Posted on

Ministerial Wellbeing

Out of love for our seminarians, deaconess students, graduate students, and their spouses, Grace Place Wellness Ministries held a free weekend retreat in Fort Wayne for those who had never attended one of their two-day wellness and wholeness retreats before. Dr. John Eckrich, founder of Grace Place Lutheran Wellness Ministries led the retreat. Rev. Timothy Puls (Advancement Officer and Director of Alumni and Church Relations) and Dr. Gary Zieroth (Dean of Students) and his wife Joann were in attendance as well.

Rev. Puls is far right in the robe and purple stoll, Dr. Zieroth on the far left with his wife.

The retreat is designed to help cultivate spiritual wellbeing, using the Lutheran Spiritual Wellness Wheel with baptism and our identity as a new creation in Christ in the center. The topics covered the spokes of the wheel: relational wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, physical wellbeing, financial wellbeing, vocational wellbeing, and intellectual wellbeing.

As explained by Rev. Puls: “Not all these areas are necessarily strong for every person or marriage or congregation. However, every Christian’s baptismal identity, specifically how they have been made new and alive in Christ, may positively impact all these areas (the spokes) in the lives of pastors, their marriages, their families, and congregations.”

 

Posted on

Lent Devotion

When the sun of bliss is beaming
Light and love upon my way,
From the cross the radiance streaming
Adds more luster to the day.
LSB 427 st. 3

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
1 John 1:7

What’s the best way to tell if you’re underdressed for an occasion? If your Emily Post isn’t available, then look around and see what the others are wearing. What about God? Are you dressed to meet Him? The best way to tell is to look at what He’s wearing.

In 1 John 1:5, John says, “God is light.” That means God is clothed in purity, not in deception. God never lies, cheats, or swindles. Therefore, He has never lied to you. He has revealed that you by nature dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Therefore, repent and walk in the light, dear Christian. Put away lying, cheating, and stealing. Put away showing partiality. Put away pride in yourself, which is pure self-deception, that you may have fellowship with all people, both friends and enemies.

However, walking in the light will not save you. John says that the blood of Jesus cleanses you. Just the blood of the One whose cross is the light of the world, Who clothes you joyfully with His blood.

Let us pray: Gracious Father, You are light but I am darkness, born a child of darkness and a sinner. I need Your mercy. Let Your Spirit lead me in the way of repentance that I may not lie to myself or others but may walk in the light and enjoy cleansing through Your Son’s blood, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Kyle Richardson, Sem. IV)

Posted on

Lent Devotion

When the woes of life o’ertake me,
Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me;
Lo, it glows with peace and joy.
LSB 427 st. 2

“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’”
Luke 9:23

“How is your walk with Jesus going?” This question is quite common in the church, and it can be hard to nail down its meaning. How is your prayer life? How is your church attendance? How is your marriage? In other words, our “walk with Jesus” is used to mean how well we are reflecting Him, and how well we are living the way He would have us live.

Jesus paints our walk with Him quite differently; rather than describing the measure of our own sanctification, our Lord describes the Christian walk as one of death. We are not walking empty-handed but carrying our cross, and there is only one place where that journey ends: Golgotha. The Christian life is lived at the foot of the cross. While the crosses we carry throughout our Christian life may look different for each of us, they are all the same in their end. No one carries a cross except to be crucified upon it.

Here, however, lies the beauty of the Christian life: our own crucifixion is not an occasion for sorrow but for joy, because we have been crucified with Jesus! As Paul teaches us in Romans chapter 6, we have been crucified and buried into Jesus’ death through our baptism and our walk to Golgotha is no longer a walk to death, but to life! To follow in the footsteps of Jesus, footsteps that lead to His death and burial, is to walk in the Way of Life! Therefore, the death of a Christian, whether young or old, can truly be called “blessed;” the Christian takes up his cross and follows Jesus to Golgotha and into death, knowing that following Jesus into the grave is also to follow Him out of it!

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You for bearing our sins on Your cross as You suffered, died, and rose for the forgiveness of our sins. Be with us as we take up our cross and follow You, that at the end of this life’s journey we may be where You are. In Your most holy Name we pray. Amen.

