Category Archives: Martin Luther
Treasuring the Eucharist, (and the other sacraments)
Thoughts that carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross
“Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up,and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself.But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank.” (Exodus 24:9–11, NET)
In summary, if God were to bid you to pick up a straw or to pluck out a feather with the command, order, and promise that thereby you would have forgiveness of all sin, grace, and eternal life, should you not accept this joyfully and gratefully, and cherish, praise, prize, and esteem that straw and that feather as a higher and holier possession than heaven and earth? No matter how insignificant the straw and the feather may be, you would nonetheless acquire through them something more valuable than heaven and earth, indeed, than all the angels, are able to bestow on you. Why then are we such disgraceful people that we do not regard the water of baptism, the bread and wine, that is, Christ’s body and blood, the spoken word, and the laying on of man’s hands for the forgiveness of sin as such holy possessions, as we would the straw and feather, though in the former, as we hear and know, God wishes to be effective and wants them to be his water, word, hand, bread, and wine, by means of which he wishes to sanctify and save you in Christ, who acquired this for us and who gave us the Holy Spirit from the Father for this work?
Ministers plant seeds in soil plowed by life’s circumstances. Many of the seeds take root. Some we’re aware of; others we aren’t. But by teaching biblical standards with biblical illustrations or illustrations from life, people beginning to go through those kinds of experiences often appropriate those principles. They experience the remedial effect of preventive counseling.
Due to some rather unique circumstances, my nights have not been filled with sleep and wonderful dreams. But lying their in bed, trying to be still and quiet gives me time to think. Last night it was about what I could teach about ministry.
I narrowed it down to three, one of which was to make the most out of liturgical worship, in order that people find comfort and the peace of God–and as the Lutheran Augsburg Confession states, “be drawn to Communion and Mass” (Article XXIV, Augsburg Confession).
Oh that more people would realize the benefit of the Eucharist–and receive it as often as possible!
And as I looked at my devotional reading this morning, I see a similar notion, the passion for Luther for people receiving as a treasure and treasuring the Sacraments, these conduits of grace that God established for us! And the grief that comes from when they do not!
While Shelley doesn’t mention the sacraments as the Biblical illustrations that plant seeds, they are! How we treat them, both the ministers and the one’s ministered too, either nourishes our growth, or can hinder it greatly. For every sacrament offers a renewal of the remedy, a chance to see again the work of God cleansing and healing our broken souls, hearts and minds.
This is especially true as we feast with God, as we eat His Body and drink His blood as He commanded, knowing Him through this sacred act-His act.
It is the feast seen in the day of Moses, as the elders, newly forgiven, eat and drink with God, in His presence. It is the wedding feast of the lamb, which is described in the book of the Revelation of Jesus the Christ.
It is the joy of God, celebrating with His people, as He gathers them home, both now and forever. There is nothing else like it.
And knowing the truth it reveals, that God is indeed with us” is what will sustain us,
Plant these seeds, do it with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, as you live the truth of these moments in which the Spirit transforms us!
Robinson, P. W. (1539). On the Councils and the Church. In H. J. Hillerbrand, K. I. Stjerna, T. J. Wengert, & P. W. Robinson (Eds.), Church and Sacraments (Vol. 3, p. 437). Fortress Press.
Shelley, M. (1986). Helping those who don’t want help (Vol. 7, p. 67). Christianity Today, Inc.; Word Books.
The Re-formation, not the Reformation
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross
“who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:5, NET)
While perfect restoration to the divine image awaits the day of Christ’s appearing, the work of restoration is going on now. There is a slow but steady transmutation of the base metal of human nature into the gold of God-likeness effected by the faith-filled gaze of the soul at the glory of God—the face of Jesus Christ!
We are coming up on the 508th anniversary of Martin Luther asking for a discussion on 95 points, or theses, which concerned him about the teachings of indulgences and purgatory. This discussion focused a lot on the Doctrine of Justification, and the Doctrine of Sanctification — in other words, how are are delivered from sin, and how we are transformed, as the Holy Spirit works a miracle in us.
In the midst of what became the “Reformation,” as sin prevailed and divided the church, what was lost in the process was central issue–the “re-formation” of the sinner into a saint. Lives would be taken–by both sides, the church would be fractured, and fractured again,
One of my favorite novelists (W.E.B Griffin) wrote a line I will not forget, “I regret it was necessary” in regards to an action he had to take in war. I deeply regret the reformation, and I deeply regret the fact that 500 years later we have become so divided that we forget the core of it – the re-formation of the sinner.
