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Concordia Concordia 2019 2019 HIGHER HIGHER THINGS THINGS CONFERENCES CONFERENCES
2019 HIGHER THINGS CONFERENCES Retrospective Issue
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Death is nothing to fear. The martyrs remind us of that. NEW from Bryan Wolfmueller
Study five martyrs’ lives, learn about the theology that inspired and guided them, and grow in your appreciation for the faith God has given you.
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Grow in knowledge and faith at
cph.org/martyrs
https://www.cph.org/p-32682-a-martyrs-faith-in-a-faithless-world.aspx
Contents T A B L E O F
Volume 19/Number 3 • Fall 2019
4 Holy Absolution: One Lord, Three Words, No Penance
By Rev. George F. Borghardt Part of living in light of our forgiveness in Christ is experiencing Absolution. Rev. Borghardt declares that hearing the words,“I forgive you,” from your pastor is not meant to replace going directly to the Father to seek forgiveness through His Son. Rather, it’s a gift from the Father that is to be treasured!
6 Concordia: Gospel Unity
By Rev. Jacob Ehrhard What’s the key to fostering real unity? Feelings, fundamentals, diversity? How about “None of the above”? Rev. Ehrhard focuses on what makes the most fertile ground for the much sought after unity of heart and soul: the Gospel itself!
8 When Relationships Go Bad
By Sandra Madden Some forms of abuse are very obvious and easy to spot, whereas other kinds are more subtle. Sandra not only lays out the red flags that signal you might be in an abusive relationship, but also lets you know where to turn for help.
10 Concordia, Jesus-Style
By Rev. Joel Fritsche Just like the stubborn, stiff-necked Israelites we can find ourselves turning from the concordia that God offers toward all the other possibilities vying for our attention. Rev. Fritsche points us toward the Divine Service, where we get to receive the Father’s gifts that promote true concordia.
12 The Scarlet Thread
By Rev. Mark Buetow From Genesis to Revelation, there’s a common thread: It’s all about Jesus. Rev. Buetow explains how Jesus, the Scarlet Thread, shows up in all sorts of places—sometimes where you’d least expect to find Him!
14 Concordia 2019 Photo Retrospective You’re bound to see some familiar faces of enthusiastic conference attendees in this photo collage. Check it out!
16 REGISTRATION DETAILS FOR WATERMARKED 2020 HIGHER THINGS CONFERENCES
®
Volume 19/Number 3/Fall 2019 Bible Studies for these articles can be found as appendices to this magazine
20 Time to Spill the Tea on Generation Z
By Erica Jacoby As a member of Generation Z are you to be fearful or hopeful? Erica demonstrates that if you put on Jesus-colored glasses you’ll be able to better understand your place in this fallen world that will one day be fully redeemed.
Executive Editor
Katie Hill Art Director
Steve Blakey Editorial Associates
Rev. Greg Alms Rev. Paul Beisel Rev. Gaven M. Mize Rev. Dr. Matthew Richard
22 The Stages of Daring to Be Lutheran
By Alayna Brandt Alayna takes you from her high school to post-college years, desiring to impress on you the amazing benefits of choosing to build relationships with like-minded believers.
Copy Editors
Kay Maiwald Dana Niemi
24 How to Survive and Thrive in the Military as a Lutheran Christian
Bible Study Authors
Rev. Aaron T. Fenker Rev. Joshua Ulm
By Rev. Dr. Steven Hokana Whether you are contemplating entering military service or would like to encourage someone currently serving our country, Rev. Hokana will help you understand the value of that vocation and how it can be God-honoring and faithpromoting.
___________ Board of Directors President
Rev. George F. Borghardt Vice-President
Rev. Duane Bamsch Treasurer
Mr. Kurt Winrich
Regular Features
Secretary
Rev. Joel Fritsche
18 Theology: God Speaks—We Confess
Mrs. Becky Clausen Deaconess Ellie Corrow Rev. D. Carl Fickenscher Mr. Anthony Pellegrini Rev. Chris Rosebrough
By Rev. Aaron T. Fenker When we confess rightly what we have been taught, that’s not only the way of faith toward God, it’s also how we love our neighbor. This, asserts Rev. Fenker, is where true unity blossoms.
___________
Executive Council
28 Catechism: Liturgical Catechesis Stillness, Symbol, Sacrifice, Sacrament: Reflections on Worship
Executive Director
Erica Jacoby
Dean of Theology
Rev. Aaron T. Fenker
By Rev. William M. Cwirla Rev. Cwirla takes you on a tour of these aspects of our worship, thoughtfully explaining how each is a delightful gift that mirrors the Feast to come!
Business Executive
Connie Brammeier Media Executive
Sandra Madden Conference Executive
30 Bible Study: Concordia: Gospel Unity
Crysten Sanchez Marketing and Development Executive
Patrick Sturdivant
Be sure to check out this sample of one of our student Bible studies which links up with Rev. Jacob Ehrhard’s article on P. 6.
lightstock - Kieran Metcalfe Photography
Special Features
HigherThings
Higher Things® Magazine ISSN 1539-8455 is published quarterly by Higher Things, Inc. P.O. Box 155 Holt, MO 64048. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the executive editor of Higher Things Magazine. Copyright 2019. Higher Things® is registered trademarks of Higher Things Inc.; All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States. For subscription information and questions, call 1-888-4826630, then press 4, or e-mail subscriptions@higherthings.org. (This phone number is only used for subscription queries.) For letters to the editor, write letters@higher things.org. Writers may submit manuscripts to: submissions@ higherthings.org. Please check higherthings.org/magazine/ writers/ for writers’ guidelines and theme lists.
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HOLY ABSOLUTION: H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 4
One Lord, Three Words, No Penance By Rev. George F. Borghardt
J
esus came to forgive you. He lived your life. He died your death. He rose again for your forgiveness. He sent His men to deliver that forgiveness. He sent your pastor to say to you, “I forgive you all your sins.” All that Jesus did, all that He said, all the miracles that He gave to sinners was so that He could forgive their sins. He baptized. He taught. He breathed forgiveness. He fed them His Body to eat and His Blood to drink for the forgiveness of their sins. When He breathed His last, He died for your forgiveness. And on the Third Day, the One who was crucified for your sins was raised for your justification, your forgiveness, before the Father. Three of the Gospels report that when Jesus was at Capernaum, believers brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat (Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26). Everyone who was there knew what was wrong with the man. He was paralyzed. He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t get around. He was confined. He was imprisoned on his mat. He needed to be able to walk. Jesus passed by and saw the faith of the people who brought the man to Him and said, “Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.” As if that would fix everything! As if forgiveness of sins would make it all better. It’s okay you are still on that mat. It’s okay that you can’t move. Don’t fret about it! Cheer up! Your sins are forgiven you! The Pharisees recoiled. How dare Jesus act this way! How dare He think that He could forgive sins! Only God can forgive sins! Only God can take sins away! To which Jesus retorts, “Why do you speak evil in your hearts? Which is easier for me to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Rise, take your mat, and go home?’” No one said anything. How could they? The answer was obvious! It’s easier to just speak some churchy words and act like everything was better than to actually heal the man chained to his mat. “So that you will know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sin: rise, take your mat and go home.’” The man got up. Did he walk home? Did he run home? Did he skip home? He could do anything now! He was free!
He was free from his mat, free from the pain, and most importantly he was free from his sins! That’s why Jesus healed him! Jesus healed this man solely so that you would believe that He could forgive your sins. We look to God for other things: for healing, for a job, for a good grade on a test, for our car to start when we are alone in a parking lot at midnight. We look to Him when we need the hurricane to miss us, when we need the lights to come back on after the tornado, when we need a date to the dance, when we need Him to help us escape the consequences of that sin. We need and we need and we need from God all sorts of important things. But He knows what is most important: forgiveness of sins. You need it more than healing. You need it more than the grades that you think are most important. You need it because your car won’t start. You need it even if the hurricane misses you or if your lights come back on after the tornado. You need forgiveness for the doubts that you have about whether anyone will go with you to the dance. You need God’s forgiveness for your sins and your attempts to dodge its consequences. You need forgiveness for your trying to save yourself by your good deeds for others and for your unkind despising of those around you. You need and need and need from God forgiveness before and after anything else. This is why the Lord sent you your pastor! The Lord breathed on your pastor through the laying on of hands and said to him, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any they are retained” (John 20:22-23). That’s your pastor’s job! The same Lord who did all that He did to win forgiveness for you on the cross sent your pastor to deliver that forgiveness to you. “Only God can forgive sins,” your
doubts echo those of the Pharisees. He sent your pastor to speak His forgiveness, to deliver to you forgiveness. God established Holy Absolution so you would have peace with Him and those around you. He gave you your pastor so that when he speaks to you those three words, “I forgive you,” you would know without doubt, as the Small Catechism says, these words are just as “valid and certain as if Christ our dear Lord spoke them to you Himself.” Tell your doubts to take it up with Jesus! While everyone needs to confess their sins to God, confessing your sins to your pastor isn’t required. Holy Absolution has no laws, no rules, and no penance. It’s a gift for your comfort. After all, everything that Jesus did and said was so that you would be forgiven. Holy Absolution is the “very voice of the Gospel “! (Ap. XI, 15) It’s the Lord applying the Law to you (confession) and the Lord pouring into you the Gospel (absolution). It’s free without penance. It’s private between you and God. It’s social and restores communion. No penance! Your pastor isn’t going to send you home requiring some prayers or some other form of penance. You know that won’t make up for what you have done. God does, too, which is why He sent your pastor to you: to tell you that you are forgiven for free. Your pastor also is not going to tell anyone what you have done. He won’t even say that he’s seen you. You can come to him one time or many times and he will have forgiveness for you, won by the Son of God’s death for you on the cross, delivered to you in the Word. Forgiveness is why Jesus came! He came to forgive your sins. He came to save you. He came to bring you eternal life. He came to justify you by grace through faith. Jesus came to say to you through your pastor, “I forgive you.” Rev. George F. Borghardt is the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bossier City, Louisiana and serves as the President of Higher Things. He focused on Absolution for his breakout sessions during the 2019 conference season.
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concordia:
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e live in a world where unity often gets put on a pedestal, but often at great cost. Such an idyllic unity for the sake of unity will only lead to destruction. Anything we as sinful human beings attempt to construct will likewise be sin-plagued. On the other hand, unity based on a truth that unites, which can be found in the Gospel, will lead to a fruitful concordia (with one heart).
