THOUGHTS ON THE GOSPEL FOR THE 4th SUNDAY IN LENT

PREACHING TO THE CAPTIVE WILL

by Dick Smith

March 22, 2009

Gospel: John 3:14-21

Chapter three begins with Nicodemus coming to Jesus by night.  Vs. 10, begins an answer Jesus makes to him that goes on for a number of verses.  Since Greek had no quotation marks the context was used to determine when the statement ended.  Here however it is not easily discerned.  As a result the scholars have drawn two different conclusions.  One says that Jesus’ comment ends with verse 15.  The other holds that Jesus’ comment runs all the way through verse 22.

This immediately raises the question, did Jesus speak the Mini Gospel (John 3:16) to Nicodemus or is John making a statement that runs from verse 16 through verse 21?  It’s your call.  However you see it.

From the very outset of the conversation with Nicodemus Jesus has asserted that the relationship between God and man is one accomplished totally by God.  He begins with the necessity of being born from above. Nicodemus immediately tries to take it out of God’s hands and put it in man’s.  Jesus responds by taking it out of man’s hands and keeping it in God’s hands.  Water and the Spirit are references to baptism that John brings up again and again in the Gospel.  Our brother Paul sees water baptism as the pivotal point in God’s relationship to us. (See Romans 6:3ff.  And lest one think that this refers to some kind of adult only knowledgable baptism, note that Paul addresses his readers with the idea that they may not even understand what happened to them in their baptism.  He writes, “Or are you IGNORANT (the Greek.  Often translated into English as, “Do you not know…”) that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore by baptism into his death that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might live a new life.”  There is the death and new life, “being born from above,” that Jesus speaks to Nicodemus.

Jesus continues in his drive to proclaim that it’s all about God and his action and not about anything man can do.  He does this by pointing out that the Holy Spirit moves where he wills not according to our will. Further he points out that it isn’t about man climbing up to God but about the Son of man coming down to earth.  And what that means is centered on the cross where he will be lifted up and there glorified.  IT is in the cross where salvation is won.  Eternal life is for the ones believing. 

This then leads to the mini gospel, as I call it, the passage that has been called the golden thread of Scripture that runs through it From Genesis to Revelation. “For God so loved the world…everlasting life” (John 3:16). It is about saving not about condemning, John writes.  (You see “my take” on the quotation.  I think Jesus’ comments conclude with verse 15.) Condemnation is associated with unbelief. 

The judgment is “that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil”(verse 19).  This means that human kind is in rebellion against God.  This counters the argument that there are “seekers after God.”  Certainly there are self proclaimed “seekers” but what they don’t see is in their seeking they are moving away from God.  As our brother Paul wrote, “’None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, NO ONE SEEKS FOR GOD.  All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one does good, NOT EVEN ONE.’” (Romans 3:10b-12).

Like the good tree that produces good fruit and the evil tree that produces evil fruit, (Luke 6:43-44) so with faith and unbelief. The one believing comes to the light because his deeds are like that of the good tree producing good fruit.  “His deeds have been wrought in God” (John 3:21).    The one unbelieving produces evil fruit like that of the evil tree and thus avoids the light because he does not want his deeds exposed.

Believing or Faith is “the real presence of Christ in us as redeeming reality…” (R. Prenter, “Spiritus Creator,” page 50).   So faith is not the person’s.  It is not “MY faith.”  Rather the faith present in you is CHRIST himself.  One could say it is “CHRIST’S FAITH.”  That is how our brother Paul states it in Galatians 2:20.  “I don’t live any longer.  It is CHRIST who lives in me!  And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD who loved me and gave himself for me.”

The “light” here spoken of is CHRIST.  In chapter one of John, it reads, “in him was life and the life was the light of men…The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.” 

This is the plight of the human.  He is turned in upon himself, Luther wrote.  He sees himself apart from God.  He sees Christ outside of himself.  He is against himself within because he fails to understand his condition, both as a sinner and as one in whom the light lives.  He can search forever but will only drive himself further away from God. 

The preaching of CHRIST is putting the faith of CHRIST into the person (“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of CHRIST” (Romans 10)). The Holy Spirit will work or not work in the hearer according to his good pleasure. 

So for the human person it comes down to preaching CHRIST and the rest is the work or not work of the Holy Spirit. 

As Jesus pointed out to Nicodemus it’s NOT in man’s hands but in God’s hand alone. 

