March 4, 2005
Dennis Rader has been married for 34 years. He has two children and a regular job. On top of that, he has been a church member of Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita for 30 years. He was an usher and president of the church council. The Pastor of his congregation - Michael Clark - stated that he was in church as often he was. Dennis Rader, however admitted to being the “BTK” murderer a little over a week ago. He was the man who was going around Wichita and binding, torturing, and killing people. Not only was he doing this, but he was also taunting the police to find out.
When I heard this, I just couldn’t seem to get my mind off of it. I mean - HOW in the world could you be a member of a congregation for 30 years - and even a president - and do those sorts of things? Think about if that happened here - in this congregation? All kinds of questions would arise. My main question would be - HOW? In a season where we contemplate many weaknesses of the disciples - Judas, Peter, and the other ten - I am going to address this strange thing - doing my best with God’s Word to - answer this question -
Could a BTK Be Within?
I. I need to examine what I’m doing
If we had a BTK within - the first thing that I would wonder is about the whole ministry that is being performed here. When your children misbehave, you naturally tend to look at the way they were RAISED. Any parent knows what it’s like to go back in life and wonder, “was there something I could have done differently?” When I heard about Dennis Rader, it’s the first thing that came to my mind. After I read some remarks the Pastor made after leaving his prison cell, it made me question his raising even more. Here are some quotes and factoids I got from the Internet -
"We are not going to cut him off. I could tell that he was relieved. . . . He is still a part of the body of Christ - and that is something some people will have a hard time hearing. . . . His demeanor seemed to be OK, he seems to be handling things as well as he can. . . . . For now, Rader remains president of the church council - although he will eventually have to relinquish some church leadership positions.”
No mention was made of repentance and sin or sorrow - at least not in the quotes. It appears that they are so willing to forgive and accept that the idea of sin and shame has been eliminated. The point that he still remains president, even after a confession - that one shocked me. When such a heinous public sin has been committed, should support so quickly be stated with no mention of sin or consequences?
This kind of behavior needs to be reprimanded publicly. How could you say such a lifestyle is in keeping with repentance? God expects mroe. Paul said of the Galatians - I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. (Ga 4:15) Acts 19:18-20 says that, Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. . . . the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. Paul said to the Corinthians, the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. (1 Corinthians 4:20)
Therefore, when people came to John in the desert, THEY talked about expectations. In Luke 3, when John was preaching repentance and faith, “What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” People were willing to make a change in their lives - as God wanted. This is the natural response of a Christian who has been filled with the Holy Spirit. He wants to do what God says, especially as a Christian - even if it involves ripping your eyes out.
It wasn’t that Paul had such a powerful WAY of preaching. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:3-5 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. The power that Paul relied on to change people was the Law and the Gospel - as found in the Word of God. He said, “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1 Co 1:22-24) God promised in Isaiah 55:10-11, As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. When the Word of God is properly expounded - it will produce fruit.
If it so happens that I have a majority of my people sleeping through a sermon or who are found to be living immoral lives, that should not be. When we have half of our members who are calling themselves Christian - NOT regularly coming to worship, it should cause me as a pastor to question whether I am properly expounding the Law and the Gospel. We should expect MORE of our members. I recently took a young man through a full sixteen lesson course, and profess to be a member of this congregation. Shortly thereafter, this young man stopped coming to worship. He did not heed my encouragements to keep coming. It made me naturally question my teaching - did I teach him right? If I had a BTK who was coming to worship here for 30 years and was a President of the congregation, I would have to honestly ask myself, “am I properly preaching the Law and Gospel? Or am I giving the impression that this sort of behavior is all forgiven anyway so it’s all ok?
II. You need to examine what YOU are doing
There are some who would love to pin the blame on the pastor and the congregation for all of their shortcomings. It’s typical of today’s society. If little Johnny ends up murdering his parents or going on a shooting rampage, it must have been the parents’ fault. Johnny was just a victim of his raising. Sure, I’m sure that the raising wasn’t perfect. As I mentioned, BTK belonged to a Lutheran church. I know that Christ Lutheran is ELCA. The ELCA has allowed all sorts of things to go on - homosexuality, adultery, living together and the like. But as liberal as this church body is and as far as they’ve gone astray - I can’t believe they would ever condone this! I would assume they still at least read the Law and the Gospel in their services. Even if they didn’t teach about sin and grace and just came together for donuts and a good time, he still had a conscience! He should have known better. We can’t pass the blame on the pastor or the congregation. In the same way, even if my sermons or teaching seem to be “boring”, good gravy - I’m still using God’s Word and you still get the Lord’s Supper. You can’t put all the blame for sin or indifference on the pastor or the congregation.
