Grant that I Your passion view
With repentant grieving.
Let me not bring shame to You
By unholy living.
How could I refuse to shun
Ev’ry sinful pleasure
Since for me God’s only Son
Suffered without measure?
LSB 440 st. 4
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Romans 13:14
Picture this: Jesus on the cross because of us. We realize, especially in this time of Lent, that we are sinners. We may not want to sin and even pray against it, but we fail every day. We give into living for the flesh and the desires of this world. We look at Christ’s journey to the cross, His passion, and we grieve with repentance. Why? Because it is our sin that Jesus bears and is the reason He must suffer and die. That’s right, it’s our fault. Lent is a time to reflect on this image of our guilt and why Jesus had to die.
That is not the only picture we are to see though! We also see the tremendous love and mercy of God who sent His Son to die for us. He bore what we could not and defeated death, sin, and this world for us! Even in this time of remembering our guilt and repentance, we look towards this hope in His death and resurrection where He proclaims the victory for us. We confess our sins and abundantly receive forgiveness though we do not deserve it. In our baptisms, Jesus Christ is put on us and we are given the promise of eternal life with Him. God no longer sees us in the image of our sin, but in Christ’s image who has covered us with His precious and holy blood.
Let us pray: Merciful Father, You sent Your only Son to bear our sins on the cross, even though we were undeserving. We thank You for Your abundant gift of forgiveness and the promises given in our baptisms; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Seminary Guild held their last meeting of the academic year yesterday, gathering for a luncheon that was preceded by some Guild business and thank yous from Director of the Food and Clothing Co-op, Katherine Rittner (who was once a student wife with six children, and knows their support firsthand—“We made it because of you,” she said to the ladies) and President Rast (“Your support is invaluable. You are truly a blessing”). It was followed by a keynote presentation, Bible Study, and the installation of the new board.
The keynote presentation featured deaconess students who had traveled to the Dominican Republic last May. Second-year deaconess student Kate Phillips began the topic, “God’s Mercy in Mission,” with an audio clip of school children singing “This Is the Day the Lord Has Made” in Spanish, from morning devotions in Santo Domingo. Showing a picture of a gate in front of one of the churches, designed as Luther’s Rose, she explained: “In this presentation we will open the doors of our experience to you.”
From right to left, the keynote presenters (second-year deaconess students): Bethany Stoever, Kate Phillips, Chelsie MacIntosh, and Stephanie Wilde. Accompanying on guitars (as Stephanie holds the music) are first-years (r-l) Kate Engebrecht and Emilyann Pool.
The goal of the mission work in Latin American is three fold: Spread the Word, Plant Churches, and Show Mercy. While there, the students were able to visit all four congregations in the Dominican Republic, attend Bible Studies, and visit schools and centers for mercy. “There’s something special about worshiping with brothers and sisters in a different language, but the same words” said second-year deaconess student Bethany Stoever. A Spanish hymnal is currently in the works, and the liturgy is very familiar even in a different language. Catechetical instruction is also very important to the mission in the Dominican Republic.
Culturally, time is far more relaxed; services start when people—especially the pastor—shows up. Church buildings are also barred outside of service hours for security reasons (a commonplace practice across the country). However, during offering, which is not passed around but rather carried individually to the front of the church, Bethany said, “It was truly humbling to see the members walking forward in front to drop off their gift.” Expenses in the Dominican Republic are very similar to American expenses, and yet minimum wage is $200 a month. Many people—even those with specialized education and careers in the medical field—have to work multiple jobs.
The Dominican people are very social, their homes incredibly close together. “The fellowship aspect of their culture is something America lacks,” Kate noted. During their visitations to homes in Palmar Arriba and Pueblo Nuevo, the deaconess students listened to the stories of these members’ lives, holding the hands of those they listened to and offering encouragement. They also participated in home Bible studies. “These are things we all need,” she said. “Prayer, human touch, and the Gospel. We are all part of the Body of Christ.”
