Gardening Questions - Since Some Ask. Creating the Fungal Jungle with Straw Bales

I consider tomatoes to be weeds with tasty berries.
I do not build supports or put up wire cages.

How do you get rid of persistent weeds?

Weed killer is not as effective as they make people think, and many have grave doubts about spraying it all over like a garden hose. I would use RoundUp or Dawn detergent on poison ivy, but not anywhere else.

Broadleaf weeds are easily quashed with repeated mowing. They cannot go to seed and their mulch helps the grass grow.

Weeds in the low spots of sidewalks? If the soil has built up, shovel the weeds and soil out together and use the combination as compost or mulch.

Weeds in the narrow cracks in a stone walk or a sidewalk? Apply salt, whether table salt or rock salt. In a saline solution, it will dry up the plant and be persistent in stopping growth without being necessarily toxic. The salt can be diluted later with water and will be from rain and watering.

A salt water solution is going to dry up the plant roots. You could do the same with a whole bag of dry, inorganic fertilizer, but that would go right down into the water table. My uncle burnt his wife's roses by double applying fertilizer. Water would have helped. His intentions were good.

Irony - roses grow best without fertilizer. If you love roses, cover the ground between them with a layer of newspapers, about 1/2 inch thick, with mulch over the newspapers. I water the newspapers first to keep them down while the mulch is piled on. Mulch prevents weeds, composts the lawn for a wonderful soil environment, and turns all covered weeds into compost. Mulch holds water and prevents wind and water erosion.

Straw bales can grow flowers or vines from the sides, too.

Which side is up with straw bale gardening? Creating the Fungal Jungle

Straw bales are placed with the strings on the outside, facing the gardener, although any configuration will work. The straw side up on top makes planting a little easier. For you city slickers, that is like looking into the top of  a box of soda straws. The other side of the bale looks relatively mangled, but it will work too.

I got mine going early before our last snow and the rain that followed. Every so often I watered with a soaker hose too, keeping the straw damp, like a wet rag wrung out.

The straw becomes a composting medium where soil creatures and plant roots can meet and make deals, carbon and root exudates (for fungi and microbes) in exchange for whatever the plant needs. The fungi can travel far for the food, if it gets the carbon it cannot manufacture on its own. Thus the straw bale becomes a fungal jungle beneficial for all plants.

Hydroponic gardening is another version of this, producing tasteless tomatoes. As some wit said, a hothouse tomato is the fourth state of water - liquid, steam, solid, and tomato.

The difference is the microbial activity--in soil and straw bales--rather than counting on water and chemicals to do the job in hydroponics.

Every get a dozen roses at the store, only to see them wilt in 24 hours? They are produced for show rather than for long term health. Of course, shipping and neglect shorten their lives too. The ones we bought for Easter were extra fresh and lasted most of the week, given away to three neighbors while we kept some. They were given in memory of Gary Meyer.

The soil, an ocean of life,
does not need a rototiller hurricane to stir it up.

Biggest Mistakes of Gardeners

Beginners are a too timid. They should experiment more, observe more, order more and plant more. To lose one plant is crushing, but that will happen every season. If it is one plant or one variety that crashes, the abundance of the rest make up for the human mistakes or the inclement weather.

Gardeners should water more after planting. They should save as much rainwater as they can and use it on their favorite plants. Rather than buying a capture kit for way too much money, I bought two Rubbermaid garbage cans, each lid converted into a birdbath top.

Gardeners should prune roses and bushes and trees. Roses and bushes grow and have better shapes with pruning. Trees need more light and air.

Gardeners should stop using poisons. Instead, they should welcome a wide variety of God's creatures to do His work, as planned from the beginning. Has anyone ever said, "In the beginning, Monsanto...."?

Finally, everyone who grows anything in a yard should keep the organic matter there and let the soil creatures, birds, and toads do their work.

 This is the Dick, Jane, and Sally version.

Middle school version -
the truth is incredibly complex
with infinite dependencies.

