I won’t lie to you: Greek is difficult, and it will take everything you’ve got to learn it well. However, we work hard at CTS to make sure that Greek in its initial stages is quite fun, so nearly all my students come away from the class thinking that Greek is “the best class” they’ve ever had! How is this possible? Well, Greek is kind of like Karate, and as one can expect to get “beat up” every day by submitting oneself to the wholesome rigors of Karate, so Greek also will take its toll with memorization, composition exercises, and frequent quizzing. Just as one loses one’s fear of getting “beat up” every day in Karate, so one catches on to Greek over time, and then is thrilled to see that it is possible to read hoary Greek texts, translate English sentences into Greek correctly, and even sing Greek songs with one’s chums! Greek is an amazing experience, and most students are never the same after learning the language well. How long will this take? About 10 weeks of constant, daily work. Then it will be possible to enter the New Testament exegetical course sequence at CTS: Gospels I (Matthew), Gospels II (Luke, Mark), Pauline Epistles (Galatians, Romans), NT Greek readings, etc—all on the basis of the Greek texts. Is it worth it? Nearly all my students say, “Yes! I’ve never been able to read the Word of God like this! Greek is the best thing that’s ever happened to me!” Greek could be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.

Dr. John G. Nordling

Associate Professor of Exegetical Theology
Concordia Theological Seminary
Ft. Wayne, IN 46825

For more on learning Greek (and Latin) in its initial stages, see John G. Nordling, “Why Should I Learn Latin When Everything has been Translated into English?” Logia: a Journal of Lutheran Theology 11.2 (2002) 27-33.

These are not presented in any particular order. Nor is it a comprehensive list.  I am taking certain things for granted (i.e. weekly church attendance). They are meant as food for thought that will hopefully inspire you to act. What can you think to add?

1. Follow a plan to read through the Bible in one year.
2. Ask your pastor (and his wife) to tell you about his seminary experience.
3. Join the church choir.
4. Volunteer to serve on a church board. If you’ve spent time on church boards, volunteer for a board you’ve never been on before.
5. Go to your congregation’s voters’ assemblies.
6. Read Formation: Essays for Future Pastors. Get it by clicking here.
7. Shadow your pastor on shut-in visits one day.
8. Pay visits to hospitalized members of your congregation.
9. Memorize (or re-memorize) Martin Luther’s Small Catechism.
10. Rent and watch the 2003 movie Luther.
11. Interview a senior life-long Lutheran to learn about life in the church in the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc.
12. Take notes during your pastors sermons.
13. Join the local Lutherans for Life chapter. If there is no local chapter, start one.
14. Attend a performance of Handel’s Messiah.
15. Research the history of your congregation.
16. Read all the pamphlets and newsletters in your church narthex.
17. Order and read a copy of the Book of Concord. Click here to order one from Concordia Publishing House.
18. Re-take the adult (or youth) confirmation class as a refresher.
19. Listen to CDs of Lutheran hymns.
20. Join Toastmasters
21. Help out with Rally Day.
22. Teach for VBS.
23. Join the Altar Guild.
24. Read Walther’s Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel. Click here to order a copy from Concordia Publishing House.
25. Find and research the meaning of all the religious symbols in your church building.
26. Use hymns from the hymnal as personal devotions.
27. Memorize a new bible passage every week.
28. Pick a favorite hymn to commit to memory.
29. Volunteer at a community soup kitchen.
30. Take advantage of opportunities to receive individual absolution.
31. Read more classic and contemporary fiction.
32. Read a major text from a non-Christian religion.
33. Take a logic or critical thinking class from a community college.
34. Become more computer literate.
35. Offer to drive older church members to church functions.
36. Listen to thoughtful religious talk programs on the radio.
37. Ask more questions during bible class.
38. Attend a Lutheran Layman’s League Rally.
39. Organize a surprise appreciation banquet for your pastor.
40. Watch religious television broadcasting.
41. Help out with the youth group.
42. Go on a short-term mission trip.
43. Go on a Servant Event.
44. Interview a retired pastor about the joys and challenges of his ministry.
45. Go to your district and the synod’s websites and explore the resources available there.
46. Spend more time with your family.
47. Watch less television.
48. Read the newspapers.
49. Get a physical.
50. Find a hobby.
51. Spend some time (but not too much time) exploring the Lutheran blogosphere. For example, check here, here, and here.
52. Talk to a neighbor about Christ.
53. Spend less time thinking about yourself and more time thinking about others.

* 54.  I’m cheating and adding one. Send me an email NOW and I will send you a list of recommended readings prepared by our office.

Someone at church told you that you’d make a good pastor.  You find that you enjoy volunteering at the church.  The church youth group (or bible class or men’s club or evangelism committee) responds well to your leadership.

Not many of us get a burning bush in the desert telling us, like Moses, to be God’s spokesmen.  But the above examples are good indications that you’d be well suited for the pastoral office.

So now you’re more than interested.  The idea of becoming a pastor is on your mind every day.  Naturally, you are worried about how you’ll support your family if you go back to school.  You wife is supportive but cautious.  The kids don’t want to move.  Self doubt roars in the background.

All of that is common and natural.  Jesus never promised that your life on earth would be easy.  And if the easy life is what you seek, you should definitely not become a pastor.  If you are not willing to lose everything, including your family, don’t become a pastor.  If you are not willing to be ruined, humiliated, tortured and killed, then do something else.  Obviously, most pastors don’t face those extremes of persecution but the willingness is all.  Die to the world.

If you’ve now been sobered and are still reading this post, then you should definitely take the next step.  Every long journey begins with those first few tippey toes.  What is your next step?  For some of you, the next step is to phone my office (800-481-2155).  For others, the next step is to pay a campus visit.  But for many of you who have already talked to us and have been to the campus, now is the time to fill out the application.  Go here to download an application form.  Fill it out and send it to me today.  You don’t know what tomorrow may hold.  Do it TODAY!

If you think that you could be at the seminary in fall 2009 or 2010, then RIGHT NOW is the best time to apply.

The response to our FREE posters with the full text of the six chief parts of the Small Catechism has been tremendous.  We’ve sent thousands of sets all around the world.  Every U.S. state plus Canada, Australia, Togo, Kenya, Spain, the Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and more.

If you have received a set of the posters and have them hanging in your church, school or home, please take a few snapshots of them and send them to me (email: scott.stiegemeyer@ctsfw.edu).  I’d like to create a little album showing all the places our posters are at work.

If you would like to receive a set, simply email me at the above address.

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

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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