All Hope, and On The Theology of the Cool Kids

Part of maturity is sanctified carelessness.

/ The God of All Hope (Romans 15:13)

/ Checking In! or, G’Day!

It’s been a few weeks. Thanks for your patience and prayers.

Two weeks ago I flew to Australia for the Speak, Lord! conferences in Hamilton and Adelaide. It was wonderful to meet so many faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, and I think they were encouraged by the teaching and conversation.

The Lutheran Church in Australia is struggling. The leadership is working towards the ordination of women with the idea of “One Doctrine, Two Practices.” This, of course, would be catastrophic for the church. Already faithful members and pastors are struggling with what to do with a church that is giving considerations to this practice.

The visited encouraged me to remain faithful in prayer for the Lutheran Church of Australia (and the SELK, the Free Lutheran Church of Germany, who is also having this same battle over women’s ordination.)

/ On Women Pastors

It is strange to me that the LCA (Lutheran Church of Australia) and SELK are both arguing about women’s ordination.

The pressure to ordain women does not come from the Scriptures, but from the culture, from the world. This gives us a clue to the real issue.

I don’t think women’s ordination is a live question for the Missouri Synod, and I think it is because the LCMS is fine being nerdy. Remember High School, where being accepted by the “cool kids” was important? Then you went to college, or got a job, and found a bunch of other nerdy people to be friends with. A mark of maturity is growing out of that overwhelming desire to be part of the popular group.

It is an important part of our Christian maturity that we do not seek to be “friends” with the world. This is true individually, congregationally, and as a church body.

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

We need to be aware that:

1. The world always offers friendship to the compromising church, and

2. The world is lying.

There is no compromise that will satisfy the world. We could give up every commandment, every theological assertion, every promise of God, and the world would still not love us.

But it is tempting. Especially for parents with progressive children who have left the church. They think, or hope, that softening the church’s convictions will bring their kids back to the church. We should ask these kids, “Hey, if we start ordaining women, would you come back to church?” I suspect their answer will be, “That would be a good start.” And that’s the point, isn’t it.

Women’s ordination is always only the beginning, but there are so many other Biblical convictions that the world hates: chastity, marriage, man and woman, sin, the need for a Savior, creation, the resurrection, the exclusivity of Christ, the clarity and sufficiency of the Scripture, etc., etc., etc. Endeavoring to take away the offense of the Scriptures is taking away the Scriptures. There will be nothing left.

Part of our Christian maturity is a sanctified carelessness: an indifference to the opinions of the world (as well as the flesh and the devil).

/ Hope

I taught about hope in the book of Romans. If you want something to try to cypher, here are my lecture notes:

Somehow there’s about 10 hours of lecture in there.

We really leaned into the strange phenomenon that the doctrine of the resurrection, the hope of the resurrection, is the thing that offends the world the most.

Paul’s last four sermons are all from prison, and in all of them he indicates that he was in prison because of the doctrine of the resurrection (see Acts 23:6, 24:15, 26:6-7, and 28:20).

This is a mystery: of all the things that the world hates about the Christian, the most hateful is our hope in the resurrection.

Wow.

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. (1 Peter 3:15-16)

/ Lord, Teach Us To Pray

Have you ordered this book yet?

/ Young Adult Conference

Ya’ll come. Saturday, October 14, Austin, Texas.

All the info is here. Please share this with all the Lutheran Young Adults you know.

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Thank you, again, for your time and attention, and for your prayers. Please keep in touch. 

Christ is Risen!
Pastor Wolfmueller

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

www.wolfmueller.co

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