St. John Lutheran Church (formerly WELS) - Story on WELS Discussions

"So my guys stole the congregation and its endowment,
and no one said a word...except that blogger I never
met but invited to speak at St. Marcus."

The late Tim Niedfelt wrote about the theft.

Basic Facts Here - About the Theft of St. John's in Milwaukee via the Jeske Mob

WELS Discussions

Paul Birsching

7 hrs

When I was quietly left out of the ministry after two years, I had just been through two of the toughest years of my life. I was young, and I figured I had made a lot of mistakes. I was asked to sit out a year, and, for my own health, I did. That I was never spoken to again is another story. After two years or service, I had hardly proven myself.

But there are many, many others out there with proven track records and 25 or 30 years of service, who have also been summarily dismissed from the WELS consciousness. These people labored long and faithfully, often with little encouragement and less compensation, and received not the rewards to which the laborer is entitled. What they did receive was nothing, absolutely nothing, no explanations, not compensations, no thanks for service rendered, only a cold shoulder.

For 27 years now, I have watched while others much more approved for ministry and arguably much more talented and faithful than I have receive ghastly treatment with no so much as a raised eyebrow. And yet, we now wonder why we can't seem to find enough qualified candidates to be pastors in the WELS.

In 1996, St. John's Congregation, Vliet Street, Milwaukee, one of the very earliest and most historically significant churches of the WELS, voted to leave the WELS. Kevin Hastings, then ten years into his ministry, decided to stay with the church and soldier on, often taking half his meager salary and even more often putting his own hands to do the repair work necessary to keep the doors open for worship. Kevin, unfortunately, was sent to a doomed congregation of aging members who could not attract younger members. Because of unfortunately liberal politics that surrounded St. John's with housing projects that served to surround the church with transients of a decidedly Southern Baptist bent, all efforts to grow St. John's from the community were fruitless.

I'm not here to tell you that St. John's deserved the WELS to step in and save it in some way. I do think that the fact of its leaving the WELS received not even a mention speaks to how the WELS is ready to forsake all things old in search of the new. Perhaps this explains why the WELS loses people out the back door faster than they can get them in through the front door.

What I am decided needs to be addressed, however, is how Kevin Hastings, faithful servant of God, deserved to be curtly dismissed of his duties via letter, deprived of his personal effects, and how certain WELS pastors could have been complicit in this matter. I would especially like to know how these pastors were involved when they don't even reside, in some cases, within 400 miles of Milwaukee. And I finally would like to know why WELS pastors and other members have been applauding a former WELS pastor, turn ELCA pastor, taking over the church which is now lead by openly gay men.

There is certainly a time to say nothing to besmirch the character of certain people which would break the eighth commandment. But, in this case, the character of the person with no fault, Kevin, had been besmirched, while those openly living in sin have been applauded.

There is a growing undercurrent of mistrust and disgust with things happening in the WELS and being swept under the table. We had better start addressing these wrongs, making confessions where applicable, and making serious attempts at rectifying them, because the volcano of unspoken unrest is about to explode. The time to be silent on such things is no more.

• 

  Steven E. Anderson "And I finally would like to know why WELS pastors and other members have been applauding a former WELS pastor, turn ELCA pastor, taking over the church which is now lead by openly gay men."
  
  I don't quite understand the connection between WELS and ELCA. Who is supporting homosexual leadership in which synod and church?

  7 hrs · Like
• 

  Paul Birsching St. Johns dwindled to a very few members. At some point, the leadership came out. Shortly thereafter they issued a dismissal by letter to Pastor Hastings. After this, they invited a former WELS pastor who, for various reasons, became ELCA. Since he...See More

  7 hrs · Like
• 

  Paul Birsching And the new pastor has personally slandered both Pastor Hastings and former Pastor Brenner to me with absolute lies.

