What Can We Learn from Levirate Marriage?

What Can We Learn from Levirate Marriage?

Deuteronomy 25.5-10
Audio

             If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband's brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. 6 And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 7 But if the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.’ 8 Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. But if he stands firm and says, ‘I do not want to take her,’ 9 then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house.’ 10 And his name shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal removed.’

     This is probably the first time and the last time you’ll hear a sermon about Levirate Marriage. I hope you see, however in this message, that everything in the Bible is important. There are parts that are most important. But there are no parts that are unimportant.

     In the Gospel last Sunday some Sadducees tried to disprove the reality of heaven by asking Jesus about a woman who had been married to seven brothers, all of whom died before she did. This refers to the practice in the Old Testament called Levirate Marriage. The “Levir” or brother-in-law in Latin, was to raise up children for his deceased brother to keep his brother’s family dying off. This was important so that the families and tribes of Israel would be preserved in the land that God promised and from which, eventually, would come the Messiah. 

     God’s salvation is incarnational, that is, it is literally “in the flesh.” The eternal Son of God became a flesh and blood child in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Jesus is, as Paul taught, the one God, the Mediator between man and God, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2.5). God set up a matrix of prophecies that would identify the Messiah. Those prophecies included His nation, Israel; His tribe, Judah; His family, David; His city, Bethlehem. Levirate Marriage quite likely played a role in preserving the genealogy of Jesus in an unbroken line through David, Abraham, and Adam. One of the main reasons God gave the Law of Moses was simply to keep Israel separate from the other nations and to preserve it for the sake of the coming Messiah. In addition to Levirate Marriage, there were other laws having to do with inheritances, debts, and slavery, (these are all fleshly things) that were all intended to preserve the families, the tribes of Israel, and the genealogy of Jesus until the His conception. 

     Is there a lesson for us in this old practice of Levirate Marriage? There is. Like many parts of the Law of Moses, the purpose of Levirate Marriage has been fulfilled with the coming of the Messiah. But the practice of Levirate Marriage (as well as rules about inheritance, debts, and slavery) remind us of something very important. Every fleshly thing of this world ultimately serves the spiritual and eternal purposes of God. The primary purpose of marriage is not for our earthly personal pleasure. Earthly pleasure certainly plays a part. In this fallen, sinful world, God does give us many temporary earthly pleasures. But the ultimate pleasure is that of eternal life. God gave us marriage to keep us from being overtaken by sin and separated from God. He gave us marriage to bring children into the world so that they can have the pleasure of eternal life. God gave us marriage so that we can constantly have the opportunity to “love your neighbor as yourself” even as He loves us and supports us in all of life. 

     Levirate Marriage was a sacrifice to support life and to support God’s promises of a Messiah. Sabbath rest of the land, freeing slaves every seven years, and cancelling debts, was God’s way of guiding the nation of Israel toward its glory bringing forth the Messiah. Our life in the flesh still has its pleasures. But like ancient Israel, it also has its purposes. We don’t work simply for pleasure but to support our families and to support the Gospel of the Messiah. Our friendships are for pleasure, yes, but we should also look at them as opportunities for bringing forth the Gospel of the Messiah and for conversion. Our political activities are not just to ensure a pleasing and comfortable life on earth, but especially that all men might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Our offerings are given not just so that we can sit in a comfortable pew in a climate-controlled room that is beautifully adorned, but they are especially given so that others can be gathered into God’s kingdom through the preaching and teaching of the Gospel of the Messiah. All of our earthly life in this flesh will involve some pleasures but quite a few sacrifices. 

     People who have no hope of eternal life will flee from this way of living. They will constantly avoid all sacrifices and always seek pleasures. People who have the hope of eternal life will enjoy pleasures, but will also accept and even seek sacrifices. That’s a good thought for us as we face the boredom, the drudgery, and the stress of this life. Faithful sacrifices for the sake of life and the Gospel will eventually lead to the eternal pleasure of heaven. Amen. 

Onward, Christian Soldiers!

