It is hard to overestimate how important preaching the resurrection is to the mentally ill, including the clinically depressed. That’s the illness I know best, but I firmly believe that this holds true for anxiety, manic depression, schizophrenia and a host of other mental illnesses.

The reason is simple. For the mentally ill, you are trapped in your own mind and body. Your brain is not processing as it should, and so the chemical changes in your body interact in a very bad way with the sinful nature which infects us all. If your sickness is telling you that things are far, far worse than they really are, and your sinful nature is telling you that God hates you, put these two together and you have a recipe for personal and spiritual disaster.

Mental illness works as a magnifying glass and amplifier for so many of the doubts and fears which infect us all. Everyone has doubts about the future. Everyone has moments of despair. Everyone has fears about what they cannot control. Everyone questions their own worthiness before God and before their fellow human beings. We all go through these. But for the mentally ill, especially the clinically depressed, these feelings are all consuming. The physical illness can easily lead to anfectung, the struggle of the soul.

So why does preaching the resurrection matter to the clinically depressed? It matters because in the resurrection of the body, there is a future and a hope that is real, that is concrete, that will happen to matter what may be going on today or yesterday or tomorrow. St. Paul puts it best:

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1Corinthians 15:19 KJV)

For the depressed, there is no tomorrow.

For the depressed, there is only thick darkness.

For the depressed, there is only more misery.
For the depressed, there is no escape except the grave.

But not so the Christian!

There is a tomorrow in Christ.
There is light that shines in the darkness.
There is joy in the body of Christ.
There is escape not in the grave but through the resurrection of the body.

So, my fellow preachers, give us the resurrection. It is my only hope out of the darkness. Give me Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Nothing, nothing else will ever satisfy.

Easter is coming. I can’t wait.

Originally posted on I Trust When Dark My Road

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CTS was pleased to have Dr. James Arne Nestingen as a visiting professor for a two-week intensive term course on “Luther and Walther on Law and Gospel” this January. Dr. Nestingen has distinguished himself with long service to the church as a parish pastor in Oregon and Canada, an editor at Augsburg Publishing House, and as a professor at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. Now retired, Dr. Nestingen is in demand as a speaker in the USA and abroad. He is leading voice of the confessional movement within the ELCA. Dr. Nestingen is the author of Martin Luther: A Life and co-editor with Robert Kolb of Sources and Context of the Book of Concord. While at CTS, Dr. Nestingen spoke on the significance of Luther’s On the Bondage of the Will for preaching and pastoral care at a fireside chat. We think that you will enjoy and be edified by his words.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jeremiah was not real fond of his lectionary.  God had given him the unenviable task of calling the city of Jerusalem to repentance for their unbelief, their evil sacrifices to Baal, and their lackadaisicalness if not outright hostility toward the God of Israel, their God, who had redeemed them from the hand of Pharaoh, who had given them a name, a land and a city to call their own.  The reason they lived in Jerusalem, the city of peace, is because their heavenly Father had delivered it to them with a mighty hand.

So God had put His Word into Jeremiah’s mouth to speak to the people, to warn them of their coming destruction, and to call them to repentance and faith in the one God who would save them.  Just moments before our text, God had placed Jeremiah at the Potsherd Gate outside the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, told him to carry a potsherd with him, and that he was to preach against the city for their idolatry.  God renamed it the Valley of Slaughter, for it is there that the people of Judah would fall, some to death, others to captivity in Babylon.

No, Jeremiah was not fond of this lectionary, but he preached it nonetheless.  This perfect law of God, through which their only hope of survival lay, this perfect law of God was not going to be received well.  Not this time, and it was a part of the pattern of life for Jeremiah, the weeping prophet.  Jeremiah preaches in season and out of season, and breaks the pot in their sight, signaling the beginning of their destruction.

This is not how to win friends and influence people.  The weeper does not want this message, but he sends it.  That is part and parcel of the ministry, after all. Our Lord Himself wept over Jerusalem, crying out to her that this warfare was folly, that He would redeem them of their sins, that God would place a heart of flesh into their heart of stone, and that He would keep them alive in the time of destruction.