• 

  Paul Birsching I'm sure that there are a lot of financial factors that are different today, Paul A. And I'm also sure that we lack the faith of our forebears, mostly because the media plays upon our fears and we listen. But fear had nothing to do with this particular instance. Nor did economics. If Kevin hadn't bent over backwards to keep the church going, it would have failed a long time ago. No, this was a dastardly deed, one which defies explanation. And, again, I'm not saying it was a good situation in any sense, but the WAY in which this was done and the WAY everyone looked the other way are quite disturbing. And also the way that so many have been duped into thinking that all is now well. A lot of people spend a lot of time talking hypothetically. Here is a real live case, and none of the hypothetical champions for the truth ever became real ones. Where are the dogmaticians on this one?

• 
  

The altar at Historic St. John, 8th and Vliet, Milwaukee.

***

GJ - I knew this was coming, about six months in advance, when Pastor Kevin Hastings told me this - His friend, one of the WELS pastor, told him to have an exit strategy. I advised him that WELS was going to steal the congregation. He should get an attorney pronto.

Hastings did not act until after the congregation was stolen and the two men had him locked out, with their hands on the endowment, one in the parsonage, his personal belongings stolen for the time being. Got a problem with this? Talk to our law firm.

The episode reminded me of the Menendez brothers, who shotgunned their parents to death and used the estate cash to pay for their criminal defense.

One WELS laymen wrote me lately that my blogging about this shameful episode  is the only record of anything happening.

The account above is another perspective, from someone I do not know and with whom I have had no contact.

Synod President Mark Schroeder did nothing and said nothing, as far as anyone can tell.

Mark Jeske has organized many Thrivent events, starring Mark Jeske, sharing the limelight with ELCA pastors. He is also on the board of Thrivent, so he has no qualms about financing abortion on demand through Planned Parenthood grants, no compunction about ELCA's pansexual views on ordination.

No one in the Synodical Conference should be shocked, because this is exactly how CFW Walther got his start in the papacy. Instead of meeting with Bishop Stephan about the man's adultery and syphilis, Walther organized a mob of his supporters only, came down to Perryville, threatened Stephan's life, robbed him of his gold, land, and books, and kidnapped him at gunpoint, forcing him over to Illinois. The Perryville-St. Louis mob profited greatly from these criminal acts, covered them up, and wrote themselves up as heroes.

Following In His Steps - not Jesus, but the Great Walther.

When the Going Gets Rainy, It Is Time To Sow More Seed. Knockout Roses Are Budding Already Practical Tips

Silver Queen sweet corn is the best.

We have a week of rain ahead. The question is, "Which day will it not rain?" So far, Wednesday looks sunny. I just checked the five day forecast. Wednesday will also feature thunderstorms. One inch has already fallen. We have eight rainy days ahead.

Some readers are going to wonder, "Why not plant corn, with such ideal conditions, soft rain falling with tons of usable nitrogen?"

The ground is still cold, and sweet corn does not like to germinate in those conditions. I had similar concerns with the potatoes planted in straw. They showed no ambition, but they are also heat loving plants. Like their cousin tomatoes (nightshades) they love the sun.

The yard is stunning with deep green grass, luxurious growths of weeds, roses leafing out and budding, the crepe myrtle coming to life, the butterfly bushes leaving dormancy.

When it is raining and threatens to rain even more, I look over the yard and sow small seeds that are known for volunteering.

Dill flowers mean plenty of dill seed to sow and to sprinkle on fresh tomatoes.

Dill is always weak the first year but volunteers well. I scattered dill along the vegetable fence. I hope that cousin Queen Ann's Lace (wild carrot, another umbellifer, like dill) will grow. If not, a patch next to Lowe's will have plenty of seed again this summer.There will be a lot more sun in the back, too, since so many trees were trimmed back. This is a big family, with such plants as parsley, parsnip, and coriander. The umbrella shape of the flower is a give-away for the group.

Hollyhocks are worked over by the bees, too.

Hollyhocks reseed themselves in the second year, so I scattered some in the mulch behind the roses.

