As summer approaches, a Word of encouragement…
 
Keep meeting together as God’s people. “Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have the habit of doing. Rather, let us encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)  Literally, “don’t give up the assembly,” don’t stop going to worship, keep coming to church. Why? Two reasons: 1) For encouragement.
 
Cue the theme song from the TV sitcom “Friends.” Got “I’ll be there for you” playing in your head? It’ll be there all day long! You’re welcome! Ten seasons, 236 episodes, you can binge watch BFFs Ross, Rachel, Joey, Monica, Chandler, and Phoebe in about 86 ½ hours. Just like you binge read Scripture or binge listen to sermons online… Well, you could.
 
The six 20 somethings on Friends are flawed and bumbling and funny and sometimes make difficult circumstances impossibly worse. But, the bottom line, they were always there for each other. They encouraged one another.
 
Maybe church would be more appealing if we limited the service to 22 minutes per episode. Or at least the sermons. To limit the service to 22 minutes, we’ll have to cut out everything but the sermon… But church/the assembly/the gathering of God’s people is about more than just placing posteriors in a pew for an hour. We hear the Word of God together, we fellowship together, we encourage one another – and not just during this hour; all week long, all life long, the church is a place of grace and support and encouragement.
 
Martin Luther: “It is not enough to teach and instruct alone. There is also need for daily encouragement…For we know and feel how the devil always opposes this and every Christian exercise. He drives and deters people from them as much as he can.”
 
Want to make Satan angry? Go to church. That’s like sticking your finger in Satan’s eye. Or throw your whole fist in his face by not only going to worship, but acting like family and finding someone to encourage. Oh, that makes Satan howl with rage.
 
Want to make Satan happy? Get in the habit of skipping church, as many do. Hard to believe that at the time Hebrews was written – 60s AD, just three decades after Jesus’ ascension, Christians were skipping worship. And so it is today. Let me put this in the clearest possible terms: to choose NOT to worship is to make the deliberate choice to NOT receive God’s blessings. Who would do that? Why would anyone NOT want to receive God’s blessings? How do people deprive themselves of the blessings God wants them to have? Again, by staying away from Word and Sacrament. It’s that simple.
    
We need encouragement, especially from Jesus and his Word, and from one another. Again, that verse: “Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have the habit of doing. Rather, let us encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25) Reason #2 to keep meeting and gathering and worshiping together? The Last Day is coming.
 
Whether the day of Christ’s second coming or our own last day on earth, either of which can come at any time – the Last Day is coming. Time is of the essence. Time is short. God’s love and forgiveness, his sure promise of life in heaven through Jesus – these matter more than anything else. You already have them. Continue to receive these blessings in abundance.
 
All summer long.
 
God keep you and yours in his gracious care,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand

During the years of my Campus Ministry at Michigan Technological University, I often worked with students from India.  I was surprised when they told me that in many areas of India, there remains a “caste” system!  What exactly is that?  What follows is a brief peek into that system. 

Villagers walk along a dusty path.  As they near certain houses, they pause to kick off their sandals, pick them up and carry them.  They proceed barefoot, until they pass the houses.  Then they drop their sandals and put them on again.

Women go to the village well for the daily task of drawing water.  But some women are not allowed.  They must find water elsewhere. . .in a muddy, brackish pool.  As one woman tries to carry her water jug home, she is attacked by a pig.  She slips into the muck and drops her water.

A frail-looking woman, middle-aged, cleans public toilets.  Her tools?  A basket and her bare hands.

Such is the plight of the "untouchables," the lowest caste in the society of India.  Untouchables are social lepers, deemed subhuman by the castes above them. The jobs no one else will do are dumped on the untouchables, and untouchables are ostracized from the castes above them.  Hence, no drawing water from a public well; no drinking tea in a public tea house. 

How does an Indian become an untouchable?  By birth.  How does one get out?  As the system stands now, there is no escape.  An untouchable is doomed to remain as such all his/her life, and then the cycle repeats with the children.