2 Timothy 2:1-4 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

     No one who is called to serve the Lord in the Christian ministry at any level should expect things to be easy. There are many passages of the Bible that teach us this. Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt with tremendous miracles. Yet he struggled constantly with problems: the golden calf, the refusal to go into the promised land, and Korah’s rebellion. God punished Moses by not allowing him to enter the promised land because he became angry with the people when they complained. David suffered persecution from Saul and rebellion from his own son Absalom. Jesus healed ten lepers, but only one returned to give thanks. Paul was beaten, stoned, shipwrecked and imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. Christians should not expect an overwhelming positive response to their labors. 

     I was once a circuit visitor who gave guidance to a dozen or so churches and pastors. One morning a young pastor who had recently graduated from the seminary wept in my office as he told me about the problems in his congregation: “I have a congregation of Methodists,” he lamented. I told him be thankful you didn’t have a congregation of pagans! When I was a student pastor in Wisconsin, I attended a church meeting that became a little heated. Afterwards, and elderly, retired teacher told me: “Don’t get worried about meetings like this until they bring baseball bats!” 

     Christian servants must expect difficulties, ask God for His help, and soldier on with all their duties. Paul told Timothy to be strong in the grace of God. That is indeed where we find our strength to endure all the hardships of ministry. We realize how God has graciously helped us and has been patient with us. We realize how important God’s grace is when we remember that the opposition to all our labors demonic. Paul said, 

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6.12)

     I have seen a number of pastors and lay people leave the service of Christian ministry because they expected that ministry to be like their labors in other endeavors. That is a big mistake. Satan may not be so happy with someone who builds a house for his family, but he is really unhappy with Christians who tried to build churches in what he thinks is his spiritual domain. He throws every possible obstacle in their way. In fact it is probably true that the more valuable the ministry that you are called to perform, the more opposition to it there will be. Paul told Timothy and us to expect this, but also to be strong and to endure. 

     How does one “be strong in the grace of God”? That strength has always come through prayer. Jesus regularly went out into the wilderness to pray, and He often did so for hours at a time. His prayers were not just laments to God and pleas for help. As we see in his temptation in the wilderness and in His prayer in the Upper Room, He was focused on the truths of God’s word. Those truths, remembered again and again, strengthen our faith and give us stamina to keep serving. Sirach, the rabbi who lived a couple of hundred years before Jesus said, 

My son, if you come forward to serve the Lord,
    prepare yourself for temptation.
² Set your heart right and be steadfast,    and do not be hasty in time of calamity.³ Cleave to him and do not depart,    that you may be honored at the end of your life. (Sirach 2.1-3)

     God help us to cling to You and to find strength in Your grace to endure all hardships of Christian service. Amen. 

Onward Christian Soldiers

Mustard Seed Faith

Luke 17:1-6 Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. 3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

6 So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

     Following Jesus has never been easy. In Luke seventeen Jesus told His disciples that they must live by the divine law that says: Call out sin, but forgive sin. Hate the sin, but love the sinner. And do this over and over and over again. This is also what Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer... “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It is not easy to confess our sins and call out the sins of others. It is not easy to forgive those who have sinned against us. Sometimes we find it hard to believe that God can forgive our sins. How do we avoid getting angry when someone has said something inappropriate about us? How do we forgive the person who has stolen from us? How do we fight that feeling that says, “Sorry” is not good enough? How do we pray for those who promote false, wicked and destructive ideas? At its very heart and core, the Christian life is a very hard life that goes against everything in our nature. 

     The disciples rightly responded to Jesus’s teaching by saying, “Increase our faith.” This is another one of those very beautiful prayers that we find in the Bible. It is very similar to the prayer of the father of the demon possessed boy who said, “Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief!” (Mark 9.24) Faith can and certainly does increase. In Psalm one we read that faith like a tree planted by streams of water. It grows and produces fruit. But for faith to increase, Jesus impresses something very important upon His disciples. He tells them that faith must be a gift from God, like a mustard seed. No one has ever created their own seed. Seeds come from God. Seeds are miraculous. Seeds that are hundreds of years old and have been planted and have sprouted to life. 

     Mustard seed faith is the gift of faith. Peter said that we were redeemed, “not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the word of God that lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1.23). So the answer to the disciple’s request, Increase our faith, is: continue to follow Jesus. Listen to all that He says. Meditate on His word and respond to it with your prayers. Follow Him to the cross for your redemption. As you continually ask God for forgiveness, you will find the power of faith in your own heart to forgive the sins of others. 