(Theodore Hoham, Sem. IV)

Posted on

Convocation: Organ Music for Lent

Seminarian Silas Hasselbrook takes a seat at the organ for the first piece (“Excerpt from Organ Sonata No. 3”) with his fellow seminarian, Emmett Bartens, standing at his side to assist with page turns, as Kantor Hildebrand finishes his opening explanation of the themes and other techniques at work in the piece.

It’s been a particularly music-rich week at CTSFW. This Wednesday’s unique convocation in Kramer Chapel used a variety of organ music on Lenten hymns to teach various concepts about music, its role, and how to listen to it, especially in church and chapel. The Kantors have taken to calling this learning session “Convocation: Special Organ Edition.”

The organists for today’s convocation, from left to right: Kantor Matthew Machemer, Dean of Chapel Dr. Grime, Seminarian Emmett Bartens, Kantor Kevin Hildebrand, and Seminarian Silas Hasselbrook.

Since most (if not all) of the music featured in today’s convocation is in the public domain, we’ll be able to share much longer videos of the performances than usual (recorded in the balcony using a cell phone). We’ve posted these below, pairing each with an explanation from the organists on what you can listen for to help your understanding and appreciation of each piece. There’s no time in chapel to pause the service for teachable moments as the organ plays, so the Dean of the Chapel and the Kantors wrote and presented these explanations to help member of the audience better understand and listen to what is happening in an organ piece—and in so doing increase one’s love and appreciation for this gift of God.

VIDEO LINK PENDING: Excerpt from Organ Sonata No.3 (Op.65)

First piece: Excerpt from Organ Sonata No. 3 (Op. 65)
Composer: Felix Mendelssohn
Organist: Seminarian Silas Hasselbrook

Listen for:

1. The fugue theme, which is a short melody or phrase introduced by one part and successively taken up by others as it becomes interwoven into the piece. In this excerpt, it’s the four entrances before the hymn tune begins, and you’ll hear it again (very loud) once more after the hymn tune.

2. The hymn tune you can occasionally hear is “From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee” (LSB 607), played with the pedal.

3. The dynamic contrast in this piece is accomplished through the opening and closing of the swell box. While the exposed pipes you can see in the chapel organ have no way to be played louder or softer, there are pipes inside what’s called the swell box; as any child with a sibling knows, if you slam the door of your brother or sister’s bedroom when they’re annoying you from inside, you can’t hear them nearly as well.

4. A descending pedal scale near the end of the piece changes the music from a minor key (E minor) to end on a major key (A major).

VIDEO LINK PENDING: A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth

Second piece: “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth” (BWV 653b)
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Organist: Kantor Kevin Hildebrand

Listen for:

1. Most familiarly, hymns have a four-voice texture: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. However, in this piece the hymn tune (LSB 438) uses five voices: the right hand plays the melody (using a different sound to bring it out), the left hand plays two notes simultaneously, and two pedals (“A keyboard you play with your feet,” Kantor explained) are played simultaneously. It’s a challenging technique.

2. Ornamentation is used to dress up a tune, in here played on a solo stop to draw attention to the melody. In this piece the embellishments are mild; you will hear more major ornamentation in the next piece.

VIDEO LINK PENDING: O Sinner, Come Thy Sin to Mourn

Third piece: “O Sinner, Come Thy Sin to Mourn”
Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach
Organist: Seminarian Emmett Bartens

Listen for:

1. Elaborate ornamentation of the melody. Kantor Hildebrand sang the first portion of the tune before seminarian Emmett Bartens began—the choral had been printed on the back of the handout to serve as a kind of road map—so that the audience could get a handle on the tune before it threatened to disappear among the trills and other ornamentation dressing up this hymn.

2. The colorful chord changes right before the end of the piece. Another clue to the incoming end of the music is when you hear it slow down—and when you see the page-turning assistant take a seat.

VIDEO LINK PENDING: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

Fourth piece: Prelude and Chorale “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” (LSB 450)
Composer: Ernst Pepping
Organist: Kantor Matthew Machemer

Listen for:

1. The use of a canon (also known as a “round”—Kantor had the audience sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in a short round as an example) in both the manual (hands) and pedal (feet) parts. However, in this piece, unlike the typical “Row, row, row your boat” round, the melody repeats in different keys.

2. The prelude begins with three voices (two in the hands and one in the feet), which swell to six as voices are added in (with four in the hands and two in the feet).

