August Newsletter Article - Religious Voting?

   Dear Friends,

Well the time is almost upon us again:  the every four year presidential debacle.  This brings up a rather “heady” topic that I would like to address in this month’s newsletter.  Please bear with me and remember, as your pastor I would like to remain outwardly neutral as far as the candidates go.  I have my own opinions, but it is not my place to tell you to vote for one person or the other.  However, there are two questions that I keep getting asked that I would like to address.  (As I do, I will do my best to remain neutral in this debate.) 

The two questions are as follows:  “Pastor, are Mormons Christian?” and “I can’t vote for a non-Christian can I?”  I’ll take these questions one by one. 

I would like to start with addressing the second question:  “Can a Christian vote for and elect a non-Christian into office?”  Within the Lutheran Church, we firmly hold to the scriptural idea of two kingdoms:  an earthly kingdom, and a heavenly kingdom.  God is king and ruler of both, but he operates in different ways to rule each kingdom. 

Easiest to understand is the heavenly kingdom, as God rules his church by means His Holy Word.  His work in this kingdom is to create faith in Christians through the means of Grace.  (Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the Word.)  Thus the church falls under this kingdom, and within the church we are to be subject to nothing else but God and His Word.  In this kingdom, people are taught the faith, and learn to be pious and faithful people.  This kingdom deals with spiritual things only. 

On the other hand is the earthly kingdom.  God rules in the earthly kingdom as well by means of secular government and rulers.  God has allowed the rulers that exist today to rule by only His own will and authority.  He gives governments and rulers the power of the sword: that is to rule with force and power.  Their duty is to maintain peace and justice in our earthly world – in relation to life, liberty, and property on earth.  They are not to be involved in spiritual matters (hence our issues with the Health and Human Services Mandate).

So in the earthly kingdom, God allows earthly rulers to protect and defend their people.  In other words, the Prime Minister of England rules under God’s allowance.  In the same way, the President of Iran rules that country under God’s allowance – even as he does it without true faith.  God allows all leaders of the world to rule and protect their people – to provide for their earthly needs, not spiritual. 

In terms of the earthly kingdom, what one’s faith is does not matter.  We have examples like Cyrus and Nebuchadnezzar in Scripture – faithless kings that God appointed to rule for a time.  Similarly, in our own world, be the ruler a Turk or a Jew or a Hindi, they all rule only because the one true Trinitarian God has allowed them to be in that position.  Whoever rules is allowed to be in that position by God’s good and gracious will.  God then works through the things that ruler does, for good or ill, to protect and care for the people of the earth in terms of worldly goods. 

So when you go to the ballot this November (or at any election for that matter), don’t base your vote on the reported “religion” of the person running for office, instead vote for the person you believe will do the better job caring for your earthly needs.  Who will give you more opportunities, who will allow you to get a better job, who will protect you militarily, etc.  In the secular earthly kingdom, faith is not the chief measure.  Luther himself famously said, “I’d rather be ruled by a smart Turk then a dumb Christian.”  In other words, keep religion out of politics, and trust that God will do His work no matter who is in charge. 

As for the Mormon religion itself, no it is not Christian, no matter what Mormons might claim for themselves.  Since the founding of the Christian faith at the resurrection of Jesus (And even before that in Old Testament times) the Christian faith has been monotheistic.  Monotheistic means that we believe in only one God.  The Athanasian Creed itself says, “Whosoever desires to be saved must believe above all else the catholic faith…And the catholic faith is this:  We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity etc.” 

Throughout the ages, this Trinitarian God has been the center of the Christian faith.  Even in scripture itself the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is declared to be One God.  The Mormon religion denies this simple fact.  They do not believe in a trinity, but instead have uncountable numbers of “gods.”  In addition, the god that they most often reference, “the Father,” they believe was once a human just like you and me.  This human lived a good life, and now no longer human but divine. 

With these false teachings (and more), their “church” ceases to be truly Christian, and instead joins the ranks of countless non-Trinitarian cults.  There are many other dangerous teachings and beliefs that they wrongly hold.  These short comings, however, are in the heavenly kingdom.  They have a false faith.  But in the purely secular earthly realm however, they are often very “moral” and “nice” people. 

