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The Death of John the Baptist

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.” For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.

But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.” And he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.” And she went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The head of John the Baptist.” And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Mark 6:14-29

“Das Fest des Herododes” (The Feast of Herod) by Peter Paul Rubens, 17th century.

As we remember the death of the last Old Testament prophet in today’s lectionary reading (though he prophesied in the New Testament, John is recognized as an OT prophet since he prepared the way for the coming Messiah), let us hold in our prayers all those who face persecution and martyrdom for confessing God’s Word in its fullness. Thank you, God, for the strength and boldness that You grant to Your children. Keep us in the true faith, unto life everlasting.

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Commemoration: Ruth

Today is the commemoration of Ruth, King David’s great grandmother and ancestress of Jesus. She is arguably one of the most well-known women of the Old Testament, a Gentile who abandoned her own land and family after the death of her husband to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi, famously declaring in Ruth 1:16:

“For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

“Naomi and Her Daughters-in-Law,” Doré’s English Bible, 1866.

Ruth, in fact, makes it into the New Testament, listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ as laid out in the first five verses of Matthew:

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.

Ruth’s story of redemption (to “redeem” a widow at that time was an act that preserved the widow’s husband’s family line, should he have died before they had children) is one of God working through the laws He established in the Old Testament to continue the line that would lead to Christ. The genealogy as laid out by Matthew would have been a very compelling read – an apologetics lesson, in many ways – for the Jews raised on the Old Testament. You can see God’s hand in the words of the well-wishers upon Boaz’s declaration that he would take Ruth as his wife:

Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.” Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Ruth 4:9-17

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Hear ye, hear ye! Spelling Change

Going forward, our spelling for the term “diakonal” will change to the more popular “diaconal” (as used by Synod and many of our fellow Lutheran organizations). Originally I hadn’t planned to make any sort of announcement about this spelling change, but when I asked about the historical use of the “k” spelling here at the Fort Wayne Seminary, I received this answer from our academic dean:

“I think the reason you see a K (diakonal) instead of a C (diaconal) among those at CTSFW is largely due to Dr. Just transliterating the Greek noun for “service” with a K (diakonia) rather than a c (diaconia). A Greek kappa looks and sounds like a K. I think either transliteration can be used in English…The advantage of the C transliteration is then there is consistency between ‘deaconess,’ ‘diaconal’ and ‘diaconia.'”

Ask a simple question, get the translator’s cliff notes. It makes for a short but interesting piece of Seminary history: Dr. Just (who is now our chairman of Exegetical Theology and director of Spanish Language Church Worker Formation) served as our first director of Deaconess Formation, which is why his spelling is the one that made it into our internal lexicon.

But really, folks: it’s all Greek to me.

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Commemoration: Ezekiel

“The Vision of Ezekiel” by Francisco Collantes, 1630.

And he said to me, “on of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions. Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house.

“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. And he spread it before me. And it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
Ezekiel 2
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The commemoration for Ezekiel takes place on July 21, but since the 21st is a Saturday and this reading from Ezekiel happens to be in the lectionary this week, we’ll take a moment today to talk about who Ezekiel is. Called by God to prophesy to the exiles during the Babylonian captivity, Ezekiel began his ministry focused on the divine punishment the exiles had justly earned as a consequence of their sin. However, once Jerusalem had been struck down and the temple destroyed, the Lord’s message to His people changed to one of hope, and a promise of restoration:

“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.”