It shocks us to think there is still a society that operates like this in our modern-day world.  And yet, isn’t it true that all of us once were "untouchables"?  How so?  The Psalmist David lamented, "Certainly, I was guilty when I was born.  I was sinful when my mother conceived me."  (Psalm 51:5) This sin we’re born with is so vile, so disgusting, so dangerous, that it makes all of us "untouchable” to our holy God!  The prophet Isaiah observed, "It is your guilt that has separated you from your God."  (Isaiah 59:2)  Like spiritual lepers, we were cast out from God's presence, with no hope of enjoying His companionship now or in eternity in heaven.  (Revelation 21:27) 

Until Jesus came.  Jesus came and touched the "untouchables."   He healed lepers! (Luke 5:12-16) He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes!  (Luke 15:2)  With a touch from his holy hand, he cured the lame, the blind, and the deaf.  The power of His perfect word penetrated even the grave—touching the lifeless corpse of Lazarus and raising him from the dead!

Then Jesus suffered and died for the "untouchables," for us!  In fact, our Savior actually became an "untouchable" on the cross, as proven by that awful moment when He cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!"   (Matthew 27:46)  Separated from his Father, Jesus endured the agonies of hell itself for all the billions of untouchables our human race will ever number.  Then He died at 3 PM on Good Friday, offering the Father payment in full for all the sins of all the untouchables of all time!  (Remember John 19:30 which contains that precious word “Tetelestai!”)

The result?  You and I are no longer "untouchables" in the eyes of our Heavenly Father!  Instead, because of our Lord’s limitless grace, we have been given a new status, a new "caste" if you will.  The Apostle Paul assures us, "Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him."  (Romans 8:17)
 
Privileged to serve,
​Rev. Glenn Schwanke

An area church is promoting its Good Friday and Easter Sunday services with this tagline: “Discover a Good Friday and a better Sunday.”
 
Are. You. Kidding. Me? I agree with Good Friday. Everyone calls it that. Good Friday is “good,” actually it’s great as my Savior died for my sins on Calvary’s cross on a Friday that we call good.
 
But…Easter Sunday is simply a “better” (yes, it’s not capitalized) Sunday? Lutherans love to ask: “What does this mean?” Honestly, truly, what does this even mean?
 
Better than what?

• Will the weather be better? No ice storm like a couple weeks back?
• Will the attendance be better?
• Will the coffee and cookies for fellowship time be better? Or Easter brunch, if that sort of thing is done?
• Will the sermon be better? Will it be (hopefully) shorter?
• Will the offerings be better?
• Will the live-streaming be better than it sometimes is?
• Will the music/musicians/singers/performers be better?
• Will the egg hunt be better than elsewhere or than last year’s?
• Will there be actual, live bunnies in the yard when this is happening?

 
I think you get my point. Seriously, honestly, what makes Easter Sunday “better”? (Again, with the lack of capitalization)
 
There is this: the book of Hebrews speaks of Christ as “better” than a whole host of things: angels, Moses, priests, high priests, the covenant of the law, the Old Testament sacrifices. Indeed, Christ is “better” than all of these items, although the words actually used in the original language translate far more spectacularly than “better.” Descriptions such as “greater, superior, more powerful, more excellent” power the narrative. Some examples:

• “The Son became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” (Hebrews 1:4)
• “Jesus is worthy of greater glory than Moses.” (Hebrews 3:3)
• “In the one case, every priest stood ministering day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which are never able to remove sin. In the other case, this priest, after he offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:11,12) All of these verses declare more than and cry out for more than “better.”

 
To keep with (tongue in cheek) the minimalist spirit of a “better” Sunday for Easter, I offer this: Easter isn’t about better; it’s about nothing. Early Sunday morning, April 20th, you and I will run in faith to our Savior’s tomb, and like Peter and John, we’ll look inside. And what will we see? “Better?” Oops, sorry, “better? (small “b”)”
 
Here’s what we will see: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The tomb will be empty! And that nothing, my dear brothers and sisters, is everything. It isn’t just better, it isn’t just an upgrade, it isn’t just an improvement, it isn’t just a ray of light at the end of a long dark tunnel. That nothing is everything.
 
