DP Vantage Point. For Christ and for His world SWD magnifies partnerships, multiplies ministries, and maximizes resources. Tuesday, March 05, 2013

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1 DP Vantage Point 1 For Christ and for His world SWD magnifies partnerships, multiplies ministries, and maximizes resources. 1 Tuesday, March 05, 2013 Pastoral thoughts for the Gospel of Lent #5, Luke 20:9-20 Dear brothers in the Office: Many things in life have two sides. A quarter has both heads and tails. In those good old time western movies there are the good guys and there are the bad guys; and at least in the movies the good guys always win. In most athletic contests there are two teams; each trying to outscore the other. In the political arena there are Democrats and Republicans; each with their own vision of what is best for the country. There are two sides in every argument; one pro and the other con. At work there is management and there is labor; each with its own agenda. There are also two sides to many aspects of the spiritual world. There is heaven and there is hell. There are good angels and there are evil angels. There is God and there is the devil. God is defined by love, and the devil is measured by contempt and lies. God wants only what is best for mankind; the devil is set on revenge. One is all-powerful, present everywhere; and the other only a creature limited by time and space. One is set on creating all things new; the other is focused only on chaos. As we open the Bible we also see two sides of many things. There is the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is the Law which shows us our sin; and there is the Gospel which shows us our Savior. There are good angels and there are bad angels. There are believers and unbelievers; those who follow God and those who whether they know it or not are followers of Satan. The parable before us also obviously has two sides. There are the tenants who are only concerned about themselves; and there is the landowner who wants only his due. This parable of the tenants is a fairly transparent account of how God has blessed the Israelites all throughout their history. What Jesus says here finds its roots in Isaiah 12. There the Prophet Isaiah rejoices in God s blessings, as he says, My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. God s people, then and now are given every advantage and every blessing. Nothing is withheld. No pains are spared. St. Paul in Romans 9 details what that means for the Israelites. He writes that Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ. This parable of the tenants is a fairly transparent account of how the Israelites have taken advantage of God s love, and yet God reaches out to them again and again. Like the landowner God had been extremely patient and kind with his people. Old Testament Bible History is full of examples of how God reaches out to his people through the prophets. Like the landowner time after time God sends prophets to the Children of Israel calling them to repentance, calling them to return to him. There are Elijah and Elisha. There are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi; along with unmentioned others. Each carried basically the same message from God. The words that God speaks through the Prophet Ezekiel summarize the message of each prophet. In Ezekiel 33 God says, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die O house of Israel?

2 2 There is the judgment that comes with sin; and then there is repentance. There is God s judgment against sin; and then there is our Lord s forgiveness. To look at the cross of Jesus is to see God s righteous judgment against sin. To look at the cross, however, is to see God s great love for sinners the likes of you and me. Look at the agony that Jesus endures! Look at the scorn that is heaped upon Him. Listen to His words: Father, forgive them. To the repentant malefactor, Today, you shall be with Me in Paradise. This parable of the tenants reminds us of how precarious our predicament as sinners is in God s kingdom of grace. This parable of the tenants reminds us that Lent is a time of repentance; a time to recognize the curse of our sin, and a time to heed our Lord s call to return to Him. We are foolish in our sinfulness. Our Lord calls upon us to turn away from it. Turn away from self. Turn to Him. Look at what our Lord Jesus has done for us. Do you see the crown of thorns? Can you picture the blood streaming down the cross? Thankfully that is for you and for me. Thankfully, as David says in Psalm 103, our Lord does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. We are forgiven because of the suffering and the blood of His Son. Forgiveness means that our guilt is gone. Forgiveness means that the penalty of our sin has been paid. Forgiveness means that our troubled conscience can be quieted. We are forgiven. Now what are we going to do with this forgiven life? Forgiven we have a new life. Forgiven we are called to be different; for us as pastors that has special and exceptional implications for the message that we proclaim and for the life that we live. 1 Peter 5:1-4 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you;not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering (κατακυριεύοντες) over those in your charge, but being examples (τύποι) to the flock. κατακυριεύοντες Domineering: 1 Peter 5:4 κατακυριεύω, overpower, gain dominion over, subdue. In the 6th cent. A.D. it came to mean to have title to something. (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Bromiley) Editorial comment: These days we sometimes define the abuse of power or authority in terms of boundary violations. τύποι: a model of behavior as an example to be imitated or to be avoided model, pattern. ἀλλἀ τύποι γινόμενοι τοἀ ποιμνίου but becoming models or visible patterns for the flock to imitate. As pastor for the people whom you have been called to serve; be a model (τύποι) for God s people. They are God s people. His blood was shed for them, even the cantankerous and ornery ones. Love them as Jesus does, forgiving even as He forgave Peter. Be as generous as our Lord is generous, sharing His meager blessings with the 5,000. Be as caring as He is caring, touching the leper. Be faithful as He is faithful, not being turned aside from His cross. Be as compassionate for the lost as he was when He reached out to Nicodemus and as he forgave the woman caught in adultery. Live a life of repentance in the church and in the community! May our Lord bless your repentant witness! Rev. John C. Wille SWD President 2