Another second-year deaconess student, Stephanie Wilde, spoke of the seminary in the Dominican Republic. Seminario Concordia El Reformador serves the entire region, their nine students hailing from all over Latin America. The Deaconess Program there is not nearly as formal as that for the pastoral students, but Stephanie noted the many similarities between their seminary and ours: fieldwork, vicarage, and coffee and conversation between classes and chapel. “Building relationships is important,” she stressed. The three-story building shares space with a congregation and an elementary school, with the school on the first floor, the congregation worshiping on the second, and seminary classrooms and guest housing on the third. The dorms are located down the hill from the seminary.
Schools are also a great way to reach out into the community with the Gospel, as they are here in America, both today and historically. The school in Palmar Arriba serves preschool through sixth grade. Students pay $10 a month to attend, and the school’s finances are supplemented by a congregation in Florida. The school day begins with a Bible story taught by a deaconess, as they work to increase biblical literacy.
Chelsie MacIntosh, the final second-year deaconess student to speak, spoke of the special needs centers and programs they also visited, like the Good Shepherd Home and the Home for Adults with Developmental Disabilities. They traveled to centers that cared for orphan adults with disabilities; in one center, all but two of these men and women were nonverbal, having grown up in orphanages with no specialized care before they aged out.
One of the focuses of the mission work in the Dominican Republic at such places is to teach caregivers that these men and women are neither angels who are put on earth to teach people spiritual or moral lessons (whose physical needs thus come secondary), nor should they be neglected or dehumanized. The lack of care is almost always due to a lack of education. Patient care has improved as the nurses learn, and the care centers have changed from dehumanizing institutions where patients are referred to by numbers, to more home-like environments where patients are recognized as people with names and given opportunities to go outside. The greater goal has become to help them rejoin their families and communities.
The mission in the Dominican Republic has had a great impact, as the people have learned, as Chelsie put it, to “See with the eyes of light, to see them as people. It’s a beautiful model of how to care, seeing our neighbors as children of God.”
Deaconess Amy Rast, Associate Director of Deaconess Formation Programs, concluded the presentation with a thank you to the LWML (knowing that many of the women in the Seminary Guild serve both through the Guild as well as through their LWMLs at their home congregations) for supporting these missions. So far, nine graduates of the Deaconess Program here at CTSFW have served in Latin America, and two more will intern in the Dominican Republic in just a few months. You’ll find out which ones in less than three weeks, during Deaconess Internship Assignments.
Deaconess Rast also added that there are currently 37 women in the Deaconess Program right now, including both residential and long-distance students, as well as those on their internships. “Thank you for all that you do in support of that,” she said.
Brittni Brown, Deaconess Studies Program Intern, then followed up with a Bible study on Psalm 116. “You get to join us for a class,” she told the ladies. The deaconess students study psalms throughout their program, and this academic quarter features Psalm 116. “And I also love it,” she admitted with a smile.
At the podium, Deaconess Intern Brittni Brown calls for answer to her Bible study questions (“I like discussion,” she explained) as Deaconess Rast writes them on the board.
I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
Psalm 116:1-4
The Seminary Guild then called their meeting to order, finishing with the installation of the new officers and closing devotions by Rev. Jim Fundum, Admission Counselor and theological adviser to the group. Their next meeting takes place after summer, on September 10, 2019, for the Getting to Know You Tea. “As Dorcas (Acts 9:36) supported the apostles as they spread God’s word, we, as sisters in Christ, have an opportunity to share God’s love through our support of the students, faculty, staff and the seminary as a whole,” the Seminary Guild explained in their meeting agenda. “We want our Guild to thrive for years and years to come, but do that, we need YOU. See you back here in September.”
Installation of next year’s board for the Seminary Guild (Rev. Fundum with service in hand).
Yet, O Lord, not thus alone
Make me see Your passion,
But its cause to me make known
And its termination.
Ah! I also and my sin
Wrought Your deep affliction;
This indeed the cause has been
Of Your crucifixion.