Bottom line, go and vote, but remember to vote your conscience, not religion.  If you believe current President Obama will do a better job than Candidate Romney based on secular credentials, by all means vote for him, and vice versa.  But as a good Lutheran, please do not vote for someone only based upon their religious faith.  For even if a non-Christian is the earthly ruler, remember, they are there because the one eternal heavenly king and ruler God has consented that they be there for a time.  He will work through their rule to bring about his will. 

In Christ,

Pastor Adam Moline

April Newsletter - Love does not rejoice in wrongdoings.

In light of some conversations with friends from my younger years, I have been pondering lately what the word “love” really means.  It seems that in our world today, the common understanding of love is extreme “tolerance”.  To show love is to tolerate the things another person is doing, no matter what the thing is, or whether it is “good” or not.

We see this in a variety of issues today.  We have talked about abortion, with many people tolerating it in the name of “loving” women.  I have even had a conversation with a friend in the last month who said it was more loving to abort a baby than to let it live in poverty. 

However, even besides the logical fallacy this argument presents, this is not really love.  Real love doesn’t just “live and let die”, but has genuine concern for what happens in a person’s life. 

Think of parents who love their children.  When a child wants to go to a party, the parent asks for details out of love.  “Who will be there?  What time will you return?  Will there be a chaperone?”  These questions are asked out of love, because the parent doesn’t want the child to end up in a bad situation.  Or think of a parent whose child uses drugs or who has a toddler that runs into the street.  A loving parent does everything in their power to stop these events from happening to their child, to keep them safe. 

This is the same way Christian love works.  We as the church ask questions about what is happening in a person’s life and show true concern for a person, even when it is not popular.  We can’t, and won’t, just let people assume their actions are ok when it is not in their best interest in the long term, or when it goes against God’s Word. We love them too much to let others continue in their sin and destructive habits.   As St. Paul writes in his famous passage, “love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:6)

So when a person falls into a sinful action, we in the church are to show love – true love.  This means we don’t just stand by while sinful actions go on.  It means we can’t say “It’s ok, they were born that way and they can’t help it”.   That answer cannot excuse true love.

When we stand up and say something, we show real love.  “Abortion is killing a baby, no matter how you justify it.”  “God’s Word proclaims the truth: it is not ok to live together outside marriage.”  “Scripture is clear: homosexuality is a sin.”  “God wants more for your life than for you to drown in a bottle of liquor.”   As we say these often unpopular things, we actually show love behind them. 

The way we say these things is important too.  If we were to say these things harshly and derogatorily, they are not said with love.  We must speak these truths in such a loving way as to not lose our platform to speak to the person.  We have all had a discussion in which the other person got so angry at us that we no longer spoke to them at all.  We should strive to avoid this, all while understanding that we cannot control how the other person responds to our words of love.

Love is not always easy.  Sometimes it is not popular.  Sometimes it hurts us immensely to do the loving thing, to tell our loved ones what is best for them.  Yet, that is the very message of Christianity. 

For this is love, “not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10).  Christ came and died for all our sins.  He takes away guilt for each of those sins above, and for countless more that you deal with.  He did this all by His own death on the cross, which we celebrate in only a few short days. 

So, dear friends, what do we say to these things?  St. Paul tells us in Romans, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

“For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.  We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin.  Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” 

We are forgiven, and so cannot continue in our sin any longer.  We no longer can “live and let live”.  Instead, let us leave our sin behind, and dwell in the love that Christ gives to us.  It’s a cross-defined love that shows real concern about us and what goes on in our lives. 

So in conclusion, I would encourage you to show true love to those around you.  It’s a love that forgives wrongs, even while we admit that they are wrong.  It’s a love that does not begin with us at all, but begins with the grace and mercy earned on the cross of Christ.  That is true love. 

In Christ,

Pastor

March News&Views from the Pews

Dear Friends in Christ,

The March News&Views is available here

Please enjoy!

June 2011 News and Views from the Pews

Below is a link to the June Immanuel and St. John's Newsletter.

Click Here for the Newsletter

Included:

God Grant it

Sourkraut Hotdish

What is Pentecost?

