Dear friends in Christ,
We continue our survey of Church History from the book of Professor E.A.W. Krauss from our St. Louis seminary of a century ago. Today’s reading gives us a glimpse of Wyneken at home as he carries out his vocation as husband and father as well as his vocation as pastor and synodical president. It is in our daily lives that we live out in our Christian faith in the vocations to which our Lord has called us.
- 4. [part 1] Friedrich Konrad Dietrich Wyneken : The Head of the House
Up to now we have come to learn Wyneken only from his work in his office as missionary, pastor and president. It is time that we also look into his house and see him as “head of the house.”
On 31 August 1841 he married Marie Sophie Wilhelmine Buuck, the second oldest daughter of “Father Buuck” who was the first to welcome him in Adams County. Pastor Knape performed the ceremony. Right after the wedding Wyneken was accompanied by his young wife on his trip to Germany. His oldest daughter, Luise, was born there on 23 May 1842. Then in the course of the years twelve more children were born.
On 15 December 1844 God gave him twin baby boys, Martin and Henry. When people found out, a poor man came into his house to comfort him because his family had increased so much. “What should a person do?” the man said frankly, “One must certainly bear that cross. God almighty will certainly not let you be undone!” Wyneken burst out laughing when he received this unexpected comfort. He certainly did not need it because he considered himself to be blessed and rich beyond measure precisely by the birth of these children. At that time he wrote his dear mother: “Never was I happier than today! Not even at Christmas did I ever receive such rich gifts. Our faithful God has given me two healthy little boys and in honor of this event I also offer something up: on my table burn two tallow candles!”
Father Wyneken was attached to all his children with most heart-felt love. He saw them as clear evidences of his God’s fatherly goodness, and that is why, with great earnestness and diligence, he sought to raise them to His honor. He hated the modern foolish sentimentality toward children, but he was always kind and good toward them. He liked to make some enjoyment for them by joking and playing with them when they were little. The children played with a rocking horse, which Mr. Bosse had made, as well as with other toys and every Christmas that amount increased a bit.
In Christmas 1848 a friend of the family had painted and set up for his children a “Christ Garden” complete with a manger, shepherds in the field and three Wise Men. Wyneken was as happy with it as a child. He explained each figure to the children, told the Christmas and Epiphany accounts and was as happy with them as a child on Christmas. When English speaking visitors came and thought such images were “Catholic”, he laughed at them and said, “One day when I can no longer preach, I will go throughout the world with this and let it be seen!”
Wyneken earnestly and emphatically demanded that his children obey him—but especially their mother. He did not allow them to talk back and also punished them with the rod when the old Adam came to the fore demanding attention. But as soon as the goal was reached, the papa was again good and even kinder to the punished child lest its heart would become alienated.
Wyneken was always a faithful, loving father to his children; and he was also always an exceedingly caring husband to his wife. In more than one way the marriage of these two was a very happy one. It was unclear what was most evident in their behavior toward each other—love or respect. Certainly both were there in a great degree and the marital happiness that the dear man enjoyed contributed much to him being able to remain cheerful in the midst of constant trials, great inner battles and much outward strife. On occasion he also confessed that he could not thank God enough for the spouse He had given him. He liked to joke with his wife; when he was in a good mood I often heard him say, “Wife, your name is ‘Contradiction’”; but never did I see him either silly and trifling or hard and rude. His home life was an example both to those in his house and to his congregation.
Every morning he had devotions with his family. First a hymn was sung—in Baltimore there were a number of the small hymnals lying ready in the family room. He next read a portion from Holy Scripture and then all kneeled to thank God and to make intercession for Church and state, for synod and congregation, for poor, rich, etc. He then spoke a prayer from his heart; it was simple but powerful. In general Wyneken was a man who prayed earnestly, carried his congregation, the church, the government upon a praying heart and from experience knew the God who heard prayer.
At mealtime he prayed before and after eating, and later on did he began reading a Scripture passage after the meal.
