Receive the Lord’s Gifts Often

Things are kicking into gear now with my ministry to Persians. Last week I rented an apartment (photo) in a Hamburg neighborhood with a very dense population of Iranians and Afghans. Considering my still modest Persian language skills, I am very grateful for the patience and support of my brother pastor Rev. Marko Turunen, sent to Germany by the Lutheran Evangelical Association of Finland (LEAF), and his lovely wife Siiri. They have been doing Persian ministry for years and are quite fluent in Persian (as are my fellow missionaries in Germany Kim Bueltmann, Rev. Hugo Gevers, and Rev. Dr. Gottfried Martens). In Hamburg, I am now immersed in that language—in Bible studies, individual catechesis, small groups, and in the Persian language Divine Service, in which last Sunday I was invited to read the Apostles’ Creed—in Persian. What are my first impressions? I am supremely impressed with the commitment of these new Christians who are willing to give up *everything* to become followers of Christ. Their experience is like that of 1st to 3rd-century believers who risked their lives to be washed in the waters of Holy Baptism. When your Christian faith costs you something—potentially estrangement from your (non-Christian) family, prison, or even death—that prioritizes what is important in life. Someone might say, “But where I live, everyone is (at least nominally) Christian. It’s nothing special around here…” To that, I would respond: “True, but Christianity in the U.S. and certainly among native Europeans is on the retreat. Sooner or later, you too will be persecuted for being a Christian. So, receive the Lord’s gifts of Word and Sacrament often and don’t take them for granted. And support your church while you still have it. It is the only place in this sinful world where Christ comes to you in Word and flesh and blood for the forgiveness of your sins—regardless of where you live!”