It is all about God’s power at work, God’s ability to care and protect us as He transforms un into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ (see 2 Cor. 3:16ff, Col. 1:28-29, Romans 12:1-3, Ephesians 2:8-10. This is where the discourse was supposed to go, but horribly did not.
We need to talk about how we are re-formed, for the sake of our people. We need to know the power and ability of God, the grace by which we are rescued from our bondage to sin, the sin which separates us from God, and would result in our condemnation unless it was dwelt with. We need to talk about what the Holy Spirit does to us after we are made righteous in Christ, how we are made holy and perfected/made complete.
We don’t need to talk about these things in an academic manner, or with arcane and technical language. That would only serve a small contingent of people, those labelled “theologians.” We need to discuss it for the people like Theophilus (which means friends of God) to whom Luke wrote his gospel, and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, Written so Theophilus, a common ordinary person could know the truth, and as the Apostle John writes, “31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name. John 20:31 (NLT2)
Our people need to have the assurance of God’s work in their lives, anything else is a minor tidbit of information. He is re-forming us! Amen!
Tozer, A. W., & Smith, G. B. (2008). Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings. Moody Publishers.
The Bizarre God…
Thoughts which lead me to Jesus and to the Cross
“I will put an end in Moab to those who make offerings at her places of worship. I will put an end to those who sacrifice to other gods. I, the LORD, affirm it! So my heart moans for Moab like a flute playing a funeral song. Yes, like a flute playing a funeral song, my heart moans for the people of Kir Heres. For the wealth they have gained will perish.” (Jeremiah 48:35–36, NET)
“Yet in days to come I will reverse Moab’s ill fortune.” says the LORD. The judgment against Moab ends here.” (Jeremiah 48:47, NET)
It grieved him when brothers sought learning while neglecting virtue, especially if they did not remain in that calling in which they were first called.
Christ’s death and resurrection, faith and love, are old and just ordinary things; that is why they must count for nothing, and so we must have new flatterers (as St. Paul says). And this serves us right since our ears itch so much for something new that we can no longer endure the old and genuine truth, “that we accumulate,”f that we weigh ourselves down with big piles of new teachings. That is just what has happened and will continue to happen.
The pastor understood their frustration. But their response was also an encouragement. He recognized one of the unique characteristics required of a pastor—perhaps a sign of the pastoral gift—is a willingness to love people even when they initially rebuff that love. The two accountants did not possess that willingness.
I would have thought that after 45 years of studying the scriptures, after nearly thirty years of teaching and preaching about the love of God, which desires to have a relationship with people, I would fully grasp how much He cares for us.
And then I come across a passage I have read 30?40? times, and am in awe of how bizarre God is.
The people that betrayed Him, more than perhaps any people are under discussion in the two passages above. Both Moab, and the Jewish people, who though thoroughly warned, fell into the same idolatry as Moab.
It’s not pretty!
Anyone who worshipped at their altars, anyone who shared in their idolatry, who served other gods, are going to have an end put to them.
And God hates it.
It rips his heart out to see them come ot where they are, and to receive the punishment they have chosen.
Just like Francis grieves when his people set aside God for “learning”, especially when they set aside Jesus and their vocation pursuing some kind of knowledge at the expense of their faith. Or the innumerable pastors and church leaders who get frustrated by those why reject them – and more importantly the peace and healing offered through scripture.
Yet God is bizarre, even as He groans over the fate they have chosen, has plans to end the judgment against them… and did so at the cross. That’s what the good pastor holds out for, and reveals to His people, a God who cares, who worked for the good of those who betrayed Him, who loved those who rebelled, and who promised to work to make everything right between them.
This is bizarre…
This isn’t normal…
Yet, it is so wonderful to know God cares that much, even for Moab….
Even for us.
Pasquale, G., ed. (2011). Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations (p. 254). New City Press.
Robinson, P. W. (1539). On the Councils and the Church. In H. J. Hillerbrand, K. I. Stjerna, T. J. Wengert, & P. W. Robinson (Eds.), Church and Sacraments (Vol. 3, p. 403). Fortress Press.
Shelley, M. (1986). Helping those who don’t want help (Vol. 7, pp. 30–31). Christianity Today, Inc.; Word Books.
