It was on his last trip to Jerusalem that Jesus paused to say, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”  (Luke 13:34)  Jerusalem—the Prophet-Killer!  Jerusalem, the Prophet-Stoner!   Our Savior knew that’s what they would do to him as well.  He knew how the Sanhedrin would hatch their plot to murder him--goaded on by the devilish, yet prophetic words of the High Priest. “You do not even consider that it is better for us that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. He did not say this on his own, but, as high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for that nation, but also in order to gather into one the scattered children of God.”  (John 11:50-52)  Jesus could already hear in his mind the murderous shouts of the crowd, “Crucify! Crucify him!"  (Luke 23:21)  “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”  (Matthew 27:25)   

Yet Jesus went to Jerusalem, because he loved them so much!  “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  Look, your house is left to you desolate.”  (Luke 13:34-35)  The simile Jesus uses to describe his love is easy for us to visualize.  A chicken hawk suddenly appears--its wings folded, its eyes concentrated on the farmyard, its ominous claws ready to grasp a chick.  And what does mother hen do?  She begins that anxious and commanding, “Cluck, cluck, cluck.”  She calls her chicks, concealing them under her protecting wings and rushing off to a place of shelter.  That’s what Jesus wanted to do for Jerusalem.  For the Sanhedrin.  For the High Priest.  For the Pharisees.  For Herod.  For Pontius Pilate.  For the Roman soldiers who pounded the nails through his hands and his feet.  He wanted to gather them all under the cover of his forgiving grace.  But they refused Jesus’ call, and their judgment was already sealed.  Their house—their grand temple in Jerusalem and the city itself—was already desolate. In God’s eyes, it was as good as gone, because in 70 AD it would be destroyed by the Romans.  And yet that wasn’t the half of it!  Because they were rejecting Jesus, they would lose heavenly mansions as well!  They were throwing away an eternity blanketed by the protecting grace of their Savior! 

“I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you will say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”   (Luke 13:35)  Jesus closes with a quotation from Psalm 118:22.  These were words that the Jews used as part of their Passover celebration.  They were the words our Lord knew the crowds would chant on Palm Sunday.  “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  But their words rang hollow a few days later, and Jesus knew that, too.  Yet nothing could stop Jesus from going to his cross. Not even the rejection of the very ones for whom he came to die. 

Not even you and me.  Don’t Jesus’ words also fit us?  “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”   Haven’t there been those times in our lives when, with our sin, we avoided or ignored Jesus?  Those times when we even pecked and clawed against the Lord Jesus who only wanted to gather us under his outstretched wings?    Oh come on, am I the only one who will admit this?

And yet, Jesus went to His cross for you and for me, even though—from eternity itself--he knew everything we would ever say, or think, or do.  This was always the plan for Jesus—suffering and paying and dying--because Jesus always had a plan for you and me.  Jeremiah 29:11  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to give you peace, not disaster, plans to give you hope and a future.” 

This is our Lord’s great plan of grace!  Jesus’ suffering and death for our sin.  His life for our life. As A Hen Gathers Her Chicks. 

Privileged to Serve,  
​Rev. Glenn Schwanke

“March Madness” most often refers to the highlight of the college basketball season, the 68-team NCAA men’s tournament. The NCAA women’s tournament also generates a fair amount of “madness.” You don’t have to look far, however, to see that there is much “madness” in March, now just days away…
 

• For baseball fans, Spring Training in AZ and FL will be in full swing throughout March, the “madness” enjoyed by locals and tourists alike.
• Spring break takes place for most students. Enjoyed by the kids, it can be “madness” for parents.
• Taxes done yet? April 15th isn’t far away. Talk about “madness”…
• Politicians across WI and the country continue the “madness” of attempting to do whatever it is they’re trying to do.
• Speaking of politicians, elections loom – as well as the attendant attacking/campaigning/media-spinning. “Madness,” anyone?
• NFL football – as we still know it for now – is only six months away. But, the NFL draft is coming up soon…at the end of April. The “madness” continues…
• As March approaches, there have been zero (count ‘em, zero!) snow/cold/ice days in the Minocqua area. By this time last year, five were in the books. “Madness!”
• In fact, the weather this week seems to tease an early Spring after a relatively light winter, temperature-wise and snowfall-wise. No snowmobile season? All of it is “madness.”
• Oh, yeah, Lent continues.

 
Are you following? Are you watching? Not all of the above, but Jesus. Are you following him? Are you walking with him? No need to read tweets or blogs or “expert” analysis, everything you need to know is found in God’s Word.
 
Are you giving attention to the Lord who attends to you? Or is Jesus’ rebuke to the disciples in order: “Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?” (Matthew 26:40)
 
It is “madness” to give attention to all the other things in life – and there are many commitments and activities keeping us busy – but to cut short our time with our Savior. Sure, you can always come on Easter – everyone else does – but what might you be missing in the meantime?
 
“The holy Scriptures…are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:15-17)
 
Miss out on all this…and more? Madness.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand

It’s the Wednesday of Ashes.  We Christians are supposed to feel bad today, because we’ve sinned in thought, word and deed.  Bad because we’ve failed our families time and again with our selfish actions, our forgotten promises, our crabbiness over this dreary, snowless “winter-that-isn’t,” and our snarky pessimism that prompts us to wag our finger as we lecture our kids and grandkids about the direction in which our country is headed. 

We Christians are supposed to feel bad today.  Guilty as sin, because we’ve betrayed our Lord at every turn.  Though on  a Sunday we belted out the hymn, “Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus,” on a Monday, with our actions and words and thoughts, we were often singing a different tune that sounded more like, “Duck down, duck down for Jesus, you cowards of the cross, and hide his royal banner,  it’s time to cut your loss!”