More



May 2011 News and Views from the Pews

Below is the link to this months News and Views from the Pews

Click Here - May 2011 News and Views from the Pews

Included this month:

Ella's Big News

The Grinch who tried to steal Easter

VBS Preregistration is open

and MORE!

April 2011 News and Views from the Pews

Below is the link to the April Immanuel and St. John's Newsletter. 

Click here for the April News and Views from the Pews

Included this month:

• What is the Triduum?
• Phyllis' Funeral Hotdish
• Herbert Mueller Information
• Ice Cube Recipe? - What?  :-)

March 2011 News and Views from the Pews

This month we are going to try to post to the Monthly Newsletter of Immanuel and St. John's Lutheran Churches online for easy access. 

If you wish to see the newsltter, please try the link below. 

March 2011 News & Views from the Pews

If for some reason it doesn't work, please let me know!

Thanks!

Included this month:
Cheeseburger Soup Recipe
Ash Wednesday and Lent Information
Lutheranism 101 information
And More!

March 2011 Newsletter Article

Dear Friends,


March 9 is the first day of Lent. It is a sorrowful season in the church year, where we examine our sin honestly and look forward to the death and resurrection of Jesus that we will shortly celebrate at Easter.

Lent is a solemn time for the church. During Lent, many people fast or give up something to remind themselves of their sin and the sacrifice Jesus paid because of that sin. Likewise, during Lent, the church will “fast” by not using the word “Alleluia” or singing the Gloria in Excelsis. We will withhold our celebration of these things until Easter morning, when Christ rises from the tomb and announces to the world that He has destroyed the power of sin, death, and the devil.

The first day of Lent is known as Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday has historically been a day of penitential self-examination. We look at our sin and our shortcomings and realize that, because of our sin, we deserve nothing but death. On Ash Wednesday, we go back to the Garden of Eden, where God told Adam that because of his sin he would eat bread by the sweat of his face “until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Friends, God is speaking these words to you and me in our sin as well as to Adam.

From these words onward throughout the pages of Scripture, ashes have been a sign of mourning sin and death. When King David’s daughter Tamar was raped by her brother, she put ashes on her head as a sign of mourning the sin that had invaded her family (2 Samuel 13). When Mordecai learns that the King Xerxes was tricked into ordering the death of all the Jews, he put ashes and sackcloth on (Esther 4). When Job lost his family and possessions, and he himself stricken with disease, he sat in ashes to mourn the effects of sin upon his family (Job 2). There are even more examples of this in Scripture. Because of sin, we are no more than dust and ashes.

This year for Ash Wednesday, we have the opportunity to continue that biblical tradition with the historical “Rite of the Imposition of Ashes” (putting ashes on ourselves). This has been historically done to signify that “I am a sinner, and because of it, I deserve death.” On your way into the service, if you would like to receive ashes as a symbol and reminder of the death that results from your sin, I will be standing in the back of the church with ashes burnt from palm branches (used to celebrate Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem the year before). Using olive oil mixed with the ashes, you may have the sign of a cross placed on your forehead or on the back of your hand. While placing the cross on you, I will say “Dust you are, to dust you will return.”

This is something that is completely and totally optional on your part. But it can be a great way to remind ourselves that we are sinners, and to help and focus our Lenten devotion upon Jesus Christ and Him crucified for our sins and the sins of the world. Last year there was nothing more humbling than to see a cross made of ashes upon Ella. She was only 2 months old, and yet, we know from scripture that she already was a sinner and in need of Jesus to redeem her from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

I know that to some, this may sound like a “Roman Catholic” practice, and yes, the Roman Church does practice the “imposition of ashes” on Ash Wednesday. However, the act carries a huge amount of symbolism that has been practiced in churches across the denominational spectrum. Lutherans, Catholics and all other Christians are sinners and in need of repentance and forgiveness.

Finally, as you go home following the service and wash off the ashes, you may be reminded of your own baptism where, in water and the word, death was washed off of you, and you were given the promise of eternal life and forgiveness of sins. In Jesus, you have life and life to the full.

On Easter morning, we are able to rise ash free with a clear conscience and declare “I am forgiven, just as Christ is risen indeed!” What a blessing. Please consider participating in Ash Wednesday services March 9th.

God's Blessings,
 
Pastor Adam Moline