Christians are simply beggars… if we do things right.
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to the Cross:
“In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”” (2 Corinthians 5:19–20, NET)
They are expressions of the one great heresy, which is as old as fallen mankind: Man refuses to accept the external word and the external means of grace and develops his own religion, which places man where God alone has the right to stand: “Ye shall be as gods!”
I have met Christians who were so intent upon winning souls to Christ that they would not talk to you about anything but God and His goodness!
Such a man was the Canadian, Robert Jaffray, one of our early pioneer missionaries. His family owned the Toronto Globe and Mail and as a young Christian he was disinherited because he chose to follow God’s call to China rather than join the family business.
That good godly man spent his lifetime in China and the south Pacific, searching for the lost—and winning them! He was always reading maps and daring to go to the most difficult places, in spite of physical weaknesses and diabetic handicap. He sought out and lived among the poor and miserable, always praying to God, “Let my people go!”
On my bookshelves I have numerous books about church growth, about having a missional spirit. Others talk about forensic apologetics and evangelism. Many of these approach the topic with a clinical approach, looking at statistics, looking for patterns that can be replicated, looking for logical presentations of the gospel that give overwhelming proof – which we hope will covert the heathen.
We know, for we ourselves our guilty, of the great sin of self-idolatry, of narcissism. Even in thinking “we” can prove the gospel, we are take up a burden that is rightfully the Holy Spirit. Far too often in the church, we create our own religion, putting ourselves in charge of saving the world.
Yet there are those, who in humility simply follow the Spirit, as they are compelled to not shut up about Jesus. Jaffray was one, Eric Liddell comes to mind, as does Barton Stone, and Wyneken and Luther. Each spent their lives, or a great deal of their lives not arguing, but pleading that people would be reconciled to God – a work already accomplished by Jesus.
I think that word pleading is important – it has the emphasis of desire built into the request. It doesn’t come from a place of power, or even authority, but of someone is so worried about the person they beg them to let God in, to receive the love and mercy. It comes from seeing people living without hope, without peace, assaulted by the world, and by their own guilt and shame.
And we have the antidote to that which poisons their life.
How can we get them to receive it? How can we get them to trust in a God they do not yet know of, that they have yet to experience, that they haven’t allowed to bring them to life, remove the guilt and shame of sin, and restore them?
This is the passion Paul had, this is why some cannot shut up about the love of God.
We can beg them, the Spirit opens their hearts, Christ has reconciled them to the Father.
This is our call… we simple beggers on a this journey called life…
Sasse, H. (2001). This Is My Body: Luther’s Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar (p. 191). Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Tozer, A. W., & Smith, G. B. (2008). Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings. Moody Publishers.
Astonished Reverence–it cannot be manufactured, therefore stop trying to force it on others
Thoughts which carry me to Jesus, and to His Cross”
“Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.” (John 1:14, NET)
“that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him by instructing and teaching all people with all wisdom so that we may present every person mature in Christ.” (Colossians 1:26–28, NET)
Luther’s understanding of Christ makes the Lord’s Supper a miracle. For it is an unspeakable miracle that the inseparable union of the two natures causes the body of Christ, which is in heaven, to be present on the altar
Ratzinger’s theology of revelation emphasizes Christ, the revelation of the Father. By encountering Christ in the Scriptures, in the sacraments, and in worship, one comes to knowledge of God.
The fear of God is that “astonished reverence” of which the saintly Faber wrote. I would say that it may grade anywhere from its basic element—the terror of the guilty soul before a holy God—to the fascinated rapture of the worshiping saint.
There are few unqualified things in our lives but I believe that the reverential fear of God, mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and adoration, is the most enjoyable state and the most purifying emotion the human soul can know. A true fear of God is a beautiful thing, for it is worship, it is love, it is veneration. It is a high moral happiness because God is.
I have had the distinct displease of seeing pietism raise its ugly head in a number of places. In choice of Bible translations, in choices of worship styles, in places where people define reverence as something people bring to church. As they get dressed with physical clothes, the are supposed to come into church or a Bible study reverently. And reverence or piety is defined and demanded by observers. And if the observers demanded form of pietism isn’t achieved or met, the efficacy of God’s mercy might be or actually is questioned.