LSB 440 st. 3
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
1 Peter 2:24
What’s heavier? A pound of steel or a pound of feathers? They both weigh a pound, right? Wrong. If you carry a pound of steel, you’re only lifting a pound; but if you lift a pound of feathers, you have to carry the weight of what you did to all those poor birds.
We don’t always think about the weight of our deeds, but God does. The dying Jesus didn’t just carry the weight of the slim man we often gaze upon when we look at our crucifixes; He also carried the weight of my sins—the cause of His crucifixion. And yours too. See, Christ didn’t die alone up there on that cross, we all died there along with Him. That’s what our hymn has us ponder today.
In this season of Lent, we reflect not only on Christ’s journey to the cross, but also the weight of our sins, which He bore in His nail-pierced, thorn-pricked body. As we enter Passiontide, some churches will even cover their crucifixes with a veil and wait until Good Friday to uncover them. This is to remind us that the true weight of the cross is too horrible for us to fully ponder. Martin Luther even remarked that it is only by God’s mercy that we don’t realize the full weight of our original sin. Otherwise, if we could feel it, we would be shocked and disgusted beyond all belief! Therefore, may we this Lent continually be shown our sins and reflect on them in order to repent and lead Christian lives.
Let us pray: O God, You are not a God that takes pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with You. Grant, therefore, that we might see as much of our sin as is needed, that the Old Adam in us might, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts. As we walk through this vale of tears, be our help in this and every hour, granting us poor sinners a blessed end when we eventually die as did our Savior; for You live and reign with the Son and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
L-R: Dr. Zieroth, Dr. Neddens, Dr. Barnbrock, Prof. Pless
Last week we had two professors from our sister seminary in Oberursel visiting our campus. From left to right: our own Dr. Gary Zieroth, visitor Dr. Christian Neddens, visitor Dr. Christoph Barnbrock, and our own Professor Pless. Dr. Neddens guest-taught Theological Ethics while Dr. Barnbrock guest-taught Catechetics. Dr. Barnbrock also preached in chapel on April 1.
Lutherische Theologische Hochschule (LthH) in Oberursel, Germany, is an LCMS partner seminary. We’ve had quite a number of seminarians study abroad in Oberursel, and our CTSFW faculty include LThH graduates as well–Dr. Detlev Schulz (you saw him in a post earlier this afternoon) received his MDiv from this seminary, as did Dr. Roland Ziegler.
After the visit, Professor Pless had this message to share with the CTSFW community:
“Our colleagues from Oberursel, Dr. Christian Neddens and Dr. Christoph Barnbrock, asked me to convey to you their appreciation and gratitude for your hospitality and conversation during their visit to CTSFW earlier this week. Their impressions of our seminary were very positive and they are eager to find ways to enhance the relationship between our two seminaries.”
On March 5, Dr. K. Detlev Schulz (Director of PhD in Missiology Program and Co-director of International Studies here at CTSFW) was in Himo, Tanzania, visiting St. Peter’s Seminary there together with the Bishop of the Lutheran Church of East Africa (LCEA).
Dr. Schulz is third to the right, standing to the left of Bishop Angowi of the LCEA (in purple). On the far left is missionary Rev. Jonathan Clausing, who teaches at the seminary. He and his wife Anita have nine children, and live in Moshi, Tanzania.
The LCEA is only 20 years old, the church body having formed in 1999. Much like our own CTSFW, students attend their seminary for four years before ordination. St. Peter’s Seminary’s location in Tanzania allows these men to remain close to their homes and the congregations that they will serve as they enter the ministry.
Make me see Your great distress,
Anguish, and affliction,
Bonds and stripes and wretchedness
And Your crucifixion;
Make me see how scourge and rod,
Spear and nails did wound You,
How for them You died, O God,
Who with thorns had crowned You.