When it came to eating and drinking Wyneken was very simple and frugal. There were always sufficient quantities of carefully prepared foods on hand satisfy all those at the table but there were no delicacies. Year in, year out there was only water to drink. Only after he became Synodical President and when as such he had to entertain various guests, his table was often set somewhat more abundantly and there would even be a bottle of wine on it. In the final years of his life he needed the latter for necessary refreshment, but he was always satisfied with small amounts. He was no teetotaler but he always used alcohol in moderation and sensibly. No one ever saw even the smallest disorderly working of wine; and there are many who still remember how decisively he publicly came out against pastors and teachers visiting taverns.
There was a time when he had regular guests joining his family at his table in Baltimore. One of them was Pastor A. Hoyer beginning in 1847. He served as a missionary in Maryland and had gathered several small congregations and exerted much effort to serve them. His lodgings at that time were with Wyneken and it continued even after he had established his own bachelor’s home in Cantonsville and had spoken frequently about how he “cooked and provided for himself”. The other boarder was teacher L. in 1848 and 1849. Both lived with each other in an attic room, used one bed and rejoiced royally that they could live under the same roof with Wyneken.
At meals they spoke about the things of God and historical events; ordinary news from the city and street did not receive attention.
Since in many cases Hoyer was only there for meals, there was all the more to tell. At the table travel plans, mission successes, adventures, etc. were treated in a disordered medley. Much grammar was dealt with because Hoyer diligently studied English and always had a thousand questions on derivations and meanings of words as well as on their similarity to good Low German.
At one noon meal, Wyneken explained how crudely and rudely the preacher was often treated in America; and, in fact, not just by individuals and in the street, but even in congregational assemblies. L. was shocked at that and in youthful zeal expressed, “Ah! They must be curbed and restrained! It must be different!” Then Wyneken laughed and said, “Yes, when I was as old as you are I thought I could grasp the steering wheel of the world and make it go in the direction I wanted; now I let it hum along as it wants; and you will also have to learn this.”
If now life in Wyneken’s house was already extremely pleasant and the daily association with him was stimulating, broadening, interesting, it was also much more so the case when “strangers” were added, who were almost constantly coming. Not only Lutherans came but also Reformed, Episcopalians and others. Although these visitors knew very well Wyneken’s ecclesiastical attitude and his Lutheran resoluteness, they either wanted to hear and see just once the brave witness of Christ, or they returned because his heartfelt friendliness, his open, manly being had earned their love and respect. Even people who were far removed from the church visited him and none of them left without having heard an earnest word from him.
Among those visiting “strangers” who served the Church but yet did not share Wyneken’s conviction were, for example, Dr. Schaff from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Pastor Fliedner from Kaiserswerth in Germany, Professor Fisk who worked in an American institution but had thoroughly explored Greece and could magnificently describe what he had seen. Neuhaus, who was engaged in Jewish missionary work in Baltimore, often visited, as did Dr. Morris, pastor of the English-Lutheran congregation. The other men in Baltimore who were part of the General Synod shunned the earnest confessor of the truth and did not seek his presence.
A friendly association with Professor Biewand in Washington DC was diligently cultivated. At least once a year the whole family was present and father Wyneken could then also to his heart’s content again use French in which he very fluent.
In short, Wyneken’s house was very open and he was a very obliging host who gladly gave from his poverty and he presented the little that he had to offer in such a way that a person gladly received it, was happy to help himself to it and soon felt himself at home.
Wyneken dealt with all who entered his house, even with true opponents, very openly and freely but also very amiably. Of course theological matters were not the only ones discussed. One topic led into the other; each one discussing whatever moved him. Wyneken himself always contributed the most for a pleasant conversation. Something beyond his studies enabled him always to be able to tell, in a lovely, attractive manner, something old and new about his travels in Europe and America and of his many experiences. Since he himself possessed and made use of a fine, appropriate wit, he also liked to see his guests being cheerful, their wit bubbling up and testing their playful mood on him.
