The Third Sunday after Pentecost—June 17, 2012

Ezekiel 17:22-24

“I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

This chapter of Ezekiel is like an extended parable.  The first and middle parts of the chapter concern the “eagle”—a parabolic reference to Nebuchadnezzar—who broke off the “top of the cedar”—a reference to his deposing the rightful king of Judah in Jerusalem.  Jehoiachin, the Davidic king, was exiled in Babylon while a puppet king Zedekiah was set on the throne.

     The verses of our reading today concern the Lord God’s establishing superiority over that “eagle.”  Not merely content with “breaking off,” the Lord God will “plant” it on the heights.  It will be fruitful and noble, a welcome rest for “birds of all sorts.”  Then with language that anticipates Philippians 2—“every knee shall bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…,” the Lord says, “All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord…”  How?  How will this knowledge of the Lord be manifested?  By these reversals:  high to low and low to high, green to dry and dry to flourishing, the authority of God’s Word is established.  The Lord speaks and it comes to be.

     The Lord has spoken regarding you.  Through the lips of your preacher, Christ says:  “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  Christ never lies but is THE truth itself.  Therefore, being baptized into his death and resurrection (Romans 6), you have new life in Christ.  Jesus Christ—the Word of God Incarnate—establishes you in the mighty reversal of death to life.

Table Talk

From the Institute of Lutheran Theology

www.ilt.org

written by:

The Reverend Timothy J. Swenson
Dean of Chapel and Student Life
Institute of Lutheran Theology
910 4th St.
Brookings, SD 57006
701-421-1108 cell

tswenson@ilt.org

Table Talk—June 10, 2012

The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 3:8-15

“Where are you?”  vs. 9b

     The Lord God sounds ever so much like a divine parent, a father whose children have raided the cookie jar, realized their error, and have hidden themselves in guilt, fear, and shame.  “Where are you?”  the Lord God calls out in invitation.  Right away the children respond as the man makes excuses:  “I heard; I feared; I was shamed; I hid.”  The Lord God inquires like a concerned parent so as to discover the cause of such fear and shame.  From the man, the Lord God receives blame because the Lord provided the woman to be with the man.  From the woman, the Lord God receives blame because the serpent (who was a creature of the Lord God) deceived her.  Both man and woman are full of blame.

     Adam and Eve's pointing fingers of blame are inclusive: neighbor (Eve), creation (serpent), and Creator (God) are all responsible for the condition the fallen couple now suffer. The man and the woman are no longer “blameless” beings; their very character is changed.  Their relationships with Creator, creature, & neighbor once marked by trust were now marked by blame as they are held in suspicion and fear.

     Jesus Christ has borne the sin of the world; he has taken the blame.  Now you, whose relationship with the Lord God, your Father, was once marked by blame, can—as Luther writes in the Small Catechism—“believe that He is our real Father and we are His real children… [and] pray with trust and complete confidence.”   “In Jesus” is the answer to the question: “Where are you?”  The Father and the wayward children of fallen humanity are united “in Jesus.” 

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In Honor of Bonhoeffer

My studies this fall have taken me into the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The seminar course I've been taking has delved into his Christology lectures, Discipleship, and now his Ethics. He is a quite a theologian--both complex and simple: Complex in that while he turns many phrases that lend themselves to quotability, those phrases shorn of their anchor in context are amenable to manipulation; simple in that no part of his theology escapes being anchored in the person of Jesus Christ. Everything... everything is focused on Jesus. In honor of that focus, I post the lyrics below. They're from a hymn by Annie Johnson Flint with a tune by Oskar Ahnfelt.

I look not back; God knows the fruitless efforts.

The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets.

I leave them all with Him who blots the record,

And graciously forgives, and then forgets.

I look not forward, God sees all the future,

The road that, short or long, will lead me home,

And He will face with me its ev'ry trial,

And bear for me the burdens that may come.

I look not round me; then would fears assail me,

So wild the tumult of earth's restless seas,

So dark the world, so filled with woe and evil,

So vain the hope of comfort and of ease.

I look not inward; that would make me wretched;

For I have naught on which to stay my trust.

Nothing I see save failures and shortcomings,

And week endeavors crumbling into dust.

But I look up - into the face of Jesus,

For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled;

And there is joy, and love, and light for darkness,

And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.

Ahhh.... Jesus only. Cf. Mat 17:8 "When they looked up, all they saw was Jesus alone."

Free Will vs. Bound Will

"Free Will" vs. the "Captive Will" is one of the most 'sensitive' issues in Christendom. Usually, the controversy is thought of philosophically. This is to the detriment of the discussion. As the philosopher Peter Singer once wrote,"We have to believe in Free Will! We have no choice!"