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In his 2017 book, How to Think, Alan Jacobs writes,“The only real remedy for the dangers of false belonging is the true belonging to, true membership in, a fellowship of people who are not so much like-minded as like-hearted.” Jacobs observes that we are all prone to conforming our thoughts to group-think. Peer pressure isn’t just for high schoolers. This is “false belonging,” to use Jacobs’ term, which leads to errors in thinking. In contrast, “true belonging” is a deeper fellowship where a person’s thinking is not conformed to his or her group, but transformed by the deeper fellowship found in membership to a body that is united in heart. The book of Acts describes the early Church in this way. “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had
everything in common” (Acts 4:32, emphasis added). The first Christians were not only united in their thinking, but also in heart and soul. They were members of a fellowship, as if they were members of one body. And they took care of each other, including their bodily needs. But things changed very quickly. It wasn’t long before divisions appeared in the Church. Judaizers and Gnostics and Marcionites and Arians and Monophysites and…the list goes on. In every generation of the Church, it seems like a new division appears; people can’t agree on the Christian faith. The New Testament word for division is hairesis, which we know as heresy. And it hasn’t gotten any better in the last 2,000 years. There are anywhere between 33,000 and 51,000 different Christian denominations across the world. No one knows for sure,
GOSP because it’s impossible to count and some people define denominations differently. But even if there were only two denominations in the entire world, the Church would be a divided Church. Yet every Sunday, week after week, Christians across the world confess, “I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church” (Nicene Creed). Many people in the history of the Christian Church have sought to address the disunity of the Church. I’d like to introduce three different perspectives. There are probably more, but these three are good instances when the attempt to solve this problem of disunity resulted in at outward unity but lacked the deeper unity of heart and soul. The first instance is from a man named Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). I choose him because his name is fun to pronounce. Freddy lived in a time when the Christian faith had been reduced to virtually nothing by the movement known as rationalism. Rationalism got rid of anything that didn’t measure up to human reason—things like miracles, angels, the incarnation of Jesus, and the resurrection of the dead. To preserve something of the faith, Freddy considered faith to be a “feeling of absolute dependence,” thus diminishing the Church to simply a community of like-minded individuals. Unity in feelings.
PEL UNITY
By Rev. Jacob Ehrhard
The second perspective was another reaction to rationalism which came full-force in the nineteenth century: fundamentalism. Fundamentalism sought to identify “fundamental” doctrines of the Christian faith, which are essential to believe in order to be included under the banner of Christianity. In the end, fundamentalism usually shakes out to five fundamental doctrines: the divinity of Jesus, the virgin birth, blood atonement, bodily resurrection from the dead, and the inerrancy of Scripture. These are all well and good, but notice what’s missing: original sin, Holy Baptism, Lord’s Supper. Can you disagree on these and still be united? Unity in fundamentals. The third attempt at unity came in the twentieth century, during which the Church was more divided than ever. The ecumenical movement was an attempt to bring all the however-many-thousand denominations together into one big, happy family. But this is easier said than done. The ecumenical movement only succeeded in diminishing the differences without achieving real unity. Unity in diversity. In contrast to these attempts at unity and others like them, which are only able to attain some measure of outward unity, is the confession of Church unity in the Augsburg Confession: “For the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree about
the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. It is not necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies instituted by men, should be the same everywhere” (Augsburg Confession VII). “It is enough.” Satis est. The only thing necessary to be united in the Church is the Gospel—purely taught and rightly administered in the Sacraments. But isn’t this just another (failed) attempt at outward unity? Doesn’t this just reduce the Christian faith to the Gospel? Aren’t there other fundamental teachings that this excludes? Hermann Sasse, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian, remarked that this phrase does not demand a minimum for unity, but a maximum. It is not a Gospel-reductionism, but a Gospel-expansionism, where the Gospel pervades and permeates and predominates every other teaching of the Christian Church. It is a fundamental unity of faith in the heart, not an outward unity of feelings, fundamentals, or diversity. This is why our Lutheran Confessions are called The Book of Concord, or, in Latin, Concordia. With one heart. The Gospel brings us together into one body, the Body of Christ. And in that Body there are many members, but only one heart. The heart of the Body of Christ beats the Blood of Christ—given and shed for you for the forgiveness of
sins. These words require all hearts to believe. Faith in this Gospel is the “true belonging” in the Church. Concordia. With one heart. Gospel unity. Rev. Jacob Ehrhard is the pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chicago, Illinois. He was a 2019 plenary speaker at Concordia-Wisconsin.
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When Relationships Go Bad By Sandra Madden
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n the beginning, when God was making all things, He made it all good. In fact, He says He made it VERY good. He made woman for and from man and made the two to be each other’s companions, work in His garden, and bear children as a fruit of their relationship together. Adam and Woman didn’t have power struggles, argue over the direction of the toilet paper roll, try to one-up each other, or have an idea that either of them could even conceive of doing something mean or hurtful to the other. H I G H E R T H I N G S __ 8
Unfortunately, our first parents’ fall into sin contaminated all their subsequent generations. We still live in the good world God created, and still have intimate relationships, but now those are also affected by sin and the sinful people in them. Sometimes couples just have minor spats and disagreements. Other times...it’s downright scary and abusive. We don’t like to talk about those situations, and so we often pretend they don’t exist. But they do. For teenagers, too. Sin has messed up our world so much that abusive
relationships aren’t even something that we recognize when they’re right in front of us. We hear about celebrity accusations of abuse on an almost weekly basis. Books and movies (even for young adults and children) portray abusers as romantic, dashing, and protective. We gloss over the fact that the victims in the stories fear that they may do something “wrong” and face extreme consequences from their partners, or possibly even death. What Is Abuse? Before we get much further, we need a definition of abuse. That word gets thrown around far too easily and it is misunderstood to mean “when someone does something mean to another person.” However, intimate partner1 abuse is a deliberate pattern of behavior used by a person in an intimate relationship to intimidate his or her partner and thereby gain or maintain power and control over the other person.2 It’s easy, from the outside, to confuse intimate partner abuse with situational violence. Situational violence happens when an argument between two people escalates into a violent episode—mostly because one or both don’t have effective conflict resolution skills. Abuse is different. It’s deliberate. There may not have been premeditation, but it’s definitely not due to a loss of control. How do we know? Abusers don’t act that way at school or work. They don’t act that way towards teachers or teammates.
Shutterstock - Kaspars Grinvalds
If and when they do hit the victim, they make sure witnesses aren’t around, and are careful to hit where a bruise won’t be visible. That all takes self-control and some degree of intention. Abuse also follows a pattern—so predictable that experts have identified a Cycle of Abuse. You’re going along with life and your relationship starts to get tense. Your partner is irritable and set off by everything that goes wrong. Eventually, he or she erupts and does something abusive. But then comes the sorrow, the excuses, and promises it’ll never happen again. And then the cycle begins again. The thing about abuse is that it is not defined solely by the abuser’s actions, but that those actions serve a purpose. It’s all to make the victim to fear the abuser. Abusers don’t abuse because they’re angry or lose control. They abuse because they believe they’re entitled to and completely justified in treating their partner that way to get what they want. Red Flags that Your Relationship May Be Abusive Physical: This is the most recognized form of abuse. For some, it’s the only form of abuse they acknowledge (they’re wrong). This may include obvious things like punching, slapping, kicking, and pushing. But it may also be things like throwing objects, not allowing you to sleep, taking away medication, forcing you to drink alcohol or do drugs, not allowing you to leave a room, etc. Sexual: While it’s similar to physical abuse, it’s more intimate. This entails things like rape, forcing you to engage in sexual acts or sexual contact against your will, refusing to use a condom if intercourse occurs, insisting you get an abortion if a baby is conceived, forcing you to wean a baby early so you’ll be fertile sooner, etc. Note: Marital vows do NOT give sweeping consent to sexual contact or intercourse that overrides consent in the moment. Financial: This doesn’t affect teenagers as much as it does adults, but might include things like making you pay for everything when you go out, stealing from you, opening credit cards in your name, buying expensive gifts for you and getting mad when you don’t or can’t reciprocate, and buying expensive things for themselves but insisting that you shop with coupons at the bargain store for yourself. Social: The internet has made it easier than ever to abuse people socially. This kind of abuse may involve situations like insisting on knowing your passcode so your partner can look through your phone (while you’re not allowed to do the same), posting private things about you, insisting that you check in with him or her and respond to any texts immediately, tracking you, sending you sexts and nudes, and demanding that you do the same, setting up nanny cams, checking your browser history, and insisting that you only have shared social media accounts.
Emotional: Name-calling sounds like a silly, juvenile thing to call abusive. But when the person who knows you better than anyone else says that you’re stupid, fat, ugly, a waste of skin, worthless, etc. on a frequent basis...it’s easy to believe it must be at least a little bit true. Emotional abuse can also be blaming you for things you had nothing to do with, irrational jealousy, lying, gaslighting, isolating you from friends and family, and threatening violence against you, children, pets, or themselves. Emotional abuse changes the victim as a person. Bruises and broken bones heal in a matter of weeks. The effects of emotional abuse stay with a victim for the remainder of life, even if he or she is no longer in an abusive relationship. What to Do? If you see yourself in the above descriptions, talk to an adult (preferably your parents). Getting out of an abusive relationship is not something any victim can do alone, no matter what your age. Talk to a counselor at school or at a domestic violence shelter. They are experts in dealing with these relationship dynamics and situations and have learned the hard way over the years how to best help victims of abuse. Do what you have to do to be safe. If that means you don’t go anywhere alone for a while...welcome to the buddy system. You know your abuser best, and it might not be safe to do anything right away. If you’re in an abusive dating relationship, end it. I know, easier said than done. But do it anyway. You’re not obligated to stay in that relationship or work on it if it’s not healthy. If you’re in an abusive marriage, things get a lot more complicated, but you certainly do still need a break from the abuse. Separation until there is no more abusive behavior going on so you may reconcile is a reasonable and Biblical course of action. And talk to your pastor. He has been put in your life to tell you who you are in Christ, that you are loved, worthwhile, beautiful, perfect, sinless, without any blemishes or flaws or any such thing. Your Baptism makes that true. He’ll remind you to come to church so you can receive God’s gifts for you in Christ. Hear what God has done for you through the preaching of the Word, the lessons, and the liturgy. Receive forgiveness for all your sins, mistakes, and flaws in Absolution and the Lord’s Supper. And if he doesn’t proclaim and deliver these things, tell him to talk to me. 1 husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend 2 Training Manual on Domestic Violence. https://www.lcms.org/Document.fdoc?src=lcm&id=4369
Sandra Madden is the Media Executive for Higher Things. Her article is based on her breakout sessions at the Concordia 2019 summer conferences.
