Follow-up to Sunday's message: Mercy

Luke 10:36-37:  


"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"  


The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."



Jesus' parable that we looked at yesterday reminds us of a simple truth:  Mercy is an action, not an attitude.

When a child falls down and you comfort him, that's mercy.

When a neighbor needs a hand and you help her, that's mercy.

When a stranger is hungry and you give them food, that's mercy.

An act of mercy is simply this: a need you see in another that you act to fill.  It's no good to see the need and not move to address it.  It's no good to meet a need that isn't there.  But when you see another's need and your heart is so moved that your hands actually get involved that, my friends, is Christ's mercy in action through you.

It doesn't have to be big.  It doesn't have to be world-changing.  It just has to happen.

Follow-up to Sunday's message

"It is, first of all, the freedom of the other person, of which we spoke earlier, that is a burden to the Christian.  The other's freedom collides with his own autonomy, yet he must recognize it.  He could get rid of this burden by refusing the other person his freedom, by constraining him and thus doing violence to his personality, by stamping his own image upon him.  But if he lets God create His image in him, he by this token gives him his freedom and himself bears the burden of this freedom of another creature of God.  The freedom of the other person includes all that we mean by a person's nature, individuality, endowment.  It also includes his weaknesses and oddities, which are such a trial to our patience, everything that produces frictions, conflicts, and collisions among us.  To bear the burden of the other person means involvement with the created reality of the other, to accept and affirm it, and, in bearing with it, to break through to the point where we take joy in it."


Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

Thinking about the theology and practice of the Lord's Supper

Today I stumbled across an older issue of Concordia Theological Quarterly, a publication of our synod's Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN.  In that journal was an article from a cherished former professor of mine, Dr. Joel Biermann.

Dr. Biermann writes eloquently and forthrightly on a very difficult subject: the practice of closed communion.  But he does speak accurately.  I encourage you to read his article and take some time to digest it.  It is that good.

You can find the article here:

http://www.ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/biremannstepuptothealtar.pdf



Happy reading!

PT