Ora et Labora - Change the World

Sermon for Evening Prayer

August 28, 2019

     This morning as I was driving to church, I accidentally had the radio on. I normally do not listen to the new early in the morning because I don’t like to begin my day with “dispatches from the dysfunctional world.” It’s depressing. I’d like to get some productive work done before I have to listen to the griping and complaining. Today, however, I listened a little to two men arguing over gun control and the legalization of drugs. Everyone thinks they can change the world by changing a few external laws. But it is not the laws that usually need changing as much as it is the hearts of all human beings. What I was about to do in the next few minutes (teach 8^thgraders about God and His word) would do more to bring good in the world than most people realize. The same could be said for mowing the lawn, doing the laundry, working ten math problems, memorizing twenty spelling words, going to visit a sick person, stocking store shelves, bandaging a wound, or reading the Bible and praying. 

     There is an old Latin saying, ora et labora, that means “pray and work.” It is often attributed to the Rule of St. Benedict, but the phrase is not actually used there. The idea of a life of prayer and work, however, is very much part of the Rule. Others have also used this phrase even though they don’t have a religious focus. It is the motto of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, the  Scottish clan Ramsay, and of the city of Toledo, Ohio. You’ll also find the motto on a plaque in honor of Ole Kirk Christiansen, the creator of Legos. 

     Ora et Labora is a great motto for anyone. In the book of Hebrews, chapter thirteen, we find the same basic idea: “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (13.15-16).

     If we want to change the world, I would suggest we all start by devoting ourselves to prayer and work. But the key is that we do it “by Him.” All of us are a mixed bag of good and evil. But in Jesus we find the true fix for evil in the forgiveness of sins. With that renewal of our lives by faith, every day is a new opportunity to pray and work. This is the pattern we also see in Jesus, who rose early in the morning to pray (Mark 1.35), and who said, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9.4).  Amen.

The Benedict Option, by Rod Dreher

Book Review by Michael P. Walther

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church – Collinsville, Illinois

July 30, 2019

The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher 

 Rod Dreher’s goal in the Benedict Option is to encourage the Christian church to look to Scripture and to the Rule of St. Benedict to form a vibrant Christian counter culture in order to survive and thrive amidst the moral decline of the world. He gives a historical survey of the spiritual decline of civilization. He outlines the philosophical and theological foundation of the Christian counter-culture. Finally, he presents practical life choices of a Christian counter-culture. 

The Historical Survey 

According to Dreher the decline began when William of Occam challenged the metaphysical realism of the Middle Ages with nominalism. Without going into all the details, I think it is fair to say that the metaphysical realists of the middle ages had a high regard for philosophy and placed it on the same level as Scripture, if not above it in some cases. Occam put limits on philosophy, and especially placed it below Scripture as a way of knowing. Dreher interprets this as a separation of the Creator and the creation. He blames Luther for continuing this trend and for destroying the unity of Europe. He continues to blame scientists like Copernicus and Newton who overthrew the Aristotelian view of a universe, a universe supported by God, and replacing it with the view of a mechanical universe. This continued into the Enlightenment and finally reached its climax with Darwinian evolution.  

I agree that Darwinian evolution was a major turning point leading toward a godless view of the universe. But the Occam, Luther, Copernicus trend led just as easily to William Paley, C. S. Lewis, and John Warwick Montgomery – men who firmly believe the Apostles’ Creed. Why does Dreher try to link Darwin to Occam? He does so because he holds the middle ages in very high regard – a kind of model society which was destroyed by Luther. This is a sub-theme of the book. I know that the middle ages were not all bad. I’m thankful for the monasteries that preserved the Biblical manuscripts and gave birth to the great universities. But I’m not thankful for the confusion of the two kingdoms and the repression of science, Scripture, and the Gospel of forgiveness. The middle ages may have some things to teach us, but there is still much that we should thankfully leave in the past.  