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Concordia, Jesus-Style By Rev. Joel Fritsche
And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” (Exodus 24:3)
L
ook how those wonderful children of Israel responded when God gave them the Law, the Ten Commandments, together with all the rules and statutes of the covenant by which they were to show themselves as His people. WITH ONE VOICE they spoke. Concordia! Harmony! In agreement! But that didn’t last. “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). No graven images. No gods of silver. No gods of gold. It didn’t take long before Aaron and the boys forged a calf of gold from all the jewelry they pillaged from the Egyptians. “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4) Aaron built an altar. The people feasted. They rose up to play, so quickly forgetting their covenant with God, exchanging the concordia that the Lord had made with them for their own corrupted version. Thankfully, concordia with God is not merely one-sided. It’s more than just man’s promises. Concordia is actually bloody business. How would you like to have been an Israelite in the Old Testament? Burnt offerings. Peace offerings. Butchered oxen. Bowls of blood. Blood on the altar. Blood splattered all over the people, ALL OVER YOU. “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words” (Exodus 24:8). That’s concordia, Exodusstyle. But that blood allowed the people to be in God’s presence. Then they could see Him and live. Then they could eat and drink with God and live. And so they did. How cool is that? When the covenant was ratified, “Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel… they beheld God, and ate and drank” (Exodus 24:9-11). But even that feasting was something temporary. Wavering between covenant and coveting so much more, the children of Israel wandered the wilderness. When they were hungry, God gave them manna and quail. When they were thirsty, God gave them water from rocks. He turned bitter streams sweet. He led them forward, never abandoning them, even though they so often ran from Him, whining, complaining, rebelling. Yet for forty years God kept them on the path to the Promised Land, where they would be His people forever. They made it, but it was still more of the same. Concordia with God? No! Let’s have concordia with the world, with the nations. Does that sound familiar? Well, you’re just like them. You make promises
that you can’t keep—promises to God, promises to your neighbor. Like the Israelites who were brought out of Egypt with God’s mighty hand, high on God’s mighty works, promising to keep His covenant, to love Him and one another, you do the same. What did you pray in the psalm a moment ago? I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth (Psalm 34:1). You’ll come home from this conference HIGH. It’s California, after all. But let me rephrase that. You’ll come home from this conference energized, rejoicing in the gifts, singing hymns, and hungry for more of the gifts of God. But how long will all of that really last? School starts back up soon. Activities resume. Things go back to normal. Life goes on. You forget. Concordia. Meh. As much as I hate to say it, even this conference isn’t lasting. It’s only temporary, like all things in this world. And soon you’ll be back to chasing the world’s idea of concordia. Jesus told the Jews, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died” (John 6:49). The wages of sin is death. Everything in this fallen world decays and dies. You and I are no exception. So, with death inevitable, let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1 Corinthians 15:32). Eat what you want. Build your altar. Make your golden calf. Follow your gods. Live how you want. Make your own concordia. NO! Repent! The Lord wants to do His concordia with you! He has something better for you and His stuff lasts. His doing counts. Jesus says to you: “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the
bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and NOT DIE. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:48–51). “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (John 6:54–56). Concordia is indeed bloody business. It’s built on the blood of the One who came down from heaven FOR YOU, to give His flesh on the cross FOR YOU, to shed His blood there FOR YOU, and for the life of the world. Concordia is all about eating and drinking, feasting on HIM and with HIM, with Jesus, the Bread of Life. For sure, you’ll leave this conference HIGH on Jesus. But it’s not really about some kind of spiritual high. It’s about real food and real drink. It’s about real life. It’s about true and lasting concordia, God’s doing, rejoicing in who you are in Him, His baptized child, to live with meaning and purpose as you receive forgiveness and life from His hand and go forth to love and serve your neighbor. Dear Christian, that’s exactly what our Lord provides for you in your local congregation, where His concordia with you is lived out as you receive Jesus, the Bread of Life, from your pastor as from God Himself. It’s a reality in His precious means of grace FOR YOU—the Absolution, the preaching, the Sacraments of Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. There’s not necessarily a high. In fact, you often arrive on a spiritual low, entering into God’s presence with all your sin, your unkept promises, your collapsed commitments, your corrupted concordia. And the blood from the altar— the blood of Jesus, the blood that’s better than that of bulls and goats, the blood of the eternal covenant, shed for you at Calvary—is sprinkled upon you as you eat and drink of Him. And God does His concordia stuff with you, again and again, abiding in you and you in Him. He makes you ONE with Him and with your neighbor. That’s Concordia—Jesus-style, God’s way, true and lasting, eternal, forever. Rev. Joel Fritsche serves as an LCMS missionary in the Dominican Republic and is the board secretary for Higher Things. This article is adapted from his Higher Things Concordia 2019 sermon preached at Concordia-Irvine.
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The Scarlet Thread By Rev. Mark Buetow
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he Bible is a big book. When I was a child and my parents read me Bible stories, I always thought they were great stories. But it wasn’t until much later that I realized and learned that the stories in the Bible are actually all connected and related. In fact, they are tied together by what you might call a “scarlet thread,” and that thread is Jesus! Let’s explore how that thread ties the 66 books of the Bible together.
Everything begins in the book of Genesis. It is God who speaks and creates all things. The crown of His creation is mankind, male and female, made in His image. Despite the blessing of His Word, they were deceived by the devil and ate from the Tree of Knowledge and brought sin and death into the world. At that very moment, God revealed a promise (in Genesis 3:15), the promise that the “seed of the woman” would crush the serpent’s head. That was the promise of a Savior. Everything else in the Bible traces that promise to its eventual fulfillment in the Incarnation of the Son of God: His conception, birth, life, suffering and death, and resurrection. Keep an eye on that thread!
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Since Adam and Eve, there have always been those who look for that promised Savior. When Cain killed Abel, the Lord gave Seth and through Seth’s line down to Noah and the flood and then to Abraham, that family tree is growing. As mankind spread over the earth, they forgot or ignored that promise of a Savior. But Noah remembered. The Lord kept that promise going through his family down to Abraham. But Abraham had no children. When he and Sarah were too old to have kids, the Lord gave them Isaac. It’s a miracle one step short of a virgin birth! To Isaac was born Jacob and Esau and it was Jacob through whom the promise was kept going (despite Esau being the firstborn). Jacob had twelve sons and the scarlet thread went through Judah’s line, literally! He got his former daughter-in-law Tamar pregnant and she had twins; the first born was marked with a scarlet thread because he pulled his hand back in and came out later! It was Jacob’s family that moved to Egypt, taken care of by Joseph who had been sold there by his brothers. So far, Abraham’s family was growing but they didn’t live in the land the Lord promised. About 400 years later, the Lord remembers His promise and it’s time to get His people out of Egypt. He sent Moses who led the children of Israel (now many thousands, established in the Twelve Tribes, named from the twelve sons of Jacob) out of their slavery in Egypt. Across the Red Sea, after the Passover and the death of the firstborn. Lots of blood flowing there! Always forward, always that promise of a Savior in the background. Then, in the wilderness at Mt. Sinai, the Lord gives the Ten Commandments and sets up the tabernacle and the priesthood. He sets His people apart and covers their sins with the blood of sacrifices that are all pictures of the Savior to come someday. All this centered around the Ark of the Covenant which was kept in the Tent (tabernacle) which was itself made from fabric woven with scarlet threads in it! The Old Testament is the story of Israel’s faithlessness and God’s faithfulness. He never loses sight of His promise even though His people forget or ignore it. Once they got to the Promised Land, their first target was the city of Jericho. The madam who ran the brothel there, Rahab, protected the Israelite spies and in turn her life was spared. When Jericho was destroyed, the Israelites knew where she lived because she had a scarlet thread hanging out of her window. Turns out this Rahab ends up in Jesus’ family tree, too. Then the Israelites entered the time of the judges. They fell away from God. He sent enemies to wake them up. They cried out for help. He sent judges to save them. They thanked Him. They fell away again. Rinse and repeat. Finally, they begged for a king (against God’s own counsel) and got Saul, but he was replaced by David, who was from the tribe of Judah. David was the shepherd king. He committed adultery with Uriah’s wife but from her was born Solomon who took David’s place when David died. After Solomon, the tribes split into the northern ten (called Israel) and the southern two (called Judah). In the north, they fell away from the Lord from the start. There were tons of wicked kings and the Lord sent prophets to warn them, but finally He sent them to exile using the Assyrian army.
In the south, Judah had a line of kings who were always from David’s family. There were lots of faithful kings but lots of bad ones, too. Same problems: idolatry and turning away from the Lord. The Babylonians captured Jerusalem in 586 B.C. The temple was destroyed and God’s people went into exile. It was during the exile that God’s people clung to His Word, remembered His promise, and trusted in Him despite their circumstances. Close to 70 years later they were able to go home and rebuild the temple. During this time of history in the Old Testament, there were many prophets who came to call God’s people to repentance and to remind them of the promise that would one day be fulfilled. They called God’s people away from idols to the Lord’s mercy. Books of wisdom and music (psalms) were written as people lived and thought about what God’s Word meant for them. While many of God’s people fell away, He continued to preserve the line that would be Jesus’ family tree. That scarlet thread was never cut! Fast forward 400 years again and the Romans are in charge. Elizabeth and Zechariah give birth to John. Mary gives birth to Jesus. The Son has shown up in the flesh! The promise of God has been fulfilled. So Jesus came to live for us and suffer and die for us and rise again. On Calvary, on the cross, when the dead body of the Lord is pierced with the spear, blood and water flow out. And at that moment, the scarlet thread which has tied all of this together, becomes visible: the scarlet thread of His blood running down and saving us from our sins. Then Jesus rose on the Third Day and sent His apostles into the world with the scarlet thread of His blood, delivered through preaching, baptizing, and the Supper. We hear its early start in the book of Acts as the Lord grows His Church. The apostles and others wrote their epistles, pointing people to Jesus and seeing in His Church the way in which God’s promises are fulfilled for you! In fact, the whole history of the Church right up to our time has been the story of God’s weaving that scarlet thread of salvation into your life, too! You have become a part of this story. Finally the Book of Revelation reveals that Jesus is the Lamb of God slain “from the foundation of the world.” In other words, this scarlet thread was there before creation and binds Christ’s people to Him eternally. This scarlet thread, Jesus the Savior, has always been there. It’s always been the story. It’s always been God’s great Promise that ties everything together. It’s this scarlet thread that ties the whole Bible together and gives it meaning and helps it to make sense. Whatever you read in the Bible, look closely! Whether it’s obvious or takes some careful searching, you’ll find that scarlet thread, Jesus, tying it all together and making you a part of this eternal story of God’s love and salvation. Rev. Mark Buetow is the pastor of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church and School in McHenry, Illinois. His article is a summary of his breakout sessions taught at the Concordia 2019 summer conferences.