3 Good Words from Luther about the pastoral call: God calls in two ways, either by means or without means. Today He calls all of us into the ministry of the Word by a mediated call, that is, one that comes through means, namely, through man. But the apostles were called immediately by Christ Himself, as the prophets in the Old Testament had been called by God Himself. Afterwards the apostles called their disciples, as Paul called Timothy, Titus, etc. These men called bishops, as in Titus 1:5 ff.; and the bishops called their successors down to our own time, and so on to the end of the world. This is a mediated calling, since it is done by man. Nevertheless, it is divine. Thus when someone is called by a prince or a magistrate or me, he has his calling through man. Since the time of the apostles this has been the usual method of calling in the world. It should not be changed; it should be exalted, on account of the sectarians, who despise it and lay claim to another calling, by which they say that the Spirit drives them to teach. But they are liars and impostors, for they are being driven by a spirit who is not good but evil. It is not lawful for me to forsake my assigned station as a preacher, to go to another city where I have no call, and to preach there. (As a doctor of divinity, of course, I could preach throughout the papacy, provided that they let me.) 7 I have no right to do this even if I hear that false doctrine is being taught and that souls are being seduced and condemned which I could rescue from error and condemnation by my sound doctrine. But I should commit the matter to God, who in His own time will find the opportunity to call ministers lawfully and to give the Word. For He is the Lord of the harvest who will send laborers into His harvest; our task is to pray (Matt. 9:38). Therefore we should not intrude into someone else s harvest, as the devil does through his sectarians. With ardent zeal they claim to be saddened that men are being so miserably led astray, and to want to teach them the truth and rescue them from the devil s clutches. Therefore even when a man seeks, with pious zeal and good intentions, to rescue with his sound doctrine those who have been led astray into error, this is still a bad example, which gives ungodly teachers an excuse to intrude themselves, after which Satan himself occupies the Sea. This example does a great deal of damage. But when the prince or some other magistrate calls me, then, with firm confidence, I can boast against the devil and the enemies of the Gospel that I have been called by the command of God through the voice of a man; for the command of God comes through the mouth of the prince, and this is a genuine call. Therefore we, too, have been called by divine authority not by Christ immediately, as the apostles were, but through man. [Luther, M. (1999). Vol. 26: Luther's works, vol. 26: Lectures on Galatians, 1535, Chapters 1-4 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Ga 1:2). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.] Other SWD news 1) Mrs. Diana Raasch joins SWD Executive Staff! As the result of a search coordinated by LCEF and SWD, Mrs. Diana Raasch has accepted the position to serve as SWD s LCEF District Vice-President. Diana comes to us with a wealth of experience, having served at CUW in alumni relations and development for many years. Her official first day was March 1. Coming into a new position she is obvious in the learning curve. We welcome her to our SWD staff! She s on her way to see you! 2) SWD Board of Directors calls Rev. Allan Buss from Northern Illinois to be our SWD Mission Executive. After a careful search and several phone interviews with potential candidates from across the LCMS, the Search Committee brought the name of Rev. Allan Buss from Belvidere Illinois forward, and the SWD Board extended him the call to serve as our SWD Mission Executive at the February meeting. He is a good and faithful man who also serves as first vice-president of the Northern Illinois District. Allan is a native of Wisconsin, presently serving as senior pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, Belvidere. Please keep Allan and his family in your prayers as he considers this important call. 3 3

