The Two Comings of Christ - Cyril of Jerusalem

We preach not one advent only of Christ, but a second also, far more glorious than the former. For the former gave a view of His patience; but the latter brings with it the crown of a divine kingdom. For all things, for the most part, are twofold in our Lord Jesus Christ…. In His former advent, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes in the manger; in His second, He covers Himself with light as with a garment. In His first coming, He endured the Cross, despising shame (Hebrews 12:2); in His second, He comes attended by a host of Angels, receiving glory. We rest not then upon His first advent only, but look also for His second. And as at His first coming we said, Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord , so will we repeat the same at His second coming; that when with Angels we meet our Master, we may worship Him and say, Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord. The Savior comes, not to be judged again, but to judge them who judged Him; He who before held His peace when judged , shall remind the transgressors who did those daring deeds at the Cross, and shall say, These things have you done, and I kept silence. Then, He came because of a divine dispensation, teaching men with persuasion; but this time they will of necessity have Him for their King, even though they wish it not.

Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15

Notable Lutheran Artist

There have been several famous Lutheran artists throughout history. Here are four notable ones:

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553): Lucas Cranach was a German painter and printmaker who was a close associate of Martin Luther. He is known for his portraits of Luther and other figures of the Protestant Reformation. He also created numerous religious paintings and woodcuts with Lutheran themes. Here is a introduction to his life and work.

Martin and Katarina Luther, portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Altarpiece in the Weimar parish church St. Peter and Paul

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Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528): Albrecht Dürer was a renowned German painter, printmaker, and mathematician. While he was not exclusively a Lutheran artist, he lived during the time of the Reformation and produced works that reflected his Lutheran faith. Learn more about him and his work here.

The Resurrection, from "The Large Passion"

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Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): Bach, a famous composer and musician, was a devout Lutheran. Much of his music, including his choral and organ compositions, was composed for Lutheran church services. Listen to Bach’s beautiful setting of the Lutheran Mass here.

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Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840): Friedrich was a German Romantic landscape painter, and his works often contain religious and spiritual themes. He was influenced by Lutheran pietism and his faith is evident in many of his paintings.

The Wanderer

Cross and Cathedral in the Mountains, 1812

What is the Feast of Ascension?

What is the Feast of Ascension?

The Feast of Ascension is when we celebrate Christ ascending to the right hand of the Father in heaven. While we observe it today on Sunday, technically the feast day always falls on a Thursday because it is 40 days after Easter Sunday. The timing of the liturgical year is simply following historical fact.

Ascension celebrates a very important part of Christ’s life and work in redeeming us from sin and giving us His Divine life. Jesus Himself teaches that part of the Son of Man’s work is to be seated at the Father’s right hand (Luke 22:69). All over the New Testament are references to Christ’s ascension and His being at the Father’s right hand, here are a few of those: 

But [Steven], full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:55-56)

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Romans 8:34)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (Colossians 3:1)

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…(Hebrews 1:3)

…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Though often overlooked, the ascension of Christ is filled with theological significance. Christ’s ascension means that in heaven there is one who, knowing firsthand the experience of suffering and temptation, prays for us and perfects our prayers. The ascension is a witness and guarantee of our own bodily resurrection, as well as an invitation for us to set our hearts and minds “on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1-2) to rule over all things in heaven and throughout the universe (Eph. 1:10, 20-23). Finally, the ascension of Jesus serves as the prelude to Pentecost, when the power of the risen Christ came upon all believers through the Holy Spirit.

Ford Maddox Brown, The Ascension, circa 1844

Benjamin West (1738–1820)

Scenes from the Life of Christ: Ascension

Flemish School; Campion Hall, University of Oxford

How to Plant a Church in Six (not so) Easy Steps

Church plant meeting in dance studio

How to Plant a Church in Six (not so) Easy Steps

Our culture today is infatuated with “Life hacks” and “3 Easy Step” methods to achieve desired goals. While I’m all for working smart, I’m not a fan of promising quick and easy fixes to complex challenges. Rather than presenting Christianity as following the easy to travel Yellow Brick Road to the desired location, the Bible uses the imagery of a painful journey through the wilderness. Yes, it is marked by God’s miraculous deliverance through water and provision of bread from heaven, but it is also marked by mundane walking, frustrating leaders, terrifying enemies, and blazing hot days. I say all this with both the Christian life in view, as well as church planting.

I’ve heard it said that “church planting has been overcomplicated” and “it really is as simple as x, y, z.” While there may be some truth to these statements, it vastly underestimates the spiritual battle and cosmic war church planting is. There are no quick fixes, easy steps, or life-hacks to starting new churches. But there are best practices, wisdom, relying on the Holy Spirit, the community of faith, lots of hard work, prayer, and most importantly abiding in Christ. The following six steps are what I believe to be essential for any church plant, planter, or planting congregation.