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Concordia 2019 2019 HIGHER HIGHER THINGS THINGS CONFERENCES CONFERENCES
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June 24-27, 2019
June 26-29, 2019
Concordia University Nebraska Seward, Nebraska
Concordia University St. Paul St. Paul, Minnesota
July 2-5, 2019
July 16-19, 2019
July 30-August 2, 2019
Concordia University Chicago River Forest, Illinois
Concordia University Wisconsin Mequon, Wisconsin
Concordia University Irvine Irvine, California
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Conferences
Watermarked www.higherthings.org www.watermarked2020.org
Colorado State University
University of Tennessee
Fort Collins, CO • June 29 – July 2, 2020
Knoxville, TN • July 14 – 17, 2020
NW Missouri State University
Calvin University
Maryville, MO • July 7 – 10, 2020
Grand Rapids, MI • July 21 – 24, 2020
Why Higher Things?
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2020
We live in a culture of blurry religious distinctions and do-it-yourself spirituality. Youth, especially, need solid ground that will nurture lasting Christian faith. Rather than treating youth as an adolescent subculture and confusing them with religious experiences that cannot be replicated at home, Higher Things believes in challenging youth to learn the pure doctrine of the Christian faith. By teaching them the same message that they hear at home, youth grow in the fullness of the Christian faith as they come to appreciate historic liturgical practice and its unique focus on God’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation for us delivered in Word and Sacrament.
The Theme: Watermarked “Baptism now saves you.” (1 Peter 1:21) You were born to die. You’re a sinner, and sinners are marked for death. You not only inherited it, but the sins you commit daily earn you death. You won’t just die and be buried. Since you’re born dead in trespasses
and sins (Ephesians 2:1), you’re marked and sentenced to die forever in hell—a child of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Yet your sins aren’t yours anymore, neither is your death. Jesus took them as His own.“He became sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), your sin, and “He died to sin once for all” (Romans 6:10), for you, too. He gives what is His to you—”righteousness and purity forever.” You are no longer marked and sentenced and left to die. You are marked for life in Jesus. Jesus marked you with the Water of Life in Holy Baptism. His water and Word splashed over your forehead, washing you with the rosy-red water from His spear-pierced side and clothing you with His own resurrection. In Holy Baptism Jesus recreated you to be what He has forever wanted you to be: His disciple and friend, a child of His Father and His own brother or sister, that is,“an heir, having the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7). At the 2020 Watermarked Conferences we rejoice in and cherish all the promises and blessings Jesus makes and delivers to each of us in Holy Baptism. You really are what He says you are: marked forever as His own.
Registration Find the Registration Materials and Conference Information packets at Watermarked2020.org. Registration will open on November 1, 2019 and close as each site reaches capacity. We work very diligently to keep costs as low as possible while providing the best conferences we can – every year! The perperson rates are based on the date your group’s registration fees are paid in full. Additional fees apply for registrations and changes made on or after May 1, 2020. Balances paid on or after May 1, 2020 will incur a $25 per person late fee. See the Registration Policies for more information about fees and deadlines. Colorado State University - Fort Collins, CO (June 29-July 2, 2020) Northwest Missouri State - Marysville, MO (July 7-10, 2020) University of Tennessee - Knoxville, TN (July 14-18, 2020) Calvin University - Grand Rapids, MI (July 21-24, 2020)
EARLY BIRD! Nov. 1, 2019 to Jan. 31, 2020
REGULAR Feb. 1, 2020 to April 30, 2020
LATE (on or after May 1, 2020)
$385
$410
$435
Your Registration Fee includes:
• • All conference programming (Catechesis, • Worship, Entertainment) • • Three (3) nights of campus housing • (double-capacity) • • Nine (9) Meals (Day 1 supper - Day 4 lunch) • • Conference Handbook • • Daily Services Book • • Conference T-Shirt Not only can you register your group online at watermarked2020.org, you can pay deposits and your balance online. Just follow the instructions on the webpage to register your group.
Age Requirements Higher Things conferences are generally planned for high-school-aged youth, but registrants may be any youth who have been confirmed prior to the conference, including middle school and college students. We recognize that the ages of confirmed youth vary from congregation to congregation, and just ask that if a group is bringing young people who are not yet confirmed or in high school, their group leaders be prepared to provide additional supervision accordingly.
Chaperones Chaperones must be at least 21 years old at the time of the Conference and approved by the Group’s pastor to serve in that role. There must be at least one (1) male Chaperone for up to every seven (7) male youth in a registered group, and at least one (1) female
Chaperone for up to every seven (7) female youth in the group. There is no restriction on the number of Chaperones that may register with a group. All Chaperones and other adults in a group must complete the Registration process. If a Group needs assistance in finding Chaperones for the number of Youth they’re bringing, Higher Things can provide a list of Group Leaders from their area who may be contacted to ask if they would be willing to help out. Please contact the Conference Registrar (registrar@higherthings.org) for this assistance. All adults/chaperones registered to attend a Higher Things conference must also pass a national criminal and sexual predator background check by May 1, 2020. All Higher Things staff, volunteers, and leadership complete child safety training and annual background checks. See the Registration Policies for more information about background checks.
Conference Capacities The 2020 conference in Colorado has a capacity of 1000. The conferences in Missouri, Tennessee, and in Michigan all have capacities of 900. F A L L 2 0 1 9 2 __ _ 17
God Speaks T
By Rev. Aaron T. Fenker
he Lord speaks, and we receive His Word. It’s His Gift to us. We confess, (homologoumen, in the Greek, which means “say the same thing”) that Word. We say what He says to us. He speaks, we listen, we speak that Word as He gave it. That’s the way of faith. Faith defends our Lord’s Word, employing other words at times. “I and the Father are One,” (John 10:30) and “I will send from the Father the Helper, the Spirit of the Truth, who proceeds from the Father, whom the Father will send in My Name,” (John 14:26, 15:26) are all ways to confess “the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity” (Athanasian Creed).
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As the Words are, so also are the Gifts: “Baptize in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19). There, not just Trinity as a concept, as a doctrinal checkbox, but Trinity delivered for you and to you, and you to the Trinity, too, for your help and salvation in His Name (Psalm 124:8). There is unity in His Name, so also in His Word and His Gifts. “One body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:4–6). It’s not a unity of our own confessing. What good would that do? It’s a “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:6). The opposite of confessing is denying. To deny is to hear what Jesus says but to inject our own fleshly understanding into what our Lord says and gives (Matthew 16:21–23). The way of denying is to talk as if our Lord or His Spirit-filled messengers (apostles) meant something other than what was clearly said (John 20:23; 1 Peter 3:21). Or worse, it’s to discount His Word based on the limits of our categories and thinking (The Words of Institution, John 1:1). Or worst of all, it’s to go all the way to denying that Jesus said it altogether, following the way of various “quests” for the “historical” Jesus. There’s only disunity there, a lack of the Spirit. That’s the way of doubt and unbelief. There’s also the disunity of seeking a unity in our own confessing, because in that sort of unity not only what we say matters but also the exact way we say it. Words do matter. How they are said affects what they mean, but even as we are unified in our confessing, Old Adam rears his head, his thinking: my words are always better than your words. This is the war of words that Paul warns us about (2 Timothy 2:14). So also John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us” (Mark 9:38). “Whoever is not against us is for us,” Jesus replies. Fighting over words is precarious
We Confess business. The Lord sends those who confess Him and His Word, and they end up in a particular place. Their speaking is for a specific “you.” The author of Hebrews, writing to Jews, and Paul, writing to Gentiles, differ on their Old Testament examples that point to Christ. Peter and Paul echo Jesus in their own particular way (Titus 3:5–8; 1 Peter 3:21; Mark 16:16), and Paul uses different words to preach the same Christ depending on whether he is preaching to common Jews (Acts 13:16–42) or Jewish religious leaders (Acts 23:1–8) or even Gentiles (Acts 17:19–34).“I have become all things to all people” (1 Corinthians 9:22). This would be something seen not only in deed but in word. What Jesus says is confessed by faith and not denied. Faith will declare Jesus’ Word in the way He gave it, at times defending what He says with other words. Those words are picked up, dropped, changed as the occasion demands. We don’t hang our hats on those words and categories.“For the true unity of the Church it is enough (satis est) to agree on the teaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments” (Augsburg Confession VII). So also, St. Peter and the Jerusalem church extended the right hand of fellowship to Paul and his Gentile gang. Different words, different lives, yet one Lord, one Spirit, one Father, one faith, all given to both sides in the one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We are all surrounded by specific “yous,” just where the Lord baptized us to be. There are good works He “prepared beforehand that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Even more the words we say! His Word becomes ours. He gives it to us, puts it into us—our hearts, souls, and minds. He preaches, absolves, Bible-studies, devotions, Word-of-Institutions it into us, and, filled up with His Word, we speak that Word to the person He’s neighbor-ed us next to. As that Word works on us, it comes out for the sake of those around us—different words, different teachings emphasized.“In, with, and under” (Small Catechism, What is the Sacrament of the Altar?; Apology of the Augsburg Confession X) is just as valid as “is” (Smalcald Articles III VI) when it comes to the bread and wine and Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper. There may be some differences between us, but there may be overlap, too. Difference does not mean there is disunity. If particular speaking, preaching, and teaching must match 100% of the time, word for word, for there to be unity, there would never be unity. True unity isn’t in our doing, our speaking, our confessing. That would only last as long as we could keep it going through power, politics, labels, or force. It’s our Lord’s Word, not ours. He speaks His Word to us, into us, and each of us says it again as He gave it. That’s faith! We may use our own words from time to time, as the situation demands. If those words deny what the Lord Himself has said, that’s the way of doubt, disunity, and unbelief. Rather, we say what He says to us. He speaks, we listen, we speak that Word as He gave it. We confess. That’s the baptized life. That’s not just the way of faith toward God, but also the way of fervent love for one another. Rev. Aaron T. Fenker is the pastor of Bethlehem and Immanuel Lutheran Churches in Bremen, Kansas. He also is the Dean of Theology for Higher Things.
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Time to Spill the Tea* on Generation Z By Erica Jacoby
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f you were born in America somewhere between 1996 and 2013, you have been named “Generation Z” by sociologists. You may also be referred to as “iGen” because your generation is the first to grow up with a tablet or a smartphone in hand; you are the first generation of true digital natives. You probably could “speak” technology before you could properly speak English. It is unprecedented! Catching up with your technological prowess is totally new and very scary for those of us who are older. Just when we almost catch up with you and your virtual world, you’ve moved on to something new!