Ezekiel 34:11-15

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Wyneken’s Journey

Short history lesson this afternoon, from one of our librarians, Rev. Bob Smith, who likes to research our forefathers in his spare-time. We talk a lot about Friedrich Wyneken here at CTSFW (and for good reason: he was instrumental not only in the formation of our seminary but in the LCMS itself; his is the voice that called out in distress to his homeland, pleading for them to send more Lutheran pastors and missionaries to the German pioneers), but there are still some unanswered questions. Like where did Wyneken himself come from? Why was he even here to see the great need for pastors?
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The answer can be traced to the death of another man: Pastor Jesse Hoover. On June 4, 1838, an elder at St. Paul’s congregation in the frontier town of Fort Wayne wrote to the Mission Committee of the Pennsylvania Ministerium, following the death of Pastor Hoover. From his letter:
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“Have pity, honored fathers and brothers and send us a Pastor… If you canvas the northern part of Indiana you will soon see how important it is that you send us a faithful Shepherd. The harvest is great but unfortunately there are no workers. If it is not possible to send us a Pastor, dear brothers, then send us a circuit rider. We hunger and thirst for the Word of God.”
Adam Wesel
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The committee had, in fact, planned to send a survey missionary in their direction come September, but this candidate had fallen through. However, a young pastor interested in serving on the American frontier had just arrived in Baltimore. By the end of August (180 years ago this summer), Wyneken was in Indiana.
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None of this can be found in published histories. When I asked how Rev. Smith discovered these facts, he explained:
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“Ancestry.com gave me ship passenger lists, newspapers.com the date of the ship’s arrival, a friend scanning through Lutherische Kirchenzeitung the Wesel letter. Reading the histories, he seems to just stumble into Adams County. So, we have Hoover’s death, end of May. Wyneken, moved by mission journals to serve on the American frontier, boards the ship of his family’s captain friend (likely how he afforded passage). Wesel writes the letter in early June, just as the designated survey missionary falls ill. The letter arrives in June to PA, just as Wyneken arrives, finds the Baltimore Lutheran pastor and is befriended. In August, Wyneken, with the recommendation of the Baltimore pastor shows up in PA. He then hops a train to Pittsburgh, buys a horse and for some reason (we now know why) picks an Indian trail that runs through Lima, Ohio and along the banks of the Maumee (or is it the St. Mary’s? I mix up my rivers!) to Adams Co. Has a divine hand all over it, doesn’t it?”
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Rev. Smith is currently writing a blog series on Wyneken. To read more, go to https://whatdoesthismean.blog.

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CE: Early Christian Mercy to the Secular Culture

For our locals looking for some theological learning this summer, in two weeks we’re hosting a Continuing Education course on “Early Christian Mercy to the Secular Culture” here on our campus. This course actually manages to hit an intersection between several topics: history and evangelism in a non (and in some ways anti) Christian society.

Attendees will take a look at the early Christian Church, from the words of the apostles to such examples as Clement of Alexandria, a Greek convert to the faith who taught Christianity in the late 100s and early 200s AD, only a handful of generations after Jesus’ death and resurrection. There are pretty strong parallels between our modern day society and his: what we think of as “New Age” thinking (such as “I’m spiritual, not religious” and the postmodern idea of “my truth is my truth, and your truth is your truth”) is actually another play on Gnosticism, a popular and heretical philosophy of Clement’s time that “rests on personal religious experience” (if that sounds at all familiar).

Rev. Chad Kendall, adjunct professor here at CTSFW, will use Scripture to consider how Clement and now we in the Church today can draw people of a postmodern society into the Church, by countering the idea of no absolute truth with the absolute truth of Scripture.

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Commemoration: Isaiah

“The Prophet Isaiah” by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. This fresco done between 1726 and 1729 portrays Isaiah 6:6.

Today is the commemoration of Isaiah, whose words appear more often than any other Old Testament prophet in the New Testament, either preceded or followed by some variation on the phrase “that the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.” The “Evangelist of the Old Testament” (as he is sometimes known) prophesied to the people of Jerusalem and Judah for about 40 years in the early 700’s (B.C.), about the coming Messiah, from His birth to His endless reign, from His public ministry to His suffering and death:

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.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:4-6

Jesus Himself preached on Isaiah in the synagogue of his hometown, as recorded in Luke 4:16-21:

And [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

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Faculty Travel: Dr. Masaki’s Trip Concludes

Dr. Masaki delivering his essay on the 10th article of the Augsburg Confession (on “The Reformation Heritage of the Lord’s Supper”) in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.

Dr. Masaki returned to the United States yesterday, after a couple of weeks teaching and preaching in Europe. He began in the Ukraine, teaching a week-long theological seminar on the Lord’s Supper in Odessa, attended by pastors, deaconesses, and other church workers in the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine (DELKU). He handed out certificates to the students from his seminar (Bishop Serge Maschewski pictured on the far right).

In Dr. Masaki’s words (borrowed from his Facebook page):
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“For the confessional Lutherans in Ukraine, to have their church means to secure the only place where they and their children may continue to receive Jesus’ own pastoral care in the preaching of the Word and the Lord’s Supper. And it comes with sacrifices, persecutions, and hardships. The oneness of doctrine (concordia) is, however, bringing much joy in this church militant. May the Lord keep dwelling among the saints in DELKU with His peace and blessings!”
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Next he visited Rev. Sorin Trifa, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of the Confessional Lutheran Church in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. He preached on Matins at Pastor Trifa’s home in Bucharest, Romania.

Dr. Masaki also served as guest preacher and was unexpectedly invited to appear on a TV program where Pastor Trifa is a frequent guest. For that broadcast, the 45 minute talk show, “In Search of the Truth,” covered the topic of why westerners increasingly find Asian spirituality attractive. Dr. Masaki spoke on the key doctrine of sin and forgiveness–that preaching the forgiveness of sins and Christ crucified is still the answer.

