The Secret Wireless

On August 19, 2015 the Center for Medical Progress released yet another video detailing the closed room practices of Planned Parenthood and their partner StemExpress in procuring fetal body parts.  These groups have been harvesting the organs of aborted babies, exchanging money, and using the flesh for scientific experimentation.  It is sickening.  The videos are not for the faint of heart, but if you desire to watch you can find them here . In the most recent video a former procurement technician for StemExpress, Holly, relates the story of how she came to know she could no longer work for this agency.  She tells of how another technician called her into a room where she was cleaning a newly aborted baby (so newly aborted that the heart would still beat when pricked by an instrument) to prepare it for organ harvesting. Holly was told that day she would be harvesting the baby's brain.  The other technician began the process by making an incision under the ...

Is sex becoming boring? My mind pondered this idea a few days ago on my way into Saint Louis.  Before you cross the Mississippi River into Missouri there is a certain strip club one must pass on the interstate.  Said strip club always has a billboard advertising the latest special feature.  As you might guess these billboards do not vary greatly.  The billboard is usually a photograph of a woman from the shoulders up looking rather seductive and inviting any travelers to stop in.  This time, however, was different.  As I passed the billboard there were no women.  Rather than advertising the club’s newest dancer, they were advertising “wrestling midgets”.  So the naked dancing women were replaced by short, clothed, male wrestlers.  I don’t get it.  Has sex really gotten that boring?  A more serious example stuck in my mind comes from a PBS documentary I caught just a few minutes of several months ago....

Tullian Tchividjian, the well known pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, has resigned his position.  According to his own statement both he and his wife committed adultery.  This disqualifies him from the pastoral office.  He has willingly acknowledged his affair and peacefully stepped aside. It is a sad day when a pastor must resign his call for any reason, but especially for living an immoral life.  Tchividjian's case gives a great deal of pause for Lutherans in particular since he was highly influenced by Luther's writings and those of contemporary Lutheran scholars such as Robert Kolb.  Tullian, in recent years, has sought to clarify the proper distinction of Law and Gospel in his own preaching as well as to spread that teaching to a wider audience. As Lutherans we have a high view of God's Word in general and of the Gospel in particular.  When a Lutheran pastor falls into temptation does he really need to resign?  Can he not simply be ...

The Huffington Post actually published a good article.  I know, I know.  Usually the HuffPo is garbage laced with poison, but this really was a helpful article...one religion of all topics! In his article "Why We Know So Little About Moses and Jesus" author Bernard Starr helps to explain why the record of the lives of these two Biblical figures do not include detailed accounts of their upbringing. Ever since the dawn of the age of psychoanalysis we have been trying to understand what makes a person tick by asking where they came from.  The keys to a person's identity lie in the past, in their youth.  That is, at least, what we believe to be true. And so we often want more information about the young life of Moses.  What was it like to grow up as an outsider in Egypt?  Was he ever mistreated?  Was he spoiled?  What was his education like?  We assume that these are important questions. The same goes for Jesus.  We want to know ...

In his most recent Issues Etc Journal Todd Wilken has this to say about our Sunday morning worship services: What if, when that Sunday morning visitor wandered into church, we made it clear to him that this is the Lord's Day and the Lord's house because the Lord Himself-Jesus-is there?  What if everything we said and did while he was visiting our church-every word, gesture, action, song and prayer-clearly confessed this?  What if, instead of reengineering the day to fit his expectations, we taught him to expect nothing less than Jesus, in person, forgiving sins? Wilken's line of questioning is right on the money.  What is missing from Christian worship is not the right style of music or the right kind of decorations.  What is often missing is Jesus.  Many churches fail to preach anything resembling the Gospel, and settle for self-help instructions for better living. Yet even among those churches where Christ is proclaimed regularly and the Lord's Supper...

The Lutheran Confessions at times speak of the Sacraments as "signs".  Philip Melanchthon writes in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, " The sacraments are not only signs among men, but signs of God's will toward us; so it is correct to define the New Testament sacraments as signs of grace.  There are two parts to a sacrament the sign and the Word. " (Apol. XXIV) I think Melanchthon is saying that in a sacrament we must distinguish between two things: the sign and the Word.  So what is the sign, and what is the Word? In baptism water is the sign.  In the Lord's Supper the sign is the bread and wine.  What does it mean to say that the water in baptism is a "sign"?  In what way can we call the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper a sign? This is difficult and fraught with danger since in the United States of America the most popular view of the sacraments comes out of the Reformed tradition of the Church.  Especially prevalent in ...

Christian, your good deeds are not filthy rags or polluted garments in the sight of God. Yes, I know, this is every Lutheran pastor's favorite verse to quote when proclaiming the Law: We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. (Isaiah 64:6a) And to an extent this is true.  It is true for the person is is without faith, for the one who is apart from Christ.  The context of Isaiah 64 suggests not a faithful people redeemed by their God, but a stiff-necked people wantonly wallowing in their sin: "Behold, you were angry and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?" (Isaiah 64:5b) Men and women who have been baptized into Christ, however, are not in this state.  Christians are redeemed by the blood of Jesus and all their sin has been covered.  Their good deeds, therefore, do please God, despite their sin. Saint Paul declares in Romans 14:23, "Whatever does not proceeds f...

"The Law always accuses."  It is axiomatic in Lutheranism.  When the will of God is announced in the ears of His sinful creatures their consciences are stricken with guilt.  It cannot be otherwise.  Sinners will always stand accused before the Law of God. Yet I do not think we preach like we believe this.  We preach more as if we are afraid that the Law will fail in its accusations, so we have to do that work, even if that means leaving out the Law's other functions. "The Law always accuses, but it does not only accuse."  It also acts as a curb for evil in the world, threatening would-be thieves, murderers, and adulterers with proper punishment.  If you live by the sword you will die by the sword.  There is no honor among thieves.  The house of the adulteress sinks down to death.   The Law too imparts wisdom to the child of God, teaching him the works that God desires of him.      He learns what is true, honor...

  Can a Lutheran say, "My sin killed Jesus"?  Or is it better to say, "The wrath of God the Father killed Jesus on the cross"? The question was posed by a fellow pastor on Facebook a few days back and stirred up a few answers from various people.  Here is my response: If my sin did not kill Jesus then the Gospel is null and void.   Not only is this statement "ok", it is a necessary aspect of the proclimation of God's Word. The concern raised by several pastors was that by placing the blame for Jesus' death upon my sin I might be attempting to take some credit for the redemption of the cross.  This is, of course, not the case as anyone could easily tell you.  Saying that my sin caused the death of Jesus does not give me any credit from the positive effects of that death and more then saying that my drunkenness killed three innocent bystanders gives me credit for the foundation started by their family to combat drunk driving.  When I say t...