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One out of five Americans belongs to your generation. Think about that for a minute! Generation Z represents the largest subpopulation of Americans to date. Talk about power in numbers! Companies, political research firms, and religious organizations are furiously studying and analyzing Gen Z in order to sell you products and influence your opinion and behavior. Other generations want to know how the worldview of Gen Z will affect American culture and society. Most importantly we wonder, how will this worldview affect the future of Christ’s Church? As with any American generation that has come before you, there are good defining characteristics and not-so-good characteristics of Gen Z. Maybe you are familiar with some of these trends, maybe you are not. Teen birth rates, drug and alcohol abuse, and high school failure to graduate on time numbers have all declined. Teens are waiting longer to engage in sexual activity and abortion rates have declined, too. Yet despite these positive statistical trends with Gen Z, there are some statistics that are concerning. Feelings of isolation, insecurity, depression, and incidences of suicide among teens are higher than they have ever been. Fifty-eight percent of teens polled recently in 2016 and 2017 said they agree with the statement that “Many religions can lead to eternal life; there is no ‘one true religion.’” Is this the end of the world as we know it? The answer is both yes and no. We can look at the future of the world in the way the devil wants us to see it, which is to be full of despair and doubt. We can convince ourselves that the sky is falling and it’s the end of the world and of Christianity in America. We can look at the data and view the fact that we are now living in a post-Christian America as evidence that God has judged this country and is taking His Gospel elsewhere. You can deny your faith, conform to the world, and adopt their secular worldview. I admit that in my vocation as a public school high school teacher it is has been difficult at times not to give in to worry and despair. My Christian conscience has been deeply troubled when confronted with the pro-LGBTQ agenda in my district which insists you are part of the problem and are even harming kids by not supporting and promoting their ideology. I have served students who identify as transitioning, gay, bisexual, atheist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and the list goes on. How am I to tell my students about the Gospel of Jesus when talking about Him could get me fired? I know that if I struggle with this as an adult in this new postChristian reality, surely you must struggle, too! Should we perhaps look at this through Jesus-colored glasses instead? Through the lens of faith which the Lord has so graciously given to us in our Baptism? Kids in your generation may be searching for their orientation or for how they can “identify” themselves to others. But not you!
You don’t have to struggle with your identity. You know who you are; you know Whose you are. In your Baptism, God has given you new life. He has forgiven your sins. He has made you who you are by showing you Whose you are. You are one who has been bought by Christ the crucified. You are at peace with God. When God looks at you, He doesn’t see someone who struggles with identity for whatever reason; He sees perfection. He sees His Son. Thanks be to God! We’ve been reminded of our identity in Jesus, so remember this, too: you aren’t in this generation by accident. When you look around your school, your friends, and your community that exist outside of your church and you start to feel alone and in the minority, recall that God has placed you in those areas for your good and for the good of others. Because of Whose you are, you can’t help but be a bright beacon of light in a confused and dark world. We know the world is confused because their eyes are turned inward on themselves in their search for answers. But the only thing to be found in the human heart is darkness, sin, and death. No wonder Generation Z reports feeling isolated, insecure, and depressed. They don’t know Jesus! They are in darkness and don’t know that He is the Light of the world. And you are a light to your generation. Like a city on a hill shines, so you shine to those around you (Matthew 5:14). You are a lamp that gives light to the whole house of your life. But you don’t shine with your own light, you shine with the light of Christ who loved you and gave Himself for you. You also don’t shine for yourself! No! Nor can you hide your light under a bushel! You shine for others with all that you do and say so that they may see Christ in you and glorify the God who made you. I won’t lie to you. You are going to be facing tough challenges as your generation matures into adulthood. Certainly we are living in the end times. Our Lord told us we are. We live in a time where it is becoming increasingly difficult to be a follower of Christ. But you don’t have to meet those challenges alone. You are in Christ and when you need to be reminded, you have somewhere to go to be fed. Go to His house and receive His Word, His forgiveness, His Body and Blood, shed for you unto life everlasting. For all things are yours—whether the world or life or death or the present or future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:23). That is who you are. * Spill the tea = to tell the truth about something, give the scoop, the news
Erica Jacoby is the Executive Director of Higher Things. Her article is inspired by her breakout sessions at the Concordia 2019 summer conferences.
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The Stages of Daring to Be Lutheran By Alayna Brandt
T
en years ago, I was 15 and attending my first Higher Things Given conference as a junior in high school. I was nervous and excited to be at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. I had never been away from home for longer than a few days and here I was, ready to sleep in a dorm room and eat cafeteria food. I had no idea of the impact that week would have on my future.
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Seven years ago, I was 18 and standing in front of the Wartburg residence hall at Concordia University Wisconsin, unsure if the butterflies in my stomach were caused by nerves, fear, or too much Kopp’s ice cream. I was a freshman in college, ready to establish a name for myself in the real world. I was excited to make new friends, experience community bathrooms, and not have to make my bed if I didn’t want to. (Sorry, Mom!) These two situations were similar not only because they created an excitement and fear of the unknown, but also in how God used each experience to deepen my faith and grow in my understanding of His Word. Now at the end of this year’s HT Concordia conference season, I can’t help but reflect on the similar impact attending both Higher Things conferences and Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW) has had on my life. During my very first Higher Things conference, after
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realizing that just because you CAN eat five servings of ice cream at dinner doesn’t mean you SHOULD, what really amazed me was the comfort of the Gospel that was communicated in each sermon and by every presenter and plenary speaker. In a stage of life where it was easy to feel isolated and forgotten, being surrounded by hundreds of like-minded kids my age who shared my same beliefs in the Bible made me realize I was not alone. I met people from different states who are still friends of mine. My experiences attending Higher Things conferences as a high schooler made me realize that in college, I wanted to be among people who shared those same Biblical values. This led me to attend Concordia Wisconsin where I pursued an elementary education degree in 2015. Now, as a 3rd and 4th grade teacher, the same Gospel message I learned and took comfort in during my time attending Higher Things
conferences and CUW, is the same message I teach the students in my own classroom. I attended two conferences as a high school student and then became a College Conference Volunteer (or CCV) for two years. After that, I was a CCV manager for three years. Finally, this past summer I was the entertainment coordinator at Concordia Wisconsin, where I was in charge of the fun activities that students participated in at night. We featured a wide variety of events such as an escape room, a virtual reality roller coaster simulator, and a petting zoo. At every Higher Things conference, young men and women are immersed in worship, liturgy, learning the truths of God’s Word, singing great hymns that boldly confess Christ crucified, and the joy of fellowship with other Lutherans. But then, after worship, that fellowship continues into the evening with entertainment options that create lasting memories. At CUW, some of those options included dunking your pastor in a dunk tank (he loved it, don’t let him tell you otherwise), petting a llama, and dominating the staff in sand volleyball. Not only do high schoolers grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures at HT conferences, they also grow in their relationships with other like-minded people their age. No matter what part I’m able to play at Higher Things conferences, I have always been amazed at the excitement and energy of the high schoolers who attend these conferences. Not only are they willing and ready to learn more about God’s Word, they are excited to do so. They understand the importance of growing in their faith so they can defend it to their high school friends or college roommates and gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be Lutheran in this sin-filled world, why that matters, and what great earthly and eternal comfort this offers. One of the greatest impacts attending Higher Things conferences has had on my life is the amazing friends it has given to me. These are people I may only see once a year, and yet we are able to pick up right where we left off. Something about staying up until 2:00 a.m. discussing infant Baptism and our favorite hymns really bonds you together! The devil, the world, and our sinful nature tempt us to feel alone and empty. But God gives us friendships to encourage and
uplift one another. If you are thinking of attending a conference or applying to be a CCV, do it! You just might meet your best friends in the process. Concordia Wisconsin further equipped me to “dare to be Lutheran” by providing many opportunities for my faith to grow. Not only did this happen in theology classes such as New Testament and Lutheran Confessions, but it was also as a result of being surrounded by a community of fellow believers. I fell in love with LSB 941,“We Praise You and Acknowledge You,” when singing it with my classmates and friends during CUW’s daily chapel services. Our hearts are united together in Christ’s death and resurrection for us. That is the Concordia difference: Being surrounded by roommates, friends, teachers, and coaches who live boldly in the redemptive grace given to us through Christ’s death on the cross, and who are reminded of His unending love for us. Our lives are shaped by the Law as we see ourselves as sinners, in desperate need of a Savior. Thankfully, our sinful souls are soothed by the Gospel as the Scriptures remind us that our sins are washed clean by Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is the message that I heard daily at every Higher Things conference and during my days as a student at CUW. Those words of life and salvation are ones I still rely on today. So while these days I have to make my own food instead of walking down to the cafeteria for a burger, the promises of God found in Romans 8:3839 remain the same for me, for YOU, in every stage of life. “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is our hope. This is what we learn and take comfort in as we dare to be Lutheran. Alayna Brandt attends Our Savior Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she teaches 3rd and 4th grade. When she’s not convincing her students that long division is important, she’s taste-testing chocolate cake and wishing the Detroit Tigers would make it to the World Series before she turns old and gray. She can be contacted at alaynajoy24@gmail.com.
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How to Survive and Thrive in the Military as a Lutheran Christian S By Rev. Dr. Steven Hokana
ervice to the military is one of the most challenging, wonderful, and personally fulfilling callings (vocations) you can choose. It doesn’t matter if you are a soldier standing vigilant watch in Afghanistan, a sailor serving on one of our nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, an airman responsible for maintaining one of the latest and greatest fighter jets in the world, or a Marine guarding one of our embassies. The U.S. Army alone has around 190 Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) available for enlisted soldiers.
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Service to the military is a good and honest calling. Think of all the people you know. Many of them served in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard. God loves the military person and his or her family. The Lord says so in His Holy Word. Here is an event recorded by St. Matthew: “When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.’ And he said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ But the centurion replied, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, “Go,” and he goes, and to another, “Come,” and he comes, and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith’” (Matthew 8:5-10). So, what’s going on here? If you know anything about Roman history, you know the centurions did not merely represent Rome…they were Rome! Centurions were
ferocious warriors, fearless in the face of an enemy and leader of at least 100 legionaries. When not marching to war, many were immensely wealthy, having been rewarded for their bravery. We read in Scripture of a centurion who built a synagogue (Luke 7:5). We see centurions dispense Roman law (Acts 22:25) and transport prisoners (Acts 27:1). In secular writings we read of centurions building elaborate baths, which would have rivaled any modern-day spa. They were also Roman magistrates. Here comes Jesus in Matthew 8. Truly amazing! Jesus neither disparages the centurion nor encourages his military vocation. Even though Israel is occupied by Rome, Jesus affirms the centurion. This encounter between our Lord and this military officer has bearing on those currently in uniform and veterans who served who now live in our communities. What we see is Jesus responding to the centurion’s faith with amazement.“No one in Israel has such faith as this centurion!” In addition, the warrior recognizes power and especially the authority the Lord possesses. He knows this Jesus can heal. And Jesus does not condemn the vocation of soldier. By dialoging with this Roman, our Lord demonstrates the universality of the Gospel for all people. Scripture is filled with those who served. We know of centurions, like Cornelius (Acts 10) and Julius (Acts 27). In the Old Testament we read how Abraham took up arms to protect his own (Genesis 14) and how King David was a “warrior King.” (Psalm 55:16-18). In light of what Scripture has to say about the military vocation, Martin Luther wrote pastorally when he corresponded directly with a military commander in his tract, “Whether Soldiers Too Can Be Saved.” Using Romans 13 as the basis for the majority of his work, Luther affirms the calling of a soldier with three points: Serving in the military is a God-created vocation that is for the purpose of punishing evil, protecting the good, and preserving peace.