Dr. Masaki with show host, Mr. Marius Creta.

“A solid confessional Lutheran pastor is serving here with clarity, wisdom, and faithfulness,” Dr. Masaki noted, speaking about Rev. Trifa. “His is the first and the only Romanian-speaking Lutheran Church in the history of Romania. His service is now extended to Italy where there are more than five million Romanians residing. We have so much to thank the Lord for his ministry. We also have pleasure and duty to earnestly pray to the Lord for the advancement of the Gospel through him and his church.”
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Dr. Masaki ended his trip in Prague, preaching once more and delivering an essay on the 10th article of the Augsburg Confession. The communication director of the LCMS Office of International Mission-Eurasia interviewed him while there, and Dr. Masaki spent plenty of time with Regional Director Rev. Jim Krikava, “speaking theology till 2 am…like college students,” as Dr. Masaki put it.
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As to the harvest and laborers in Europe, Dr. Masaki concluded:
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“Coming from Japan where Christians occupy only less than 1% of the population, I continue to recognize Europe (and Eurasia) quite similar to it in ecclesiastical situation. The depth of history of Christianity, of course, is quite different, and many of the stories are sad ones. The church environment as a whole is extremely complicated and challenging, which calls for wisdom and experience on the part of those who serve in this mission front. We have much to thank the Lord for the diligent and eager labors of our dedicated missionaries. I am very proud of my colleagues who serve here with the mind of the confessional integrity.”

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Commemorations: Jeremiah, Cyril of Alexandria, Irenaeus of Lyons

We just had three commemorations in a row: Jeremiah (June 26), Cyril of Alexandria (June 27), and Irenaeus of Lyons (June 28). So why do we remember these men?

JEREMIAH served as God’s prophet, first predicting then later living through the Babylonian siege and the destruction of Jerusalem. You may recognize these very familiar words from Jeremiah 1:4-10:

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I send you, you shall go,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
declares the Lord.”

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,

“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA is counted among our church fathers. He served as the archbishop of Alexandria, Egypt, beginning in 412 AD, and his Scripturally-sound teachings about the Trinity and the two-fold nature of Christ (as both God and man) went against popular heresies of the time, deeply influencing later church councils and confessional writings.

IRENAEUS OF LYONS was a pastor who came a couple hundred years before Cyril. He was also instrumental in standing against heresies like Gnosticism (which denied the goodness of creation), by teaching and confessing that God redeemed His creation through Jesus’ incarnation.

These men would have come only a couple of generations after Jesus and His twelve disciples. The creeds we still recite in church on a weekly and/or annual basis came out of this time period, and you can hear their influence in affirming the Biblical truths necessary for salvation. From the Athanasian Creed (written in the late 400s):

But it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man.
He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age:
perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh;
equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity.
Although He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ.

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Commemoration: Presentation of the Augsburg Confession

Today we commemorate the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. The day’s “bio” (as it were) has been pulled from Dr. Wiley’s chapel sermon this morning. The Epistle Reading from 2 Timothy is woven throughout the following:
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“Our Epistle reading is very fitting for commemorating the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession – 488 years ago today. The princes gathered at Augsburg were not unlike Paul who wrote to young Pastor Timothy here a second time. They – and the theologians (Melanchthon and Luther) behind the document publicly confessed before the Holy Roman Emperor – were ready to undergo the persecution that comes with living a godly life in Christ Jesus. And, like Timothy, they firmly believed the God-breathed Scripture that had made them wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. They knew those sacred writings were profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness. In Christ they were made complete, equipped for God’s kingdom by a righteousness that came from outside of them. And they tenaciously held to that righteousness in Christ.
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“The Holy Roman Emperor and the papacy had the appearance of godliness, about which Paul speaks in verse 5 before our text. But they were lovers of self and lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth because they were corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. The confessors at Augsburg were compelled to declare the truth even if it meant being put to death for their confession, like the faithful who had gone before them – including Paul and the prophets and even their Lord Jesus Christ Himself…
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“Like Paul and young Timothy and the presenters of the Augsburg Confession, you know and believe what the Scripture – and, therefore, what our confessions – teach about your salvation and justification before God. Hear how the Augsburg Confession summarizes our righteousness in Christ in article IV:
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‘Furthermore, it is taught that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sin and righteousness before God by our own merits, works, or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ for us has suffered and that for His sake sins are forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given. For God will regard and reckon this faith as righteousness before Him, as Paul says in Roman 3 and 4.’ (AC IV)”