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Luke 2:21-40

On the fortieth day of the incarnation Mary and Joseph, as a faithful Jewish couple, presented their firstborn Son at the temple and “bought” him back with a sacrifice of a two small birds. This is known as the “Presentation of Our Lord” and is celebrated in the church on February 2^nd. It deserves more than one day. So we are going to stretch our contemplation of the event over a few days. Continue reading “The Presentation of Our Lord”

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
(Luke 5:20)

It is a sweet gospel. God’s favor is to be savored. This divine favor, this gospel, is underappreciated, however. Shame on us. Do we not realize what it took? Do we not understand that God became man not because we were so worthy but out of pure love? We take it for granted, no doubt about it but its sweetness never depended on our appreciation of it. It is a part of its sweetness. This divine favor given by our Friend. And not a friend like a buddy but a friend in high places who befriended us at the moment we had none. There is nothing about us that would attract Jesus to us as a friend. This is not a reciprocal relationship. He is our Friend by grace. Continue reading ““Friend, Your Sins Are Forgiven.””

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

It is not wrong to speak this way, but I will admit it drives me nuts. I will also admit it is more of a “me problem” than anything else. It bother me to hear “My ministry” or “Your ministry.” I don’t like the terms. As if this thing we do in the church, this thing we participate in as pastors, belongs to us. As if it was merely a career. I think it is also true of our callings out in the world. “My career, my job, my occupation,” the terms bug me a little bit. As if there was not something divine going on here. As if it belonged to us. As if the end goal was you. Continue reading “My Ministry? My Vocation?”

Luke 4:36-42

You’ve probably had it used on you before. Maybe you’ve used it yourself. Someone’s fallen into sin, you try to warn him or her, and, bam, the person plays the “Get out of Jail Free Card:” “Judge not lest ye be judged.” You’ve been bibled, and not only bibled, but King James bibled, perhaps by someone who doesn’t even know a Bible verse, perhaps by someone who wouldn’t know King James from Queen Elizabeth. But is that what Jesus really means here? Is Jesus the only one able to warn those on the dangerous road to hell? Are we restricted from warning one in sin if we ourselves have sinned? Well, you have to outbible a bibler, so lets dig in. Continue reading “Be Merciful, Just as Your Heavenly Father”

1 Corinthians 7:1-16 

Having condemned sexual immorality, St. Paul now proceeds to the best possible guard and aid against such sin: a proper view and use of marriage. There is nothing wrong with being single. While singles at times express in a way feeling out of place in the church, especially when the pastor is preaching or teaching about marriage, they should in no way feel like second-class Christians. In fact, St. Paul says that he would have all remain single if they were able. Not all have the gift of Paul, however, the gift of celibacy, of the unmarried life, and so it is also good and right if a single person desires marriage and prays for a spoune, for St. Paul concedes that most should marry in order to participate in the God-pleasing intimacy that marriage affords and satisfy their sexual desires within the boundaries of God’s will.

St. Paul not only concedes that most should marry, but he goes so far as to urge husband and wife not to deny each other sexually, except for a short time for prayer, lest one spouse or the other fall into and be given to lust. While St. Paul commends the ideal of a celibate life, he is a realist, and he would not have one strive for celibacy only to fall into unchastity (shunning marriage from well-intentioned piety only to fall into impious lust or sexual activity). No, it is much better for one to be chaste, that is, to enjoy God’s gift of sex without sin within the marriage relationship He has established.

So important is sex to a healthy marriage and marriage to a healthy sex life that St. Paul writes, “The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” The sexual relationship within marriage is indeed, therefore, an expression of Christian love, each spouse putting the other before himself or herself, seeking to provide for their sexual needs and to help guard them against sexual temptations. There is nothing dirty about the sexual act within the marital relationship, as some have mistakenly felt in past ages in the history of Christianity. No, sex is not only not dirty, but it is a crucial part of wedded life. For that reason, when a marriage struggles, one of the places that many times becomes obvious is in the bedroom, and, on the contrary, many times when a couple’s relationship in the bedroom languishes the marriage struggles in other ways as well.

That is not to say, however, that sex is the be-all and end-all of a marriage. Sexual desire waxes and wanes. Should a couple mutually have a lessening of desire over time or for a time, so long as it is mutual, there is also nothing wrong with a lack of sexual activity (in this way born, not out of a selfish unwillingness of one spouse or the other, but out of a mutual contentment in that regard). Once again, Christian love and the avoidance of temptation must be our guide. For this reason, open and honest discussion must be cultivated, as in other areas, in this part of the relationship as well.

St. Paul then reiterates Christianity’s high view of the sanctity and indissoluble nature of marriage. “To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.” And while the Bible clearly encourages marriage between like-minded believers, the Apostle makes clear that even when one spouse is a believer and the other is  not, unless the unbelieving spouse deserts the marriage, the Christian should remain in the union, praying that God would convert his or her spouse and striving to raise the children in a Christian manner as best he or she is able.

When a man or woman is widowed, and thus a marriage ends by the death of a spouse and thus without sin, it is good if he or she chooses to remain single, but not necessary, and it is not in any way a sin for them to remarry. It is better to marry than to fall into sexual sin. It is better to marry than to fall into loneliness or despair, if one longs again for the companionship and intimacy of married life. God’s blessing upon marriage is no less present when a widow or widower marries a second time.

