The dynamic Luther portrait on the cover of the October 2008 issue was never more penetrating because it cuts through the cults of power and pathogens that confront our world.
Blessed by our Lord to have reached 75 years and having carried Luther’s legacy through his Catechism for about 70 years, I am convinced that Baptism is the right birth certificate in sojourning life’s passages, where the rug can be pulled out from under you in life-changing events. This means that faith finally is the antidote to frantic and sometimes faceless fears.
I have seen death in the living and dying of our 8-year-old son, in the accident of the neighbor lying in the ditch, in the automobile accident of our brother, Ernie, and his daughter Jenny, and in the stories and pictures of our son, who served as a commander in the second Gulf War, where bombs would go off in cars in front of and behind him. Death, in a sense, should be hated, and when Jesus compels Lazarus to get up, the Messiah breaks the back of death, even before the cross. But the news each day brings up the demons of death that lurk in this world.
Luther, better than most, fought against the powers of death, and his legacy, therefore, is better than the advice of the most advanced psychologists of our postmodern age. The crossways of life are inevitable. As we face a new chapter in our lives, in the life of our country, and in the history of our world, Luther and his Christ-mind are fresh invitations for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year as once again we view the manger Child and hear the immortal words, “Fear not.”
Dr. Albert E. Jabs
Lexington, S.C.
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