1.  Answer the Why?

The most important question we need to answer in any major endeavor is “why we are doing it?” Why do I want to attend college? Why do I want to get married? Why do I want this job? Or far more importantly, why do I need Jesus? The why question helps us begin discerning through all the possible unhealthy motivations and return to Christ’s call.

So why plant a church? Most fundamentally, Christ says that He will build his church and He commissioned us to be instruments of that work by going and making disciples by baptizing and teaching. This is why we plant churches, to carry out the work of King Jesus in redeeming the world and making for Himself a new people awaiting His return. All other motivations are superficial and rooted in vainglory.

What is your why? What is your congregations why?

2. Build a Team

Kingdom work is never to be done alone but always in partnership with the body of Christ. From the first step of discerning one’s call to plant it should be done in prayer with those around you - spouse, spiritual mentors, and trusted friends. Who are those people you can invite into this work? Building a team of advisors, prayer warriors, financial partners, and ministry co-laborers is fundamental to the work of establishing a new gospel outpost of goodness and beauty. Building a team is done by asking the Holy Spirit to bring the right people, humbling yourself to rely upon the people God has placed in your life, and listening to their council. Who’s your team?

3. Take time to prepare

Jesus exhorts us to count the cost of following him (Luke 14:25-33). Taking time to learn, grow, research, and prepare is counting the cost. For many individuals and congregations who feel called to start a new church, this time of preparation is often excruciatingly slow and difficult. In an eagerness to see a new congregation started, the premature birth of a church brings with it immaturity and dysfunction. The season of preparation, like the nine months a mother waits, should be filled with reading books, learning from experienced mothers, praying for your child, practicing healthy rhythms before the baby comes, surrounding yourself with a support team, and walking alongside others who have given birth to a child. To skip this season of preparation is perhaps the most common cause of church plant failures.

4. Clearly define what you are planting.

While this is a big part of preparation, it is worthy of its own point. Starting a new church isn’t like following instructions for a model plane or car, there are no manuals that can be followed with pre-cut pieces. Each and every church is unique to its context and unique because of the people a part of it. With that said, as biblical based and historically rooted Christians (Lutherans), we are not starting with a blank white board and filling it up with what we think the church should look like. There are non-negotiable for us, specifically our theology and how that theology is lived out. While this may seem like an unimportant step, assuming we know, and those on our ministry team know, what the local congregation is to look and feel like is a dangerous assumption. The reality is, each person part of a new church start brings assumptions to the table, both spoken and unspoken. Clearly defining what the church is (ecclesiology) and how it will be present in a specific community (missiology) are the two most important building blocks every plant needs to discuss. If we assume these, the church will take on a form and belief that merely reflects the culture around it or the background of the strongest/loudest members of the initial group. Our theology should very clearly inform the culture of every new church start.

5. Build relationship and invite people to Jesus and His Church

Once all the hard work of answering the why, building a team, preparing, and knowing what you are planting has been done, now we finally get to what people most often think about when we talk about church planting - reaching people for Jesus. Reaching people for Jesus always starts simply: two humans interacting, speaking of Jesus and His work through words and actions, and the Holy Spirit bringing new life. Church planting is a highly intensive people-work. It requires lots of face to face time and lots of shoulder to shoulder time. Paul uses the language of “laboring among” and “laboring in the midst of” when talking about church planting. It’s thoroughly immersive. As we build these relationships, live among them, and with them, then we give witness to Jesus and His church. We share the good news and invite them to enter into Christ’s Church. There is a move, from outside the Church, to inside the Church. I’m not speaking of a church building here but theologically and spiritually. We are planting kingdom outpost of truth, goodness, and beauty and it is into that we invite people. Places where the Spirit is transforming lives, the gospel is infused in all we do, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is nourishing as a foretaste of the kingdom to come, and we seek to live as co-heirs to that kingdom not yet fully here. We are not merely offering the forgiveness of sin, we are offering a whole new life in Christ and His Church.

6. Abide in Christ

Ministry, any kind of ministry, is fraught with dangers. Soul sucking, Satan devouring, and body draining landmines. There is a constant danger of thinking we are the Savior and being crushed by a burden we cannot carry, falling prey to discouragement and despair when things don’t look as we hoped, boiling over with frustration, and there is a constant danger of our soul becoming thin and shadowy because we spend all our energy trying to feed others and never take the time to feed our own souls. Sound despairing? It should. Our flesh and the devil are real enemies that are ever present who would like nothing better for all the above to happen to us. But thanks be to God we are not called to carry out this work in our own strength, thanks be to God we are invited to come to Christ whose burden is lite, thanks be to God who invites us to abide in Christ, and hear our Father’s voice who says time and time again that in Christ we are His beloved sons and daughters. Returning to and abiding in Christ must be our constant state. It is here alone that we find out true identity and strength for the work He calls us to. Thanks be to God!