The Bible is actually full of people who were raised RIGHT, but still went WRONG. Think of Judas, for instance. Did the fact that he stole money from the disciples and ended up betraying Jesus make JESUS a bad teacher? Did the fact that one of the 12 fell away make Jesus’ ministry bad? Who does Scripture lay the blame on? Even though it was predicted in Scriptures, the New Testament continually points the blame on Judas. In Acts chapter one and many other places, Peter said that Judas left the apostolic ministry, “to go where he belongs.” There is no finger pointing other than pointing to Judas. He left his post.
Consider also Jesus parable of the weeds in Matthew 13:24-30 -
“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ ”‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ ”‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
This parable very clearly states that the weeds are planted AMONG the good seed. When this is not publicly evident, there’s nothing the congregation can do about it, except wait for Judgment Day. The scary thing is that some of theses weeds - many of them as a matter of fact - don’t even realize they are weeds. In Matthew 7:22-23 Jesus said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ There will always be hypocrites within the Christian churches - including Lutheran ones. This should not surprise us. Nor does it mean that the religion of the hypocrite is worthless. If someone takes a bat to beat someone over the head, it doesn’t mean that all bats - or more specifically that bat - is evil.
The congregation and pastor cannot read your heart - but only your confession and your actions. Therefore, ultimately the responsibility comes down to the member reading his or her own heart. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 Paul says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” When it came to taking the Lord’s Supper, Paul wrote, “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.” (1 Corinthians 11:28) You need to judge yourself - to know yourself. Dennis Rader - at some point very early - must not have done this. Somewhere down the road he must have had to justify what he was doing. At some point - he didn’t take an honest look at himself. He didn’t say to himself, “I’ve sinned terribly and need to come clean. I need to stop this behavior. I can’t just keep coming to worship and pretend that this behavior - this secret lifestyle - doesn’t exist.” God calls on you to examine yourself. Luther was more specific when he talked about this in his explanation of confession and absolution in the Small Catechism. In it he said,
Reflect on your condition in the light of the Ten Commandments: whether you are a father or mother, a son or daughter, a master or servant; whether you have been disobedient, unfaithful, lazy, ill-tempered, or quarrelsome; whether you have harmed anyone by word or deed; and whether you have stolen, neglected, or wasted anything, or done other evil.
Since you’ve been baptized, since you have the Holy Spirit through faith, God expects you to take these words and really contemplate them - how do they apply to what you’re doing?
As your pastor, there are many portions of your life that I cannot control and I don’t want to control. But I do want you to honestly ask yourself, “is this consistent with my faith?” Are you making all the sacrifices you could make to grow in faith? Do the TV shows you watch or the Internet places you peruse coincide with what God’s Word says? What does your conscience say about the music you listen to? How do you feel about the things you say? If you feel even a little bit guilty about it, don’t just dismiss it as if you had an overactive conscience. Examine yourself. If you don’t go to bed every night with a sin to confess - some sort of a weakness that you don’t feel guilty about - you aren’t digging deep enough. If you don’t honestly feel good after hearing the absolution in church - you aren’t getting it. If you can live a week, two weeks, or a month without even contemplating that you have earned God’s wrath, then your religion is only reaching your brain. It needs to get deeper. Otherwise, what could happen is that you could become much like the BTK. It may not be to the point where you are out murdering people. Yet perhaps you will be addicted to pornography, find yourself striking your children or wife in a rage, or drinking yourself into a drunken stupor. When you take sin lightly, it ends up getting heavy. One of two things will happen. Either you will stop listening to the Word, or when you listen to it you will tune it out. Either way, your relationship with the Lord will only be superficial. You will be saying, “Lord, Lord” - but in your heart - you will only be a hypocrite.
