Saint Matthew's

Since 6:30 this morning (on and off, to be honest), I have been studying the latest document that comes from the Missouri Synod dealing with public sin and the response to it. I will be writing something more detailed in a few days, but I thought if you had some time today or the next, you can read through the document that spans 28 pages. It is a PDF document. Click here to get it.

I have been a little bit behind all week when it comes to posting here at the blog. I have been busier than what one would expect a summer time schedule would allow. But hopefully things will settle down soon so I could post some items.

I could post something more in-depth now, but the Yankees are on. I did watch the end of Wednesday night’s game from Arlington, Texas where Jason Giambi walloped a 9th-inning homerun to win the game for the Bombers. But tonight is the night I could actually watch an extended chunk of the game. That’s what I am doing …. and reading a portion of World Magazine…

Just a little reminder — if and when you get an opportunity to search for something on the Internet, please use Goodsearch.com. It is a search engine that graciously hands over to churches and charities a portion of each search. Yes, the portion they hand over is only one-cent, but over time, that one-cent does add up. Plus, you help out Saint Matthew’s while you do it!

When you type in www.goodsearch.com, you will see two areas where you can type: the lower one on the screen is where you type ‘Saint Matthew’s’ and hit enter. A small list of other Saint Matthew’s will come up – and our church is at the top of the list. Click on our church name and your search will go to help the ministries here at Saint Matthew’s!

Then you just type in your search term and that’s it! The search is powered by Yahoo! Thanks – have a great night.

As with all churches, sometimes financial problems overcome the thoughts of every member. Questions as to ‘what to do’ always pop up. And the ideas are laudable — evangelism, stewardship, and the like.

Rev. Paul Gregory Alms has an interesting post as to what a church should do when faced with difficulties: to forgive, to baptize, and to celebrate the Eucharist. Difficulties are time for reflection, study and prayer. It is when in the dark times that we God the most. For that is when the church is the church — where God’s gifts are received. It is a terrific post. Take a moment to read it.

“Great and grievous, indeed, are these dangers and temptations, which every Christian must bear. We bear them even though each one were alone by himself. So every hour that we are in this vile life, we are attacked on all sides (2 Corinthians 4:8), chased and hunted down. We are moved to cry out and to pray that God would not allow us to become weary and faint (Isaiah 40:31; Hebrews 12:3) and to fall again into sin, shame, and unbelief. For otherwise it is impossible to overcome even the least temptation. This, then, is what “lead us not into temptation” means. It refers to times when God gives us power and strength to resist the temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). However, the temptation is not taken away or removed. While we live in the flesh and have the devil around us, no one can escape his temptation and lures. It can only mean that we must endure trials — indeed, be engulfed in them (2 Timothy 2:3). But we say this prayer to that we may not fall and be drowned in them.” Luther’s Large Catechism, The Lord’s Prayer: Reference taken from Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, page 447 (105, 106)

One of the reasons we seek the forgiveness of God is because of all those times when we fail to live up to what He wants from us. Those known and unknown sins need forgiveness. We come to the Lord and repent and He graciously forgives those many trespasses and sins.

That is why in the Lord’s Prayer we pray that when those tough times come, when we are faced with trials and difficulties, that we do not fall into temptation and take the ‘wrong road.’ We pray that our faith would guide our actions.

Interesting article over on the Daily Mail (England) from Sunday: the Bishop of London has declared flying to go on vacation is a sin.

I thought when I initially read the headline he meant that it was a sin to go on vacation and not go to church. But no, he says it is a sin because when you fly, you hurt the environment and that is a sin.

I came into the home office a little after 6PM this evening to check email and search the ‘net for a while. When I opened my browser — whose home page is set to The Drudge Report — I noticed he linked to a story out of Utah where a family erected a sign in their front yard attacking their developmentally disabled neighbor.

“Caution Retards in Area” is probably one of the worst examples of a lack of sensitivity and brotherhood that I’ve seen in a while. There is a back history between one family, who has a developmentally disabled son, and some of their neighbors who have criticized their son for his actions in the community. According to the report, the boy wanders onto the private property of neighbors and the neighbor who erected the sign claimed the boy assaulted his daughter and because of the boy’s developmental condition, the DA didn’t want to file charges.