Thanks be to God through JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!

                                                                                  © Richard J. Smith   

Relating a Lutheran Theology of Nature to the Internal Clarity of Scripture

It may come as a surprise that the notion of the internal clarity of scripture arises only at the end of a treatment claiming to be a Prologomena to a Robust Lutheran Theology. Should it not be placed at the beginning? Should we not start with a statement of the general reliability of Scripture in terms of a special revelation, and then proceed to a consideration of the divine and its relationship to us? Should be not begin in time-honored fashion with what we can know, and then move forward to being, to what there is?

However, leaving consideration of the internal clarity of scripture to the end was done purposefully, because we are interested primarily in understanding this doctrine ontologically and not epistemically; we are interested in the being of the doctrine of the internal clarity of scripture, and not primarily in an epistemological method by which we are putatively given reliable means on the basis of which we can be confident in the truth of Scripture.

My interest with retrieving the notion of the internal clarity of Scripture is three-fold: 1) The doctrine is crucial for Lutheran theology because it protects against willful and capricious interpretations of Scripture, 2) It is a doctrine that all Lutherans should be able in principle to affirm, 3) It is a notion that, properly understood, creates parallels between understanding God's action and presence with respect to both the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture. I wish to treat this last point briefly.

Just as it may be externally obscure to us that God is at work in the universe, and yet Lutherans may affirm that God is at work in nature, so may it be externally obscure to us that God is at work creating and sustaing his Word within cannonical Scripture, and yet God is clearly Triunely present in His Holy Scriptures. The Triune God is present in His world even though humans often do not see it. One might say even that there is an internal clarity to God's work in nature. God is ontologically present at the center of Nature although humans often have trouble discerning it to be so. Correspondingly, Christ is present at the center of Scripture although humans have trouble oftentimes seeing this to be true.

What is important here is to understand God in His Trinitarian nature. Just as it is true that God creates and sustains the universe, incarnates Himself in the world, and bears testimony to that incarnation and the identity of God as Creator Father, Incarnate Word, and Loving Spirit, so too is it true that God the Son is present as Word in and through the Biblical text attesting to the Father, and attested to by the Spirit. Just as the Trinitarian God stands over and against Himself in Word and Spirit in nature, so too does the same Trinitarian God stand over and against Himself in witness to the Word in and through the text.

Lent

by Pastor Lenae Rasmussen

Like Advent, Lent is a season of repentance and anticipation. However, the Christmas shopping and baking that somehow sneak into Advent as we prepare for the birth of our Lord are starkly absent in Lent. After we supposedly eat up the fat and meat in the house on Shrove Tuesday, we’re “supposedD to lay off all the goodies until Easter. Admittedly, marshmallow eggs and chocolate bunnies have a way of slipping into our homes before Holy Week, but for the most part, there is a noticeably different aura to Lent. We hold off on celebrating Easter and the Resurrection of Our Lord until we have made our journey through five weeks of Lent, and Holy Week.

Now we are getting to the heart of the matter regarding Lent: Holy Week includes Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, the day that Jesus died for our sins. The Crucifixion of Our Lord for our salvation is indeed bittersweet. Theologically, it is the “joyful day” when the Happy Exchange takes place.  It is “the day” of our atonement and reconciliation to God (2 Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13). 

Yet Jesus’ grisly death outside the city gate is not the kind of thing most people like to dwell on. We much prefer the while lilies and daffodils of Easter to the mutilated, dead body of our Lord hanging on the Tree. In fact, the offense of the cross made Paul’s preaching of Christ crucified utterly foolish to both the Jews who demanded signs, and the Greeks who sought wisdom. But here—on the cross—the Good News is hidden in the sign of the opposite. “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor 1:21).  Here is the rub...the cross and the crucified Christ are not wise by worldly standards. In fact, Jesus’ whole walk to Jerusalem after His Transfigur ation was quite foolish by human standards: “If He had just stayed away from that town, the Temple, and the Sanhedrin, Pilate couldn’t have done anything to Him!”

Now, we clearly see that God’s ways are not our ways, and His foolishness is wiser than anything we can dream up. None of us were much to write home about, Paul says, until God called us; we were neither rich nor noble nor powerful, “but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord’.” (1 Cor 1:27-3 1).