4 3) SWD Financials: While the financial audit has not yet been completed, the first blush is that on the operational side SWD ended our fiscal year well into the black, which means that we closed out the year in the positive. Congregational support along with the statement of activities can be viewed as an attachment to the latest version of Changing Life. While the congregational financials continue to slip a bit, congregational intentions are turning upward. I thank each of you for being a part of that!! 4) Afam Ikanih ordination and installation, Sunday March 17 th : In partnership between SWD and Mission of Christ Lutheran in Milwaukee, Afam Ikanih has received a call to serve as chaplain to the House of Correction in Franklin. Afam has been serving in the successful ministry House as a vicar. Now having completed his studies as part of the EIIT program (Ethnic Institute of Immigrant Theology) at Concordia St. Louis, he is ready to serve our Lord and His church as an ordained pastor. Along with his family and the whole church we give thanks to our Lord for this special day in Afam s life and ministry. The service is at Mission of Christ, March 17 th, 1pm. 5) Highlights of the February 2013 Council of President s meeting are attached for those curious minds who want to read them. While the attached notes are not official minutes of the meeting, please do not share them. They are attached for your personal edification and not to be used as fodder for some blog. Hence the quote earlier from Luther s Commentary on the Galatians. Another two quotes from George Wollenburg that fit here: Self-chosen service of God is idolatry! The quickest way to destroy the unity of the confession of the true faith is to permit every individual pastor to appoint himself as a "watchdog" and "overseer" of every brother and every brother's congregation. Such self-appointed overseers are indeed "allotriepiscopoi" and produce naughtiness within the church that breeds mistrust, confusion, and chaos. The most effective way to bring a social system into almost total dependence upon the practice of power is to eliminate, or attempt to eliminate all forms of authority from the system. The primary principle of revolutionary philosophy is the destruction of authority within a system in order to substitute power for authority. The power which is seized becomes the means to impose the will of the revolutionary movement upon the social system. This same principle is at work in the church when self-appointed persons intrude upon the office of another. [quoted from STICK TO YOUR CALL, I Peter 5:3 Presented to the Circuit Counselors of the Texas District 1989] We have all experienced the sad truth of those quotes in our relationships. It is time for us to be better; to be the people our Lord has called us to be! 6) PW s activities and journeys for next couple of weeks: March 5, SWD executive staff meeting March 7-11, Dominican Republic Mission Start Partnership, Santiago, DR March 12, Circuit #19 Winkel at St. Peter s Muscoda. (Can you pronounce that? If you can, you might be from Wisconsin.) March 14-15, Regional COP meeting, casuistry and call lists, Sioux Falls, SD. March 17, Afam Ikanih Ordination and Installation at Mission of Christ March 17, preach at 40 th Anniversary of Place of Refuge, Mount Olive Milwaukee March 18, several theological interviews at CUW for possible professors. March 21, meet with Allan Buss in Milwaukee. 4 4

5 5 7) SWD Pastor Calls and Vacancies. Calling Congregations: Beaver Dam, Peace, associate, seminary candidate Cedarburg, First Immanuel, associate pastor, seminary candidate Chilton, St. Martin, sole pastor Glendale - St. John, senior pastor, calling Hilbert, St. Peter, evaluating Mayville - St. John, associate, seminary candidate Milwaukee - Mt. Calvary, senior pastor Oxford/Packwaukee, multi-parish congregation, sole pastor Pewaukee - Shepherd of the Hills, associate, seminary candidate Racine, St. John s, senior pastor Twin Lakes Hope, sole pastor, seminary candidate Temporarily non-calling Milwaukee - Holy Ghost (evaluating) Milwaukee Gospel, evaluating, non-calling at this time Pastors considering a call Rev. Jack Gilbert, Carmel, Carmel Indiana to St. John, Racine Pastors accepting a call Rev. Brian Crane, St. Peter, Hilbert to Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne(advancement officer) Pastors declining a call Rev. Eric Thieme, Trinity, Columbia MO to St. John s Glendale 8) Prayer List: Rev. Walter and Ana Ries, Ana s father was killed in a robbery in Brazil. Dustin and Katie Krystowiak, at the birth of their first son. Emilia Novelli, wife of German Sr, who returned to Venezuela for tests. The call and assignment process at both of our seminaries. May our Lord bless!! Rev. John C. Wille President, South Wisconsin District-LCMS Office: Cell: "Passionate Believers...Changing Life" empowering life changing ministries of bold, passionate witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 5