With these principles for marriage, St. Paul seeks to guard the church against such sin as he was forced to confront in the previous chapter, and the danger remains the same today, and so the principles still serve and apply well.

Lord Jesus, help husbands love their wives as You love the Church and wives submit to their husbands as to You, each mutually submitting to the needs and for the benefit of the other in whatever ways they are able. Bless Christian marriages with firm commitment, godly devotion, and selfless affection. Bless those who are single with chastity of thought, word, and deed, and let them live, like Paul, their single life to Your glory. Help those who desire marriage to seek and find faithful and pious spouses who will share with them a proper understanding of marriage and a fervent trust in You. Comfort the widows and widowers. Grant them peace in the midst of the loss of loved ones. Should they still feel inclined toward marriage, yearning for the blessings You within that estate grant, help them also to find godly spouses. Give all of us a high view of the institution of marriage, that by our attitudes, prayers, and conduct we might strive to uphold it to the benefit not only of Your Church but of our society as a whole. And, most importantly, keep us in all of our relationships rooted in the forgiveness sins, for that is the life of the Christian life and the love that breeds love like no other. Amen.

Wade Johnston

For more content like this, check out the podcast, blog posts, and devotions at www.LetTheBirdFly.com.

You can listen to our latest episode here. You can find our latest installment in the Wingin’ It series on Luther here. 

For more writing by Wade, you can find his books here and more blog posts here.

1 Corinthians 14:1-19

It’s easy to lose the principle in a fascination with the concept of speaking in tongues. And that’s understandable. It’s a fascinating phenomenon, isn’t it? What was it like? How come it doesn’t seem to happen anymore, hasn’t in fact seemed to have happened since the time of the Apostles immediately after the ascension of Christ? We do know this, though: on Pentecost God used this gift to enable his people to proclaim Christ to the gathered crowd in words of languages they could understand. The gift of tongues was given for the furtherance of the gospel message and not for calculated showmanship or self-aggrandizing.

Part of our fascination may also spring from the fact that some still today claim to have this gift. Yet what often seems to pass for speaking in tongues today is not what the Bible presents as speaking in tongues, that is, speaking in actual languages, which is what happened on Pentecost. St. Paul here also says, “There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning, but if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the speaker and the speaker a foreigner to me.” Actual languages, actual meanings.

Yet in our fascination with tongues, we ought not miss the principle. Words matter. They are not to be squandered, especially in the church, because words are how the message of the Savior is conveyed, the message of Him who is the very Word of God. “So with yourselves,” St. Paul urges, “since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.”

We might not have the gift of tongues anymore, much as some might desire it, yet you have gifts wrapped in bread and wine, water and book covers, and you have a tongue and a language and words given you by none other than the Word Himself. Let us treasure the latter as did those same Apostles who spoke in languages they’d never studied in school and use the former in prayer, in praise, in song, in thanksgiving, and in declaration of Him through whose death and resurrection we have been declared righteous, together with all who come to faith in Him and His work on our behalf. The Church is to build up, and she does so in words, and so words must always hold sway—words of the Word must dominate our preaching, words of the Word must dominate our teaching, words of the Word must dominate our singing—yes, taking the melody into their service and not vice versa, words of the Word must dominate our lives.

“Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” And you do prophesy when you announce the coming of the Coming One, when you report the news of the Good News, when you call back the straying and console the penitent, when you share the story of salvation, of paradise lost and restored. How do you do this? You do this in your home as parents, catechists to your children in so many ways. You do this in church, as the Lord opens your lips to declare His praise. You do this in life in general when the Lord opens doors, sets forth works prepared in advance for you to walk in. It might not be as exciting as tongues, but St. Paul’s point is that tongues shouldn’t be all that exciting when compared with an opportunity to build up a brother or sister in Christ, a chance to sound the clear notes of the sweet song of God’s mercy to one whose never yet danced to the tune. You have a tongue. You have a language. And you most certainly have words—they’re even written down. What more could we want?

Wade Johnston

For more content like this, check out the podcast, blog posts, and devotions at www.LetTheBirdFly.com.

You can listen to our latest episode here. You can find our latest installment in the Wingin’ It series on Luther here. 

For more writing by Wade, you can find his books here and more blog posts here.

Isaiah 61:1-6; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Luke 4:14-21

When you’re studying Scripture, it’s always good to stop and ask where you’re at. What book am I in? Who wrote it? Where does it fall in Bible history?  If it’s in the New Testament, how does it relate to the Old Testament, and vice versa.  What happened before this in this book? What comes next? What has been the special emphasis so far? These and other questions can shed a lot of light on a particular morning or night’s Scripture reading. Today it is particularly important to ask a couple of those questions about Luke’s Gospel, which is the book we’re in. We do well to ask where we’ve been before this and how this relates to the Old Testament. Continue reading “The Return to Nazareth”

Luke 2:41-52

Growing up, there were more than a few times Mom told me, “Wait ‘til you have kids.” I think about that oftentimes when I go to the store. One of the games my brother and I loved to play—because, of course, he was always corrupting me—was Hide and Seek, where we’d hide in the coat racks. What never dawned on me was how, while the child feels a rush of joy, the parent feels a rush of panic. No parent wants to hear their child’s name called over the PA system, to be the one cringing as everyone looks at you like you’re the worst parent ever. So, if you’re ever at Meijer and hear, “[One of my kids] Johnston, please report to the information desk,” you’ll know what I’m thinking. Continue reading “In My Father’s House”