The Secret Wireless

Ladies and gentlemen, Emmanuel is coming. The festive cry had gone out through all of Jerusalem. Jesus was on his way. This famous worker of miracles was coming to town. This infamous preacher was marching on the city. “There He is. No, not that one. Over there. He is the one riding on the donkey. Yeah, that’s Him. Hosanna!” the people cry. “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna in the highest!” Emmanuel is coming. The excitement filled the air. The people genuinely wanted to meet this Jesus. They wanted to see him, touch him, be healed by him, be ruled by him. But be careful what you wish for. You might just get it. You see, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is no regular visit. This is not his vacation. He is coming to Jerusalem on business. And he has two different, yet related items on his agenda. He intends to confront and upset the comfortable. And he will comfort the upset and the confronted. Emmanuel is coming. He ...

Honor your father and your mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them. [Luther's Small Catechism] This commandment signifies that we should not only respect our parents, but also any person or organization who is given authority over us. That could be a family member such as a grandparent or uncle. It could be a governmental authority like the president or mayor. It could also be a vocational authority figure like my employer. In the Fourth Commandment the Lord bids us to be obedient to these people. We should do what they say as long as it does not conflict with the expressed Word of God. We may not always like what they tell us, but we should comply. This keeps peace and allows the world to function. But this command is more than a statement that we should obey all the rules that other people make for us. We are also to love an...

“You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” (Small Catechism, 1st Commandment) This commandment may seem to be a bit outdated. After all, not many of us have little statues in our homes that we bow down to. We don’t make a habit of worshiping gods or goddesses in the traditional sense. We might think that because of this we can skip this commandment and move straight on to the next one. However, God does not give us such authority. Not one dot of the law shall pass away (Matthew 5:18). This commandment still holds true. It still applies to us, as sophisticated as we might think we are, because there are other gods in our lives. And we often place them in front of and above our Heavenly Father. Think about where you spend the bulk of your time. Where do you spend the bulk of your money? Does the television get more hours in a day than God? Does the satellite company get more of my money than Christ’s Churc...

Alasdair MacIntyre compared our understanding of virtue with a civilization, generations into the future, uncovering our civilization. The few pieces that they could put together about our knowledge of science, this would be what we currently know about virtue. I am not an ethicist, but this idea of virtue intrigues me. Do we even have the faintest idea of how to be good people anymore? Do we know what "good" is? Do we even care? If we wanted to recapture virtue in our society, where shall we begin? We could look to past examples of virtue and attempt to follow in their footsteps. We could focus in on certain virtues and try to drive them into the minds of future generations. Personally I favor a multi-pronged approach. It begins with reading the right books. Some books have a sense of the "transcendent". Reading them gives you the impression that there is more to life than simply getting by one day at a time. The Lord of the Rings would b...

Someone once told me a story that went something like this: Several men had gathered together at their church to relocate the congregation's playground equipment. One task was to move the giant swing set. The legs of the swing set had been pulled from the ground. However, they were still encased in concrete. The swing set could not be moved and reset until the old concrete was removed. One of the men, "Martin", volunteered to take a swing at busting the concrete from the metal legs. He picked up a sledge hammer and went to work out of sight of the rest of the men. After a few minutes Martin returned and confessed that he could not crack the concrete even a little bit. Another man, lets call him "Jack", offered to try. He disappeared in the direction of the swing set. After a long absence Jack returned. "Did you get it?" asked Martin. "Yep," replied Jack, covered in sweat. "It's all off." Martin a...

One of the most difficult things in life to do is to admit defeat. I don't just mean that we admit we have lost this one encounter, but to say out loud that I have striven and completely failed, that takes guts. Too often I hope to hold something in reserve. I lost but...next time I'll be stronger...I only made one little mistake...they cheated. This morning I met a challenge that I could not overcome. I bought a workout video and tried to follow along with the leader on the screen. After the first few exercises my abdominal muscles were so tired and sore that I had absolutely no strength left. I could not even fake my way through the exercises. I failed and there was no way around it. I had to say it...out loud..."I failed." This applies spiritually as well. Forgiveness works best, or rather comes easiest, when I simply admit total failure. If I confess my sins to my wife, yet want to hold something back, she will not wish to forgive. "Honey, I'm ...

Jesus teaches His disciples to pray. He begins the prayer by addressing God as "our Father". Lately, in light of Father's Day, I have been praying this personally as "my Father". For some reason this hits me hard, to think that God condescends to allow me to call Him "Father". Saint Paul, in his letter to the Galatian Christians, writes that we have been adopted as sons of God through Christ Jesus. I am completely and totally unworthy to call God "my Father" and yet He allows it, even encourages it. When I pray, I am not begging at the doorstep of some "holier-than-thou" cleric. I am allowed, by God's grace, to ask anything of Him "as dear children ask their dear father." (Martin Luther, Small Catechism ) Of course this is all because I have been baptized into Christ Jesus. Jesus is the only true Son of God. He is worthy to address God as Father. That is not only His privilege, but His right. In baptism we ...