The Philosophical and Theological Foundation of a Christian Counter-Culture 

Rod Dreher and I may disagree on how we got to where we are today, but we do agree for the most part on where we are. Scripture was abandoned long ago. Now our post-Christian society is abandoning logic and truth itself. It is a culture led by “emotivism” in which the guiding principle is that of feelings, and its goal is the liberation of the individual will to do whatever it wants. A Christian counter-culture needs to be built on the foundation of the truth and love. While post-modern civilizations disintegrate and destroy themselves in their rejection of truth, the Christian counter-culture will thrive in the truth that God gives us both in nature and in Scripture. Living the truth needs to follow knowing the truth, and this leads to the importance of love. A Christian-counter culture will thrive in the love of God for us, our love for God, and our love for one another. The Christian church, in all her different communities, will survive when it provides a sub-culture of truth and love.  

Practical Life Choices 

This foundation will support a number of important practical life choices which involve: Sanctification, Suffering, Education, and Work.  

Sanctification, or holiness, is a very important faith-motivated choice that benefits Christians and attracts non-Christians. Without truth and love the world eventually becomes a very ugly place. We need God’s grace to control our appetites, anger, pride, envy, etc. Dreher advocates a kind of seceding from the culture especially regarding social media and entertainment. We should spend more time studying God’s word, praying, reading great books, making music, planting gardens, painting pictures, etc.  

We must prepare for Suffering which will come upon Christians in varying degrees. He could have spent more time focusing on this.  

Education will be a very important key. Dreher strongly urges Christians to get their children out of public schools. They should also avoid Christians schools that are not primarily focused on the faith (Christian in name only). Dreher advocates classical education and provides a little history of its resurgence in America. (See the story of St. Jerome Academy, Hyattsville, MA) Classical education focuses on grammar (basic facts), logic (reason, analyzing), and rhetoric (abstract thinking, debate, clear self-expression). He also advocates economical education without all the frills that we find in public education. An example is St. Constantine College, Houston, which has no expensive sports programs and no full-time administrators.  

Work will be an important matter for Christians in the future. LGBT compliance will force Christians to make compromises contrary to their faith. Christians who disagree with LGBT lifestyles will be viewed as bigots and racists. In order to support their families, Christians will need to consider jobs which may pay less. Dreher encourages Christians to consider skilled labor which might provide work that is not necessarily tied to LGBT loving corporations.  

Conclusion 

Where does Benedict come in? Dreher gives a little history of the sixth century monk of Nursia, and the book is peppered with insights drawn from the Rule of St. Benedict. The Rule is 73 short paragraphs that provide a good order for life for a community of monks so that they might find the presence of God in ordinary life. Some aspects of this order can carry over to family life in the sub-culture of the Christian church. The order encourages intense daily prayer, obedience to superiors, putting others first, working diligently but not pridefully, controlling appetites, welcoming strangers, etc. These are great virtues that Christians should strive for as they live in their vibrant counter culture! 

However, my main problem with the Benedict Option goes back to my disagreement with Dreher about Occam and Luther. Yes, I am a Lutheran, and it might seem as though I’m just defending my own tradition. But I know there is a deeper unresolved issue here. Anyone who reads the Rule of St. Benedict cannot help but notice the great emphasis on COMPLETE OBEDIENCE TO THE ABBOT. This is emphasized over and over. Obedience to spiritual superiors is important, and it goes back to the fourth commandment, Honor your father and mother. But one of the tragedies of the medieval church is the abuse of this commandment in the formation of the papacy. Dreher talks a lot of good order in life. But where does that order come from? Man and his logic or from God through His word. The papacy created an order in which man (claiming a special spiritual anointing and tradition) and man’s logic stood above God’s word. Luther reversed this order. Reading the Benedict Option, you can detect this medieval move to put Scripture below some other authority. Dreher mentions the importance of teaching Scripture to children but not so much for adults. By my count there are only seven references to Scripture in the book. He does emphasize the use of Scripture in prayer, and that is wonderful. But Scripture has a greater role and must have a greater role in our Christian sub-culture. It must be our ultimate guide to life in a “post-modern pagan” world. As Peter said, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (2.2). And, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3.18).  

I am very glad that Dreher wrote this book. I’ve always felt that persecution would push Christians back together, and I pray that this indeed occurs as we move forward into these end-times. Read this book. Draw good advice from it. But above all read the Scriptures for faith and for the good order of life built upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and for our salvation.  

Handout for Adult Bible Study

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Collinsville, Illinois July 28, 2019

The Benedict Option, by Rod Dreher

Goal:  To encourage the Christian church to look to Scripture and to the Rule of St. Benedict to form a vibrant Christian counter culture in order to survive and thrive amidst the moral decline of the world. 