Luther makes clear the depth of sin and how it can corrupt institutions created by God. We see this in relationship with one another, especially marriage. Luther would be the first to tell you the military calling can be abused. But like marriage, its misuse does not make it invalid. Luther discusses how a person serving in the military must execute his God-given office in the areas of government, self-defense, and civil war, and answers three questions: 1. If one’s own government is evil and wicked, do we, who serve in the military, have a responsibility to rebel? Luther says no. 2. Do nations have a right to self-defense? Luther says yes. However, Luther goes on to warn against putting hope and confidence in their cause, in this case self-defense. Luther always wants us to put our hope and confidence in God and in His Son Jesus. 3. Can a Christian in the military suppress a rebellion against one’s own nation (civil war)? The answer is a cautious yes. Luther believes rulers are instituted by God, and answerable to God for their behaviors and actions. So while we are confident to have Scriptural backing for the vocation of military service, let’s look at a few practical implications that enlisting will have for you. Two of the biggest challenges in the military are living among non-Christians, and struggling with feelings of loneliness as you leave family and home to join a new culture, unit, and organization. Remember that your baptized faith in the Lord Jesus is a sure rock and solid foundation. These challenges won’t endure, but the love of the Lord perseveres forever (Psalm 136 and Romans 8:38). Here are some ways to survive and thrive in the military as a Lutheran Christian: 1. Stay connected with your faith. When the Sacrament is offered by an LCMS Chaplain… partake. 2. Don’t be shy. Ask for a LCMS Divine Service/ Lord’s Supper at your unit or installation. 3. Sign up for “Ministry by Mail” (lcms. org/ministry-to-the-armedforces/resources#ministryby-mail ).
4. Catch various Lutheran-based podcasts, including any from your home church or ministries like Issues, Etc. and Higher Things. 5. Stay in touch with family and your church family. They love you and miss you. 6. Remember you are not alone. Reach out to and connect with Christian brothers and sisters serving alongside you to help strengthen your faith. 7. Be the best at what you are called to be (infantry, medic, crew chief, etc.). Know your job better than anybody. Seek to make your commanding officer look good. 8. Demonstrate how you can be a team player every day. Especially in the military, there is no “I” in team. 9. Strive to be civil and polite. This will pay massive dividends when working with others. 10. Be a person of prayer. 11. Learn to laugh at yourself. Military service will test you; it is not easy. Service to God and country will certainly challenge you. The military brings out the very best in your physical strength and character. By grasping tightly onto Christ and the faith He has gifted to you, the military is a place where you can grow. In fact, not only can you survive life in the military, you can thrive in the military as a Lutheran Christian. Chaplain Steven Hokana serves as the Assistant Director of Ministry to the Armed Forces for the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). Chaplain Hokaha taught a 2019 breakout session on this topic Concordia-Minnesota.
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Liturgical Catechesis
Stillness, Symbol, Sacrifice, Sacrament:
Reflections on Worship By Rev. William M. Cwirla
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I
was honored to serve as chaplain for the ConcordiaIrvine Higher Things conference this past summer. Presiding at a Higher Things conference is a bit like borrowing a friend’s Ferrari and taking it out for a spin on the open road. The music, the voices, the preaching, and the services remind us that worship is heaven come down to us, a foretaste of a Feast to come.
In addition to presiding, one of my duties as conference chaplain was to be the conference’s liturgical catechist—teaching, answering questions, and modeling the practice of worship. For a few minutes after each morning service, as the chancel was transformed into a stage and the sanctuary into an auditorium, I spoke about four aspects of worship: stillness, symbol, sacrifice, and sacrament. I think about these things as a pastor-presider, so I put a few of my thoughts here for your reflection.
Stillness – Stillness is preparation, like the earth
sitting in silent darkness waiting to hear God speak His creative Word (Genesis 1:1-2). We Lutherans tend to be uncomfortable with silence. We talk before and even during worship. We gloss over the instruction that reads, “Silence for prayer may follow.” When there is a call for silence, we shuffle our feet, rustle our service folders, sneeze, cough, and whisper. Anything but silence. I’ve had worship assistants nudge me during silence, thinking I had fallen asleep or had forgotten what comes next. At Concordia-Irvine, we practiced a little silence together. Silence takes practice; it doesn’t come to us naturally as we are accustomed to noise. Four hundred people sat up straight, breathed deeply, and prayed silently. The sound of stillness filled the air with anticipation. Before you can listen, you must be still. The noise in our ears, and in our heads, needs to be quiet. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). Stillness prepares our ears, minds, and hearts to hear God’s Word.
Symbol – Symbols are decorations, like the
ornaments on a Christmas tree. The ornaments don’t make the tree, but they tell you what the tree means. Symbols are words for the eyes: stained glass windows, pictures, vestments, paraments, banners, candles, vessels. A pastor or a deacon wears a stole around his neck as a symbol of Office. The chalice and the unbroken loaf of bread are symbols of our unity in the Body and the Blood of Christ. Baptizing by immersion is a symbol of the drowning of the old Adam in Holy Baptism, just as pouring is a symbol of the washing away of our sin. The gestures of kneeling and bowing, the sign of the cross, and hands extended in blessing are symbolic gestures, adorning the Word that accompanies them. We are stewards of symbols and are to use them wisely and knowledgably. If we don’t, someone else might take them over. Think about all those people who wear a cross, or even a crucifix, as jewelry, but do not follow the One who hung on the cross for their life. In the same way we care for the American flag, a symbol of our country, so we are careful with the symbols that adorn our worship. That’s why we pulled different
banners in front of the altar and pulpit during plenary sessions and moved the pulpit and altar back out of the way. We were taking care of our symbols. Sanctuaries and auditoriums are different kinds of space for different purposes.
Sacrifice – Sacrifices usually went up in literal smoke in the Old Testament. Incense is a symbol of the sacrifice of prayer, a sweet-smelling smoke rising up to the Father, carried by the fire of the Holy Spirit offered through the high priesthood of Jesus. Sacrifices are works that we do for God, our priestly service to God. Our bodies, baptized into Christ, are “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1) offered up in priestly service, holy and acceptable on account of Christ’s sacrifice. Before God, we offer our prayer and praise, our confession and faith, our thanksgiving and obedience. Before our neighbor, we offer our bodies in sacrificial love. Even the pastor preaching in the pulpit or presiding at the altar is offering a sacrifice out of his vocation. Here’s a good rule: If we are doing or saying it, it’s a sacrifice. Even though God works through our sacrifices, none of our sacrifices can atone for our sin. That alone belongs to the once-for-all sacrifice offered by Jesus on the altar of His Cross. Our sacrifices are all “eucharistic,” thanksgiving sacrifices offered in thanks and praise to Him who rescued us from sin and death. They are sweet-smelling incense in the nose of the Father, not because we smell so good (we don’t!), but because they are offered in faith and received through the sacrifice of Christ, our own High Priest. Sacrament – A sacrament, as we Lutherans define it, is something God does to reveal His undeserved kindness toward us in Christ. It is God’s service to us. While the Sacraments are adorned with symbol and accompanied with sacrifice, they are entirely God’s doing through His Word. Baptism, the Body and the Blood of Jesus in His Supper, and the spoken Word of forgiveness are all God’s Word and work without so much as a twitch on our part. Here’s another good rule: If God does it to reveal our salvation in Jesus, it’s a sacrament. In the stillness of faith, we receive God’s sacramental gifts of grace in Christ, responding with sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise, and adorning God’s gifts with symbol—a feast for ear and eye, mind and heart. God’s service to us; our service to Him— this is the gift of worship. Rev. William M. Cwirla is the pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hacienda Heights, California, as well as a president emeritus of Higher Things.
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concordia:
GOSPEL UNITY A HIGHER THINGS BIBLE STUDY • Fall 2019
1 2 3
5 6
4
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Begin by reading or reciting the Third Article of the Creed and its meaning. Read Psalm 133. To what does David compare unity among God’s people?
Read Acts 4:32-35. Pastor Ehrhard references verse 32 as he begins to make the case for what real unity is. Reading through all 4 verses, how does Luke describe what true unity looked like for the early Church?
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Pastor Ehrhard refers to the Greek term hairesis, which is where we get the word heresy. How do false teaching or unorthodox doctrines create divisions (heresies)? Read Titus 3:10. What was Paul warning Titus about?
Read Romans 16:17-18. What does Paul exhort the Romans to guard against?
What is the danger of allowing our feelings to create a false sense of unity? What should we look to instead? Read Jeremiah 17:9 and then Romans 12:1-2.
7
According to the Augsburg Confession, as noted by Pastor Ehrhard in his article, what “is enough” to unite the Church? Read Romans 1:8-17. What does Paul say the Gospel does? Close by singing “Lord Jesus Christ, the Church’s Head” (LSB 647:1, 4)
Bible studies and Leader’s Guides can be found as appendices to this magazine.
