Bloghardt's Reflector

But, then I laugh – a lot. Joy is, after all, a fruit of the Spirit. I've been known to jog or skip just because I'm happy. Happy – most of the time. I don't like being serious. I can be when I need to be, but it's just not something that's “me.” I rejoice with those who rejoice and I weep with those who weep.

I teach with a Bible in my hand like a Pentecostal. I've been told that during the Liturgy that I often look like a kid who simply is happy to be there. It's not an act, it's really how I feel. I'm overwhelmed with a sense of not-belonging. Jesus is doing business. Why am I here? Why would He call me? Doesn't God have someone with actual skills to do this stuff? Not too confessional at all.

The Lord takes the man and puts him into the Office. He doesn't take him and make him some other man. St. Peter was still Peter. St. Paul was still Paul. St. John…still John. Each one with their own unique personalities and gifts given to them by God.

St. Paul didn't act like St. Peter. St. Peter didn't pretend to be St. John. They each pointed us to Christ with their confession and lives, not by becoming a certain stereotype to please people who have their own legalistic view of who and what they should be doing. No, it was quite the opposite. Remember, becoming someone people wanted him to be got St. Peter in trouble, didn't it? (Gal. 2)

Aren't pastors not to let their personality become a distraction? I couldn't agree more! But, can there be a greater distraction than you being someone who you are not? If you know who I am when I'm with you, doesn't it distract you when I'm someone else in the chancel?

If you are acting someone you are not, you are denying the person who God made you to be. You are a Nagel-clone, or a Scaer-clone, or a Bender-clone, or insert-the-name-here-clone. I can no more be the intensely serious Pastor Peter Bender as Pastor Peter Bender can be happy-go-lucky Borghardt.

Each one is a gift. You can't be Bender or Borghardt either. Nor do you have to be either to be a good Lutheran. He didn't make you to be anyone else. Thank God for a second. You aren't Borghardt!

He made you who you are and put you into the Office, or in your parish, or in your house, in your family to be who you are. If happy, then happy. If chipper, then chipper. And if you can't keep from smiling during “This is the Feast,” then you can't help but smiling.

No making a Law out of this. “Now Pastor Borghardt told me to be chipper.” No! The Lord uses who you are to deliver His salvation to those around you. You, not by you being like me, but you being who the Lord made you to be..

Which means the people around you – happy or sad, chipper or grumpy, get cut a-little slack, don't they? You are free from judging them because they don't fit with the Lutheran you want or think they should be. Happy. Serious. Bubbly. Or just plain... well... plain. Your neighbor is who the Lord made him. Being someone else, would be being unfaithful.

Tell me about Jesus Christ crucified for me! That'll determine what's a Lutheran! Is salvation freely won by Jesus' death on the Cross? Is it freely delivered in the Word, water, and His Body and Blood? Does faith alone receive the salvation won by Jesus on the Cross?

A Gospel confession is what makes a faithful Lutheran! Christ alone by grace alone, that is received by faith alone, and all of it flows from Scripture alone. If you hear that, you are hearing a good Lutheran – even if he never smiles or does nothing but smile.

So, once again, “I'm Pastor Borghardt and I'm a happy Confessional Lutheran.” In the name of Jesus. Amen.