Call day is this Friday for LCMS seminarians.  For those of you who don’t know, in the Missouri Synod, the church at large (seminaries, districts, local congregations working together) assigns pastors to their first congregation.  Seminary chapels suddenly take on an air of the NFL Draft as each seminarian is called forward, told where they will be serving, and then shakes the hand of the commissioner…er…Synodical president.  It is actually a pretty thrilling day…for everyone except the wife of these soon-to-be pastors.  The sermon is typically given by one of the District Presidents.  It is meant to convict, comfort, and inspire these fledgling soon-to-be pastors in some memorable way.   All I remember from mine was the phrase, “You aren’t really going to pay attention to what I say today…”  He nailed it.  Anyhow, Lord willing, I will never be a District President.  But, I do think it would be totally sweet to give a Call Day sermon!  Mine, of course, would be a Top 5 List.  And though I’ve only been called and ordained just shy of a decade, I do think there are some things that new pastors need to think about as they enter their first parish.  Heck, I think this Top 5 might prove helpful for all pastors!  So, I give you the Top 5 Words to New (and Veteran) Pastors…

5.  Don’t Take Yourself So Seriously. 
First, don’t read what I didn’t say.  I didn’t say, “Don’t take the office of the ministry too seriously.”  The pastoral ministry is the highest calling in the church.  The Lord Himself has called you there on express orders to deliver the life and salvation which He purchased with His blood into the ears and hearts of His bride.  Nothing matters more than this.  You, however, are a different story.  I’m sure you’re great.  But, the church’s existence and her salvation do not depend on you.  The church needs you there to pray for her, preach the Bridegroom’s promises to her, and to give her His body and blood.  You are not there to build a ministry around yourself.  How do you know if you’re taking yourself too seriously?  Simple.  Ask: How often do I pray and play?  Eugene Peterson (whose book “Under the Unpredictable Plant” I require you to read) reminds us of WH Auden’s line that we’ve forgotten the art of prayer and play.  It’s because we think too highly of ourselves.  If you aren’t praying, you are forgetting Who has called you and the immensity of that call.  You wrongly, foolishly, recklessly think you can handle it on your own.  It is His ministry, not yours.  A lack of prayer will make you lose sight of this.  If you aren’t playing, you think the church will fall apart if you aren’t around and you are working too much.  You wrongly, foolishly, suicidally think this ministry depends on you and your skill.  Work hard, do you job, and have some fun!  


4.  Go to Your Circuit Meetings.   
You are not alone. For some of us, this is good news.  For some of us, this is bad news.  Regardless, you need to go to your circuit meetings.  And, your circuit needs you there.  I know that there is a lot of dissension and disagreement in our beloved Synod.  I know that many of us don’t see eye-to-eye.  I also know that the best way to handle such tragedies is not by avoiding our brothers in the ministry, slamming them in a blog discussion, and having a self-congratulatory sense of superiority.  Maybe your circuit will want to talk about the Confessions more than you’d like.  Perhaps they are too church-growthy for you.  Well, go to your circuit meeting, open up the Word together, and let the scriptures form and shape the mutual conversation and consolation that you will desperately need as a pastor.  Let that conversation continue over a cold drink at the local pub.  At least get to know the guys in your circuit and begin praying for them.  NOTE: Some circuits commune together.  If that is not something you can take part in, fine.   I don’t understand, but fine.  Just make sure you are honest and kind when explaining your reasons to the other pastors.  Make every effort to be reunited at the altar.  Honestly, if we can’t commune together in our circuits, should that not be the first order of business every time we meet?    


3.  Don’t Be “Blame the Seminary” Guy.  
Honestly, if I hear one more of my brothers say, “The seminary just never taught us X or Y” I am going to lose my hair.  Well, okay, too late for that…but I will lose something.  Look, as pastors in the LCMS we have received the crème de al crème of seminary educations.  Both seminaries have faculties stocked not just with  exceptional scholars, but scholars with pastoral hearts (not an easy combination).  These men have equipped you with more than enough to be a good pastor.  But, of course they haven’t given you everything you will need in your church because, and here’s the rub, they have not been called to pastor your congregation.  If there is something you don’t feel equipped to do because you didn’t learn it at the sem, well, either you needed to pay closer attention or you are dealing with something they couldn’t have seen coming and you now need to go learn it.  You have received an incredible gift to have studied at a Concordia, in my opinion.  But now you have a new teacher to study under: the congregation.  She is your teacher now.  So, with great confidence, take your seminary education with you into your new school: the parish.


2.  Avoid Ecclesiastical Pornography.  
Actually, avoid all pornography (and if it becomes a problem, get a confessor).  But, for our purposes on this blog, let’s stick with what Eugene Peterson (there he is again!) calls “ecclesiastical pornography.”  The longer you are in your congregation, the more mundane it will become.  You will start to notice her warts, she will demand more time from you, she won’t grow the way you think she should, she won’t bear fruit according to your “sanctified” view of discipleship.  The organist won’t sound like the one you had at seminary.  Sweet old LaVerne will still sound like a Zwinglian no matter how many times you open the catechism with her.  Your eyes will be tempted to wander.  Soon, you’ll find yourself looking at other congregations on the internet.  You’ll see all sorts of programs that offer success and glory and growth.  You’ll see bigger churches and wish you had their numbers.  You’ll see smaller churches and wish you had their numbers.  One consultant after another will sell you a program that will change the sanctification/evangelization trajectory of your church and they’ll have the numbers to prove it.  And it will all be a ploy by the devil to take you away from the dear, messy saints the Lord has called you to pray for and preach to.  No matter the size, make-up, location, etc. of the congregation you are called to, the Lord loves those saints, comes into their presence with His Word and sacraments, opens heaven to their praises, bends his ears to their prayers, and has called restless you to serve as their pastor.  Don’t let your eyes wander from them, for the Lord’s eyes certainly don’t.  Instead, every Sunday, join the heavenly chorus right where God placed you.


1.  Be Absolved.  
As it turns out, you will not cease to be a sinner once you are ordained.  The simul lives!   The pastor who forgets this about himself will ruin his congregation.  Before I was a pastor, I found all kinds of ways to sin.  When I became a pastor, I found newer, more sanctified ways to sin.  I lose sleep over members who have left, calls I forgot to make, shut-ins I’ve missed, words I’ve heartlessly spoken, time I’ve missed with my family, time I’ve missed from my church.  Oh, the list goes on.  And that is only the stuff that will keep me from losing my job!  I’ve lived as if God did not matter in this ministry and as if I mattered most.  As pastors, though we do a good job of hiding it behind our clerical collars, we are the lowest sinners in the room on Sunday morning.  You need to hear Jesus’ words from someone’s mouth forgiving your sins.  You will be in the business of absolving sinners, but you will not cease to be one.  Find a brother you can trust and confess to him.  If you are not able to find that man, I will do it.  Email me at pastorbob@faithmoorpark.com.  The Lord is gracious, His blood was shed even for sinful pastors, even for you.  Never forget the simul.


Oh, there is so much more.  What advice would you give to these soon-to-be pastors?  I’ve required them to read Peterson’s book.  What books would you recommend for them?  That would be a nice gift to give them, by the way, a list of books they can buy!  Another list for another day, I suppose…

Fasting is actually a great practice, one that is even encouraged by our Lord (Matthew 6:16-17).  Of course it doesn’t earn you any sort of grace from God or points on your sanctification score card, but it does help you focus your attention on Christ.  And that is really the point, not just of fasting, but of all our practices and disciplines in the Church: to fix our eyes on Jesus.  We don’t fast during Lent as an excuse to start a diet and lose weight. Rather, we do it to focus our hearts on Christ and His sacrifice. 

So, taking up some sort of fast during Lent is wonderful.  But, there is no Law that says we must do it, nor is there one that says it is the only way to focus on Christ during Lent.  What I thought I would do for this Top Five is offer up five suggestions of other Lenten disciplines to help you fix your eyes on Jesus this Lent. 

1) Attend Midweek Services- There is no better practice for the Christian than attending to the Word of God.  Period.  Gathering around God’s Word and sacraments is the very lifeline of the Christian.  These services will tend to be more subdued and melancholy.  And beautiful.  They should serve as a stark reminder of Luther’s last words, “We are all beggars.”  But, as we come to God, begging and repenting, He comes in His Word to journey with us to the cross, where beggars hands are filled!  You really have nothing better to do that night.  American Idol is a poor excuse for not hearing God’s Word. If you don’t have a midweek service at your church, become a midweek visitor!

2) Technology Fast- OK, I know you can’t remove all technology from your life.  However, there are some things you can stop doing.  For example, I go on a social media fast every year.  No Facebook, no Twitter, nuthin’.  You could also have phone free days where you don’t pick up your cell for a whole day and just focus on being with friends and family. Spend time talking to someone face to face instead of text to text.  Or, if you are really bold, you can just give up TV for forty days.  “But what,” you say, “will I do with my left over time?” Besides actually talking to real life people, you could…

3) Read a Theology Book- I stole this idea from the Cranach Blog a few years back.  Since you will have fewer screens in your face, you can replace them with a book. And, not just any book, but one that will enrich your faith and knowledge of Christ.  If you don’t read very often, I wouldn’t recommend picking up Chemnitz’s four volume Examination of the Council of Trent.  However, challenge yourself.  Read something that will stretch and exercise your brain muscle.  If you have never read the Book of Concord, this would be a great time to start. If you want other recommendations, shoot me an email and we’ll figure something out: pastorbob@faithmoorpark.com .

4) Pray a Psalm Daily-Every morning when you wake up or at night before you go to bed, read a psalm and make it your prayer.  You can do forty of them for each day in Lent or you could do one Psalm for the whole season.  I would recommend spending time every day in Psalm 119.  It is very long, so don’t try to swallow it all at once.  Instead, take small bites every day, spend five to ten minutes just meditating on the text, and then pray for the Lord to guide you through your day with His Word in your heart.  Luther says this Psalm exists to get us excited about God’s Word, thus it deserves a great deal of our time.  But really, meditating on any Psalm will be a fruitful exercise for your Lenten journey.  Hopefully, this becomes a practice for you after Lent has ended.

5) Pray the Litany Daily-This is an idea I took from LCMS President Matt Harrison.  The Litany is a long prayer which we will pray every Sunday in my congregation throughout this season.  It is a beautiful prayer that focuses our hearts, minds, and words on Jesus.  So often when we pray we can focus on our own pressing issues. It is a great thing to present all of our pressing issues to God (and His promise to listen is an overwhelming blessing), however, the Litany enables us to pray for many things that might not immediately come to mind.  It turns our focus outside of our prayers towards our neighbors needs and God’s will.  It is in the Lutheran Service Book on page 288-289.     


Add to the list.  Do you have any Lenten practices that you find helpful?  What about ways in which Lenten practices have proven harmful or counterproductive?  May God grant you a mouth full of repentance and ears filled with His mercy this Lenten season!

It is that time of year again to set up for ourselves all kinds of unrealistic goals and expectations.  With this Top 5 I thought I’d help pastors to this end.  I actually do not think these “resolutions” are all that unrealistic.  But, I do worry that most pastors are not actually doing these things.  So, as a helpful reminder, here are the Top 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Pastors:

1.  Resolve to Preach Nothing but Christ Crucified-The devil will not rest in 2015.  He will be in your study, tempting you and teasing you with all kinds of sermon themes and creative ideas that will impress your church and garner you many a positive comment after the service, but will not point a single sinner to Christ.  You will find it is much easier to preach about society, the church, political issues, and (especially) yourself than to preach Christ.  So, I say, in 2015, take up the sword of the Spirit!  Strike down the devil by preaching the Law in all its fury so that you can raise broken sinners with the sweet Gospel of Christ.  Preach Jesus only!  Kill, make alive, and keep the devil out of the pulpit.


2.  Resolve to Spend 30 Minutes A Day in the Bible and the Confessions-I saw a story in the Wall Street Journal where an English professor spent fifteen minutes every day for a year reading excerpts from the Harvard Classics.  It was interesting to note the impact this made upon her.  As Lutheran pastors, we have promised to stay faithful to the Scriptures and the Confessions. I am sure there are a million other books you plan on reading all having to do with missional living and incarnational impacting.  But, if you read these apart from the Scriptures and Confessions, you will find yourself serving your congregation drinks from a bar with poison on tap.  Belly up to the bar with God’s Word and the Reformers and drown your preaching in the sweet nectar of the Gospel.  Such a discipline will enhance your preaching and strengthen your congregation.    


3.  Resolve to Read One Old Book and One Hard Book-In keeping with the reading them, you may want to add another fifteen minutes on to your time in the Scriptures and Confessions.  But, don't just read anything!  As I alluded to above, it is easy for us to fall into the trap of reading pop-Christian lit or the newest church leadership guru.  Though such reading is not entirely without merit, it is important for us as pastors to remember that we are part of a much larger church that stretches beyond our own time and context.  It is very easy for us pastors to become very myopic with the culture around us.  So, I recommend that you read at least one old book this year.  As CS Lewis says, “Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.”  I also recommend you read a book that is tough for you to work through.  This has the twofold value of keeping you humble (something necessary for us pastors!) and of making you think more deeply.  It is easy to read over a how-to ministry book and seek application in your context.  It is another thing to read something like Oswald Bayer’s “Theology the Lutheran Way” and reexamine your entire mode of being as a congregation (for what it’s worth, that book was way above my pay grade, but was of tremendous value.  I can't recommend Bayer enough).  Find something that is old and/or difficult for you to read, shut off your computer, and really stretch your brain! 


4.  Resolve to Pray-Brothers, let me be as kind and loving with this one as I can:  get over yourselves.  Especially if you take my suggestion at reading some hard books, you may begin to feel pretty good about yourself and the kind of knowledge you can now show off to the church.  Repent of that nonsense.  Sermons filled with your delightful insights and masterful creativity may display your genius, but, as Walther says, they “represent labor lost because they were merely a product of your genius, not of a clear knowledge drawn from the Word of God.”  We aren't here to show off our Bible knowledge, but to kill sinners with God’s Law and raise them with His Gospel.  Instead of relying on our incredible brilliance, we should pray for God to decrease us so that He might increase.  Again, Walther, “Every one of your sermons must be the product of heartfelt prayer.”  And, I might add, if your heart isn’t feeling it, do it anyway.  The sins of your people and their trials will not be overcome by your smarts.  No, those are the kinds that come out only through prayer.  Without prayer, you will find yourself relying on all kinds of strange resources to give a good speech on Sunday morning.  When you pray, you are acknowledging your inability to do the task before you and you are trusting God alone to guide your sermon.  Pray and lean not on your own understanding.


5.  Resolve to Go to Confession and Be Absolved -  As with all New Year’s Resolutions, this is a list of all Law.  I have done nothing but given you something to do.  Forgive me.  But, also, go be forgiven.  The items on this list are not just things that are good for pastors to consider, they are the very things we vowed to do at our ordination!  And, if you are anything like me, dear brother, you have failed. You will fail again this year.  As long as you look to a list of resolutions, you will only feel more condemned and beat up as a pastor.  The only place you will find strength to carry out your vocation faithfully is from the Gospel itself.  Dear brother, that gospel is for you.  That absolving Word that leaves your mouth on Sunday is for your sins.  Christ’s crucified and risen body which you place in the mouth of your people is there for you as well.  You, dear brother, are a forgiven, blood-bought child of God.  You need to hear this in your own ears constantly.  Find someone you can trust, set up a time, and confess your sins to him.  Jesus will be in his words for you, and you will be set free.  (If you do not have someone you can trust, shoot me an email.  We’ll set up a time and I will absolve you over the phone…though meeting with someone in person is better.)

That is a good not to end on.  Give us some more ideas, if you have some. Happy New Year, you blood-bought sinner!  Remember in 2015, Jesus is for you!  

For my ears, this is the most wonderful time of the year!  I am becoming quite a Christmas music snob in my age. I liked Christmas music before it was cool. (Can a hipster listen to Christmas music?) This is especially true in when it comes to Christmas hymns.  Advent and Christmas hymns are some of the most beautiful, haunting, and theologically rigorous hymns we sing all year. 

But, the opposite seems to be the case as well: this is the time of year where some of our weakest, most heterodox, and downright strange hymns get loads of undeserved attention. It is rather frustrating that these hymns tend to be quite popular! But, as with that abysmal “Do They Know Its Christmas?” by Band Aid (ugh…), no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to get away from these hymns. Like the Grinch, I want to descend into Whoville, bag these songs up, and remove them from the musical catalog.   But, you will very likely sing them in your church this season, despite their dangerous teachings.  After all, orthodoxy is no match for nostalgia.  

All I want for Christmas is you…to think Biblically and faithfully about the songs you sing in church, even during Advent and Christmas.  To this end, as Scroogey as it may seem, here is my list (complete with overly emotional video links) of the Top 5 Humbug Hymns we sing during the Christmas season:

5. Do You Hear What I Hear?

 Do I hear what you hear? Not if it’s this song because I am plugging my blessed ears.  Look, I’m a big Bing Crosby guy this time of year.  But I don’t even like his version of this one. Here’s a song that is just trying too hard to be profound.  Instead of propounding some penetrating spiritual insight, it merely recounts a game of telephone taking place on the night Jesus was born.  The wind whispers to the sheep who talks to the shepherd boy who has a conversation with a mighty king who tells us about Jesus.  I am not sure how the wind either talks to a sheep or sees anything.  Yeah, I know personification.  But, this one is a stretch.  Further, when the sheep hears angels blasting “Glory to God in the highest,” it almost flippantly asks the shepherd boy, “Do you hear what I hear?”  Of course not, thought the shepherd, these angels are making so much noise I can’t hear a thing!  

4.  Away in a Manger 

Believe me, this one is painful to put on the list.  I do love singing this one with my kids.  One point for nostalgia.  Unfortunately, I feel compelled to include it because it exemplifies of one perpetual problem we find plaguing Christmas hymns: sentimental Gnosticism.  There is something inside of us, let’s call it the old Adam, that doesn’t want to think of our Lord as being fully human.  We want to clean him up.  We think it impious and crass to speak of the holy infant as a baby who fills his holy diaper and keeps his parents up at night crying for milk.  So, we sing, 

“The cattle are lowing, 
the poor baby wakes,
but little Lord Jesus, 
no crying he makes.”  

Why not?  Is crying a sin?  Maybe this line was penned by some disgruntled passive aggressive parent on night six of 3:00 am newborn night duty? “You know, Johnny, baby Jesus didn’t cry at night.”  No, our Lord, from the moment of His divine conception in the womb of Mary has been fully, completely, totally human.  Dirty diapers, crying, disgruntled parents and all.

3.  We Three Kings of Orient Are

This one isn’t all that bad, save that we don’t actually know how many kings there were.  Wait, yes we do…zero! They weren’t kings nor were they really wise men. These were magi, pagan star-gazers from the east.  (Think of Nebuchadnezzar’s spiritual advisors in Daniel 2:2.)  Leaving these details aside, I just want to take this opportunity to remind you that your nativity scene is wrong.  The magi didn’t show up on the night of Jesus’ birth.  In fact, if you read Matthew (2:1-12) closely, it could have been anywhere up to two years after the birth of Christ before they came bearing their gifts.  Liturgically, this song doesn’t belong to Christmas either.  The magi are men of Epiphany.  In light of this, I am recommending that my church do an Epiphany Living Nativity.  Only, in this one, instead of everyone standing around, reverently gazing at the baby Jesus doll, we’ll have six or seven overly costumed magicians chasing my two year old around our parking lot while Mary cooks dinner and Joseph has bad dreams.  

2.  Little Drummer Boy

Setting aside the obnoxious “Ba-rum-pa-bum-bum” chorus, this song wreaks of sappy works righteousness.  This is the autobiographical story of a poor child who has nothing to his name but a drum.  He is invited to see the baby Jesus, asleep in the manger, but feels woefully inadequate because he has nothing to offer this little King.  Ah!  But wait!  His trusty drum is on hand.  He looks inquisitively at Mary, who thus far has been enjoying nothing but a silent, holy night (more on that in a moment), asking, “Shall I play for him? Ba-rum-pa-bum-bum?  Of course, as any good mother would, she invites the young man to beat away on his drum for a sleeping newborn infant!  And then comes, perhaps, the lamest line of the whole season, “The ox and lamb kept time. Ba-rum-pa-bum-bum.”  This one is just absurd.  Never mind that the story isn’t true, never mind that it is full of works righteousness (do your best and then the baby Jesus will smile at you), never mind any of that.  What mother lets a drummer perform for her newborn baby?  Do they think Mary is bats?  This is a strange one to be sure.  

1.  Silent Night

 If you want to see a candle-light service turn into a fun Christmas game of “burn the pastor on a stake,” then try removing this one from your Christmas Eve service.  But, this may be the worst of them all. Don’t get me wrong, I like the tune and the candles and the emotion of it all.  I especially like it sung in German, mainly because then I don’t have to listen to the lyrics.   The main idea of this hymn is not…well…true.  The night when Jesus was born was not a silent or quiet one.  Mary gave birth to a baby next to a feeding trough.  I can’t imagine the cows keeping to themselves, let alone the epidural-less mother of our Lord.  Further, angel choirs don’t tend to whisper.  Far from the Gnostic, sentimentalized picture of Jesus with glorious beams of light shooting from his face, our Lord was born into a loud, sinful, messy world in a loud, painful, bloody way.  Though the scriptures give us scant details about Mary’s experience, I think it would be fair to say that this birth, like any other birth, was one that felt the effects of the fall (Genesis 3:16).  But then, Jesus is always doing that.  It’s why He came!  He is fully human, after all, and he didn’t once avoid what you or I experience, even the effects of sin.  He came to endure them.  He became sin for us, after all (II Corinthians 5:21). So, his birth was likely full of blood and pain, just like His death. 

His death.  Now there was a silent night.  Sure, the onlookers were vocal enough, but not the heavens.  No angels singing at the cross.  No Father’s word of pleasure here.  Nothing but a forsaken silence.  Maybe you should sing this one on Good Friday. It was for that night that he came.  Because of that night, now the silence is the devil’s, for he cannot accuse you any longer.  Or, even if he tries, no one is paying attention. The Father’s ears are too busy listening to the risen Jesus plead for you.  But, I digress.

If you’d like a healthy corrective to this song, check out Jill Phillips sing “Labour of Love” on the phenomenal Behold the Lamb of God album by Andrew Peterson.  Her first line:

“It was not a silent night,
There was blood on the ground. 
You could hear a woman cry,
In the alley-way that night,
On the streets of David’s town.” 

Outstanding. 

Look, I am not trying to be a Scrooge here.  Perhaps the three spirits of Dickens will visit me in a dream and I will awake with a new, happy list for you: One with songs of comfort and joy; songs of truth and beauty; songs of angels, shepherds, and stars; songs of orthodoxy; songs of Jesus.  Until then, a merry Christmas to all!!

My first “Top 5” has been inspired by none other than one Rev. Bryan Wolfmueller.  A number of years ago I had the privilege of attending one of his adult Bible classes with my grandmother-in-law (aka Oma).  In that class, the good reverend was teaching on Luther’s Isaiah commentary, and he got stumped on a Latin phrase that he could not call to mind.  In a moment of need, he turned to me, his brother pastor, for help with the phrase he was at a loss to find.  But, much to my shame, I know very little Latin and was of no help to him whatsoever.  As I left that class, I made a vow to myself:  It was not to learn Latin (I’m not that smart), but rather, if ever Pastor Wolfmueller has a journal-turned-blog and I have the honor of being asked to contribute, I will make it up to him by writing a list of Latin words that every Lutheran should know.  Here, then, for the inaugural “Top Five” are the “Top Five Latin Phrases Every Lutheran Should Know!” 

#5: Sola

Right off the bat I am sort of cheating.  Sola means “alone” or “only.” Yet, Sola is never alone!  In lovely Lutheran lingo, there are five Solas: sola gratia (grace alone); sola fide (faith alone); solo Christo (Christ alone); sola scriptura (Scripture alone); sola deo Gloria (glory to God alone).  The formula in English usually reads something like this: We are justified (declared right before God) by grace ALONE through faith ALONE on account of Christ’s work ALONE.  When it comes to where the authority in the church is found, we confess it is found in the Scriptures ALONE as our sole norm of faith and life.  All of this maintains that God ALONE is glorified in his work.  

Now, the solas are crucial if we are to understand what distinguishes Lutherans from every other Christian denomination; why our church, you might say, stands ALONE (get it?).   For example, the Roman Catholic church will maintain that they believe one is justified by grace through faith.  Of course!  Just not grace alone through faith alone.  Rather, one is justified when the grace that empowers one to exercise faith becomes active in love.  Notice how this phrase leaves room for our work in justification.  Faith active in love justifies, not faith despairing of my love and trusting in Jesus ALONE.  (Notice here how Jesus does not get all the glory in justification, but our loving faith gets some credit.  No more sola deo gloria).

Or consider sola scriptura.  Now this one might get me in trouble with our evangelical friends.  The Lutherans are the only church that actually follows this one all the way through.  Our closest cousins in the Reformation, the Calvinists, will fight you to your face, with their angry reformed fists in the air, if you suggest they are not a sola scriptura church.  “Of course we think that the Word alone norms our faith and life.”  But, consider the sacraments.  As soon as you ask them if the bread at the Lord’s Supper really is Jesus’ physical body, like the Jesus plainly says, they respond with that other norm: reason.  “Well, how could he be in heaven and in your mouth and the mouth of your neighbor?”  I dunno.  But, that is what the Scriptures say.  So, leave them ALONE!

I could go on and on.  Suffice it to say that these solas keep our eyes fixed on Jesus alone for everything.  As soon as we start to add something of our works to justification by grace through faith on account of Christ, we have ignored the plain teaching of scripture and undermined the glory of God. 

#4: incurvatus in se

OK, this explanation won’t be as long as the last one. This and the next phrase on the list belong together, I think, if we are to understand the nature of our sin and the nature of God’s salvation. Incurvatus in se means to be turned in on yourself or curved inwards.  This is how Luther would define sin.  I suppose we might say that this is Latin for belly-gazing.  We are so fixated on our own beautiful bellies that we don’t look to God in faith or to our neighbor in love.  We trust our bellies and love their fuzzy lint!  Honestly, when has your belly ever led you astray?  But, of course, our hearts and bellies are full of nothing but cholesterol and lint.  So that, turning inwards is the lifestyle of the sinner.  There is no fear, love, or trust of God and there is no love towards the neighbor when we are curved in on ourselves.


#3: extra nos

Thus, we ought never look inside for salvation.  The only things that comes from within there, Jesus says, are “evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22).  These things leave us dead when our faces are pulled away from our hairy bellies towards the awful glory of God.  Thus, salvation must come from outside of us, or, to use the Latin, salvation must come extra nos.  Any hope of standing before God must come from somewhere else to us. 

It is kind of like that scene in Lord of the Rings when the Ring of Power is finally cast into the mountain and destroyed.  All of middle earth is in the thralls of war and battle.  It looks like there is no hope for those fighting against evil until the ring is destroyed.  Once the ring is gone, suddenly the whole world, by no effort of its own, is set free from bondage.  Someone else saved them, namely Frodo and Sam.  The work that Frodo and Sam did for them apart from them was their saving grace. 

Someone else, somewhere else, outside of me has to be my savior because, right here and right now in this place, I am too sinful and too embattled to do anything for my salvation.  Christ comes outside of me, in His own flesh to die in my place and rise for my justification.  His particular death on a particular Friday and His particular resurrection on a particular  Sunday roughly 2000 years ago are my only hope and salvation.  And, though these are outside of my doing, I know they are mine, because a baptism that happened to me, not from me, gave them to me.  God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit accomplished all of this without any worthiness or merit in my gross belly.  He comes to me even now, from the outside, in bread and wine to give me His body and blood for my free forgiveness.  His Word comes from without as it is preached into my ears and heart.  It is all His work, done outside of me, but done for me!