It goes across the spectrum of Christianity, and it usually spans both edges of any discussion spectrum. Some say you can’t worship with guitars, others say you don’t worship with organs. Some say you can’t dress down, others say if you don’t “come as you are, you are playing games. In my 60 years, I have seen these spectrums divide the church, and those caught in the middle are often… the greatest victims.
Reverence is not man-made. It doesn’t depend on clothing choices, or the language that you use (especially if you don’t understand it!) Tozer’s modifier, astonished, is awesome in clarifying what true reverence is. It occurs when the sinner or saint sees the Triune God revealed in their presence, something that happens because Christ is made incarnate among us. Pope Benedict XVI nails this in discussing the encounter with Christ in word and Sacrament, and Luther sees this as what makes the Lord’s Supper, each and every time celebrated–truly a miracle–for it is Christ coming into our lives, as revealed in Scripture.
Such miracles leave us astonished, a state in which revering and adoring (and being in fear of ) God is natural. For the believer, the astonishment is because this is exactly where God wants us, in His presence, sharing in the very glory of God which the apostles saw revealed in Jesus, which they came to know and reveal to people as well.
This is why reverence can’t be manufactured on order, or demanded by others. It only finds its origin in the presence of God. I
I’ve seen this in the eyes of 3 year olds, as the run to get our altar rail before their parents. Can they comprehend the gift their parents are receiving? Probably not… DO they understand the blessing I say over them, perhaps not.. they just realize they are near Jesus, and the love that impacts their parents or grandparents is significant – and it is theirs as well, and so they rejoice!
This is reverence, when the sinner doesn’t want to leave, but soak in their being cleansed. This is the presence of God, which leaves us in awe, because only because of His love can we stand before Him, and only because of that love do we have hope. Hope because of the presence of God – which is revealed every week, though He never leaves us….
We still need to hear of the love, we still need to experience it and therefore know it.
And we do….
Chosen for What? The Call to Shepherd God’s People! But where?
Thoughts that carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the cross.
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign LORD: What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? 3 You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. 4 You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. 5 So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. Ezekiel 34:2-5 (NLT2)
Therefore, holiness involves pastoral ministry. When the substance of the liturgy becomes the substance of the soul of the pastor, then his ministry will become a pastoral anointing of the Mysteries of Christ that he is ordained to apply to souls. The liturgy is the sacramental moment of mysteries, but those mysteries are not confined to the moment. The reason we receive them in the sacraments is in order that they might come to life in us, quicken us, perfect us on our journey to our final end.
So too with Christ: although he is everywhere present, he does not permit himself to be so caught and grasped; he can easily shell himself, so that you get the shell but not the kernel. Why? Because it is one thing if God is present, and another if God is present for you. God is there for you when God adds the Word and binds himself, saying, “Here you shall find me.” Now when you have the Word, you can grasp and have God with certainty and say, “Here I have you, as you have said.”
I have had the blessing of having breakfast twice this week with other pastors.
The first time, with a Roman Catholic Priest friend and a Nazarene pastor, who I anticipate will become a friend. We are all roughly the same age, with the similar sense of the ironic and a passion to help people see Jesus. And, though we differ in our understanding of the Sacrament, there was a definite tie into to each of our ministries, as we adminster this gifft to our people, and yet long for the day when all the Body of Christ will share together in it.
Come to today, and the devotional readings, a sample of which you see above–which deal with this sacrament as well, and with how it is the responsibility of the pastor – perhaps the primary responsibility of the pastor, to ensure we are feeding out sheep, that we are getting them what they need–Jesus.
It is our ministry to point them to Jesus, where He said He would be for them. That is what they hear in the words of “for you” and where they need to be encouraged to believe them. These are just words we repeat because of their poetic nature. They are the words of Christ, placed there as a guarantee of His presence, of His work in their lives. Not a matter of some kind of magic, but because of the promise of Christ Jesus.
It is, as the other quote says, the “mystery of Christ–applied to their souls.” and that application is what we are ordained to do. To welcome the broken, to apply the sacraments, to allow the Spirit to reveal Christ–as promised for them there in that moment.
For He has promised to meet them there, as they share in His Body and Blood, as it nourishes and strengthens their faith–again as promised. As we remember He abides in us, and we in Him. That is what this sweet, powerful, healing time is, and we need to lead them there, to Him.
That is the role of a shepherd, to bring His people there. Even if that means dragging them there some of the time. That is what it means to lead His church. To guide them to the peace of Christ, found where He meets them, and unites with them, as promised.
Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 57). Emmaus Academic.
Burnett, A. N. (1527). That These Words of Christ, “This Is My Body,” Etc., Still Stand Firm against the Fanatics. In H. J. Hillerbrand, K. I. Stjerna, T. J. Wengert, & P. W. Robinson (Eds.), Church and Sacraments (Vol. 3, pp. 213–214). Fortress Press.
The Necessity of Being and Enthralled Disciple…A different type of slavery…
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus and the Cross:
“‘Tell Joseph this: Please forgive the sin of your brothers and the wrong they did when they treated you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sin of the servants of the God of your father.” When this message was reported to him, Joseph wept.Then his brothers also came and threw themselves down before him; they said, “Here we are; we are your slaves.”” (Genesis 50:17–18, NET)
“But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.” (Exodus 21:5–6, NET)
At the outset, to be mystical the liturgy must be enthralling, and this is less comfortable than we think. To enthrall means to make a person a thrall: to put someone into bondage, to reduce someone to the condition of a captive, to enslave, to subjugate and make subservient.
Once, when the brothers asked him whether he was pleased that the learned men, who, by that time, had been received into the Order, were devoting themselves to the study of Sacred Scripture, he replied: “I am indeed pleased, as long as, after the example of Christ, of whom we read that he prayed more than he read, they do not neglect zeal for prayer; and, as long as they study, not to know what they should say, but to practise what they have heard and, once they have put it into practice, propose it to others.
This tipping point in Ignatius’ conversion and the shift in attitude it brings is notable. All the more so in light of his prior manifest determination to conquer his sinfulness by force of his own will. His Autobiography’s terse narrative hides the magnitude of the spiritual and psychological transformation in Ignatius. The transformation is stark. Ignatius moves from managing his spiritual growth with the same swagger that he waged the Pamplona battle, and becomes a man of much greater humility, willing to be led like a boy at the hands of a schoolmaster.
It took me a moment to make Fagerberg’s connected between being enthralled and in thrall, in bondage. As a amateur wordsmith, I was a little annoyed at myself, I should have seen it, but the concept was… well enthralling. It took me captive, and even as I copied these quotes from my devotional reading some 10 hours back, I had to process it this evening.
I want the liturgy, the worship of my congregation to be enthralling, so that our walk with God proceeds from it. I want it to be captivated by it, to be addicted to the presence of God experienced there. To be enslaved to the freedom that comes as we are cleansed of our sin, as burdens are removed, as we begin to understand what it means to be the children of God.
But we are enslaved, addicted, captivated and in thrall in a very blessed way.
Far too often we see being servants of God and of His people as a negative, as something that not only requires being humble, but being humiliated, debased, neglected and even abused. We picture slaved in chains, and being whipped, as Jean Val Jean is in the opening scene of Les Mis, or as the many movies about slavery in the south, or n Africa. The kind of slavery Joseph’s brothers offered themselves and their families to enter, rather than face the wrath of Joseph–the brother they sold into slavery.
“God, I will do anything if you rescue me from…” type of slavery. (the reason btw, many of us (including Luther) entered into studying for the ministry and why we justify the “sacrifices” we make and are expected to make. A sense of slavery and sacrifice based in guilt, shame and a desire to “payback”–as if we could! We see this in Ignatius of Loyola as well, as he would confess and confess and confess, and never find the absolution he needed.
What that results in, concerns a pastor like St. Francis, who saw men enslaving themselves to an academic pursuit of theology. men who studied the word, and neglected prayer (and therefore worship that is the reaction to experiencing the love of God.) This is not the pursuit of Theology, it is the pursuit of religious philosophy. A kind of knowledge that neither enjoys and lives in faith, nor proposes that life to others.
Being enthralled, be in thrall is less like Joseph’s brothers offer and more like the slave whose ear is pierced. Who knows he is loved, who responds to that love with a desire to be in no other place, in no other relationship with His master, This is where worship is spontaneously embraced and savored. The slave’s attitude is not based in fear of wrath, or any kind of fear at all, it is made from a love that is responding to love! Itis what drives the academic to his knees in prayer, what drives the soldier to seek peace, and the pilgrim to find they are, finally at their destination.