So, his response is to put this very hurtful sign in their front yard.

As you would guess, neighbors aren’t happy about the sign. But the homeowner claims the sign stays.

What does that tell you about the sinfulness of humanity? What does this tell you about the need for a strengthening of faith?

This is a very painful situation that is being mishandled by this homeowner. Instead of attempting to deal with the problem, whatever the true problem is, they went to attack a boy using very hurtful words.

Repentance and forgiveness. Two words missing from this community.

Weather forecasters are not predicting a good weather weekend, especially tonight and tomorrow with heavy rain expected to cover our Northern New Jersey area. This continues our week of terrible stormy weather. Thankfully, all the electricity is back and trees that feel are, for the most part, chopped up and carted away.

As I type this, I am in Vineland, New Jersey in Cumberland County at my PALS meeting. We weren’t the only area in New Jersey that received terrible storms. In southern New Jersey, electricity has just been restored to all PSE&G residents and trees that fell have been moved out of the way. But there are threats of major flooding tomorrow down here. Remember this area in your prayers.

And also remember our Missouri Synod offices in Saint Louis — they have been without power since early this week, caused by guess what? Terrible thunderstorms. Remember our Synod’s International Center in your prayers as well.

I will be back in New Milford tomorrow afternoon.

Our nation has become ’sue happy.’ Whenever we get a cup of coffee that is too hot, the first thing that comes to our minds is that dopey lawsuit filed by a woman who spilled hot McDonald’s coffee on herself: she sued because the coffee was too hot and actually won her lawsuit.

Even within the Missouri Synod, pastors and churches attempted to sue the Synod over the 2004 Synodical Convention.

But would you sue your parents? Would you sue them because you fell on their driveway when you came home unexpectedly to surprise your mother for her birthday? What if the driveway was a sheet of ice? Would you then sue?

Well, a woman is suing her parents for $75,000 because she claims she fell on their “icy” driveway. The world is quickly coming to an end.

Those thunderstorms on Tuesday night were incredible!! I have never seen such vibrant and continuous lightning ever!! The rain came down in buckets. Trees fell all over New Milford and our sister communities here in Northern New Jersey. It was a horrible storm that broke the oppressive heat (too bad the humidity is still high).

We were without power here at Saint Matthew’s from 10:30P Tuesday through 10:30A Wednesday. This came on top of an earlier power outage that hit at 7:00P Tuesday — that one lasted only an hour and a half.

Thankfully, PSE&G came and fixed the power lines quickly. But it was New Milford and our Public Works that got the job done fast! A tree went down just up the block from the parsonage. Workers got busy at night and came back in the morning to finish chopping was was left of the fallen tree and carting it away. Great job!!

Martin Luther didn’t want to start a new church. He wanted to reform the Roman Catholic Church. He wanted to eliminate non-Scriptural doctrines and teachings that minimized the glory of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity and the savior of the world. He didn’t leave the Roman Catholic Church — they threw him out.

Sadly, to this very day, the questions of doctrine and teaching that surrounded the Roman church at the time of Luther are still alive and well in our time. Actually, they have grown a bit. But yet we followers of Luther and members of the true reformation are clinging to the hope that God will gently guide His church catholic onto the pathway of truth. He will guide it by His Word. He will guide it by His Sacraments. And it will be the cross of Christ that stands at the center.

We pray for our brothers and sisters in the Roman church, just like we do for all of Christianity — the church catholic — that God’s Word alone, that God’s grace alone, and God’s love in Christ alone will embolden the faith of all believers to come home to mother church. And that church is the one where Jesus Christ is the head.

One of the issues that came up this weekend in our readings — something I didn’t preach about — is predestination. As we heard from our reading in Ephesians written by Saint Paul, God has predestined people for salvation. In simpler terms, before the foundation of the world, God knew who was to be saved. Scripture teaches this fact and it is something we, as Christians, believe without exception.

But what of the opposite? Did God predestine people to hell?

If you think this way, stop!

Those who follow in the theology of John Calvin (Presbyterian and other Reformed churches) believe in what is called ‘double predestination.’ It is the belief that God predestined people for salvation and others to hell.

This is a terrible, horrible, and disgusting idea to think about God.