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“Holy Absolution: One Lord, ThreeAWords, No Penance” HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Leader’s Guide
Opening Prayer/Introduction Begin by reading through the Short Form of Confession in the Small Catechism. 1. Read Luke 5:17-26. Who has gathered to listen to Jesus teach? What are the different reactions of those present when Jesus performed this healing? The Pharisees initially were angered because Jesus declared the man’s sins forgiven, something they said only God had the ability to do. The others present who had brought the paralyzed man were amazed and glorified God. They were commended by our Lord for their faith. The healed paralytic picked up his mat and went home, also glorifying God. 2. Is it okay to petition God for things other than forgiveness? Read Philippians 4:6-7. It is most certainly good to pray and ask God about things other than forgiveness. In these verses in Philippians we are actually encouraged to do so, rather than be anxious. That said, it’s all well and good and even beneficial to present requests to God, even including some of the circumstances that Pastor Borghardt mentioned, like safety during a tornado, a car that won’t start, etc. But if we are not regularly seeking forgiveness, then those things are secondary. Our sinfulness is our biggest problem, always. Resting in the reality that God has remedied our biggest problem through His Son, Jesus, is a number one priority as we seek to live as His baptized children. 3. In what ways does God deliver that forgiveness to us? Read John 20:22-23 and Matthew 18:18. He provides this through Word and Sacrament, but also very specifically through your pastor, via Absolution. In these verses we see Jesus specifically giving authority to His apostles to forgive sins in His Name. This is important because in our human frailty we desperately need to hear the words, “I forgive you” or “You are forgiven.” 4. A prime example of confession and absolution in the Scripture is the account of Nathan and David in 2 Samuel 12. Where in this passage do you see the focal point of absolution? Nathan has just confronted David over his grievous sins. David’s response was, in verse 13, “I have sinned against the LORD,” and Nathan replies, “The LORD has put away your sin; you shall not die.” We read later of course that there were natural consequences that resulted from these sins, but nothing dilutes the simplicity of David’s confession and Nathan’s words of absolution. This is why we read later, from David’s perspective in Psalm 32:1, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
5. What is penance and why is it not necessary for Absolution? Penance essentially is something you have to do to make things right…to show that you are truly “penitent” or “sorrowful.” In Roman Catholic confession there is usually a series of prayers that you have to recite. This goes against the idea that the Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is sufficient and that there is something you need to do to make that forgiveness “take”. In Absolution, forgiveness is declared by your pastor and the matter is settled. 6. What are some other good summaries of Absolution we find in the Scriptures? See what Isaiah 1:18, Romans 8:1, and 1 Peter 3:21 say. What all three passages share is an expression of the reality of who we are in Christ. Isaiah 1:18 says our sins, though scarlet will be “white as snow.” Romans 8:1 emphatically declares there is NO condemnation in Christ Jesus. 1 Peter 3:21 expresses to us that through our Baptism we are saved as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Absolution we are specifically reminded of this reality. And there are countless other passages that declare this. You can encourage the students to share other references if they have them.
Closing Sing together, “All Mankind Fell in Adam’s Fall,” (LSB 562, stanzas 1, 5, and 6),
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“Holy Absolution: One Lord, ThreeAWords, No Penance” HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Opening Prayer/Introduction Begin by reading through the Short Form of Confession in the Small Catechism. 1. Read Luke 5:17-26. Who has gathered to listen to Jesus teach? What are the different reactions of those present when Jesus performed this healing?
2. Is it okay to petition God for things other than forgiveness? Read Philippians 4:6-7.
3. In what ways does God deliver that forgiveness to us? Read John 20:22-23 and Matthew 18:18.
4. A prime example of confession and absolution in the Scripture is the account of Nathan and David in 2 Samuel 12. Where in this passage do you see the focal point of absolution?
5. What is penance and why is it not necessary for Absolution?
6. What are some other good summaries of Absolution we find in the Scriptures? See what Isaiah 1:18, Romans 8:1, and 1 Peter 3:21 say.
Closing Sing together, “All Mankind Fell in Adam’s Fall,” (LSB 562, stanzas 1, 5, and 6),
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“Time to Spill the Tea on Generation Z” A HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Leader’s Guide
Leaders’ Introduction Nearly every generation since Christ’s ascension has thought they were living the in the last days. And in many ways that is the truth. We are living in the last days, but we don’t yet know when Christ is returning. We live in a world that, while there have been many wonderful advancements, now more than ever reflects the heaviness of sin upon it. Creature surely groans in anticipation for the full redemption of all things. In the meantime, each generation God brings along has a role to play in history and Generation Z is no different. This study’s aim to is to encourage young believers and remind them where their true identity lies.
Opening Pray together Luther’s Morning Prayer from the Small Catechism. 1. How does the Bible describe the last days? Read 2 Timothy 3:1-5. If your recall, Timothy was a young man whom Paul had invested much time in discipling. Paul tells Timothy that the last days will be difficult. He lists out a variety of kinds of evil and people. It’s as if there is a checkbox beside every one of the Ten Commandments that you can mark off as you read Paul’s list. Such evil and people were present in Timothy’s day; they are present in ours. Not only that, and even more dangerous, there are people who take on the appearance of godliness but in actuality are anything but godly. Deception will be rampant. 2. Continue reading in 2 Timothy 3 and look at vv. 14-16. What is Paul exhorting Timothy to do? How can this encourage young people today? In spite of living in the last days which are filled with evil, Paul is telling Timothy to remember what he has learned from Scripture and to understand how that Scripture equips him to deal with what he encounters in this world. This is an exhortation desperately needed for today’s youth as well. Hearing the Word faithfully preached each Sunday and spending time in His Word are ways to remember what is true in this fallen world. 3. Let’s look at what Jesus teaching was about the world and what His followers would have to contend with. Read John 14:27 and John 16:33. Why is this encouraging news? In John 14, Jesus is comforting His disciples with the knowledge that even though He will not be among them in the same way the Holy Spirit will be with them and that they need not fear. Here and in other places, Jesus warns his followers they will undergo persecution merely by choosing to walk with Him. Jesus reassures them that a peace that the world cannot provide will be theirs. He says likewise in John 16:33, adding that He has overcome the world and that His followers can rest in that reality. 4. In her article, Erica calls Generation Z to remember not only who they are but also Whose they are. Read Galatians 3:26-27. What does Baptism give us? We are marked by our Father in heaven at our Baptisms. In Galatians, Paul, tells us that when we are baptized, we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness. We are sons of God through faith and heirs of the promise. This means that even if the world is going to hell in a handbasket, as baptized children of God, we are ultimately safe and secure in Him. That is our ultimate identity. © 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
5. As Christians we often hear we are to be the light of the world. In Matthew 5:14-16 and John 8:12 where Jesus addresses this, what does He say the purpose of this light is? While in different contexts (Matthew 5: Sermon on the Mount and John 8:12: Another tangle with the Pharisees), both passages explain that the seemingly obvious purpose of light is to scatter darkness. Indeed, a regular lamp or other light source will do just that. However, in these contexts, we are talking about the Son of God being the ultimate Light of the World. We His children, are therefore reflections of that same light and God calls us to share our light, that people would be drawn away from the darkness and toward their Father in heaven. 1 John 1:5 also refers to God being the light that we as His followers are to walk in. 6. The article closes out with a reference to 1 Corinthians 3:23. Why is this an important promise? “You are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.” Think of how the Father loves His Son. Think of what the Father gave up in giving up His Son. Now recall why He did so…out of His inestimable love for us! We see how treasured Jesus is, and we are in HIM via our Baptisms. God has us in His hands and nothing can change that, come what may.
Closing Sing together, “God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It,” (LSB 594).
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“Time to Spill the Tea on Generation Z” A HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Leader’s Guide
Opening Pray together Luther’s Morning Prayer from the Small Catechism. 1. How does the Bible describe the last days? Read 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
2. Continue reading in 2 Timothy 3 and look at vv. 14-16. What is Paul exhorting Timothy to do? How can this encourage young people today?
3. Let’s look at what Jesus teaching was about the world and what His followers would have to contend with. Read John 14:27 and John 16:33. Why is this encouraging news?
4. In her article, Erica calls Generation Z to remember not only who they are but also Whose they are. Read Galatians 3:26-27. What does Baptism give us?
5. As Christians we often hear we are to be the light of the world. In Matthew 5:14-16 and John 8:12 where Jesus addresses this, what does He say the purpose of this light is?
6. The article closes out with a reference to 1 Corinthians 3:23. Why is this an important promise?
Closing Sing together, “God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It,” (LSB 594).
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“God Speaks–We Confess” A HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Leader’s Guide
Opening Prayer/Introduction Begin by reciting the Nicene Creed. 1. What do you notice about Jesus relationship with the Father? With the Holy Spirit? Read John 14:25-31 and John 15:20-27. Why does this matter for the Church? Earlier in chapter 14, Philip has just asked Jesus to “show us the Father,” to which Jesus replies that if he’s seen Him, he’s seen the Father. In verses 25-31, we see how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit work together to accomplish salvation. In John 15, we see that same unity in purpose as Jesus comforts His followers, telling them that the Holy Spirit will come to echo what He, the Son, has taught them, having been sent by the Father. This is important because the unity that the persons of the Trinity experience is what we desire to have. 2. Read Psalm 124:8. In whose Name is our help? David tells us Psalm 124 our help comes in the Name of the LORD. When the word “LORD” is in all capital letters, it means Yahweh, which is THE name of God. Verse 4 adds another descriptor, “creator of heaven and earth.” We know by reading Genesis that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all present and part creating the heavens and the earth. Again, there is unity in purpose. 3. Ephesians 4:1-16 focuses in on the unity of the Church. To what does Paul compare the Church? What is the role of teachers and preachers in the Church? It’s probably the most common metaphor in the Scriptures when teaching about church unity—a physical body. Paul specifically says that body is unified under one “head”, Jesus Christ, around “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God.” Teachers and preachers are to build up that body and foster unity of the “ones” that Paul has just listed out, built on the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This equipping of the saints prevents false doctrine from getting a foothold. 4. What does Paul warn Timothy about in 2 Timothy 2:14-26 and then encourage him to do? How does this apply to us today? He urges Timothy not to quarrel over words and not to get caught up in foolish controversies. He then exhorts Timothy to be kind and correct error carefully based on the Word of truth he has been taught. It’s important, not only for unity, but that we might grow in our faith, to make the most of every opportunity to hear the Word rightly preached. This will equip us to not only defend the truth but also to counter falsehoods that are a threat to church unity. 5. How is what Jesus says to His apostles in Mark 9:38-39 similar to what Paul tells Timothy? Jesus urges His disciples to not quibble over the fact that this “someone” who was casting out demons in His Name wasn’t following Jesus along with the disciples in the ordinary way. He wasn’t in Jesus’ “inner circle.” They were majoring in the minors instead of acknowledging that God was doing something mighty through this person.
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
6. Pastor Fenker says in his article, “Faith will declare Jesus’ Word in the way He gave it, at times defending what He says with other words.” What does he mean by this? Read 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. What is Paul’s approach to how he approaches the Gospel and why does Paul say he does this? Pastor Fenker means there isn’t a magic formula of words that expresses the truth of Jesus that must be used. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul explains that he is free to be a servant to all—that he can be like a Jew to the Jews, a Gentile to the Gentiles, someone who is weak to reach another one who is weak. In other words, Paul saw the needs of those to whom he was preaching and would adjust himself accordingly, never compromising on the truth. Paul defends his approach, saying that he becomes all things to all people that he might at least see some saved, and for the sake of the Gospel. What God had spoken, Paul was consistently confessing. 7. What are some examples of Paul relating to different kinds of people as he preached the Gospel? Check out Acts 13:16-42, Acts 17:16-34, and Acts 23:1-8. In Acts 13, Paul appeals to his fellow Jews by pointing them back to their history and God’s plan of redemption. In Acts 17, Paul engages in a discussion with Greeks using a philosophical angle. In Acts 23:1-8, Paul confronted a council of Pharisees and Sadducees with their hypocritical actions, having been a Pharisee himself at one time, was able to direct them to one of their own wrestling matches about the resurrection of the dead. In other words, his knowledge of the truth—of what God had spoken—enabled him to point out their own disunity.