3. The use of modern harmonic language illustrates the intensity of our Lord’s suffering.

4. You know the piece has switched over to the chorale when you can hear the hymn tune stated clearly in the music.

VIDEO LINK PENDING: O Darkest Woe

Fifth (and final) piece: Prelude and Fugue on “O Darkest Woe” (LSB 448)
Composer: Johannes Brahms
Organist: Rev. Dr. Paul Grime (Dean of the Chapel)

Listen for:

1. The extreme contrast between the gentle prelude and the serious—even severe—fugue. The melody of the hymn is played as the highest notes in the prelude, but then as the lowest (heard as extremely long notes on the pedals) in the fugue.

2. The fugue theme is made up of descending notes, but can also be heard in inversion—upside down—so that the theme descends for long periods before rising then descending again. There is a sense of breathing to it, almost a looping, aching sense, like Christ trying to catch his breath as he hangs on the cross before he finally gives up His spirit.

Posted on

Lent Devotion

In the cross of Christ I glory,
Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time.
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
LSB 427 st. 1

“But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Galatians 6:14

We love feeling satisfaction in a job well done. It is that feeling which often keeps us going on the job, in the classroom, or with a home project. Indeed, we crave it and delight in it. Yet what happens when satisfaction and contentment are no longer enough? It is then that we begin to boast and glory in ourselves and our work for others to notice, so we may have their praise and avoid their persecution. We often find much in our lives to boast in: Our job, our money, our marriage and children, our pedigree, or our piety and what we gave up for Lent. We can even glory and boast in the love, kindness, and charity we show to others—which, then, makes those acts none of those things. However, the reality is that whatever we boast in, it all leads to the same place: ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We may avoid persecution; we may gain worldly glory; but on our own, we cannot avoid death.

Which is why St. Paul reminds us today that the only true glorying and boasting is in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Baptized into Christ’s death, the world has been crucified to us. We no longer desire its praise or fear its persecution, but, in the salvation Christ won for us, we eagerly wait for the day when we will arise anew and hear Him tell us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” So that when we leave the Lord’s Table Sunday after Sunday, we can then go out and truly fast, pray, love others, and live an honest life without seeking the praise of the world. Because we know where our true glory and salvation is and always will be: in Christ and Him crucified.

Let us Pray: Heavenly Father, in our Baptism keep our eyes fixed on the cross of Your Son so that we may always glory and boast in Him alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Michael McGinley Sem. IV)

Posted on

St. Joseph, Guardian of Jesus

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Matthew 2:13-23

“The Flight into Egypt” by Jörg Breu the Elder, 1502.
Posted on

Lent Devotion

Jesus, may our hearts be burning
With more fervent love for You;
May our eyes be ever turning
To behold Your cross anew
Till in glory, parted never
From the blessèd Savior’s side,
Graven in our hearts forever,
Dwell the cross, the Crucified.
LSB 423 st. 3

“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
Numbers 21:8-9

When the Israelites grumbled against Moses and God, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” they declared God to be a liar. He had promised to care and provide for them all the way to the Promised Land, but they failed to realize that they had all that they needed. The Lord then sent as punishment fiery serpents who would kill many Israelites with a deadly bite. However, as soon as the people repented over their false charge against their merciful God, He had Moses furnish a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole so that all who looked upon it after having been bitten would live.

The bronze serpent, of course, isn’t what saved them, but God’s Word attached to it. Similarly, God calls us to look upon His incarnate Word, Christ the Crucified, who hung upon the cross to reconcile us grumbling sinners to our God, that we may be renewed to trust again in His promises to care and provide for us here and now on our way to the eternal Promised Land.

Let us pray: Most merciful God, grant us a steadfast faith that trusts Your promise that whoever believes in Your only Son should not perish, but have eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

(Zachary Courie, Sem. IV)

Posted on

Lent Devotion

Do we pass that cross unheeding,
Breathing no repentant vow,
Though we see You wounded, bleeding,
See Your thorn-encircled brow?
Yet Your sinless death has brought us
Life eternal, peace, and rest;
Only what Your grace has taught us
Calms the sinner’s deep distress.
LSB 423 st. 2

“And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destory the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!’”
Mark 15:29-30.