But, much like Jeremiah, our Lord is taken outside the gate.  Jeremiah was beaten, scourged for the Word of God which He had spoken and enacted against the people.  Jesus is taken outside the gate, scourged, beaten and murdered.  The high priest’s man goes after Jeremiah for his message of doom.  The high priest himself attacks our Lord.  The high priest’s man goes after Jeremiah for what he thought was a false word from God.  The high priest goes after our Lord Jesus for claiming to be the Son, the very Word of God made flesh.  Where Jeremiah is bound in stocks of wood, our Lord is nailed to the wood of the cross.  Jeremiah is a shadow of the one to come, the prophet like Moses, Jesus Himself.

When Jeremiah is beaten and imprisoned by Pashhur, the chief overseer of the Temple, Jeremiah changes the man’s name.  He says to Him, “The LORD does not call your name  Pashhur, but Terror On Every Side.  4 For thus says the LORD: Behold, I will make you  a terror to yourself and to all your friends.”  Jeremiah knows that this man will end in derision, confusion and death, as will all who steadfastly reject his gracious invitation.

But here the comparison takes a different turn.  Jeremiah knows this man’s fate, along with all of Jerusalem.  Our Lord, too, knows their fate and ours.  But where Jeremiah changes Pashhur’s name to “Terror on Every Side”, our Lord, for them and for you, gives you a new name, a different name.  The name He gives to you is son.  For you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus, according to His word.  St. Paul reminds us:

“So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:24-29 ESV)

The Law was your guardian and tutor, to teach you the will of God, until Christ. Christ has come, and though He was murdered outside the gate, He rose again.  Though we have abandoned Him just as the people of Judah in Jeremiah’s day, He has not abandoned us.  He gives you a new name.  That name has washed you and made you white in His blood.

“You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.  A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.” (Psalms 91:5-8 ESV)

Jeremiah did not like the lectionary which God had given to him, but he delivered it nonetheless.  Even Jeremiah, in his crosses, could see the coming dawn of eternal life.  So weep and rejoice with the prophet, Jeremiah.  Weep that your sins are great, that you deserve the terror of the night like Pashhur and all Judah.  But rejoice, for though you deserve it, you do not bear it.  The terror of this day is but a shadow.  The joy of tomorrow lasts to all eternity.  Believe it for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Jeremiah 20:1-6
Kramer Chapel
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
June 26, 2008 (Jeremiah)
Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn

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Preaching is one of the most challenging, enjoyable and dangerous things any pastor will do. The responsibility is tremendous and the world allies with our sinful flesh to make preachers deliver poor sermons and to distract inattentive hearers.

The newly minted pastors leaving the seminary for their first calls have had excellent homiletical training from the finest professors. They’ve immersed themselves in the study of sacred writ. They have engaged energetically with doctrinal writings and historical texts. Now they are ready to preach. Yes and no. Preaching is as much an art as it is a science. One can compose a technically fine sermon but one that lacks beauty or warmth.

There are many types of preachers. And I know a number of very excellent Lutheran preachers who have dramatically different styles. What works for one fellow in his particular setting might not fly for another elsewhere. There is no one size fits all. However, as one who is still terrified, excited and challenged every time he stands in a pulpit, these are my “tips” for preaching. It’s certainly possible that some preachers will take exception with this or that point. They are in no particular order. FWIW