Philosophically, the antonym to "Free Will" is "Determinism." Consequently, when confronted with the loss of their Free Will, most people lament: "But we're not puppets are we?" To which Gerhard Forde would respond by waving his arms and announcing: "See, no strings!" Under Determinism, the end product is not "Faith" but "FATE"--all things are inevitable. Not only does Fate take away choice but it destroys responsibility.

When the controversy is taken up theologically, the antonym of "Free Will" is the "Bound Will." We are bound to choose the things we choose, we can't escape it. This isn't about the Determinism of our behavior but about determining our "being." The Old Adam or Eve is "bound" to sin; sinfulness is their "ontology"--their "being-ness." The new creature in Christ is bound to righteousness; sin is behind them in the old being. Saintliness is their "ontology"--their being-ness.

The sinner can only sin and is bound to sin--a captive to that triumvirate of powers: the devil, the world, and the sinful self. While we are in the flesh, during the days of our baptism, all we have access to--visibly and manifestly--are works of the flesh. Which, because they are done out of our "mortality," these works of the flesh are mortal sins, as Luther discusses in the Heidelberg Disputation.

The saint can only do works of righteousness--a bound servant of Christ and neighbor; living under Christ in his kingdom, serving him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. While we are in the flesh, during the days of our baptism, the glorious life of the saint is hidden from us. As Saint Paul writes in Colossians 3:3-4 "You are dead; and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ--who is your life--appears in glory, then your life too, will appear in glory" Since its life is hidden, the saint is accessible only to faith--faith in Christ. This is why Paul MUST confess in Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God..."

Under "religion" and "Free Will," the Christian life is determined to be the commitment to making "right" choices regarding thinking, feeling, and doing, so that progress is made from being a "sinner" to being a "saint." Religion can agree that we are both sinner and saint at the same time... existing somewhere on the continuum stretched between the two absolutes: absolute sinner and absolute saint. The Christian life is "achieved" through progress on the continuum. This is the paradigm of religion.

However, under "faith in Christ" and the "Bondage of the Will," the Christian life is given by the handing over of Christ to you as the Holy Spirit works faith through the Means of Grace. There is no progress,only death and new life. There is no continuously existing self to make progress on a continuum between absolute saint and absolute sinner. Both the absolute saint and the absolute sinner exist simultaneously--totally saint and totally sinner at one and the same time. This "double" ontology--200% being--is always "received" never "achieved." It is the "passive" life of the Christian--the passion of being done unto. This is the paradigm of faith.

During these days of our Baptism we have citizenship in two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world, manifested by flesh, and under the triumvirate of powers--the devil, the world, and our sinful selves; and the kingdom of Christ (the new creation), manifested by faith, and under the Lordship of Christ with his righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. These two kingdoms are connected--not by the sinner's progress toward saintliness--but by Jesus Christ himself. Since Christ is the first fruits of the new creation delivered through the Means of Grace, his person is the only bit of the new creation accessible to us while we wait for glory. For now, during these days of our Baptism, being "joined" to Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection--is THE ONLY WAY this double life is available to us. There is no "progress," There is only the "return" to baptism and its benefits: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every confession, absolution, and subsequent repentance is a return to baptism and its reality of life in two kingdoms.

Under the religion paradigm, faith is concerned with direction, direction, direction. Faith is like a mathematical "vector:" it has a direction and it has a magnitude. Religion is all about getting your faith-vector pointed in the right direction and then increasing its magnitude--that is, the "strength" of your faith. Faith is a human emotion: trust, loyalty, confidence, commitment, etc. Faith is treated like any other human virtue--it is "our" work. Preaching is exhortation to use, motivate, and increase our faith--usually so that the religious "institution" can benefit from it.

Under the faith paradigm, faith is concerned with location, location, location. Faith is not about "movement" but about being "planted"--located. Faith in Christ "locates" you "in Christ" where you have an invisible, redeeming, divine reality that tears you away from and places you in contrast to all other realities. You have "life" in two kingdoms. You are fully located in each.

In the kingdom of this world you are "wholly" a creature, fully a creature of God your Creator. You have nothing to prove, nothing to hide, and nothing to lose. You are fully aware your "flesh" is mortal; it has no future; and that it has only two purposes: 1) to be of some "use" to the neighbor; and, 2) to say "Amen, let it be with me as the Lord has said," when it hears the Word of God.