Wyneken fondly remembered his youth. He spoke with hearty pleasure about his mother (who was still living at that time), whom he had always fervently loved and greatly revered, about her strict rule of the house, about the great respect that “we children” had of her. He also knew how to tell so much in the most entertaining way of his studies and military service, and of how his sisters, for example, had to work in the presence of foreign officers.
His student and candidate years gave him a lot of material for entertainment. For example, how he gave his first sermon: after he had impressed it upon his memory for a week and could repeat it almost as well backwards as forwards, he was finally able to preach it in a small village church. Trembling, he entered the pulpit and immediately became aware that there was no way he could use his manuscript because the pews practically reached up to the pulpit and the farmers could not only see his book, they could take the manuscript away from him. He began timidly. Then came a bible verse. Then—what is it?—the entire congregation interrupted and recited the verse. He never heard that; it surprised him but he knew where he had to continue. He continued preaching until there was another verse and again the entire congregation interrupted but this time it wasn’t so disruptive. Finally he came happily to the end and from then on had courage and joy to appear publicly.
He also could vividly describe his travel to France and Italy—the first look at the Alps, of the Bay of Genoa—the stay at Nice and so much more connected with it.
Even more interesting was what he told about his mission life and his experiences in the west. His eyes observed everything; even seemingly insignificant things were important enough for him to observe and remember. Thus he could attractively and vividly explain it. From the game of the forest—of the many turkeys that he almost crushed to death by his riding; of the wolves that had howled after him and had sniffed around his house in the winter; of panthers that had almost seized a youth from his congregation; of hunting adventures, of miraculous rescues (like, for example, a woman snowed in with her children and for whom starvation was near, and how completely unexpectedly a hunter threw a half a deer in front of her door; of the Indians and their queen who drew pigs; of simple and poor, but also of foolish and arrogant settlers and a thousand other things father Wyneken knew how to talk with those close to him in a most winsome manner; but it always had a connection with God or on the establishing and spread of the Church.
So far Professor Krauss
MERCY AT WORK:
Our Baby Bottle drive brought in $247 for the Pregnancy Resource Center, which now has a Corning office. Your gifts are gifts of mercy to help the youngest, smallest and most vulnerable members of our society—the pre-born.
In addition to all the toiletry items we gathered, we used our Thrivent money to buy 674 diapers and 1000 baby wipes to be given to our Pregnancy Resource Center to be given to needy mothers and babies.
WHILE ON VACATION THIS SUMMER—REMEMBER THE CHURCH STILL NEEDS YOUR OFFERINGS AND PRAYERS.
In Holy Communion we receive our “daily bread”, the food that sustains our being, which is none other than the body and blood of Christ.
“This bread [of the Eucharist] is the firstfruits of the future bread, which is ‘daily’ [Mt. 6.11; Lk. 11.3], that is, necessary for existence. For the word daily signifies either the future, which is He who is for a future age, or else Him of whom we partake for the preservation of our being. Whether then it is in this sense or that, it is fitting to speak so of the Lord’s body. For the Lord’s flesh is life-giving spirit because it was conceived of the life-giving Spirit. For what is born of the Spirit is spirit, I do not say this to take away the nature of the body, but I wish to make clear its life-giving and divine power (John 6.63)….
Participation is spoken of, for through it we partake of the divinity of Jesus. Communion, too, is spoken of, and it is an actual communion, because through it we have communion with Christ and share in His flesh and His divinity. We also have communion and are united with one another through it. For since we partake of one bread, we all become one body of Christ and one blood, and members one of another, being of one body with Christ {1 Cor. 10.16-17).”