Closing Sing together, “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word,” (LSB 655).
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“God Speaks–We Confess” A HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Opening Prayer/Introduction Begin by reciting the Nicene Creed. 1. What do you notice about Jesus relationship with the Father? With the Holy Spirit? Read John 14:25-31 and John 15:20-27. Why does this matter for the Church?
2. Read Psalm 124:8. In whose Name is our help?
3. Ephesians 4:1-16 focuses in on the unity of the Church. To what does Paul compare the Church? What is the role of teachers and preachers in the Church?
4. What does Paul warn Timothy about in 2 Timothy 2:14-26 and then encourage him to do? How does this apply to us today?
5. How is what Jesus says to His apostles in Mark 9:38-39 similar to what Paul tells Timothy?
6. Pastor Fenker says in his article, “Faith will declare Jesus’ Word in the way He gave it, at times defending what He says with other words.” What does he mean by this? Read 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. What is Paul’s approach to how he approaches the Gospel and why does Paul say he does this?
7. What are some examples of Paul relating to different kinds of people as he preached the Gospel? Check out Acts 13:16-42, Acts 17:16-34, and Acts 23:1-8.
Closing Sing together, “Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word,” (LSB 655). © 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“Concordia: Gospel Unity” A HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Leader’s Guide
Opening Begin by reading or reciting the Third Article of the Creed and its meaning from Luther’s Small Catechism. 1. Read Psalm 133. To what does David compare unity among God’s people? David compares unity among God’s people to precious oil on the head and like the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion. David is specifically referring to the anointing of Aaron with oil as part of the Levitical priesthood. However, oil for anointing was used for healing as well. The oil also as it happened had medicinal properties. Mt. Hermon was a tall mountain in the northern part of the Promised Land. The moisture from its snowmelt was always welcomed as a refreshing relief for those living in the dry desert of Israel. True unity among the brethren/people brings such healing and relief. 2. Read Acts 4:32-35. Pastor Ehrhard references verse 32 as he begins to make the case for what real unity is. Reading through all 4 verses, how does Luke describe what true unity looked like for the early Church? That the very early Church, described as being “of one heart and soul”, operated with everyone seeing that they had everything in common, to the point that there wasn’t a need person among them. Those who had much, sold much and brought the proceeds for distribution to all who had need. This is not specifically a “prescriptive” passage, wherein we are told that this is the only way true unity can exist—but rather a “descriptive” passage. This means that the attitude of their hearts was borne out in these circumstances in this very particular way. 3. Pastor Ehrhard refers to the Greek term hairesis, which is where we get the word heresy. How do false teaching or unorthodox doctrines create divisions (heresies)? Read Titus 3:10. What was Paul warning Titus about? False teachings create divisions because there is conflict between those who are clinging to what is true and those who would actively seek to promote their false teachings. Paul is warning Titus to avoid people who like to stir up controversies and explains that such people are sinful and warped. 4. Read Romans 16:17-18. What does Paul exhort the Romans to guard against? As with all of Paul’s letters, he shows what a good shepherd he is—trying to protect his sheep entrusted to Him by our Lord. In these verses Paul again warns the Romans to avoid people who cause divisions, who teach things contrary to what he has taught them. He says such people are deceptive, set traps for young believers, and do not serve Jesus Christ. 5. What is the danger of allowing our feelings to create a false sense of unity? What should we look to instead? Read Jeremiah 17:9 and then Romans 12:1-2. Feelings are fleeting. We can’t trust them to be reliable. One day we might feel one way about something and the next day completely different. Jeremiah 17:9 warns us that the human heart—sinful as it is—is deceitful and wicked and not to be trusted. Romans 12:1-2, on the other hand, urges us to “renew our minds” through God’s Word so that we can test and discern what is true and what is God’s will. This is not a matter for entrusting to our feelings.
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
6. According to the Augsburg Confession, as noted by Pastor Ehrhard in his article, what “is enough” to unite the Church? Read Romans 1:8-17. What does Paul say the Gospel does? The Gospel in all its fullness is enough “satis est”, purely taught and rightly administered in the Sacraments. Paul tells us the Gospel is powerful because it can bring salvation to EVERYONE who believes and that it reveals the righteousness of God—Jesus—through faith.
Closing Sing together “Lord Jesus Christ, the Church’s Head,” (LSB 647, stanzas 1 and 4).
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“Concordia: Gospel Unity” A HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Opening Begin by reading or reciting the Third Article of the Creed and its meaning from Luther’s Small Catechism. 1. Read Psalm 133. To what does David compare unity among God’s people?
2. Read Acts 4:32-35. Pastor Ehrhard references verse 32 as he begins to make the case for what real unity is. Reading through all 4 verses, how does Luke describe what true unity looked like for the early Church?
3. Pastor Ehrhard refers to the Greek term hairesis, which is where we get the word heresy. How do false teaching or unorthodox doctrines create divisions (heresies)? Read Titus 3:10. What was Paul warning Titus about?
4. Read Romans 16:17-18. What does Paul exhort the Romans to guard against?
5. What is the danger of allowing our feelings to create a false sense of unity? What should we look to instead? Read Jeremiah 17:9 and then Romans 12:1-2.
6. According to the Augsburg Confession, as noted by Pastor Ehrhard in his article, what “is enough” to unite the Church? Read Romans 1:8-17. What does Paul say the Gospel does?
Closing Sing together “Lord Jesus Christ, the Church’s Head,” (LSB 647, stanzas 1 and 4).
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“Concordia Jesus-Style” A HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Leader’s Guide
Opening Prayer/Introduction Open by praying Psalm 36:7-9 aloud: “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” Amen. 1. Read Exodus 24:1-11. What does Moses do first with the blood? What’s the next step he takes and why would this seem so bizarre to us nowadays? Moses first separates the blood, putting half into two basins and throwing the other half against the altar he constructed. Then he sprinkles the blood from the basins on the people. This is likely to seem repulsive to us—the idea of deliberately touching the blood from a recently killed animal, let alone letting someone sprinkle it on us. We live in a society where animal sacrifice is foreign to us, where even being around the violent death of an animal is not a common experience. 2. Read Exodus 17:1-7. What are the Israelites complaining about? How does God instruct Moses to solve the problem? The Israelites said they had no water to drink. They actually grumbled against Moses and accused him of trying to kill them! In spite of this incredible display of ingratitude, God instructs Moses to use his staff to strike a rock and water would come out, which it did. 3. Read John 19:33-37. What do the soldiers plan on doing to Jesus? Why do they decide not to? What do they do instead and what does this mean for us now? The standard operating procedure during an execution by crucifixion was to break the legs of the criminal hanging on a cross as final act of “mercy”, hastening death. Crucifixion leads to death by suffocation because the diaphragm can no longer do its job and allow the lungs to expand. As death is approaching, the victim will push up off his feet to expand his lung capacity. Broken legs would prevent that and death could then come more quickly. When the soldiers show up to break Jesus’ legs as they did those of the two criminals who had been crucified beside Him, they saw He was clearly dead. Just to make sure, however, one soldier struck Jesus in the side with his spear and out flowed blood and water. 4. What is the connection between the Exodus and John passages we just read? The blood sprinkled on the people, and the water springing forth from the rock at Horeb, were types pointing forward to Christ, who, having died on the cross, was struck by a spear and water and blood sprang forth from His side. Water and blood are sacramental elements—God’s means—through which He quenches our ultimate thirst and cleanses our sins. The Old Testament is packed full of these types or shadows that point to Christ and His sacrificial death.
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
5. Pastor Fritsche quotes from 1 Corinthians 15:32 in explaining the nature of the kinds of concordia we settle for in this life. What is the context of this verse? Paul is focusing on the vital role the resurrection plays as a basis of our faith. If there is no resurrection of the dead than we are to be the most pitied. If there is no resurrection than we should just eat, drink, and be merry because there really is nothing else to live for or hope in. What the world has to offer for concordia is transitory and empty. What God offers to us through His Son, however, is eternal and meets our needs in abundance. 6. Pastor Fritsche references John 6 a number of times, which is easy to understand as that is what we would consider one of the central passages on the subject of the Lord’s Supper. Read John 6:22-58 for the context. Why is a proper understanding of the Lord’s Supper so vital to true concordia? As the article says, God’s idea of concordia is far superior to and more satisfying than anything we might seek for ourselves. When Jesus came, He brought about what the book of Hebrews (8:6) even says is a new and better covenant. Specifically, in John 6, a bit after Jesus has met the temporal needs of the 5,000 through fish and loaves of bread, He tells them how their ultimate needs can be meet through Him… namely through His Body and His Blood. This was difficult even for His apostles to comprehend and understand at that point. The Lord’s Supper is one of God’s chief means to communicate and DELIVER His new and better covenant to His people. It is true forgiveness of sins, which brings true concordia and reconciliation.
Closing Sing together, “Come Let Us Eat,” (LSB 626).
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
“Concordia Jesus-Style” A HIGHER THINGS® BIBLE STUDY Opening Prayer/Introduction Open by praying Psalm 36:7-9 aloud: “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” Amen. 1. Read Exodus 24:1-11. What does Moses do first with the blood? What’s the next step he takes and why would this seem so bizarre to us nowadays?
2. Read Exodus 17:1-7. What are the Israelites complaining about? How does God instruct Moses to solve the problem?
3. Read John 19:33-37. What do the soldiers plan on doing to Jesus? Why do they decide not to? What do they do instead and what does this mean for us now?
4. What is the connection between the Exodus and John passages we just read?
5. Pastor Fritsche quotes from 1 Corinthians 15:32 in explaining the nature of the kinds of concordia we settle for in this life. What is the context of this verse?
6. Pastor Fritsche references John 6 a number of times, which is easy to understand as that is what we would consider one of the central passages on the subject of the Lord’s Supper. Read John 6:22-58 for the context. Why is a proper understanding of the Lord’s Supper so vital to true concordia?
Closing Sing together, “Come Let Us Eat,” (LSB 626).
© 2019 Higher Things, Inc.
Magazine Bible Studies - Fall 2019