~ Pastor Matt Ballmann

(Initially written for and distributed by the AFLC Home Missions Newsletter on 9/9/22)

Why you should consider making the sign of the cross on yourself

The Sign of the Cross

Growing up I always thought someone making the sign of the cross on themselves was a pointless and superstitious gesture that just made the people doing it look silly. For real.

I’ve since changed my mind.

I have now come to believe it a very powerful reminder to myself that I have been saved by Christ’s finished work on Calvary and a bold statement to those around me of my faith and hope. And while certainly not required, I would humbly suggest it is a practice that Christians of all traditions would greatly benefit from in practicing.

Here is a brief introduction into this very ancient Christian gesture:

What is the sign of the cross?  

The sign of the cross is an ancient Christian practice of marking the shape of the cross of Christ upon one’s self or upon another person or object.

What does crossing myself with the cross mean?

The sign of the cross is a physical gesture that signifies a spiritual reality. In the same way that in placing our right hand over your heart and reciting the pledge of allegiance declares a statement of belief, hope, and solidarity, so in like manner, crossing oneself with the sign of the cross is a distinctively Christian gesture that is a statement of belief and hope. This simple act reminds us that:

1. We have been bought and purchased by the finished work of Christ on the cross (“sign of the cross”).

2. We have been marked with the name of the Triune God in our baptisms (all Christians baptisms are in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit).

3. We continue to look and trust in Christ at all times and situations.

4. We boldly and unashamedly declare to the world that we are Christ-followers.  

Do I have to do it? 

Not at all! It is a matter of Christian freedom and completely optional. You may or may not feel comfortable doing it yourself, or you may not do it as often as your neighbor. That’s okay. But when the sign of the cross is made, whether by pastor or people, let this be the proclamation: Christ has died for your sins upon the cross; in Baptism he shares that cross with you; because you share in His cross, you are a child of God and are precious in His sight.

What did the early Church say about it? 

The early Church Fathers attested to the use of the sign of the cross. Here are a few comments from the first several hundred years of the church. 

Tertullian (250 A.D.) described the commonness of the sign of the cross: “In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross” (De corona, 30). And in another place he said, “We Christians wear out our foreheads with the sign of the cross.”

Athanasius of Alexandria (269–373 A.D.) said, “By the signing of the holy and life-giving cross, devils and various scourges are driven away. For it is without price and without cost and praises him who can say it. The holy fathers have, by their words, transmitted to us, and even to the unbelieving heretics, how the two raised fingers and the single hand reveal Christ our God in His dual nature but single substance. The right hand proclaims His immeasurable strength, His sitting on the right hand of the Father, and His coming down unto us from Heaven. Again, by the movement of the hands to our right the enemies of God will be driven out, as the Lord triumphs over the Devil with His inconquerable power, rendering him dismal and weak.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (386 A.D.) in his Catechetical Lectures stated, “Let us then not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the cross our seal, made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in everything; over the bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in our goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are traveling, and when we are at rest” (Catecheses, 13).  

How do I make the sign of the cross on myself? 

Touch your head at the naming of the Father; then bring your hand to the middle of your chest (over your heart) at the naming of the Son. At the naming of the Holy Spirit, touch your right shoulder and then your left shoulder. The Eastern tradition of the Christian church goes right to left, while the Western tradition is left to right. Either is good!  

When is it appropriate to make the sign of the cross? 

Anytime throughout the day you feel led to or whenever you desire to be reminded of God’s presence with you and your reliance upon Him. You may do it before an especially important meeting, when you are being tempted by sin, as you drive, when you pray, before and/or after meals, and when you wake up and when you go to bed.   

During the worship service it is especially appropriate to cross oneself at (1) the beginning of the service during the Invocation (In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit), (2) after the Declaration of Grace; (3) during the Creed when we declare our belief in the resurrection (“Resurrection of the body”), (4) after receiving the Holy Eucharist, (5) upon receiving the closing benediction when the pastor makes the sign of the cross upon the congregation.  

A final word

If you have never made the sign of the cross, it will feel a little awkward when you first start. That’s okay. Once you have done it a few weeks it becomes quite natural and second nature. A good way to ease into it is crossing yourself at the beginning and end of your personal prayers and go from there. It is also a wonderful way to disciple your children at meals and when putting them to bed.

May the Lord’s grace and peace be upon you!