Borage

Borage easily produces seed and is a great bee flower (bee bread) so I planted more of those in the back, among the vegetables.

Straw Bale Gardens Are Easy
Straw bale gardening is not difficult. Every garden writer wants to turn composting, mulching, and straw bale gardening into the Manhattan Project.

Straw rots and provides an ideal planting medium, if it is kept moist, like a damp cloth. That probably means a daily soaker hose watering. I see no need to add to the straw, but I may partially dig it in next year because of its tendency to lean and look sloppy. Plant roots will reach down and soil creatures reach up to care for the roots. Most man-made compounds will slow that down and not really help. The key is microbial action around the roots, which God's Creation will form when left alone.

Freeze Worries.
Those who fear their tomatoes getting frostbite can put gallon jugs of water among the tomatoes. The water will slowly warm up in the sunshine and slowly warm the tomatoes most of the night. They will definitely moderate the cold nights. Remember the hot water bottle you slept with as a child to help with the cough or cold? Tomatoes like that too.

Amend the Soil Whenever Possible
The soil likes food and will turn food on top into food below. The difference is that most of the food will be found inside various creatures, from tiny bacterial to the comparably giant earthworms. That food gets broken down and used as creatures devour eat other and die, as they excrete nitrogenous waste loved by the plant roots.

If the plant scraps and food peels are unappealing, lay them down and cover them with attractive mulch. Or bury them in the soil when planting.

Spoiled fruit is either left on the soil for birds or tossed into the compost for moisture.

Newspapers left in the rain make a great start for mulching. They are like soft layers of sponge, easily placed over weeds like crabgrass (boo hiss) to turn them into compost on thee spot (yay!). I keep mulch to put on the newspapers, but I use an entire stack to hold everything in place when I am out of mulch. They will quickly dry out and go airborne, which is startling at first. A rock or a copy of synodical minutes will hold it in place.

Big leafy weeds like goosefoot can be eaten or turned into compost. Most taproot weeds are easily pulled if they are thriving in the wrong spot. If they are food, they are no longer weeds. I spotted my first goosefoot plant already.

Goosefoot looks like the foot of a
Class? Bueller, Bueller, Anyone?
goose.

Christian News Used This Graphic with One of My Articles in the Easter Issue

David Becker

2 days ago  -  Shared publicly

 

Since he does not have much interest in surfing the Internet himself, In 2011 Pastor Otten invited me to share with him anything that I have been finding of interest on the Internet, and I have been doing so.  I forwarded him the picture with the caption,  "Lutheran Management Style, According to Gregory L. Jackson."  I commented, "This management style is not limited to Lutherans."  Are you still a CN-free household?  [GJ - Yes!] You can get an Internet subscription for only $65 (access to the entire CN archives from 1962 to the present), while "Twentieth Century Lutheran Theologians" costs $125 on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Twentieth-Century-Lutheran-Theologians-Refo500-Academic/dp/3525550456/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428973451&sr=8-1&keywords=Twentieth+Century+Lutheran+Theologians

http://www.christiannewsmo.com/Christian_News_p/0010006410.htm

YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT! [GJ - No Luther-basher will get my money.]

You can read CN on your smart phone.

Borrowing from Calvinistic Baptists To Make a Point about Pietism's UOJ - Jay Webber - Not Apt To Teach. Boycott the Emmaus Conference

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1649010391990081/

David Jay Webber My point has always been that an individual ~as an individual~ is not within the purview of objective justification. But certainly an individual can know that he is included in objective justification, by virtue of the fact that an individual is indeed a part of the world that was justified in Christ. Justification is individualized, however, when the means of grade (sic) are brought to bear on the individual, and when the individual is invited to faith and brought to faith by the gospel. Subjective justification is also known as particular justification and as ~individual justification~. So, the proper time to speak of individuals ~as individuals~ being justified, is when speaking about the individual reception of justification by faith.

---

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/445110/Particular-Baptist

1. 
   