On the Wednesday of Ashes, I ought to stir up an extra batch of fire and brimstone and sternly conclude, “The wages all of us deserve for our sin is death!  And the death each one of us has earned is hell. Amen!”  (Romans 6:23)  Now that would be a memorable Ash Wednesday message that would cast a pall over each one of us like a funeral shroud! 

Except that wouldn’t be the God-pleasing thing to do, the Biblical thing to do.  If we use Ash Wednesday and our Midweek  Lenten services just to beat ourselves up, just to make us feel bad because of our sins, just to put a spot of Ashes on our forehead or spiritually on our heart, then we really haven’t captured the true message of Lent.  The true message of Christianity.  The true, comforting message of Christ.

And that message?  “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  Jesus spoke those words  for  Roman soldiers who knelt just feet away, gambling for his clothes.  For passersby, gripped by ghoulish fascination, who paused to gawk at the grizzly scene unfolding on the place of the skull.  For religious dignitaries, esteemed members of the Jewish Sanhedrin, who flocked to Golgotha like so many vultures.  There they watched with glee while their hated enemy’s life ebbed away.  While they watched, they blasphemed:  “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." (Luke 24:35) 

“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing!”  Jesus spoke those words for his disciples.  For all of them who fled into the night in the Garden of Gethsemane.  For Mark, who was so terrified he left his cloak behind and ran away naked into the darkness. For Peter who plucked up enough courage afterwards to follow Jesus to his trials. But when a mere serving maid confronted him, Peter’s courage melted away and was replaced by fear, by cursing, by denial. 

“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing!”  Jesus made that prayer for you and me, too.  Because he knew all about us, long before we were born.  All about our irritating habits.  All about our pet sins.  Jesus, the Son of God, knew about even those sins we don’t want anyone else to know about.  Even the ones we try the hardest to forget. The ones that pop up at times to torment our consciences.  Jesus knows who we are and what we are like.

That’s why he went to his cross.  That’s why he suffered —not just from nails pounded through hands and feet.  Not just from cramps seizing his muscles and tying them in knots. Not just from dehydration or the partial asphyxiation that comes from crucifixion. Rather, on Good Friday Jesus suffered hell itself as God’s full punishment for sin.  Your sin and mine.  He was and remains “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  (John 1:29) 

But why would Jesus do this for the likes of you and me?  Back in the Upper Room, Jesus explained his sacrifice.  “No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)  Undeserved love, grace put Jesus on that cross and held him there until the job was done.  Grace brings Jesus into our lives through the waters of baptism.  Grace keeps Jesus in our lives as the Holy Spirit works through the Law and the Gospel on the pages of Scripture.  Grace binds us to our Savior through his body and blood given us in His Supper.

That same amazing grace caused our Savior to pray, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”  He prayed that for you, for me.  And that’s an Ash Wednesday message to tuck away in your heart.    

Privileged to Serve,  
Rev. Glenn Schwanke

“Do not continue to conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” (Romans 12:2a)
 
About 30 years ago, the attention of American six-year-olds was riveted by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, a low-budget, low-quality, cheesy afternoon kids show. It is actually still around, filming new episodes in some form three decades later. As I remember glancing at it in the 90s, it focused on ordinary, normal adolescents who could access power beyond themselves in order to morph themselves into martial arts heroes for justice. During moments of crisis they would cry out, “It’s morphin time!” and be transformed with the ability to do extraordinary things. The term, “morph,” has actually become a part of our culture. It isn’t just six-year-olds who want to morph, to be transformed.
 
The desire for transformation lies deep in every human heart. It’s why people enter therapy, join health clubs, hire personal trainers, join recovery books, cut up credit cards, read self-help books, attend motivational seminars, and make New Year’s resolutions.
 
μορφόω is a Greek word that describes inner transformation. The word in used in Romans 12:2 is “metamorphosis” which highlights the fact that spiritual growth is a molding, forming process from the inside out. As a creeping caterpillar inside of a cocoon is transformed into a beautiful, soaring butterfly, children of God, undergo change/transformation from the inside out, not very noticeable all at once, but there – growing, changing, becoming more and more Christ-like.
 
How do we receive this power to morph, to be transformed, to grow spiritually? By the renewing of our minds. Can we get this from an afternoon of baseball, a day out on the lake, six hours of football on Sunday afternoon, a steady diet of current music and movies, or from an evening of reality TV?
 
No. Only from time with Jesus – worship, Bible study, prayer, remembrance of Baptism, Lord’s Supper, time with Christian friends. It’s a constant process. Confirmation, which many of us went through in our teens, was a one-time thing. Transformation – becoming more non-conforming to the world and more molded in the image of Christ is continual, lifelong. The Holy Spirit works through Word and Sacrament so that we can “test and approve what is the will of God—what is good, pleasing, and perfect.” (Romans 12:2b)
 
Most digital depth-finders show the approximate depth of water and the depth of fish in the area of the boat. The digital picture usually shows fish on the screen swimming in the same direction. I would love – just once – to see a digital fish on that screen turn around and start swimming the other way. That’s what you and I do, by the grace and strength of the Spirit. We take a look at the pattern of the world, realize that’s not what God wants, and go the other way, go against the grain.
 
We do this with God’s help, relying on the energy and power of the Word of God. We seek proper priorities by seeking first God’s kingdom and his righteousness. We understand the importance of individuals, how much God values one soul. And, fellow “living sacrifices,” (Romans 12:1) we are non-conformist, against the grain and pattern of the world. Cultivate inner transformation by the renewing of your mind in the Word of Christ.
 
In Christ,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand