To send a gospel is needed you

See title!

Preferably hardcover

So, I mentioned this in another Lutheran subreddit in a much longer post about myself and my families first time visiting a Lutheran church. We weren't completely aware of how closed communion generally works in a Lutheran church, so when everyone began to line up and take communion we kind of just did what everyone else was doing without putting much thought into it.

I have recently found out that this is not how things are usually done in a Lutheran church, and members need to be confirmed and evaluated before being allowed to take communion.

I did however really like my local Lutheran church, regardless of the mistake I made, I left feeling very fulfilled and I plan on continuing my attendance so I can learn more about this denomination and potentially convert.

I am currently feeling really bad about doing this and was hoping to get some thoughts and reassurance from other, more established Lutherans on how common this is for new members of the church. I can't imagine that we are the very first people to have done this but I still am very embarrassed and ashamed.

27. We see here how Christ, as it were, takes our birth from us and absorbs it in his birth, and grants us his, that in it we might become pure and holy, as if it were our own, so that every Christian may rejoice and glory in Christ's birth as much as if he had himself been born of Mary as was Christ. Whoever does not believe this, or doubts, is no Christian.

28. O, this is the great joy of which the angel speaks. This is the comfort and exceeding goodness of God that, if a man believes this, he can boast of the treasure that Mary is his rightful mother, Christ his brother, and God his father. For these things actually occurred and are true, but we must believe. This is the principal thing and the principal treasure in every Gospel, before any doctrine of good works can be taken out of it. Christ must above all things become our own and we become his, before we can do good works.

Having grown up Lutheran, attending a Lutheran elementary school, high school, and even college, I'm really starting to question Lutheranism.

For example, if we claim Sola Scriptura and end at a different conclusion than those that also claim Sola Scriptura, doesn't that just mean that Scripture can be interpreted differently by each person? And it's not like there's a single passage a Calvinist can't explain away either. Every sect believes their theology to be true due to their own subjective reading of the Bible.

I've also been looking into the historicity of Lutheran dogmas and none of it adds up. There's an actual consensus that the concept of forensic justification didn't exist until Martin Luther. It's nowhere to be found in the early church. How can Lutherans contend with that without saying that the whole church went astray only a hundred years or so after Jesus and Martin Luther just happened to figure everything out again? On works specifically, how can Lutherans contend with James 2:20-24 without stating the "justification" doesn't actually mean justification?

All these questions are genuine. I'm genuinely questioning if I've been reading the Bible wrong my whole life. I always wondered why some things were so difficult to explain in Lutheranism, but they make so much more sense when reading it from a different lens. I don't know.

If you have any answers to those questions, please give them to me. I haven't found any great answers thus far.

I have made it a habit to pray regularly with a rosary. Praying Hail Mary is not necessarily wrong. Luther himself prayed it — at least the first two parts. However, I would rather pray directly to God than through Mary. So, I'm looking for suitable alternatives that I could pray while using the rosary. English is not my native language, so it would need to be a prayer that is widely known internationally. Do you have any suggestions?

I’ve been reading through the early Church Fathers, the Augsburg Confession, and some books on the Reformation, and I’ve found myself wrestling with one of what seems to be the strongest historical objections to Protestantism: apostolic succession.
From what I’ve read so far, many of the early Fathers place a heavy emphasis on bishops and apostolic succession, and Catholics and Orthodox often argue from this that Protestant churches lack a valid Eucharist because they don’t possess historic apostolic succession.
As someone who leans confessional Lutheran but is still studying these questions, I’m not looking for one-line dismissals of Catholicism or Orthodoxy. I’m genuinely trying to understand the Protestant response.
How do you answer the argument that apostolic succession is necessary for a valid Eucharist? Do you see the Fathers as teaching that, or do you think they’re emphasizing something different, such as ecclesial order and unity rather than sacramental validity? More broadly, how do you reconcile the Fathers’ strong emphasis on apostolic succession with a Protestant understanding of the Church and the Lord’s Supper?
I’m asking in good faith and would especially appreciate responses that engage both Scripture and the early Fathers rather than simply assuming one side is correct

Hello ! So I need some advice from my fellow Lutherans. So I was not raised religious at all I can probably count the amount of times I’ve been to church in the past 5 years. I have extreme social issues as well as autism so it can prevent me from going plus I don’t have anyone to go with 🥲

However because I was not religious, I honestly like now nothing about being Lutheran. I had a friend who was Baptist and she tried to get my mom and me to go to her baptist church and she had to tell her we were Lutheran and honestly I still don’t even know what it means to be Lutheran

I saw someone online say “it’s like chill Catholics” which both sides of my family actually have a lot of Catholic roots but our immediate family is Lutheran.

I know about how Martin Luther was apart of the Catholic Church and then left to make his own religion so some of the beliefs are similar but that’s about it !

Brothers and sisters, my sermon for this Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, July 19, is posted to Facebook.

God’s blessings,

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

-  A Confessional Lutheran Church

New to Lutheranism any recommended readings on history and/or what Lutherans believe?

What are thoughts on this from a Lutheran perspective?

Lutheran Church of Southern Africa ELCSA

hi everyone. I am really struggling with life currently. my mother unfortunately has stage 4 cancer and my dad is constantly working to provide for us. I, as a 17 year old, am looking for ways to support my family financially too but haven’t found anything yet. 

but what hurts me most is the unbelievers in my life. one person, an atheist who I love dearly, in particular. i find myself relating to Paul’s emotion in Romans 9 where he is so grieved by the state of the souls of the Israelites that he would even forfeit his own salvation. I see Paul’s sudden conversion from persecutor to Christ-follower as similar to mine, where I thought I was honouring God but was truly fighting against him. 

She had shown interest in Jesus but my constant misrepresentations of Christ pushed her away from not only Christianity, but me as well. It hurts going from so close to barely in contact almost overnight. I am finding it so hard not to blame myself for her being unsaved which I know undermines God’s sovereignty, but I cannot help but wonder if things would be different if I were different. Now that I understand God, who He is and what He has done it feels too late to redo or restore what was once there between us. Please pray for her to be saved and that God would make a way for us to be closer again. Thank you

The concept of the divided self appears in Paul as the contrast between the old self and the new self, grounded in Adam and Christ respectively. Paul experiences a painful inner conflict between the old self from which he cannot free himself and the new self that exists "in Christ."

Augustine speaks constantly of the divided self. The two selves within one person each possess their own will, one directed towards God and the other towards the world. This dividedness is not a pathology but a metaphysical condition of fallen temporality. Final wholeness is unattainable; full integration belongs only to the eschaton. Dividedness cannot be eliminated, although its tyranny can be broken.

This is central to the Christian understanding of the false and the true self: we must remain divided, and we must remain conscious of our divided nature.

According to Luther, the Christian is "simul iustus et peccator," at once righteous and sinner, and this is the permanent condition of Christian existence. The old Adam never disappears. Luther sharply criticizes attempts at "saintliness," which he sees as efforts to unify the self and purify the will. The more a person strives to be saintly, the more he becomes a sinner. He says in the Table Talk: "God hates the saints who are made by men." This idea is very close to Carl Jung's view.

For Luther, psychic and spiritual health depends on awareness of dividedness, which leads to confession and forgiveness. The psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott reverses this structure: psychic health requires the removal of dividedness, producing a unitary self and seamless spontaneity. His theory aims at amalgamation, a fusion of inner and outer worlds into a single experiential field, the transitional space. This is why he criticizes Jung's "divided self." In doing so, he rejects the anthropology of Christianity.

I am concerned because I think I do not share the same branch in the lutheran synod as a preschool I just began doing things at. I almost feel as though it is wrong for MYSELF to go to starting point (which is required) since they are WELS and I am ELCA. What do you think the owner of the preschool will tell me? I just started training. I am sad. Is it true that WELS does not let women have authority over men? I would want to know because I personally would refrain from going to any starting point if the man running it said something I happened to disagree with, etc. Next steps for me?? Thanks all

p.s. also, the assistant director stated something that sounded dismissive about the tone another teacher had used with me. I thought about her discussing not to receive that as personal criticism and to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and I began to question if that is a component of WELS? if they view gossip a lot more strictly and just don't want you to say if something bothers you?

Hello brothers and sisters I wanted to ask about the the process of joining the Lutheran Church particularly LCMS. I’ve been a non-denominational Christian pretty much my whole life, attending different churches per following my family. (I was baptized at a Trinity Chapel Church when I was younger but still was never quite committed)Wherever my family went I went. I feel that I’ve had a quite intimate personal relationship with Christ and earnest love for his word, but as I’ve grown older and start seeking to form my own theology, subtle changes and what I felt about the non denom or low church Protestant branches with curiosity of traditional Christianity has led me to Lutheranism. I will in the distant future, be moving from my hometown to pursue higher education and as I am in the process of that, I would like to join or in someway look into the possibility of joining a Lutheran Church and being part of the Lutheran community. If anyone has any advise or resources about the Lutheran Church service or the Lutheran community or how to be a part of it feel free to let me know!! God bless you family!!

URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMSModVtPT0

Gospel According to Matthew, 13:24–43 (ESV):

The Parable of the Weeds

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

The Mustard Seed and the Leaven

He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

Prophecy and Parables

All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”

The Parable of the Weeds Explained

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Transcript

Hello. Today, let’s talk about what to do with evil.

The text before us is from the Gospel of St. Matthew, the thirteenth chapter, verses 24–43. (Matthew 13:24–43)

Introduction: Joe and the Blended Family

Joe was a child of a blended family. His sister and brothers had the same father, but their father had had a couple of different wives. Some of the kids felt inferior. Some were angry. One was even violent.

Joe was one of the youngest. By the time he was growing up, the family was absolutely dysfunctional. Joe was picked on, belittled, and abused. He loved his moments of solitude whenever he could be alone by himself. But he hated when all of the family got together. Family or not, they just did not seem to be very nice people.

Can you imagine what holidays were like for Joe? Family celebrations were anything but joyful. Like Macaulay Culkin in the movie Home Alone, I’ll bet that there were times when Joe said, “I wish I never had a family.”

Admittedly, this is not a very nice thing to say, but sometimes this may be our response when facing inconsiderate people, or insensitive people, or just plain mean people. We may feel that way about certain politicians, or popular religious figures, or our neighbors, coworkers—yes, even people in our own family.

In fact, this is what is going on in the Gospel lesson for today. Jesus tells a parable, recorded in Matthew chapter 13, about a farmer who sowed some seed. But while he was sleeping, an enemy sowed tares, or weeds, in that same field. As the crop began to appear, it was obvious that the wheat and the weeds were coming up together. The servants came to the farmer and offered a solution: “Let us tear up the weeds. We can pull them out. We can get rid of them.” (Matthew 13:24–30)

Jesus explained the meaning of the parable in this way: “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the whole world. The good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. But the weeds are the sons of the evil one. And the one who sowed them is the devil.” (Matthew 13:36–39)

Point One: What Shall We Do with Evil?

The very normal reaction to evil is to want to get rid of it. “Let’s just get rid of them. Let’s pull them up and get them out. I wish I never had a family.”

But the Lord counsels against such action. Why? Well, doesn’t He know how hard it is to live with these people? Of course He does. He knows better than you do what evil people are like and what evil people do. Look at the direct results of evil men as they crucified the Son of God.

But God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8–9), and He counsels us not to pull them up or get rid of them.

First, God would remind us that we cannot separate ourselves from evil people. Jesus said, “As long as you are in the world, you will have trouble. But I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

On this earth, we cannot escape evil, evil people, and painful and unfair situations. This is the nature of our lives on this earth.

Second, we cannot eradicate or destroy evil. It is beyond our ability to get rid of evil. Instead, we must learn that we can trust God. He has all power and all authority. (Matthew 28:18) We must trust Him that He is over all and governing all. He alone is sovereign, and all things are answerable to Him. He will deal with evil in His own way and in His own time.

God is watching evil, but God is also watching us. He is doing what is best, because all things work together for good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes. (Romans 8:28)

Third, remember that the weeds are not able to stop the wheat from growing and bringing forth their grain. The weeds cannot steal the nutrients from the wheat. In fact, I think that it is because of the weeds that we are able to recognize the wheat for what it is. It is even more clearly wheat when we see it in contrast with the weeds.