LSB 440 st. 2
“And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’”
John 19:2-5
“Behold the man!” Pilate said, calling to mind another man who cried out in a similar fashion: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29b). These were the words that John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness, confessing the reason that Jesus had come, the very reason why He is now in Jerusalem, where the soldiers beat Him saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
The soldiers may have been mocking Jesus, but little did they know that the words they spoke to bully and taunt were the truth. Jesus is not only the King of the Jews, but the King of all creation. Behold the man. Yet, He did not enter Jerusalem like a worldly king on Palm Sunday but came riding on a humble donkey. With one little word, He could fell Pilate and the soldiers, but He is silent, like a lamb going to the slaughter. Behold the Man. Shortly after these verses from John 19, Jesus will be taken to the cross and be crucified. Behold the man. Murdered. Slaughtered. Behold the man? Behold, the Lamb.
Let us pray: Lord God, heavenly Father, You sent Your beloved Son Jesus Christ to endure the taunts and assaults of the devil and the world even unto death. Guard and protect us so that we too may persevere and endure against the devil, the world, and our own sinful natures, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Last week, President Rast led a collegial conversation on “Being a Public Person.” The collegial conversations are held once per quarter, during the usual convocation time slot after chapel, and are always very pastoral, spoken as someone with parish experience to those who are still only students but will someday either be in the parish themselves or will be in a supporting role in ministry and mercy work.
“You will – are – already a public person,” Dr. Rast said. “You can’t get away from it. Ever. Whether or not you want to be, you are.”
Paraphrased in short, his talk went as follows:
1. Whatever you are doing at any point, anywhere, is a public act. Even when you are not wearing the clothes of your office. And the collar is a special target. People are watching and judging you, whether fairly or unfairly. LSB 724 (“If God Himself Be for Me”) was a theme of Dr. Rast’s talk, and he took a moment to quote verse 6:
“Who clings with resolution to Him whom Satan hates
Must look for persecution; for him the burden waits
Of mock’ry, shame, and losses heaped on his blameless head;
A thousand plagues and crosses will be his daily bread.”
“Go in peace!” Dr. Rast immediately added, which got a good laugh from the students. “Serve the Lord.”
2. Know yourself: be self-aware of your strengths, gifts, and limitations. We are differently gifted—that’s why we need each other. “Despite me, the Lord is going to do great good,” Dr. Rast added. He shared some personal experiences and stories, and spoke of the innate gifts that different faculty members bring to the table, explaining, “My colleagues bear me up.”
3. Know your audience. You are engaging a number of audiences, and though you cannot control how they respond, you must be aware and intentional of how you are presenting yourself. Be as blameless as humanly possible. Before you speak, before you publish that post on social media, give it a second thought—maybe a third and a fourth.
“You will do foolish and utterly stupid things,” he went on to promise the students, adding that they will and must continue to learn over the years. “I wish I could tell you there’s a point where you’re done.”
But of course Dr. Rast didn’t leave the talk there. He quoted from Scripture, Philippians 3:12-16:
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.”
“You are Christ’s; you are his own dear child,” Dr. Rast concluded. “The promise of Christ is firm and sure.” The students were then dismissed to lunch where they met with their faculty mentors. Collegial conversations always end with the mentor lunch, so that the students have a chance to immediately discuss that day’s topic with each other and their professors.
Jesus, I will ponder now
On Your holy passion;
With Your Spirit me endow
For such meditation.
Grant that I in love and faith
May the image cherish
Of Your suff’ring, pain, and death
That I may not perish.
LSB 440 st. 1
“For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.’ But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.”
Mark 9:31-32
Jesus’ mission from the very beginning was to be delivered into the hands of men to die for the sins of all people. The disciples had great difficulty with Christ’s teachings about His impending death. It all sounded so strange and ominous that the disciples were driven to silence by the fear that these teachings caused in them. Why would the promised Messiah, who came to rescue Israel, allow Himself to be killed? It didn’t make sense to them, and the thought of losing their beloved Christ was too much for them to bear. But thanks be to God that the truth of what Jesus taught and the accomplishment of His work is not dependent on our own understanding!
Jesus WAS delivered into the hands of men and He WAS killed in His crucifixion. He DID rise again on the third day, just as He said He would. His earthly work was far grander than healing and feeding those in need. He came to heal and to feed the spiritual need of all mankind. We needed to be saved, and that’s what He did.