Has something you’ve said ever been used against you? Maybe you said something gloatingly on an emotional high or something hurtful to someone in a moment of weakness. You might have felt great or even justified when you said it, but when those words came back at you, boy oh boy, do they ever sting! Anyone who’s experienced this has had the sickening feelings of guilt and shame, and thought, “I wish I never said that.”

We know that Jesus said He could rebuild the temple in three days (John 2:19-20). The people accusing Jesus twisted this phrase and His teaching to accuse Him of blasphemy (Mark. 14:58). The people passing by Jesus on the cross used His own words against Him as ridicule, to show their victory, that “justice” had been done. Was Jesus thinking, “I wish I never said that?”

Our sinful condition leads us to keep heaping insults on Jesus and our neighbor and our mouths pour out hurtful words and white lies. Yet Jesus’ silence to the insults is even more powerful, because by His resurrection we know that if what truly goes around comes around, we’d be the ones suffering and dying. We deserve our insults and every hurtful thing to be hurled back on us; we know that no deceit was found in His mouth because He committed no sin.

Yet even though He was without sin, Jesus did not come down from the cross. He saved us by not saving himself. God let what we sinfully sent around come around on His Son, so that we may in all joy and trembling not have to endure its devastating consequence. Thanks be to God that when we confess Jesus’ saving death, it’s something we want to keep saying again and again.

Let us pray: Lord, guide my tongue to speak only that which is true and good before You and all heaven, that in doing so I praise and glorify Your saving name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Joseph McCalley Sem. IV)

Posted on

Lent Devotion

Jesus, refuge of the weary
Blest Redeemer, whom we love,
Fountain in life’s desert dreary,
Savior from the world above:
Often have Your eyes, offended,
Gazed upon the sinner’s fall;
Yet upon the cross extended,
You have borne the pain of all.
(LSB 423 st.1)

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:4-5

Have you ever had to carry a burden for another? Maybe a close family member had an illness or some disability, and you found yourself struggling to care for their needs on top of your own. Maybe a loved one confided in you a personal struggle they were having, and you felt the weight of that problem pressing down on you as your heart went out to them and you offered them encouraging words and lifted them in prayer. As believers in Christ, we are called to carry the burdens of one another. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2). In so doing, God uses us as His instruments of love and mercy to help others in their earthly afflictions.

Christ knew what it was to bear the burdens of others. But He did not stop at bearing the pain of illness or personal struggles–He bore the weight of our every sin. He was pierced for us…crushed for our iniquities. When we bear another’s suffering, we’ve given them temporary relief. But when Christ bore the pain of all on the cross, He won for us eternal relief. He defeated sin, death, and the devil and He won us peace with our heavenly Father. He is our Blest Redeemer, and we owe to Him our deepest gratitude and love for all He has done and continues to do for us.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus, we owe You everything for bearing our sins on the cross and for taking the punishment that we so justly deserved. In this Lenten season, let us daily remember Your finished work that we may strive to live in a way that honors and glorifies Your holy name, now and forever. Amen.

(Daniel Harrington, Sem II)

Posted on

Lent Devotion

Then, for all that wrought my pardon,
For Thy sorrows deep and sore,
For Thine anguish in the Garden,
I will thank Thee evermore,
Thank Thee for Thy groaning, sighing,
For Thy bleeding and Thy dying,
For that last triumphant cry,
And shall praise Thee, Lord, on high.
LSB 420 st. 7

“Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here, while I go over there and pray’…And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.’”
Matthew 26:36, 39

What is this cup that Jesus speaks of? Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering…These two things have happened to you—who will console you?—devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you?” (Isa. 51:17, 19).

The One who will comfort us is the true Son born of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth. He is here in the Garden of Gethsemane to take His people by the hand and completely drink the cup in their place. This is His father’s will.

In His anguish over His impending doom, what does He do? Does He go out for one last night on the town? Does He go down to the convenience store to buy something that might take the edge off what He knows is coming? No. In His sorrow and anguish Jesus comes before His Father in prayer saying, “Thy will be done.” Thanks be to God that Jesus did drink this cup! By suffering and death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Scripture has been fulfilled that says, “Thus says your Lord, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people: ‘Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more’” (Isa. 51:22).

Let us pray: Almighty God, merciful Father, continue to guide Your people, whom You have redeemed by the precious blood of Your Son, so that we may always be safe from the powers of this world that desire our destruction; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

(Stanley Lacey, Sem. II)