Paul declares it: “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) The whole package of the “nothing” of Christ crucified includes Christ risen from the dead. Again, this nothing is everything!
 
We can do better than “better.” Our God is glorious! Our Savior is risen from the dead! Life with God is ours now and forever! Alleluia!
 
See you at the empty tomb!
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand

It happened decades ago, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday. A young version of me was serving as a pastor in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Our parsonage was located in a quiet, wooded subdivision where almost all our neighbors were retirees.  So I felt a need to watch out for them.  One morning I was washing our car in the driveway. I noticed one of our elderly neighbors putzing around outside. I walked over and asked, “Heh!  How’s it going?”  With the most serious, sonorous voice he could muster, he looked me straight in the eye and dead-panned, “The doctor thinks I’ll make it.” 
 
The look on my face must have been priceless. Because after leaving me twisting in the wind a moment or two, my neighbor bent over laughing, before he stood up and firmly clasped me on the shoulder. “Gotcha!”
 
Relieved, I joined in his hearty laugh, but also learned an important life lesson.  I need to take care when I ask, “How’s it going?”  Because some days don’t go that well. 
 
Some days we need someone to go beyond pleasantries. We need a friend who cares enough to listen.  To ask, “How can I help?” To act. Bring over a hot dish. Help with chores around the house.  Shovel the sidewalk. Dust or vacuum.  Run to the store to pick up a few groceries. 
 
And care enough to shift the discussion to matters eternal. To faith. To the Lord. To dig into the Scriptures, where a good place to start is the book of Psalms. After all, the Psalms are God’s heavenly music, composed to touch our heartstrings.  And one Psalm that helps on days not going so well?  Psalm 42.  A Psalm by the “Sons of Korah.”  
 
“Sons of Korah”? Does that name ring a bell?  Korah led a rebellion against Moses in the wilderness.  (Numbers 16) Remember how that turned out? “The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up everyone who was with Korah, along with their households and all their possessions.”  (Numbers 16:32)
 
There must have been a few third-cousins four-times-removed who survived that day. (Numbers 26:11) And centuries later, some of those “Sons of Korah” were appointed as Levitical musicians by King David!  Even more remarkable? The Spirit made them lyricists of some divinely-inspired hymns in the Lord’s hymnbook.   
 
Psalm 42 is one that reaches down and throws us a lifeline for those days that aren’t going so well.  How?  The Psalm touches us because the Sons of Korah write from their heart—directly to our heart.  They dare to pull back the curtain on their personal lives, and show us how they hit rock bottom. “My tears have become my food.” “I am overcome by my emotions.” “My God, my soul is depressed within me.”  “I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me?”  
 
These Sons of Korah felt as if the Lord had lashed each one of them to a light like the one at the North Entry Point of the Portage Canal! During a November gale! Breaker after breaker pounded and crashed over them!  (Psalm 42:7) Bad news so dominated their lives that even their bones ached.
 
Have you ever felt that way? Maybe it’s sleep-loss. Inability to make decisions or perform basic, everyday functions. Psychosomatic aches and pains. Lethargy. That was the Psalmist’s life. One huge mess!  He was worn-out, empty, and ready to die.
 
Until the Psalmist lay hold of the Lord’s lifeline! “As a doe pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” (Psalm 42:1-2) The picture painted by the Psalmist is vivid, powerful!  We can see this deer that has been pursued by hunters.  Running, straining, leaping, fleeing for its very life! About to die unless it gets water! At the first safe opportunity, this deer will search for water, and in that water find life.
And we can easily paint ourselves into this picture, especially on those days when we don’t want to be asked, “How’s it going?” We confess as did the Psalmist, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and appear before God?” 
 