2. 

   Jay was very impressed with Paul McCain,
   who has proven to be another UOJ fanatic
   with no knowledge of Lutheran doctrine.

   The Particular Baptists adhered to the doctrine of a particular atonement—that Christ died only for an elect—and were strongly Calvinist (following the Reformation teachings of John Calvin) in orientation; the General Baptists held to the doctrine of a general atonement—that Christ...

***

GJ - Lutherans have always avoided coining new terms that have no basis in the Scriptures. Otherwise, the new false doctrines spring up like mushrooms after a long rain, living off the rot beneath.


This particular claim struck me as odd because I have never found the term used, unless Baptists were indicating they were Calvinistic (limited Atonement) rather than General (universal atonement).Baptists.


The UOJ merchants are always looking elsewhere for inspiration, since they find no solace in the Word or the Book of Concord. I am not shocked to find them absorbing and using alien terms from other confessions.


Like Jon Buchholz, Jay Webber is not apt to teach, as the Scriptures require. Neither man is grounded in the Word and Confessions. Neither one is scholarly in any sense of the Word. Neither one can even come to grips with the justification by faith of the Reformation, as they have shown repeatedly.


Like all Enthusiasts, they have no trust in the Word but they fill the world with their babbling. They are God's judgment upon the ELS, WELS, and the LCMS.

"Particular justification" is not found in a Google search, and that search engine is quite thorough. The only way I could dig it up was with quotations that included - In particular, justification by faith... Note the comma in particular.
Pardon me for laughing.

Can We Trust God's Creation To Handle the Pests?

On Saturday I participated in a massive pruning of five trees, handled by an experienced landscaper and an electric saw extended on a long pole. The small chain made us think it would be good for taking out branches, but the tool handled thick logs without slowing down.

One tree was being eaten by ants, so large large branches were sawn off, marked by dire warnings of ants invading the yard and eating everything in sight.

We have regular conversations like this. He used every anti-weed device and spray on his raised rose beds and had them completely taken over by weeds last summer. I had almost no weeds after laying down newspapers under wood mulch, using no weed killers and no "weed barriers" also called "landscaper cloth."

The landscaper also warned me to prune all the roses, which I had already cut back by 50%. They had already regained the amount I cut and gained even more growth. When I told him this, he was incredulous. "I guess I am a month late."

Raid?
He was trained in the application of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, each one designed to kill indiscriminately. In contrast, my mother scoffed at such chemicals and trusted in beneficial insects. She had a compost pile when I was still on a trike, laughing at my mid-life discovery of the process.

In the sermon yesterday I mentioned Darwin being disturbed about parisitoid wasps, and I found he passage again by accident when going through my ebooks (Kindle library).

The discovery of parasitoids (and parasites that spread disease) was perhaps a shock to naturalists of the Victorian era, who were motivated in their studies by the belief that they were unveiling the grandeur of God’s creation. In the year after he published On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend Asa Gray, who was a leading American biologist, “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would designedly have created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding on the living bodies of caterpillars or that a cat should play with mice.”

Heinrich, Bernd (2008-12-24). The Snoring Bird (Kindle Locations 1215-1220). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. 

The Snoring Bird emphasizes the work of the author's father in collecting new species, especially the newly discovered parasitoid wasp. which became the family's life work.

Various works on beneficial insects teach that each pest is food for another animal. When there is a swarm of obnoxious pests, another group of animals will soon arrive to use them as food. They may be spiders, who gladly build nests across wood mulch and rose beds. They may be other insects, like the overlooked wasps. Or, they may be a variety of birds anxious to feed their young with organic, nutritious bugs.