How We Got Here: Blame William of Occam and Martin Luther. The worst thing about Luther was that he taught Sola Scriptura (how many Bible references in the book?) – The Middle Ages were the best! (?)

The Philosophical and Theological Foundation of a Christian Counter-Culture: Modern culture has abandoned the truth of Scripture and logic. It is led by “emotivism.” This will lead to destruction.  The Christian counter-culture will thrive in the truth that God gives us both in nature and in Scripture. Living the truth needs to follow knowing the truth, and this leads to the importance of love. A Christian-counter culture will thrive in the love of God for us, our love for God, and our love for one another. 

St. Benedict: Sixth century monk who founded the Benedictines in Italy. They are known as “The Preachers.” Thomas Aquinas was a Benedictine, so was Johann Tetzel. The “Rule of St. Benedict” is 73 short paragraphs that lay down the rules for monastic life. They emphasize humility, a very ordered life of prayer and work, COMPLETE OBEDIENCE to the abbot, very simple lifestyle, etc.

Practical Life Choices:

Participate in politics, especially to maintain freedom of religion, but don’t attempt to fix the world with politics.

Rediscover liturgical worship, habits of asceticism, evangelize with goodness and beauty, embrace exile and possible martyrdom

Turn your home into a domestic monastery. Be a nonconformist. Don’t take your kids’ friends for granted. Don’t idolize the family. Live close to your community/church. Don’t idolize the community. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.

Give family a rightly ordered education/teach children the Scriptures. Study western civilization. Get your kids out of public schools. Send them to classical Christian schools or homeschool. Study the classics (university).

Embrace hard labor. Buy from Christians even if it costs more. Rediscover the trades. Be poorer and marginalized.  

Sanctify sex. Fight pornography with everything you’ve got. Practice digital fasting. Take smart phones from kids. Do things with your hands. Question progress.

Will Our Pets Be in Heaven?

Many years ago I was visiting a member in her trailer home. She was homebound and in a wheel chair so I would regularly bring her communion. One day she asked if our pets would be with us in heaven. As I started to answer, I looked up and saw on a shelf five urns that held the remains of her five beloved dogs that had passed away. I knew this wasn’t the answer she wanted, but it was the only one I can possibly give: We just don’t know. The Bible tells us many things, but there are also many things it doesn’t tell us. It is not right to make up things about God without His word to back it up. That being said, the Bible does speak of heaven as a “new heaven and a new earth.” If God created this earth with plants and animals as well as human beings, I don’t know why He wouldn’t include plants and animals in the new heaven and earth. 

Paperboy, Vicious Dog, and the Devil

     When I was a boy, I had a paper route. Along that route there was a very vicious dog that often tried to ambush me in the early morning darkness. One day the dog’s owner invited me into his house and assured me that his dog was not that bad. He wanted me to pet the dog. Yet the dog was snarling at me! Then he said, “He’s not a bad dog, but I will tell you this: He was trained in the army to kill people.” Now I was in fifth grade when this happened. That’s when I first realized that some people in this world are not well in the mind. I told me dad about this incident, and he decided to help. He took me around on my route with the family station wagon. When we got the house of the vicious dog, he said he would take care of it. He grabbed a paper, from the back seat he grabbed a four foot 2x2, and he started walking toward the house. It was dark as usual. The vicious dog was waiting, and he made his aggressive move. The next thing I heard was very loud yelping as my dad wacked him very hard. From that day on this dog would bark and growl from the porch, but he never came after me again. Martin Luther said this about the devil:

Why should you fear? Why should you be afraid? Do you not know that the prince of this world has been judged? ... Therefore let the prince of this world look sour, bare his teeth, make a great noise, threaten, and act in an unmannerly way; he can do no more than a bad dog on a chain, which may bark, run here and there, and tear at the chain. But because it is tied, and you avoid it, it cannot bite you. So the devil acts toward every Christian. Therefore everything depends on this that we do not feel secure but continue in the fear of God and in prayer; then the chained dog cannot harm us. (Luther, Sermon on John 16.5-15). 

For more on how we resist the devil, see my sermon: "Are God and the Devil Real? How Do We Know Which One We Serve"