Let us pray: Lord God, gracious Father, Your will and ways often work beyond our understanding. Send us Your Holy Spirit to comfort us as we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest Your Word, so that we may, with all boldness and confidence, trust that everything You do is for the good of Your dear children, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
And when, dear Lord, before Thy throne in heaven
To me the crown of joy at last is given,
Where sweetest hymns Thy saints forever raise Thee,
I, too, shall praise Thee.
LSB 439 st. 15
“Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”
2 Timothy 4:8
St. Paul’s second letter to Timothy was the last letter he would ever write. Paul stood facing the narrow gate of death as he awaited execution at the hands of the Romans. Death was near and Paul stood knowing that his Savior was waiting for him; yes, even at his very side until the end. He knew that his departure from this earth was not victory for the forces of darkness, but a new birth which had begun in his baptism. His dear Savior had washed him clean, claimed him as His own dear child, and was now waiting to crown him with eternal life. St. Paul stood rejoicing in the face of death.
We too live on this earth knowing that death may come at any moment. But rejoice! We don’t have to live in fear, anxiety, or doubt. Jesus appeared to abolish death for us. Our Heavenly Father gave us His Son to wear a bloody crown of thorns and carry our burdens into His death on the cross, where He won for us the crown of righteousness. We can live in peace and joy knowing that Jesus took us in His arms at the baptismal font, washed us clean, and delivered us from sin, death, and the devil. At that moment He claimed us as His own dear children; He won’t ever let us go. Our loving Savior continues to feed and nourish us with the very body that suffered and died on the cross and the very blood that poured from His hands, feet, and side.
So take heart, brothers and sisters! We live in Christ! And we rest secure in His loving arms until the Last Day when, like St. Paul, we too will sing, “To me the crown of joy at last is given!”
Let us pray: Lord God, Heavenly Father, You gave Your Son into death for us. Through His suffering and death, You have given us life. Keep us steadfast in true faith throughout our days until our loving Savior appears once again and gives us the crown of eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
But worthless is my sacrifice, I own it;
Yet, Lord, for love’s sake Thou wilt not disown it;
Thou wilt accept my gift in Thy great meekness
Nor shame my weakness.
LSB 439 st. 14
“Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”
Romans 6:13
What’s in control of your life right now? Does it seem like sin is winning the fight over your life as much as you try to follow Jesus, the Son of God? We all struggle daily, hourly, and sometimes moment to moment with sin. Even though we try to avoid it, we find ourselves back in the black hole of sin in need of forgiveness from God and from our neighbor.
At first, this Bible verse appears to focus on Law, telling us what we should and shouldn’t be doing. It is a command to not give our members to sin but rather to give them to God as instruments of righteousness. However, we find it hard to follow this command.
Fortunately for us, there is also Gospel and hope found in this verse. “Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.” This part of the verse reminds us that Jesus has died for our sins and is the one who offers us forgiveness and brings us from eternal death to eternal life through faith.
Should we just give into sin because we can’t help it, then? Absolutely not! We should take a stand against our own sin, even though we may fail at times. Christ has won the victory over sin and death, so we should give our lives to Him who prepared us to do good things for those around us, not because we have to, but because we want to in order to praise Him for all He has done for us.
Let us pray: dear Father in heaven, You sent Your Son to set us free from sin and death. Help us to always use our lives for Your will and forgive us when we fall short and serve our sin. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Dr. Schulz is third to the right, standing to the left of Bishop Angowi of the LCEA (in purple). On the far left is missionary Rev. Jonathan Clausing, who teaches at the seminary. He and his wife Anita have nine children, and live in Moshi, Tanzania.
The LCEA is only 20 years old, the church body having formed in 1999. Much like our own CTSFW, students attend their seminary for four years before ordination. St. Peter’s Seminary’s location in Tanzania allows these men to remain close to their homes and the congregations that they will serve as they enter the ministry.