Help Me! Chemical Alerts - Dinner Is Served
This female parasitic wasp uses a set of cues to locate her aphid hosts. The damaged plant releases volatile chemicals into the air that serve to attract the wasp. The plant, in essence, is delivering an SOS in hopes of recruiting predators and parasitoids. Many pest-infested plants emit semiochemicals known as herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPV) or green leaf volatiles into the air to lure in the particular species of natural enemy most likely to prey upon the specific pest present on the plant. These scents, which travel anywhere from a few inches to hundreds of yards from their source, are detected by the predator and/or parasitoid and used to locate its prey. Several studies have found that female parasitic wasps are not attracted to aphids alone but rather to the semiochemicals produced by the infested plants. The plant, in essence, is sending out an SOS; it is recruiting predators to come to its aid.

Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 509-516). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Garden life is much more complicated than people assume. The more we understand the design of Creation, the more we let the Manager manage these problems.

Call on the bug busters instead.

Toxic Alternatives
The alternative for ants is to put ant stakes into the ground to kill them, which will not only kill the ants as food but also kill all soil creatures around them. There are various powders, like Sevin, that will do the same, killing vast numbers of creatures.

I was urged to use the commercial (landscaper) version of the toxins and rototill the chemicals into the soil, leveraging the wrong approach.

More of the same works well for generating even more sales. Church Growth and Planned Parenthood have prospered for years with this approach. When the remedy makes everything worse, buy more of the same and apply liberally.

Relying on What Someone Said
Most gardening relies on what someone said once, so bad ideas become normative.

The solution is two-fold.

• One is observation. Those who look at their gardens every day will see how Creation works together, from the new spider webs to the removal of pests by birds feeding their young. Sharon Lovejoy's books are so good because of her devotion to observation. Queen Elizabeth's private gardens are toxin free and famous for their abundant life.
• The other is research, from the Bible (which sheds a lot of light on this topic) to works of the evolutionists, who often leave behind vast amounts of data that contradict their theories. One example is Darwin, who spent 40 years studying the earthworm. 

Adults and baby ladybugs are hell on pests.
Insecticides kill ladybugs and let the opportunistic pests take over.

Count the Empty Pews at Trinity WELS, Waukesha - Martin Luther College (WELS)

I thought Trinity, Waukesha was one of those big successful
congregations improved and enlarged
by the latest Church Growth gimmicks.

Quasidmodogeniti, The First Sunday after Easter, 2015. John 20:19-31. Doubting Thomas

Caravaggio - The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

Quasimodogeniti, The First Sunday after Easter, 2015

  

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Church, 10AM Central Time

The Hymn #192                                Awake My Soul with Gladness - Gerhardt

The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual       

The Gospel               

Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22     
The Sermon Hymn #208                Ye Sons and Daughters      

       

The Two Natures in Christ

The Communion Hymn # 200         I Know that My Redeemer      

The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #187                               Christ Is Arisen            

First Sunday After Easter

Lord God, heavenly Father, we thank Thee, that of Thine ineffable grace, for the sake of Thy Son, Thou hast given us the holy gospel, and hast instituted the holy sacraments, that through the same we may have comfort and forgiveness of sin: We beseech Thee, grant us Thy Holy Spirit, that we may heartily believe Thy word; and through the holy sacraments day by day establish our faith, until we at last obtain salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

KJV 1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. 9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. 10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

KJV John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

The Two Natures in Christ

The three great heresies in the Christian Faither are attacks against the divinity of Christ, against His humanity, and against justification by faith. This Gospel lesson addresses all three. One hymn, "Ye Sons and Daughters of the King," is dedicated to telling the story of this lesson.

KJV John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 

Christian worship began to be on Sundays because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday. This verse shows how the disciples were so impressed with the human nature in Christ that they only saw His torture and crucifixion. They were terrified of the religious opposition, which almost always more bitter than government opposition. The doors were locked because of this fear.  Nevertheless, Jesus appeared before them.

Those who have trouble with the Two Natures in Christ, like Calvin, have Jesus finding a secret entrance to this room, or being there in hiding before the door was locked. That is the temptation of rationalism, to find a human reason for divine activity. 

Jesus' divine nature was never limited by His human nature. Crowds who wanted to grab or stone Him could not. Likewise, the grave could not contain Him.

