Students were finally allowed to have automobiles on campus in 1941, but even then only under the condition that they ‘were not to be used to cart girls around.’”)

Advent Devotion

Not by human flesh and blood,
By the Spirit of our God,
Was the Word of God made flesh,
Virgin’s offspring pure and fresh.
(LSB 332, stanza 2)
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“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:14)

God is often thought of as beyond our reach. There are times when we think that God is far away, and we are left to suffer alone. Yet what we don’t perceive with our eyes, we can receive by faith with our ears in hearing that God humbled Himself to become flesh and share in our suffering. While He was wholly different in being God, He was also wholly the same so that our flesh might be redeemed by His flesh. Jesus is the Word made flesh and yet this is not the entirety of His glory. His glory has been revealed to us especially in His submission to the cross. In His bodily death, resurrection, and ascension He has made all who believe and are baptized into His name to be a new creation. Because we are His new creation, He continues to sustain and fill us with His grace and truth in the Word and Sacraments until He comes again in glory. In all these ways we may know that He abides with us just as He has promised.
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Let us pray: Almighty God, in the Word made flesh You dwelt among us and have promised to never leave us nor forsake us. Grant that we would be strengthened by Your grace and truth until we see You face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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(Written by Garrett Buvinghausen, Sem IV)

Advent Devotion

Savior of the nations, come,
Virgin’s Son, make here Your home!
Marvel now, O heav’n and earth,
That the Lord chose such a birth.
LSB 332, st. 1
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“For my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
Luke 2:30-32

To see the Lord’s salvation is to see Jesus the Christ. Simeon saw Him as an infant being presented at the Temple for purification, when in reality He would purify the world with the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary. Advent is a penitential season of preparation for all of God’s baptized children. Penitential means that we are specifically focused on living in repentance by showing sorrow for our sins and trusting in God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We use this time leading up to Christmas to prepare for the celebration of Jesus’ birth, or his first coming. Yet in doing this, we also look forward to His second coming on the last day. This looking forward is to be repentant and faithful. It looks toward seeing the salvation which God has prepared in the presence of all nations as a revealing light to all who might be saved for the glory of God’s children who have been baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. May God bless you this Advent as you prepare for the coming of the Savior.
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Let us pray: Almighty God, prepare our hearts for the coming of the Savior, that we might see His light and glory through His death and resurrection unto eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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(Written by Garrett Buvinghausen, Sem IV)