This is what changes Luther, apparently changes Ignatius, can change our churches, can change our communities, this revealed love of our Lord, Jesus. This is the connection we find in our gatherings, as we realize the presence of the Lord, as He reveals Himself through the word and the sacrament, a love so powerful, a fellowship so full of joy and peace, so sustaining, so much a breath of heaven, that we continue to seek to serve and to introduce it to others.
Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 11). Emmaus Academic.
Pasquale, G., ed. (2011). Day by Day with Saint Francis: 365 Meditations (pp. 336–337). New City Press.
Watson, W. (2012). Sacred Story: An Ignatian Examen for the Third Millennium (p. 25). Sacred Story Press.
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized! The Plan Reveals Who We Are! A Sermon on 1 John 3:1-3
God’s Plan! Revealed and Finally Realized!
The Plan Reveals Who We Are
1 John 3:1-3
† In Jesus Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help you to accept that you are His child and that you are pure and holy!
I am Your Father!
On Friday, I was over at the retreat Bob was heading up, with the purpose of meeting the team, and giving a 20 minute talk about what it meant to be friends with God.
The format that they gave me required some pretty deep thought about my identity and who I was, and what I’ve went through in life. The basic idea – was that God was there, in the midst of the trauma, in the midst of it all…
Jesus no longer called us slaves or servants, He calls us His friends.
Which means something we can hear and know with our minds, but it will take a lifetime to really, really understand with out heart and our soul…
Think about how long it took Luke Skywalker to comprehend that Darth Vader was his dad—no I have a better illustration, a real one. Rather than being a reunion with a dad, it was one with a mother, my birth mom. (and it didn’t cost me my hand!)
In July of 2006, at 10:16 in the lobby of a casino in Vegas, I met the lady who gave birth to me 41 years before. It was an awkward, confusing, joyful, amazing time as we gave each other a hug and talked for 4 or 5 hours.
Over the next few days, I learned a lot, had a number of questions answered that gave me insight into who I am, and oddly enough, enhanced the other relationships I have in my life, including those with my adopted parents.
My point is simple here… whether we are talking about Jesus calling us his brothers, or the Father calling us His sons and daughters, there is a lot to think through, a lot to understand this truth here in our head, and then it boil in our hearts and souls as this truth begins to affect out life.
The world can’t help us! They have it all wrong!
The first challenge to this, the transforming truth comes from the world. The Apostle John describes it with these words. “But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.”
I first read this with a sense that the people of this world were antagonisticly evil, that they were opposed to us so viciously, and so violently because they didn’t like God, and therefore they didn’t like us.
But then I thought of my birth mom and my conversation, finding out that our families ate at the same restaurant on Sundays, that her mom was a nurse where I often was a patient, and fifty other times and places where we could have been a couple of feet apart.
But we didn’t know…
In the same way, people don’t understand what it means to be a Christian and child of God, because even though they are close. They don’t see a God who loves us as a good Father loves His children, but instead they see God as a Darth Vader type character, who will cut anyone in half, if they don’t do what He expects.
Using our theme for October and November, they didn’t know the plans God has for them, they didn’t even have a clue about God’s love, so they are without a future and a hope, which is why sin doesn’t bother them in the same way as it does us.
Or the way it should bother us…
John wrote, “3 And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.
If you don’t know God’s plan, if you don’t understand the relationship we have with God, then you can’t understand the doctrines affecting holiness, the doctrine of having a pure, unmarred, unmarked by sin.
If the relationship matters, even if we don’t comprehend it completely, then our attitude toward sin is different. We realize the division sin causes in the relationship with God, and we dread the consequences.
And when we are thinking properly, we communicate about sin that way – talking of being saved from it and wanting people saved from it, rather than being in bondage to it and the condemnation it carries with it.
The love of a parent
That is why it is so essential to see God as our heavenly Father, or even better, as our Abba – our daddy. The one who cares for us so much that He sent His one and only begotten Son Jesus, to join with us.
Martin Luther described this passage with these words, As if he were what we are, he makes whatever concerns us to concern him as well, and even more than it does us. In turn we so care for Christ, as if we were what he is, which indeed we shall finally be—we shall be conformed to his likeness. As St. John says, “We know that when he shall be revealed we shall be like him” [1 John 3:2]. So deep and complete is the fellowship of Christ and all the saints with us. Thus our sins assail him, while his righteousness protects us. For the union makes all things common, until at last Christ completely destroys sin in us and makes us like himself, at the Last Day. Likewise by the same love we are to be united with our neighbors, we in them and they in us.[1]
This was God’s plan, to reveal to us in Christ what the transformation, that’s what God’s plan has always been, to make us like Jesus… to unite us to our Dad, God the Father, and all our siblings AMEN!