[St. John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 4.13, quoted in: A Year with the Church Fathers: Meditations for Each Day of the Church Year, CPH, 2011, pg. 180]
WORSHIP NOTES: “The high and holy worship of God is faith in Jesus Christ. Such faith is created and sustained by God drawing near to us. Because God comes to serve us with His Word and Sacraments, the service is a divine service and not a human service. In this Divine Service, the Lord comes to us in order to bless and enliven us with His gifts. Therefore this service is not chiefly something that we do for God, but this time and place and means—set aside to receive His gifts—are His service to us to be received in faith. That is the heart of Lutheran worship. Since the Lord’s Ascension into heaven, His followers have met to hear His Word and celebrate the Sacraments, which He instituted under the leadership of His appointed Apostles. The liturgy, because it draws our faith to behold the works of God in Christ, is God’s work. We cease our labors when we are gathered for the Divine Service so that He might work in us. He gives; we receive. The Divine Service expresses the right relationship between God and man. This right relationship is a gift of grace, which Christ, in His own flesh and blood, has won for us on the cross. The Divine Service, therefore, is not fulfilling external rites and ceremonies, as if mere forms constituted good worship; neither is the Divine Service arbitrary in practices. In the Divine Service, individuals together acknowledge Christ as Lord and receive His means of grace, Word and Sacrament. Furthermore, their worship is based on the historic liturgies of the ancient church. Why? Because these are biblical, meaning both the Divine Service expresses biblical truths and in many cases the liturgy employs biblical passages that are “put into the mouths of worshippers” so that God Himself may teach them how to pray. In the Divine Service, people leave the things of the world, which pass away, to enter into the Presence of God, Who is eternal, and to receive His gifts that neither spoil nor perish. They hear His Word, which is eternal. They remember the enduring promise of Baptism—having died with Christ, they live with Christ [Rm. 6. 1-14]; they receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, which affirms the new and everlasting covenant—Jesus is one Mediator between God and man.” [The Divine Service: A Narrative Commentary, Rev. John Pless]
In Baptism, you are receiving not a perishable but a spiritual shield. Now you are planted in the invisible paradise. You receive a new name, which you did not have before. Up to now, you were a catechumen, but now you will be called a believer. You are transplanted from this time among the spiritual olive trees, being grafted from the wild into the good olive tree (Romans 11.24), from sins into righteousness, from pollution into purity. You are made a partaker of the holy vine (John 15.1, 4-5). Well then, if you remain in the vine, you grow as a fruitful branch; but if you do not remain in the vine, you will be consumed by the fire. Let us therefore bear fruit worthily. God forbid that among us should be done what happened to the barren fig tree (Matthew 21.19) that Jesus not come even now and curse us for our barrenness. But may all be able to use that other saying, ‘I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever’ (Psalm 52.8). This is an olive tree not to be perceived by sense but by the mind, and full of light. As then it is His part to plant and to water, so it is yours to bear fruit: it is God’s to grant grace, but yours to receive and guard it. Do not despise the grace because it is freely given, but receive and treasure it devoutly.” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 7.7, quoted in: A Year with the Church Fathers: Meditations for Each Day of the Church Year, CPH, 2011, pg. 201)
LUTHER AND THE FOURTH OF JULY: A quote from John Jay (1745-1829) statesman and jurist, an author of The Federalist, first appointed Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court:
"No country has more reason than this Republic to recall with joy the blessings Luther assisted to secure for the world, in emancipating thought and conscience and impressing the stamp of Christianity upon modern civilization. Although America had not been discovered by Columbus when Luther was born, Luther's far-reaching influence, which today is felt from the Atlantic to the Pacific, helped to people our northern continent with the colonists who laid the foundation of its future liberties on the truths of the Bible." [Cited in Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, Spring 2011, pg. 46]
JUST IN TIME FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY:
WHY IT MATTERS THAT OUR DEMOCRACY TRUSTS IN GOD
I was pleased to see that the United States Supreme Court dismissed a suit brought by Michael Newdow, a Sacramento man who wanted to remove the phrase “In God We Trust” from the nation’s coins and paper currency, as well as from the fronts of our public buildings. The tired argument that the gentleman brought forward was that this custom somehow violates the First Amendment guarantee that the government shall make no law either establishing an official religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion in the United States. As many have pointed out over the years, the invocation of God or the presence of religious symbols in the public sphere have nothing to do with what the Founders meant by the establishment of an official religion—a practice whose dangerous consequences they knew only too well from relatively recent English history. The affirmation that there should be no governmentally sanctioned religion in the United States by no means carries as an implication the elimination of religious language and values from the public square.