#2: simil iustus et peccator

This one is huge!  It means that we are simultaneously justified/declared righteous and sinful.  Or, to put it another way, we are simultaneously sinners and saints.  I saw a woman with a T-shirt the other day that looked like a shirt someone would wear in prison.  On the front it said “saint” and on the back it said “sinner.”  I said, “I like that shirt!  Where did you get it?”  I expected her to refer to some church function or maybe even Old Lutheran.com.  “I got it at Kohl’s.”  Weird.  Anyhow, she went on, “We are all kind of a dichotomy like that I guess.”  Then she chased after her granddaughter and avoided talking to me anymore.  So much for evangelism at the kid’s school.  But I digress.

My fashionable almost-friend expressed a common misunderstanding with the simul (by the way, if you want to sound like the Lutheran “in” crowd, just refer to this phrase as “the simul”).  This phrase is not saying that we are a dichotomy,  that sometimes we act like sinners and other times we act like saints, like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.  Nor does it mean that we are partially sinners and then partially saints.  We don’t think of this phrase in moral terms, that is, sometimes I am a good person and sometimes I am a bad person since I am a mix of both.  What we mean is that the baptized child of God is 100% sinner and 100% saint at the exact same time (good Lutheran theologians are bad mathematicians).  You and I will daily have to fight against the old sinful nature.  The old Adam was drowned in baptism, but that sucker can swim, as Luther once quipped.  The old, sinful nature must be drowned daily as we remember our baptism in repentance. 

But, you are not only a sinner.  By virture of your baptism, you are a saint!  Why?  Because God said so.  He put His name on you, crucified you with His Son, raised you to a new life, clothed you in Christ’s righteousness, and washed you clean.  According to the Word of God, the promise of baptism, you are a saint!  You may not ever see it in your own actions.  You may only see the activity of the sinner.  But, Christ shed His blood for you so that you might be his own.  To bring this thing full circle: we are always at the same time incurvatus in se  and justified extra nos.  (Hey, look dude!  You know some latin!) The sinner is found on earth in me, and the saint is found in Christ in heaven. 

#1: Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

 I saved this one for last simply because it is stinking long!  It means “the Word of the Lord endures forever.”  Not only would this make a completely sweet tatoo, it is really the battle cry of the Lutheran Reformation.  It was the symbol of the Smalcaldic League (a leauge of sixteenth century Lutheran princes organized to defend their lands against those who would seek to overthrow the preaching of the Gospel).  They put it on their flags, weapons, uniforms, and Wheaties boxes.  When the whole world seems to be opposed to the preaching of God’s Word, we are reminded with this phrase that the world in its sin and despising of God is temporary, but God’s Word is eternal.  1 Peter 1:24-25 says, “For ‘all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.’” And this is the word that was preached to you.”

This Word that endures forever that is preached into our ears and hearts is the Word of the cross.  That blood-soaked Word is the Word of Jesus which cries out “I forgive you!” against the devil, the world, and our flesh.  Suffering and persecution, temptation and despair, sickness and death will come our way if we are in Christ.  But nothing can separate us from the love of God that has been enfleshed and verbalized to us in Jesus Christ.  His Word of mercy and forgiveness is for you, forever.  Kind of like a tattoo…a completely sweet tattoo!

So, there is the list!  I know, I know, there are so many I left out!  Here are a few of the bubble phrases:  Lex semper accusat (“the law always accuses,” enough said); ex opere operato (“from the work done,” not a phrase we like, it is the teaching that sacraments work without faith found in Rome.  You just need to know it if you read the Apology to the Augsburg Confession); ex nihilo (“out of nothing,” God creates out of nothing).  I am sure there are more.  So, bring it on!  “Top Five Latin Phrases Every Lutheran Should Know!”  What others can you think of?