Let me lay out an easy to understand route to take when it comes to predestination. Consider this a Cliff’s Notes version of a longer bible study:

1. Predestination is a Scriptural teaching. Read Ephesians 1:4 and Romans 6 through 8 for support. It is easy to understand – he knew before the world was created who would come to faith in His Son and thus graciously receive His gift of salvation with Him for all eternity.

2. The issue of predestination deals only with Christians — namely those who believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. The fact is — unbelievers think this whole God thing with predestination is fantasy. So it only deals with those who believe.

3. This doctrine of predestination is not one that is supposed to cause discomfort, but it is meant to comfort Christians during difficult times. Why? Because our salvation in Christ is guaranteed by faith in Him, and that this salvation is such a certainty that it was known by Him before the world was created.

4. We cannot forget the Gospel promise of God: faith in Christ, His Son, is what saves. Period. Nothing more is needed. Christ has done it all for us. He kept the law when we couldn’t. God graciously offers us salvation by faith alone, a faith built and sustained by His Holy Spirit.

Those who believe in Calvinistic theology are doing their followers such a horrific disservice. They are leading them off the path to salvation that is guaranteed by faith and putting them on a road of doubt. This teaching is not Scriptural. It cannot be found in the pages of the Bible. Predestination is a Godly-comfort; Calvinists have turned it into a fear. They are trying to use their minds and logic to figure out who is saved and who isn’t.

That is why you shouldn’t jump away from Holy Scripture says — when you leave Scripture and start using your mind to figure out theological issues, you reduce the Word of God and raise up the human mind. We are not smarter than God! I trust God. That is why when it comes to predestination, only use Scripture to answer any questions you have.

I know – it does make logical sense: if He knows who is being saved, then He knows who is going to condemned to hell. But logic can’t explain God. That is why predestination can’t be extended to people who don’t believe! Scripture tells us only that God predestines those to salvation, NOT to hell. Trust what God says, not what human minds tell us.

Remember: it is faith that saves. You have faith in Christ, you are saved. It is the promise of God. That is the comfort that is found in this doctrine.

I hope everyone is keeping cool today — temperatures here in Northern New Jersey are expected to knock on 100 degrees. Actually, the Weatherbug I have on my Mac is reading 100 right now. Ugh!

My intention today was write about predestination — and I will. But I have been reading for a while with my XM radio playing in the background. I am flipping between 2 stations – Mix, XM-22, a station that sounds similar to WPLJ 95.5 FM, and Sunny XM-24, a clone of Lite-FM 106.7. I can’t turn these stations off today. When I was in the car this morning, I had XM 22 on; at home, I have been jumping back between both. Even with the few minutes of commercials on these channels (they are programmed by Clear Channel Communications, not XM Satellite Radio), they are just playing a great array of music.

I don’t get anything from it, but if you are considering satellite radio, I would choose XM.

For those who want to check out my Sunday sermon a little early (no guarantees that it won’t change come tonight and tomorrow), I have uploaded it to our site. That still doesn’t mean you can stay home on Sunday at 9:30A. We are having communion, and all Christians should be happy to celebrate the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day. See you Sunday!

Unless you are evil, no one likes war. No one likes to send their children to the battlefield and watch them die, unless you are evil.

And when evil raises its ugly head, the peace loving world must stand against it. This also means all Christians also must take sides against the evil.

For some reason, the Vatican has come out against Israel for defending itself from evil. They were silent when bombs strapped to the chests of the promoters of evil blew up buses filled with children and seniors. They were silent as bombs rained down on Israeli towns and villages from terrorists.

And what about their statement condemning the kidnapping of innocent soldiers? Their silence was deafening.

Now when Israel defends itself, they are the bad guys. Here is a nation surrounded on all sides by people who want to wipe them off the face of the planet and they are the bad guys when they take up arms to defend themselves.

Our collective prayers should be towards the sowing of peace throughout the Middle East, especially at this time when we are dealing with a military outbreak between Israel, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. We should be praying for the democratic government in Lebanon that they help eradicate the terrorists that live in their country. We should be praying for our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who face similar acts of evil by terrorists.

We should not be blaming anyone. We should be praying for peace, praying for people to come to faith in Christ, and urging both sides to stop the fighting. For the Vatican to take a political position against Israel is dismaying.