I will argue, in point of fact, that the aggressive eradication of religion from the public forum does serious damage to our democracy. In order to see the truth of this, it might be wise to journey in imagination to a stuffy boarding house in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, where a young Virginian lawyer is laboring over the opening lines to a rather significant document. Providing the widest possible context for his argument that the American colonies ought to be free of British tyranny, Thomas Jefferson writes, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Now if one peruses the history of political philosophy prior to the emergence of Christianity—consulting, say, the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero—one would be hard-pressed indeed to find any ringing affirmations of equality and human rights. In fact, for the classical thinkers, the deep and undeniable inequalities that obtain among us—differences in intelligence, courage, physical beauty, virtue, etc.—must be fully acknowledged if a just society is to emerge. The suggestion that the equality of all people is the foundation of the political order would have struck Plato as the height of folly and, practically speaking, a formula for chaos.
How do we possibly explain the transition from the classical idea that the equality is self-evidently false to Jefferson’s notion that it is self-evidently true? The best clue is in the very language of Jefferson’s prologue, more precisely, in a word that we usually rush past without noticing: “All men are created equal.” Jefferson knew as surely as Aristotle that human beings are radically unequal in practically every category of existence, but he also knew something from his Christian heritage that Aristotle couldn’t possibly have known, namely, that all people are indeed equally the children of God. Take God and creation out of the calculus, and Jefferson’s claim becomes anything but self-evident.
Another of Jefferson’s axioms is that all people, equal before God, have been endowed by that same God (“their Creator”) with certain rights which are inalienable, that is to say, which can be neither granted nor rescinded by any human institution or contrivance. Once again, if we consult political theorists, we find none of this. For Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and their colleagues, special privileges belonged to those who had earned them or had inherited them from aristocratic forebears. That every person in the political order is the subject of rights to life and liberty would have struck them as a ridiculous and counterintuitive proposition.
So we are compelled to ask what made the difference, and the answer, once again, is God. Take out of consideration the Creator, who made every person in love and destined each for eternal life, and properly inalienable rights promptly disappear. And individuals become, in very short order, the objects of political manipulation and domination. To see the truth of this, all we have to do is look at the totalitarianisms of the last century, governments that were grounded in an explicit denial of God. The negation of equality and the suppression of fundamental human rights in Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and Castro’s Cuba followed directly from the systematic denial of the Creator God.
Democracies appropriately involve the debating of public policy, the electing of officials, the existence of a free press, and the rule of law, but those practices and customs are rooted in certain conditions that are not themselves the object of deliberation. They are founded in moral absolutes—among which are liberty, equality, the inviolability of life, and the right to pursue happiness. These non-negotiable truths are in turn logically correlative to belief in a Creator God. This is why I would hold, precisely as an American, that it is supremely dangerous to our democracy to eradicate references to God from our public space. Therefore, as an adept of both Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Jefferson, I say “Bravo” to the Supreme Court for this decision.
[Robert Barron, Seeds of the Word: Finding God In The Culture, Word of Fire Ministries, 2015, pg. 148-150]
LCMS Stewardship Newsletter Article: July 2018
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
We celebrate this month because of the freedoms and liberties our country has afforded us. We are right to do this. We should be thankful for these liberties: the freedom to gather together to worship and to live out what we believe in our daily lives.
But freedom and liberty in our age has devolved. It has become a freedom from duty instead of a freedom for it. Indeed, freedom and liberty in our age has turned into licentiousness: a license to do what we want, when we want.
This license is a submission, again, to a yoke of slavery. For freedom as license to do what we desire when we desire it means we are slaves to our desires, slaves to our passions.
Christ died to set us free from our sinful desires. In Holy Baptism, our Old Adam is drowned and put to death along with all sin and evil desires so that a new man may arise and live before God in righteousness and purity.