3. "Yea, Father, yea, most willingly
I'll bear what Thou commandest;
My will conforms to Thy decree,
I do what Thou demandest."
O wondrous Love, what hast Thou done!
The Father offers up His Son!
The Son, content, descendeth!
O Love, how strong Thou art to save!
Thou beddest Him within the grave
Whose word the mountains rendeth.
TLH, 142.

Jesus first Word to them was "Peace." That word is overused and abused today, but it was His pronouncement upon them, a word in the New Testament that is always associated with forgiveness and salvations.

20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 

To show He was not a vision, not a ghost, Jesus displayed His hands and His side. That must have been an odd moment in their lives, because of those gathered there, in hiding, only John had been at the cross. He could verify the wounds. The others must have felt guilty because they had scattered, as the Old Testament predicted, "I will strike the Shepherd and the sheep will be scattered."

But His presence caused the disciples to be glad. Their darkened understanding was beginning to come alive, and Jesus built this up, as He does with us. Faith bears the fruit of joy, which is evident here. Because of their faith in Him, they were glad to see Him alive.

Luther:

2. Faith, as we have often said, is of the nature, that every one appropriates to himself the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, of which we have already said enough; namely, that it is not sufficient simply to believe Christ rose from the dead, for this produces neither peace nor joy, neither power nor authority; but you must believe that he rose for your sake, for your benefit, and was not glorified for his own sake; but that he might help you and all who believe in him, and that through his resurrection sin, death and hell are vanquished and the victory given to you.

3. This is signified by Christ entering through closed doors, and standing in the midst of his disciples. For this standing denotes nothing else than that he is standing in our hearts; there he is in the midst of us, so that he is ours, as he stands there and they have him among them. And when he thus stands within our hearts, we at once hear his loving voice saying to the troubled consciences: Peace, there is no danger; your sins are forgiven and blotted out, and they shall harm you no more.

21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

In spite of their flaws and weaknesses, Jesus had a great message for them. He pronounced peace on them again. He came through closed doors, which is how He comes to people through the Word. Babies are not looking for something when they received baptism and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

When an adult first believes, his heart is opened by the Word, not by persuasion and human reason. People look for miracles, and yet conversion by the Word is the greatest of all miracles.

Luther observed, against the Enthusiasts, that Jesus did not displace the furniture. He does not enter our lives by causing chaos and confusion. Some false teachers try to emphasize their power by making their converts do extreme things, causing confusion and dismay if they do or if they refuse.

22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

The Office of the Keys is neglected because of the confusion today about the Law and the Gospel, about absolving sins and retaining them. It does no good for someone if he continues to sin and he is told he is always forgiven, past, present, and future. That only hardens him about the nature of sin 

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 

There was a growing body of believers who had seen the risen Christ, but Thomas had not. Because of this, he refused to believe without physical proof, and actual touching. His demand was so great that Jesus gave him the proof, which was both a great and terrible event. He was urged to touch the wounds and likely he did. He had more proof than anyone that Jesus died and rose again. But that was also a reminder that he denied this until he had the proof.

26 And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

The eight days would be today, since the Jews counted each day, so a week later was 8 days later. Jesus appeared again and offered them peace again. Although people have often said Thomas did not touch the wounds, that would contradict Jesus' own command.

Thomas not only saw the human nature of Christ, the actual wounds, and touched them, but recognized in faith that He was and will always be God Incarnate. Luther noted in the Emmaus sermon that many things belonging to God's revelation are startling, powerful, and almost too much for us to bear. But that is the nature of God compared to our weak nature. 

What makes us glad to know the risen Christ is realizing He is just what He promises in John's Gospel - the human face of God. He taught only what the Father taught, did only what the Father commanded.

What is God like? Jesus is the answer about God's nature, will, love, and mercy. There is no separation in those qualities, but a difference in Persons. This is too much for coarse and greedy blokes, so it is hidden from them.