• Whether you use an outline or a manuscript, when you write the sermon, write for the ear, not for the eye. Your words will primarily be heard, not read. That should make a big difference in how you write.
• Use everyday language. Your sermon is not an English lesson. Your objective is not to expand people’s vocabulary. Use good grammar, but be flexible. Speak in the manner your parishoners are accustomed to. When you write, imagine you are having a one-to-one conversation with a typical member of the congregation.
• Reviewing sermons from the fathers of the church for insights is commendable, but don’t adopt the flowery Victorian style of many translations.
• Be natural. Avoid all pulpit-tone. Unless you hail from the British Isles, do not anglocize your speech. It’s pretentious.
• Preach with authority but without being pompous or bullying.
• Keep all non-biblical quotations to a minimum, and brief.
• Humor can be helpful or it can be harmful. It’s like salt on your potato. A dab will do. Don’t use jokes or puns to draw attention to yourself.
• Do use illustrations. Don’t over-use them. And make certain the illustration really does help proclaim the gospel and isn’t just a cute story you can’t resist using.
• Preaching is not about you. If it ever becomes about you, repent.
• Preach Jesus Christ crucified. If you haven’t declared the cross and its benefits, you haven’t preached.
• Be specific and direct in preaching the law to convict. Never use the law as a means to puff up the self-righteous. It kills. Kill them with it.
• The gospel raises us to life again. Pierce and crush them with the hammer. Resurrect them, specifically and directly, with the gospel.
• Preach the law with compassion and sympathy. Don’t water it down, but don’t be spiteful. You don’t have the right.
• Have someone critique your gestures and body language.
• Make sure people understand you. If you ramble or use too much highfalutin vocabulary and thus aren’t being understood, you may as well be speaking in Klingon.
• Don’t be wordy or long-winded. Verbosity is an atrocity.
• The gospel works. Don’t get in its way.

Have you seen the television commercial where the man is lying on a couch pouring his heart out to a psychologist? After a bit the psychologist begins to speak, only he is speaking Italian and the patient doesn’t understand a word of what he is saying. The commercial goes on to say that this makes about as much sense as going to a broker who seems to be speaking a foreign language.

Can You Hear Me Now?!

Language is important and its function is to communicate. Words can be spoken but if they are not understood, they have little effect.

To become a pastor you will learn to read and speak several languages. You must know Greek and Hebrew so that you will have access to the Word of God in its original languages and will not be dependant upon the English translators. It matters to us what the Bible says. We place a strong emphasis on training our clergy in the languages of the Scriptures and the art of biblical interpretation so that they may communicate God’s Word clearly and accurately. In fact, our new curriculum places great emphasis on using the Greek New Testament in every aspect of theological study.

The faithful pastor also needs to learn the language of his congregation. I don’t just mean Spanish or Chinese if he’s in a multi-ethnic setting; that much should go without saying. I’m talking about the language his people use to understand and discuss the world in which they live. I mean the mental framework that they use to make sense out of life and death and everything in between. This language is every bit as important as Greek or Hebrew. Let me give you some examples. St. Paul said he wanted to be as a Jew to the Jews and as a Gentile to the Gentiles in order that he might win a few. So when he was in the synagogues, he spoke of the law and the prophecies. When he stood before the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in Athens, he used categories and lingo that resonated with them (Acts 17). There are even places in his letters where he quotes pagan Greek poets and playwrights to make his point (Acts 17:28; 1 Cor. 15:33; Titus 1:12). Why did he do that? Was it just to show off his knowledge?

Without altering the truth in any fashion, he skillfully spoke in ways that people could understand. But that doesn’t mean we should “dumb-down” our preaching. St. Paul spoke the language of the people, but he was also led by the Holy Spirit to write some very profound and searching prose.

Of course, balance is essential. Pastors must beware of relying upon fads and being overly trendy in an artificial effort to appear “cool” or relevant to the times. Most people can spot a phony or cultural imposter. Keep in mind that in many ways the Christian will always be an alien in a strange culture. But that is not an excuse to preach sermons that are incomprehensible to the average parishioner. First and foremost, the way we speak about God is formed by how God speaks about Himself in His Word. The Christian has the mind of Christ, and this conflicts and deviates from the mentality of the world in countless ways. The pastor must learn how to translate the words of God–without altering, updating, or “improving upon” them–so that they may be heard.

In the end it’s not about changing God’s Word to meet the hearer but about changing the hearer to meet God. It’s not about changing the mind of Christ to the mentality of the world. It’s about understanding the Scriptures AND understanding the people so that the one can be applied faithfully to the other. It’s about speaking to the people of the world in meaningful ways and enlightening their minds. The benefits are eternal.
Originally published in Pilgrimage, Volume 10, Issue 1, Winter 2007