The Pastor's Windshield for January 2024

“Be Well, Serve Well” – sounds like a slogan from a gym or an insurance company, doesn’t it? Actually, it is from an insurance provider, Concordia Plan Services, which provides benefits for LCMS church workers and their families. 

Simple as it may sound, there’s truth to this slogan, so let’s build on it a little. It’s important for those serving the Lord’s Church as pastors, teachers, youth workers, missionaries, etc., to tend to their health so that they can have the energy they need for serving God’s people. As best they can, they ought to work at “being well” (holistically) so they can serve well. 

The same applies to Christian men and women in general. Our overall wellness affects our capacity to serve one another in the body of Christ and also our Christian witness to those outside of the Church. This isn’t to say that true Christians won’t get sick, struggle with emotional scars, or run into other hard times. 

Our Lord works through real people with real life problems. Just look at any of the men and women of faith from either the Old or New Testaments in Scripture – all of them were sinful people who dealt with the problems wrought by their own sin, the sins of others, and by the fallen condition of this world. Yet the Lord still chose them, and His strength was at work in their lives despite their weaknesses. 

We further confess as Christians that we are God’s creatures. He lovingly made us; thus, our lives are accountable to Him. He desires that we exercise faithful stewardship of everything He has given us, including our bodies and minds. Doing so also better positions us for loving and helping our neighbors in our daily lives.

Whether or not you’ve made any new year’s resolutions for 2024, it’s worth examining how we can pursue greater wellness in various areas of our lives. 

Beginning on Sun, Jan. 14, 2024, I’ll be facilitating a new Sunday Bible study at 9:00am each week in which we’ll discuss the topic of wellness both in the Scriptures and in our lives. I hope that this class might be an encouragement for you, and, to borrow a line from this week’s sermon, I invite you to “Come and See” what it’s like!

The graphic below was developed by a Lutheran committee on health and wellness in 1997, but I think it still makes a good starting place for this conversation.

Before we talk about health, we need to remember who we are in Christ, our baptismal identity. Drawing daily strength and renewal from His grace and forgiveness, we seek to continue growing in our physical, emotional, relational, intellectual, vocational, financial, and especially spiritual well-being, which involves and relates to all areas of our lives.

As Lutheran Christians, when we talk about “vocation” we’re not just referring to our day jobs but also to our other God-given “callings” (the root meaning of vocation) as disciples, family members, neighbors, caregivers, citizens, etc. It is for the sake of our neighbors whom we interact with in these callings that our Lord would have us “be well” so we can “serve well.”

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Kory Janneke

The Pastor's Windshield for Christmas 2023

The Virgin Mary tends to be in the spotlight at Christmas – and for good reason. After all, she is the mother of our Lord Jesus! Christmas songs ask questions like “Mary, did you know?” and ponder how much she realized about what her Son and His future would be like. But what about Joseph? It’s a shame that he is sometimes the forgotten father figure of Christmas, but there’s much that we can learn from Joseph’s faithfulness as well.

The Gospels make it clear that Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, but His guardian. Joseph was likely a few years older than Mary. It is reasonably assumed that Joseph died sometime after the family’s Passover pilgrimage when Jesus was twelve (Luke 2:41-52) and before Jesus’ ministry began when He was around thirty. When Jesus preached His first “sermon” at Nazareth (based on Isaiah 61), His neighbors still assumed that He was merely Joseph’s son (Luke 4:22). 

Admittedly, we have only a small amount of detail about Joseph. The Christmas narratives rightly place most of the focus on the coming of Jesus Himself. None of Joseph’s words are recorded for us. However, we can still draw some helpful conclusions about Joseph from his actions.

Joseph was a good man. Unlike his royal ancestors in the house of David, Joseph does not have any negative marks against his reputation. This does not mean that Joseph was without sin. He still needed the salvation provided by Jesus. Yet Joseph was also a faithful husband, a reliable tradesman, and an upright example for his children. Jesus was submissive to His earthly parents (Luke 2:51) and while under their care, “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). Joseph taught Jesus his trade (Mark 6:3), and he and Mary went on to have a large family (Mark 6:30). 

Joseph was quietly humble. I bet you can think of men in your family who exhibit a type of quiet strength. They don’t say a lot, but when they do speak, they mean what they say, and you listen. Joseph seems like the kind of man who kept his composure, yet he wasn’t afraid to take action for the good of his family.

Joseph was obedient to the Lord. On four occasions, the Lord’s angels instructed him through dreams, telling him to take Mary as his wife and to name her son, Jesus (Matt. 1:20-21); telling him to take his family and flee to Egypt (Matt 2:13); telling him to return home to Israel (Matt. 2:19); and telling him to beware of Herod’s son in Judea (Matt. 2:22). In all these cases, Joseph obeyed without question.