III. We need to grab hold of what Christ did
When the BTK didn’t repent of his sins, his sins ultimately took control of him - because he didn’t confess them. I don’t know what is going to become of the BTK Dennis Rader. I know what God wants. Ezekiel 18:30-32 says it so well. “Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live! Now, the Israelites had done some really terrible things throughout their history. They’d set up golden calves. They’d committed adultery while worshiping at an Asherah pole. They’d even stoned the prophets and persecuted the very men God had anointed to bring them back. In spite of ALL that, God still wanted them back. That’s why he told them to repent. He didn’t WANT them to die. He doesn’t want Dennis to go to hell either.
An amazing story to me is the story of Ahab in 1 Kings 21. Ahab had just had a part in murdering Naboth and chasing Elijah through the countryside. After several years drought - he still didn’t repent. Listen to what happened when they finally met again -
Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!”
“I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. 21 ‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. 22 I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin.’ 23 “And also concerning Jezebel the LORD says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of a Jezreel.’ 24 “Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country.” 25 (There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife. 26 He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel.) 27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. 28 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite: 29 “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.” (1 Ki 21:20-29)
This story is a tremendous testimony to how patient and forgiving God is. Even though Ahab deserved every bit he got, in the end - when he was made meek by the law of God - the Lord had mercy on him - at least temporarily.
When David was confronted with his sin, at first - he hid it. But then, he finally was brought to admit what he had done. In light of this he wrote in Psalm 32, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (Ps 32:3-5) This is equal to what John writes in 1 John 1:8-9, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. The fact is that we do not have a stingy LORD who is waiting to find some weakness in us and stick us in hell. He put ALL SINS on the cross 2,000 years ago. He already cleansed us of them all, whether we believe it or not. He sent His Son to die for the sins of the WORLD - the WORLD. He wants nothing more than to credit us with Jesus’ holiness and righteousness. He loves to cover up our sins. He wants nothing more than for us to repentantly believe and take comfort in the fact that ALL of our sins - that’s ALL of them - were paid for 2,000 years ago. That’s the main point of confession - so that you can experience and appreciate and live in that forgiveness. That’s why confession is so important - because He loves to forgive. It is His every essence. It’s what He LOVES to do. Therefore, the digger we deep - the more of our sins we see - the more of the GOSPEL we can appreciate! The more COMFORT we can feel. But when we are not willing to expose our sins and confess them, to admit we are sinners, we can’t receive that forgiveness. We put obstacles in the way of His holy cleansing and faith which grabs hold of it.
I might compare it to giving your children a bath. Right now our two year old is fighting the bath stage. At this stage, we know that she needs to be clean - so we do our best to work with her - but ultimately - as her parents - she will come out of a bath or shower clean. The older she gets, the more responsibility we will put on HER. Hopefully over time she will more appreciate and enjoy baths and showers. Either way, through the shower or bath she will be clean. However, if this continues, and she ends up being eighteen years old and still fights taking a shower - I am not going to force her. I couldn’t force her at that point. In the same way, God makes us clean in our baptism at a very early age. This makes us holy through faith. He wants to keep us clean. He wants us to keep showering by confessing our sins and clinging to his forgiveness. The blood cleanses us through faith, whether we like to bathe daily or weekly. But if we refuse to take that shower in the blood of Christ, He isn’t going to force faith on us. The shower will keep running, but we won’t get clean. God doesn’t any of Jesus’ blood to go to waste. He doesn’t care how dirty you’ve gotten yourself. All He wants is you to keep getting in the shower - to believe in the cleansing power of the blood. That’s why the LORD wants confession to continue.
So how can we “safeguard” ourselves against such a thing ever happening here? It all comes back to the whole point of the Reformation. In the VERY FIRST of the 95 Theses what did Luther say was the KEY to the Reformation? Luther stated, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” [Matt. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” When your ENTIRE life is full of confessing your sins and laying them on Jesus - there’s no WAY that sin can get to that BTK point. Sin cannot grow in the LIGHT. But the message of Dennis Rader is to watch yourself! Regard NO sins lightly. Throw them all on the cross - even the seemingly “small” thoughts and deeds that happen in the privacy in your home. Learn to throw yourself completely in the cross - so that you know that God has seen all your sins - exposed them - and most importantly COVERED them in His blood. When you can do that, be rest assured that gross sins will not get the best of you. They will stay where they belong - in the grave of Christ. And you will stay where you belong - in the gracious eyes of our merciful LORD - living a life that gives praise to His holy Name. Amen.