In the kingdom of Christ you are a holy new creature, fully a creature of God your Creator. You have no need for more "proof;" nothing more can be uncovered for you; and you have nothing more to gain. You have fully received your immortality; you have an eternal future; and that it has only one purpose: to bow and confess that Jesus Christ--the Lamb who was slain--is Lord.

You can see these two paradigms at work in the various ways Hebrews 11:1 is translated. Some translators use words for faith that arise from within the person--faith is "internalized." Other translations use words for faith that come from outside the person--faith is "externalized."

Some examples of these various ways of translating Hebrews 11:1--

Internalized Faith:
NET Bible--Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.
NIV Bible--Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
NLT Bible--Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

You can see how it is all focused on the person: "being sure," "being convinced," "being certain," "having confidence..."

Externalized Faith:
NASB, ESB & NRSV--Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
KJV & NKJV--Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

You can see how it is focused on what is "outside" of the person, being "given" to the person:
"assurance,"--which some outside authority provides
"conviction"--which is pronounced by an external word
"substance" & "evidence" (which are my favorites) these have such a SOLID sense to them, anchoring faith in a reality beyond the vagaries of human virtue and emotion... anchoring it in the reality of the person of Jesus Christ himself.

All of this is to say, that you can't really preach "ABOUT" free will or the bondage of the will. You must preach Christ in such a way that you hand him over so the people can have faith. In this faith they will come to see how they're bound to sin but free in Christ.

Forde on Christian Freedom

“A Christian is a perfectly free Lord of all, subject to none.”

–Martin Luther in “On the Freedom of a Christian

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

--the Apostle Paul (Galatians 5:1)

(Inserted by editor)

What does this mean? The answer is that it means just what it says! A Christian is subject to absolutely no one or anything. It means that because of God’s act in Jesus Christ, that which makes you to be a Christian; you are absolutely free from all the nonsense that people usually and inevitably associate with the name of religion. It means that God has taken care of everything that has to do with your relationship to him. You are subject to no one, no institution, no set of rules, no laws, nothing, absolutely nothing. You are free, absolutely free! God has, in effect, through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, put up for the entire world a blazing KEEP OUT sign over the whole province of religion and salvation. This, God has said, is my business, and shoved us out into the world where our real business is. That, really, is what Luther meant when he insisted that salvation is by grace alone, sola gratia. It means that God has an absolute monopoly on the salvation business, and that you are free, absolutely free, when you simply take God at his word. He has made you a free Lord of all things!

Think of it! When, in the entire history of the church, has anything so radical, so optimistic, so bold ever been said about humanity? Usually we hear that Luther was so pessimistic and gloomy, so insistent upon human sinfulness and total worthlessness. But what about this? A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none! Did Luther really mean it? Can we take him at his word here? It seems so dangerous, so reckless, and so foolhardy. So much so that we are afraid to believe it! And that, I am afraid is precisely the way we react. Right here we reach the critical point: the fear of this freedom. We are afraid of it because we are not sure where it will head. We are afraid to say that humans are set free because then who is to make sure that they will be kept religious and moral? That is where the battle is lost. We say to ourselves “well, of course, he didn’t really mean it just that way!” and then the scale which was balanced so delicately just on the brink of success wavers and falls back in the other direction, and we begin to say that the believer is not really free, but that there are after all certain religious rules that one had better live up to. We begin to set up all kinds of forms and standards and laws and rules, usually of a very petty little sort that one must conform to in order to be accounted properly religious. Somehow we get sucked back into the whole machinery of religion, we get sucked back into the salvation business ourselves—making it seem that even if God does most of it, nevertheless there is that little bit we have to do ourselves. Instead of Christian freedom to move out and do something really big and worthwhile, we get Christianity. We try to put Christ to work in the penny-ante business of making us religious. Faith is no longer a declaration of independence, but a sickly introverted groveling around in the morass of our own religiosity. In place of freedom, we have bondage to “churchianity” and religion.

--Gerhard Forde: “Freedom to Reform” Reformation Day, 1967

Lutheran Quarterly, Volume XXV/Number 2, Summer 2011, pp. 170-171

Set Apart from the "Christian" world

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The Third Article of the Apostles Creed reads as follows:

I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy Christian church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Martin Luther in his “Small Catechism” in reference to the Third Article writes,

“What does this mean?

I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith.

In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keep it united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

In this Christian church day after day he fully forgives my sins and the sins of all believers. On the last day he will raise me and all the dead and give me and all believers in Christ eternal life.

THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY TRUE.”

If nothing else sets us apart from all the others who claim the name of “Christian” this statement by Luther certainly does. The so called Christian world is run amok with the notion of free will. That is, that we are responsible for our relationship with God. That somehow we “have to do something” in order to be connected with God. OR we have to do something in order to maintain our relationship to God. The idea that God does it ALL is deeply offensive to something deep within us.

