I have heard it said, “If we had a scheduled day, we would be able to get a lot more done in a day.” That is to say that if everything—and I mean everything—that you needed to do were scheduled, you could and would get much more done. Whether or not that’s the case, it is an indication that people these days have something to do at just about every hour of the day. There’s barely time to sleep. It seems, and it just may be the case, that people today are a busy people, busier than ever.

Busyness interferes with leisure. When there’s so much to do, there’s little time for fun. As mentioned once already, busyness can also take away from time to sleep. But, busyness can also take time away from doing nothing, playing a game, reading a book for fun, enjoying some down time with friends, going to the pool, riding your bike to nowhere in particular…leisure.

Busyness can also take away time from worship. Therein lies a real danger. You can get so caught up in doing what you’re “supposed” to do—taking care of business—that you forget about, ignore, or flat-out neglect worship. You can get the doctrine of vocation so wrong that you believe you are doing right when you miss worship because you are doing what you do.

In Matthew 25, Jesus presented a picture of the Day of Judgment. People will be separated, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. The sheep on Jesus’ right hand will be ushered into everlasting life as Jesus gives a list of their accomplishments, much to their surprise. The goats on Jesus’ left will be ushered into fire and everlasting torment prepared for the devil and his angels, and as much as the sheep are surprised to hear of what they have done, the goats are shocked to hear of what they didn’t do.

From there, people get all kinds of ideas as regards what the text means. They all usually focus on the works of the sheep versus the non-works of the goats, and assume He is there teaching that His followers should be in works of service to others, feeding, clothing, visiting, and caring for them as befits their needs. These are all fine works, given to you by God that you may be in service to others.

But Jesus also said in Matthew 25, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40) Now, the idea of works to service to others shifts into one that states that doing these is doing them to Jesus, that the person receiving the benefit is something more than someone in the way of your getting to Jesus. It also shifts into the belief that these works are only worth doing if they are done to someone who is Christ-like—someone you deem to be a Christian.

Pope Leo X, in a bull titled Decet Romanum Pontificem on January 3, 1521, excommunicated Martin Luther from the Catholic Church, as well as any who follow his teachings, whom this bull labeled Lutheran. The last part of the missive cites the authority which Leo uses to perform such excommunications. There, he wrote,

It’s possible that this bull, as well as Leo’s earlier bull, Exsurge Domine, in which he commanded Luther to recant his teaching, served as part of the influence in writing Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Thy Word. There were later events that certainly gave cause to the hymn, not the least of which was an alliance that gave the impression that the Pope and Turk—to be understood as Muslim—were allied against the Church! Catherine Winkworth, prolific in translating many hymns into English, altered the first stanza to the way it is most often now sung, but what Luther wrote was a little closer to this:

Still, the Catholic Church, which would come to be called Roman Catholic nearly a century later, claims the authority of Peter and Paul as the founding of their church, so to speak. More specifically, the Bishop of Rome, who would call himself pope, claimed to be carrying with him and his office the authority they claim was given to Peter to be the head of the Church on earth. Peter is the foremost of all of Jesus’ apostles. Paul is the Apostle to the Gentiles. These two men have been and still are seen as the two greatest men in the Church since the Ascension of Jesus. Therefore, the papal church appeals to these for their foundation and papal authority.

The sainted Dr. Hermann Sasse, a Lutheran theologian from Germany by way of Australia, posed a question to the LCMS about 60 years ago. He had written a series of letters to Lutheran pastors in the Missouri Synod, and in letter 20 he wrote,