Then with knuckles turning white, we lay hold even tighter to the Lord’s lifeline, because he is our only hope! “Hope in God, for I will again praise him for salvation from his presence.”  (Psalm 42:5) “Hope in God, for I will again praise him for my salvation from the face of my God.”  (Psalm 42:11) The Psalmist’s life was a mess—one violent breaker after another crashing over him!  Our lives are sometimes a mess. But when we lay hold of the Lord’s lifeline, there is hope. Solid. Certain.  Eternal. Bound up with the Lord’s promise of “salvation.” A safety package unlike any other—bought and paid for by our Savior Jesus Christ and lasting into eternity in heaven above!   
 
The Psalmist squashed the doubt that was eating at his soul like cancer, when he rested his heart and soul on the Lord, his Savior. “By day the LORD commands his mercy, and at night his song is with me―a prayer to the God of my life.” (Psalm 42:8) The Lord's love was the Psalmist’s lifeline.  Because of that love, the Lord became for him the God of hope, instead of despair.  The God of a future, instead of dead-ends. The God of life, instead of death.    
 
“How’s it going?” Are the waves and breakers of your life threatening to drown you? And the harder you to try to think yourself out of this tight spot, the more confused you get?  And the more you fight to push through it, the more exhausted you feel?  Then listen to the heart-language of the Sons of Korah. They can honestly say, “Been there. Done that.” The only solution?  It’s positively divine.
“Hope in God, for I will again praise him for salvation from his presence.”   

Privileged to serve,
​Rev. Glenn Schwanke

This is serious. This is not a belated April Fools’ prank. About a decade ago, “Noah,” a movie allegedly “inspired” by the Bible, was shown in theaters, the subject of much ranting and raving and reviewing and raging. Other religious movies that have sparked controversy over the years include “The Exorcist,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” Sorry, I have not yet watched the popular series, “The Chosen,” as of yet, so I can’t comment on that.
 
I have a suggestion for Hollywood filmmakers looking for another subject to cover, one not just “inspired” by the Bible, but one that could be actually covered in a typical. Hollywood-style, godless, “not-honoring God and his Word” sort of way while actually using what the Bible says.
 
I offer the house of Herod. If “house of Herod” sounds similar to “house of horrors,” it’s well deserved. Wretched, wicked, toxic to the core – four generations of Herods ruled portions of Israel during the 1st century AD. These guys make the “Godfather” protagonists and “Game of Thrones” antagonists seem gentle, dull, and boring. (Yawn)
 
It would be hard to choose the worst of these men. The first, Herod the Great, was King of Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth. He was called “great” because of his massive building programs, including the Temple in Jerusalem. He was also “great” at murder, killing his wife, three sons, and various other relatives. He also killed all the baby boys under the age of two in the vicinity of Bethlehem after the Magi did not return to tell Herod where the Christchild was. Temper, temper…
 
The other Herod who appears with prominence in the Gospel accounts is Herod Antipas, one of three sons who divided up Herod the Great’s kingdom after he died. Herod Antipas was a “lovely” man who stole his brother’s wife (who also happened to be his/their niece), killed John the Baptist in order to keep a liquor-and lust-induced promise to Salome, the daughter of his brother’s wife, and stood face to face with Jesus once – early Good Friday morning. See what I mean? Hollywood would love this stuff, and wouldn’t even have to make anything up.
 
What I would find fascinating in such a movie (a trilogy? Four… five…six movies? A television series?) would be the filmmakers’ take on the fleeting moments during which these Herods met Jesus. How would they handle the fact that these men took a passing interest in Jesus, and then passed on him? Would they recognize the danger of doing the very same – of glancing at Jesus, then moving on without meditation and without faith?
 
Guard your own heart! Easter approaches, and many will glance Jesus’ way. So will you and I. Get more than a glimpse. Take more than a passing interest. Stay. Remain. Fix your eyes on the One who saves, on the One who lived, died, and lives again…for you. “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
 
In Christ Jesus,
Pastor Stephen Luchterhand