These words of Luther drive to that something deep within us and confronts and kills it. Luther’s words take EVERYTHING AWAY FROM US and turns around and GIVES US EVERYTHING. That something deep within us that is so offended is “the old Adam” or “the old Eve.”

God has two works he performs on each one of us. One is called his “alien work” and the second is called his proper work. The ALIEN WORK is to bring the full force of the Law of God down on us so that we are judged and condemned as the worst of sinners. The Holy Spirit works through his Law to kill us, to put that old Adam and old Eve to DEATH. Romans 7 is a remarkable description of that work through the Law to kill. “Sin, seeking opportunity through the Law, seduced me and through the commandment killed me” Paul writes.

The second work of God is his PROPER WORK and that is the declaration of the Gospel. It is the announcement of forgiveness and new life in Christ. Paul put so well in Galatians chapter 2:19-20, where he writes, “I through the Law died to the Law that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, I don’t live any longer. IT is CHRIST who lives in me!”

To have to do anything is a LAW and it means we are still alive and able. To be severed from the Law means we are dead and unable to do anything. Therefore the life in us is another’s, CHRIST HIMSELF.

Luther’s statement beginning with “What does this mean?” takes everything away from us and then declares the HOLY SPIRIT works everything in us. He is the mediator of the presence of Christ within us as our new life. For without the mediation of the Holy Spirit Christ would be one to be imitated by us. Then we would rise up and seek to make Christ real in our life and conduct. As a consequence, we would then be thinking and acting as if we are still alive!

The Holy Spirit mediates Christ in us so that He is one to whom we are being conformed. All this is being done to us because we are DEAD and can do NOTHING.

II Corinthians chapter 3 is a remarkable description of this by Paul where he writes, “Now where the Spirit of the Lord is there is FREEDOM. And we all with unveiled faces reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are BEING transfigured into HIS IMAGE from one degree of glory to another and ALL this comes from the LORD who is the SPIRIT!”

©Richard J. Smith

The Questions to Ask

Theological Discernment strips away the accretions of pious personality and religious pomposity to expose the core of a preacher's or a theologian's message. If that core isn't Christ and him crucified... If that core doesn't seek to take everything captive to Christ, then that preacher or theologian is not a "theologian of the cross" but rather practicing theologies of glory.

Theological Discernment is about having the tools to strip away such accretions. Steve Paulson--professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul--recently delivered such a set of tools into my hands. The tool set consists of three questions that can be posed to a preacher's sermon or a theologian's writings. If the preacher or theologian have answers that differ from the ones given, then it's likely they don't have their Christology right. If their Christology's not right, they're not properly distinguishing Law and Gospel. If they can't distinguish Law and Gospel properly, then they're operating under the "opinio legis" system and not from "fides Christe."

Steve's three questions followed by their appropriate answers are:

1) Who or What killed Jesus?

Answer: The Law killed Jesus because he was forgiving sins.

2) What did God do with a dead Jesus?

Answer: He raised him from the dead so that he would continue to forgive sins.

3) Where do you find Jesus now?

Answer: On the lips of a preacher who's declaring your sins forgiven.

My take:

Simple.

Religion--because it operates under the "opinio legis" always seeks to complicate things and to introduce extraneous matters. There is "complex" religion and "simple" religion. In complex religion there are a multitude of persons all arranged in a hierarchy of authority, all demanding obedience of one kind or another; your religious "duty" is to determine your place in the hierarchy and be appropriately obedient. In simple religion the complexity has been reduced to two persons: Jesus and you; your religious duty is express your loyalty to your "pal" Jesus by not disappointing his or others expectations of your relationship.

Faith--because it is the operation of "fides Christe"--simplifies everything: It is Christ and Christ alone. Jesus Christ lays no burden of religious duty on you--he carries your burden. Jesus Christ requires no piety from you--whatever piety you practice is for your own enjoyment not his. Jesus Christ delivers you into humility--where there's no possibility of religious pomposity. Jesus Christ takes your brand new eternal life and hides it away with himself in God for safekeeping until he is manifest in glory, then your new life will be manifest as well. Until then, Jesus Christ who is now your life, takes your mortal life and hands it over to your neighbors so that you might be of some use to them while you wait for Jesus and his glory.

The Proclamation on the Plains Conference on Jan. 2-4, 2011

Dr. Steven Paulson of Luther Seminary (St. Paul, Minn.)

Luther House of Studies, Sioux Falls, SD