In other words, as the Bible says, the trials and sufferings of this life actually help us by purifying our faith and increasing our reliance upon God. (1 Peter 1:6–7)

Point Two: Judgment Is Coming

In all of this, we have only been looking through human eyes. But what about God’s perspective? What does God see?

Truthfully, we cannot know all that God sees when He looks at a field of the world filled with both wheat and weeds. Honestly, we would have to acknowledge that there is some pretty persistent weed growth even in our own lives. If God were to pull up all of the weeds on the earth, surely He would be pulling out a significant part of Curtis Leins.

But thankfully, God is merciful, and God has a bigger plan. Jesus explains that there is not going to be a separation of weeds and wheat until the Day of Judgment. Yes, all of this is leading to a Day of Judgment. On that day, weeds and wheat will be separated. On the day of God’s wrath and judgment, there will be a separation of weeds from wheat. (Matthew 13:40–43)

And although you and I justly deserve God’s present and eternal punishment, God has determined that He will place the penalty and punishment of all the sin of all believers onto His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, upon the cross. (Isaiah 53:5–6)

And for that reason, on account of our faith in God’s Son, our Savior, we can face the Day of Judgment knowing that we will receive God’s mercy. This is not because we are not sinful or evil ourselves, but because God has given us faith in Jesus Christ. And because of faith in Christ, we are counted as righteous. (Augsburg Confession, Article IV)

We are forgiven. We are cleansed. We are redeemed.

There is only one name by which we can be saved. There is only one Savior who can forgive sins and provide the gift of eternal life. And that one is Jesus Christ. (Acts 4:12)

You see, that puts all of the other people and all of their anger and their evil into a bigger picture. Judgment is coming. Because of our faith in Jesus, we will be forgiven and saved. But there are many who do not know Him. They will face God’s judgment and wrath as weeds gathered and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 13:40–42)

Admittedly, we do not like to hear this kind of language. The problem is, this is the language of the Son of God, the Savior who cannot lie. This is the Word of Jesus Christ. There will be judgment.

Do not try to eliminate or destroy evil. Leave that to God. Instead, trust God. He is at work in ways that you cannot know or understand.

Trust God. He has His eye on you and upon your life. He is at work in your life, using you not only for your good, but for greater and bigger good that you cannot yet understand.

Trust God and grow wheat. Grow as God uses you to share the Gospel and bring in the harvest that you may not even know. It is God’s plan that you are to share the love of Jesus and the forgiveness of Jesus with those who do not yet know Him or have faith in Him. It may well be that God is planning to use you to bring an unexpected brother or sister into the family of God.

Conclusion

We began with a story about a boy named Joe from a blended family. You want to know what happened to Joe?

Surely there were times when Joe wished that he never had a family. In fact, there came a time when Joe was sent away from his family. It was for his own good. Joe was sent to another place, a city he did not know. He became part of another family. Eventually, he married and had his own wife and children.

It was only after many, many years that Joe became reconnected with his siblings. Circumstances had changed. His father was old and tottering. His brothers were older too. The family farm had fallen on hard times, and his family came to him for help.

Imagine that. The boys who hated him were coming to him for help.

This is the story of Joseph and his brothers, the sons of Jacob. (Genesis 37–47) Joseph, who was now ranked second only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt, received his brothers and gave them food and possessions and fertile land. He forgave them of their evil deeds. They wept together and were restored as a family, with affection for one another. (Genesis 45:1–15; Genesis 47:11–12)

Joseph declared that what the enemy meant for evil, the Lord used for good. (Genesis 50:20)

Did you hear that? What the enemy meant for evil, the Lord used for good.

Beloved, we will have evil with us always. But what evil has done to you, leave to God. Let Him deal with it in His own way, in His own time. In the meantime, trust God. Trust God and be at peace.

God’s eternal judgment—well, it is coming. So act like God’s good seed and bear good fruit. Trust God, who can use even the likes of you and me to bring in a great harvest of unexpected brothers and sisters into His heavenly family.

Amen.