———
[1] Luther, M. (2012). Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings (W. R. Russell & T. F. Lull, Eds.; Third Edition, pp. 190–191). Fortress Press.
Confessions of a Christian Non-conformist (aka Neuro-divergent)
Photo by Wouter de Jong on Pexels.com
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the cross.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the orchard. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”” (Genesis 3:8–9, NET)
Hurry is an unpleasant thing in itself, but also very unpleasant for whoever is around it. Some people came into my room and rushed in and rushed out and even when they were there they were not there – they were in the moment ahead or the moment behind. Some people who came in just for a moment were all there, completely in that moment.
He did not seek nonconformity as an end in itself in the sense of the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson’s (1803–1882) dictum that “to be a non-conformist means to be great.” The triune God is the only source of true life. It is the dogma of a triune God that grants humankind dignity and is the ultimate standard of a meaningful and fulfilled life. Such a discernment of spirit is based on the figure of Our Savior.
Without this sacrament the Gospel might be understood as one of the many religious messages in the world. Without the proclamation of the Gospel this sacrament might be understood as one of the many religious rites in the world. But the Gospel is more than a religious message and the Sacrament more than a religious ceremony. Both the Gospel and the Sacrament contain one and the same gift, forgiveness of sins—not only a message that there is forgiveness and not only a ceremony which would illustrate that message—but rather the forgiveness itself which no one can give except He who died as the Lamb of God for the sins of the world, who will come again in glory, and who is present in His Gospel and in His Sacrament.
For most of my life, i saw myself as a non-conformist, which I usually express with phrases like, “There are three types of people, those that think inside the box (and often push on opposite sides of said box), those that think outside of the box, and then there are a few like, joyfully oblivious to the existence of the box. (SOme would credit this to Neuro-divergent, or being on the spectrum–but all that came out way after my formative years)
Joyfully oblivious is the key here, every time I find the box, I tend to get disgusted by it, and by the rules that govern it. So I hurry past the box, knowing it isn’t real, and it has no power over me. And in my youth I was proud of such an attitude, and some days, still am. It can be Emerson’s mark of greatness, but it canalso be a place to hide–often from the brokenness of the world I perceive, but never from my brokenness, which is also quite devastating…
That brokenness, unchecked and untreated, leads to Ms. Linbergh’s profound statement of being there. That brokenness has often meant I am in a meeting and I truly am not. Whether that meeting is on a board, or a lecture, or church, or in my private devotions with God. (That God can still use this for good–is truly the greatest mystery and marvel in my life!)
Non-conformity (and may being a conformist without thinking why) can be the ultimate hiding in the garden from God. Especially when we are hiding our own brokenness, our own hurts, our own unforgiveness, and our sin. We think we are safe – going against the flow or going with it.
In the non-conformist’s life, many try to make us conform to standards that don’t make sense to us, and often that we see as useless, because it doesn’t give those who conform to them any peace. Or the standards don’t make sense to us, as the spectrum they are based on is linear in its construction. (Example – those that think a person must be politically left, or right…or we aren’t a good Christian)
But what the non-conformist needs is not to be forced to conform. That would wreck us that would steal the fire within us, that I believe was put there by God to balance out the world. (our “greatness?”) What we desperately need is to be transformed, not to the standards of this world, but to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, who transforms us and all the conformists into the image of Jesus.
In doing so, we realize that our meaning in life is not being apart from the world, but being united to Jesus. to finding our dignity and existence and meaning in our relationship to our loving God.
THe only way for this to happen is through the Spirit’s ministering to us through His gospel and the Sacraments. It can’t be either/or, as Sasse points out. It isn’t even a one-two punch as if the ministry of each is different. They are the same one gift, of mercy, grace, healing, forgiveness, restoration, redemption, assurance, comfort, as Christ is not just heard, but we dwell in His presence, HIs Glory, His peace, His love. Jesus doesn’t demand my presence in the box – He comes to me, and walks with me,
A presence that is so overwhelming we no longer dismiss the existence of the box, or mark and avoid it and its conflicts, but we long to see what God can do with it, knowing what He’s done with us, transforming us into the image of Christ – a little more each day.