In Christ, we are a new creation. We are set free from the passions of the flesh so that we are free to do our duty and bear fruits of the Spirit.
Our duty is what God calls us to do as members of a family, society, and the church.
God calls us to believe in His Word and gladly hear and learn it. He calls us to pray for all people. He calls us to live in faith toward Him and in fervent love for our neighbor. He calls us to put the gifts He gives to us in His service. God calls parents to provide for their children and raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. And God calls children to honor their parents and provide and care for them when they are no longer able to do so themselves.
God calls the government to punish those who do evil and to reward those who do good. He calls citizens to pay their taxes and honor the governing officials as God’s servants. He calls pastors to preach and teach the Gospel as well as repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And He calls hearers to support those who teach them with every good thing.
Christ died to set us free from the works of our selfish flesh, giving us the freedom and liberty to do our duty. Stand firm, then, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Listen to Worldwide KFUO.org, your radio station for practical Lutheran talk, daily Bible and Confession studies, daily worship opportunities, and current issues from a Lutheran worldview. Programs are archived at KFUO.org for 24/7 on-demand listening. You can also find our programming wherever you get your podcasts! Have a question or comment? Find us at @KFUOradio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
This week on KFUO.org, we wish everyone a safe and relaxing Independence Day holiday! Hear Rev. Jonathan Fisk and guest pastors study the book of Acts on Sharper Iron (weekdays at 8:00 a.m. CT), take some time in worship as we broadcast Daily Chapel weekdays at 10:00 a.m. CT, and continue studying the book of Romans on Thy Strong Word (weekdays at 11:00 a.m. CT). Find programs on demand at kfuo.org or wherever you get your podcasts!
FROM THE LCMS FOUNDATION
Freedom in knowing. . .
Adam first learned of a knowledge limitation in the Garden. He and his companion Eve were created perfectly and eternally able to know good. Knowing ‘evil’ was a limitation given in love.
God’s creation account chronicles this limitation. God prohibited eating the “fruit of the tree of the knowledge of ‘good’ and ‘evil.’” Knowing that evil would overcome life with death, God protected His people to live forever with Him. However, deceived into thinking they could be ‘like God’, people rebelliously desired equality with God.
Many Christians fail to relate this freedom in knowing to life’s purpose or consequence. The God of perfect wisdom desires eternal peace for people. God didn’t make a creature with limited decision making. People are given knowledge of God and ‘good’ as a gift.
Humankind also has a free will to choose the knowledge of ‘evil’ and does. The disobedient choice of Adam and Eve, (and us), brings death. Disharmony replaces harmony, resulting in people murdering God’s only Son.
Some Christians know that freedom of knowing good, is a gift of God, who fulfilled His promise to rescue and redeem the future from knowing ‘evil.’ Jesus lived perfectly and rescued all people from a defiant and wayward nature. Easter’s glow shines the full knowledge and freedom of ‘good’ on us.
God gave people freedom to know. Knowledge opens daily doors of thought and action. Faith translates knowledge into a loving call to serve others. The human will’s defiance, caused by the deception of knowing evil, translates into self-interest, despair and destruction.
When earthly life is over, value symbols left behind will transfer to another. Transferring life’s treasures can benefit or injure. Those with faith’s gift of knowing good, will plan to bless, not curse. How can your lifetime plan for giving be a ‘testament for good’?
For more information, contact Robert Wirth, LCMS Foundation Gift Planner @ robert.wirth@lfnd.org or 716-863-4427.
THE FAITH ONCE FOR ALL DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS...Issues, Etc. is a radio talk show and podcast produced by Lutheran Public Radio in Collinsville, IL and hosted by LCMS Pastor Todd Wilken. This week's teachings include: Modern Feminism, The Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, The Prophet Jeremiah, 5th Century Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria, 2nd Century Bishop Irenaeus of Lyons and more. You can listen live or on-demand at www.issuesetc.org and on the LPR mobile app.
Comments for this post have been disabled.