Joseph was faithful. When considering how to respond to Mary’s apparent infidelity, Joseph wanted to be faithful to God’s law prohibiting a man from marrying an adulterous woman, yet Joseph also wanted to deal kindly and quietly with Mary (Matt. 2:19). Joseph later saw that Jesus’ circumcision and Mary’s purification were carried out on schedule (Luke 2:21-24). Once their situation had settled down, they made annual pilgrimages from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the Passover (Luke 2:41). Joseph seemingly instilled the custom of regular Sabbath worship in his family (Luke 4:16). 

Joseph was a protective husband and father.  Joseph protected Mary from potentially being stoned to death for adultery. He guided Mary to Bethlehem for the census while she was “great with child” (Luke 2:5). And later, Joseph shepherded his family safely to Egypt and eventually back home to Nazareth while taking care to steer clear of two ruthless kings. 

Fathers set a tone for their families, and both during the action-packed years around the first Christmas and during the normalcy of the years that followed, Joseph certainly did this for his family. 

May the Lord bless all Christian fathers with the courage, humility, and faithfulness of Joseph! And may God bless us all with steadfast faith in Joseph’s adopted Son, our Savior Jesus.

Grace & Peace,

                        Pastor Kory Janneke

The Pastor's Windshield for Thanksgiving 2023

Here come the holidays! As Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and the New Year approach, I know that there are many preparations, purchases, and plans on people’s minds. With so much to think about, it’s easy to miss the purpose of Thanksgiving (giving thanks to God!), much less the meaning of Christmas (the wonder of Christ’s incarnation!).

Each November we may hear or say little things like “Count your blessings” – and the Thanksgiving holiday certainly is one good occasion to recognize God’s gifts, but isn’t every day a time to give thanks and be mindful of our Lord’s blessings?

Perhaps you’re familiar with Martin Luther’s morning and evening prayers. They offer us simple ways of entrusting both our days and nights into God’s gracious care. The prayers both begin by saying, “I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son …” Simply incorporating prayers like these into our morning and evening routines can be a starting place in practicing Christ-centered thanksgiving each day.

A particular Scripture passage which I associate with thanksgiving is Psalm 116. (You might recognize some of its words from the Offertory song in one of our orders of worship, Divine Service Setting One.) The Psalmist asks, “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?” (Ps. 116:12) In other words, “What does God want from me?” God has given you and me so much – our physical lives and everything to support them, new life in Christ Jesus, the Gospel, the Sacraments, the blessings of our church and loved ones and neighbors, and far, far more. Taking all those benefits into account, what does God want from me? What do I owe Him?

Here, we might tend toward Law-focused answers: “He wants me to be a good Christian.”  “He wants me to be a better person.”  “He wants me to be more loving.” While God does want us to grow in faith and love, the Psalm offer a different response.

After asking what he should give the Lord in return for all His benefits, the Psalmist then answers, “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord” (Ps. 116:13). Notice that this response is rooted in the Gospel! What shall I render to the Lord? I will take His gift, lift it up, and receive it! 

What God wants from you and me – more than anything – is simply for us to trust and receive and celebrate His salvation!

“The cup of salvation” for the Old Testament believers was an element of the Passover meal which celebrated God’s salvation from their enslavement in Egypt. The salvation which Christ won for us came by means of His drinking the “cup” of God’s suffering and wrath in our place (Matt. 26:39). Now, your Savior provides “the cup of salvation” for you at His altar. As you take and drink the body and blood of Jesus, you get to lift up His cup of salvation and gratefully receive Christ’s gifts for your forgiveness and assurance. 

The Psalmist also goes on to say, “I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!” (Ps. 116:17-19)

What does God want from me? According the Psalm, the “sacrifice” He seeks is thanksgiving. Yes, we also make sacrifices out of the time and resources the Lord has given us, but first, He would have us give thanks, remembering that every good thing comes from above. And what about paying our “vows”? Martin Luther reminds us, “We can return nothing to God except the vows of praise and confession, for we have all things from Him and he needs nothing of our goods.”

We “call on the name of the Lord” when we pray to and praise Him, both individually and “in the presence of all His people.” As Christians, we gather in our local congregations on the Lord’s Day and unite our voices in prayer and thanksgiving, just as the Old Testament people of God gathered in the Jerusalem temple and in their local synagogues. But we also call on Him in our homes, at our Thanksgiving dinners, and every day and night!

Gratefully receiving God’s gifts of salvation and responding to Him in prayer and thanksgiving – these are the things that He most wants from us. 

As we journey through the coming holidays, may the Lord help us to not overlook simple “sacrifices of thanksgiving” for His forgiveness, life, and salvation and for all His benefits to you and me!

Grace & Peace,

                        Pastor Kory Janneke