For which I will ever praise and thank Him!
and, I hope you all, conformist and blessed non-conformist, neuro-divergent and neurotypical, will see Him, and see yourself as His! AMEN!
Anne Lindbergh, Celtic Daily Prayer, https://www.northumbriacommunity.org/offices/morning-prayer/
De Gaál, E. (2018). O Lord, I Seek Your Countenance: Explorations and Discoveries in Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology (M. Levering, Ed.; pp. 1–2). Emmaus Academic.
Sasse, H. (2001). This Is My Body: Luther’s Contention for the Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar (pp. 1–2). Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Is This World Depressing…or what?
Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the Cross
“LORD, why are people important to you? Why do you even think about human beings?” (Psalm 144:3, NCV)
“No one should assume lordship or authority over the church, nor burden the church with traditions, nor let anybody’s authority count for more than the Word of God.”
He writes: “A more or less lengthy visit to a Catholic bookstore does not encourage one to pray with the psalmist: ‘You will reveal the path of life to me.’ Not only does one quickly discover there that Jesus did not turn water into wine, but one also gains insight into the art of turning wine into water. This new magic bears the name ‘aggiornamento’.” Under this new aspect the shepherd of the Church is offered the opportunity of giving his teaching ministry a democratic form: of becoming the advocate of the faithful, of the people, against the elitist power of the intellectuals.
We believed such works to be fully satisfactory and, indeed, the only things that were holy; the pursuits of common Christians we considered worldly and dangerous. In contrast to this darkness, consider the priceless and to-be-cherished blessing of knowing with certainty wherein the heart is to take comfort, how to seek help in distress and how to conduct oneself in one’s own station. Truly we should now render to God heartfelt thanks for the great favor and blessing of restored light and understanding in Scripture and the right conception of doctrinal matters.
I don’t think I have actually watched a news show or read an actual newspaper, secular or religious in 15 years. I might look at a sports article on line or maybe read or watch something if I am doing research, but the days of sitting down and reading have long drifted away…
While I miss the idea, the content is to depressing, to full of stories of sin, or people fighting to free something from its designation of being sin, as they try to hang on to an appearance of Christianity that doesn’t require faith in the mercy forgiveness or love of God.
Social media is much the same, not an uplifting endeavor, for the most part. However there, I can find people for whom to pray, as they freely confess their anxieties, their bias and their sins. (though they often come across as proud of them!) You can even find a great selection of idols which people have put all their trust in–from investments to political and religious figures to the “book of the month” which promises to restore what has been lost.
I think the psalmist saw a similar thing nearly 3000 years ago as he asked the brutal questions above. God – why the heck do you care about these people who have so wrecked the world, each other and their own lives. (though I should replace people with ‘all of us!’) It’s true in the church as well, and in every denomination. The early Lutherans were prophetic about this – as too many have tried to gain power, influence and authority over the people of God. THen, they would have only perceived this as one group – yet even today these battles go on in eery denomination, and between them, as they try to influence others.
Pope Benedict resonates with this, as he talks of authors who try to take the miracles out of the Bible, as if they want to eliminate the very footprints of Jesus in our lives, by removing them from scripture. What a horror! What an abuse of the responsibility of the pastoral office! Legalists, the kind that St. Paul calls the mutilators in Philippians 3, exist on the other side as well – pushing the rites of men as more critical than the gospel.
Again, the fatalistic is easy to take in this moment!
Luther’s words rise up at the end…the goal of ministry that makes the different. To bring people, these people we would easily give up on the certainty where they can find comfort, help and a attitude in life that allows us to be content where we are. To see people begin to resonate with that grace and mercy delivered through the word of God and His Sacraments, to know the freedom and hope that comes when we realize God is restoring us… that makes all the difference in the world. To see God at work. These things end fatalism, as we realize God loves the world.
And God loves you….
and me.
“The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord: X Ecclesiastical Rites that are called Adiaphora….” Tappert, T. G., ed. (1959). The Book of Concord the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (p. 614). Mühlenberg Press.
Ratzinger, J. (1992). Co-Workers of the Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year (I. Grassl, Ed.; M. F. McCarthy & L. Krauth, Trans.; p. 331). Ignatius Press.
Luther, M., & Sander, J. (1915). Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year (p. 367). Augustana Book Concern.