In light of Christ’s resurrection, His preaching and healing in Galilee start to pale. It was wonderful for the blind, lame, deaf, dumb, leprous, hemorrhaging and otherwise diseased and crippled people who came to Jesus to be restored to health, but that wasn’t the point of God’s incarnation. The miracle of Jesus’ birth and life in the Gospel of Mark is not about the super-duper things He did—the colossus marching across Galilee and walking on water—the miracle is Jesus’ death and resurrection to make you and me believe that we are sinners—big sinners—but God forgives our sins for His Name’s sake.

Now, looking backwards, in faith we can “see” and “know” what Jesus’ public ministry and His walk to Jerusalem to hang on a cross outside the city gates is all about: the kingdom of God is at hand; it is right before you; believe the Good News that you are a sinner and your sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake; turn away from striving to be like God. Believe the Good News and be reconciled to your Father in Heaven. You, who once had nothing, now have everything in Christ. Atonement is yours by faith alone in Christ alone, the Living Word and the Good News.

Now, in cleansed in Christ’s gift of faith in His Gospel of the Forgiveness of Sins, we are truly prepared to enter the season of Lent assured that “I am Christ’s, and He is mine.” In faith, we poor sinners are at last set free to confess our sins and repent. In Christ, we can actually turn to God instead of our self-justifying devices because He does it for us. In Christ,He gives us faith to believe the Good News announced to us in the absolution in Christ’s stead: “I forgive you all your sins. Go in peace.”  Now, believe it!

Preaching to the Captive Will

From a chief of sinners for whom Christ died. 
That you may know that "to live is CHRIST."(Phil. 1)

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SOME THOUGHTS ON THE GOSPEL

For the 1^st Sunday in Lent, March 1, 2009

Dick Smith, Bismarck, ND

PREACHING TO THE CAPTIVE WILL

 

Mark 1:9-15:  Jesus is baptized by John, driven into the desert by the Spirit, 40 days tempted by Satan, and ministered to by angels.  After John is arrested Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee, “preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand (Greek: has drawn near); repent, and believe in the gospel’” (RSV).

 

In all three series of the Gospels (Series A, based on Matthew; Series B, based on Mark, and Series C, based on Luke) the Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent is the narrative concerning Jesus’ 40 day stay in the wilderness and temptation by the Devil.  The 40 day period is echoed in the structure of the Season of Lent, namely 40 days, Ash Wednesday to Easter (not counting the Sundays, which technically are not a part of the Lenten Season, thus are called Sundays “in” Lent.) 

It is an appropriate Narrative because it sets the stage for the redemptive event of the cross.  Jesus is confronted by Satan.  The old story of the Garden, Adam, Eve, and the serpent (Satan), the Fall into Sin, that event that has enslaved every person since then in the prison house of sin and death, is replayed here but with an astounding variation.  Instead of Satan winning the day, Christ defeats the Evil One.

This establishes the basic underpinnings of all the Scripture, namely, that humans have no free will but rather are bound in sin and are unable to do ANYTHING to free themselves.  CHRIST ALONE confronts Satan and defeats him.  And it is in this context then that He begins his ministry in Galilee declaring that NOW, because of his presence the kingdom of God has drawn near. 

But not only has the kingdom drawn near but, Jesus declares, the kingdom now incorporates us into it, so that sin, death, and the power of the devil is overcome for us.  “Repent, and believe in the gospel” are the words Jesus speaks.  It is immediately here that we confront the reality of our enslavement to sin or we delude ourselves.  If we are enslaved then we are not free to do.  Rather we are bound by Satan. Therefore the words are expressive of what is to be NOT expressive of a command that we can fulfill. 

Herein we confront the great chasm between Christianity and Religion.  Religion is built upon the principle that humans are free agents who can choose between good and evil.  Christianity declares that humans are enslaved to sin and CANNOT choose between good and evil.  This means, “repentance” is not an option nor is “believing” an option.  Rather they are a work of the Holy Spirit who works “where and when he wills, in those who hear the gospel” (Augsburg Confession, Article V).

This is a crushing truth to the Old Adam in every person.  It is crushing because no matter how much we talk about being enslaved to sin, helpless within ourselves, we still want to hold to the delusion that we aren’t really that enslaved after all.

In reference to the two words: “repent” and “believe,” it should be noted what these words mean.  In the Scriptures, “repent” means “to die”(Regin Prenter, Spiritus Creator,” page 193.)  The best description of repentance is found in Romans 7:7-24.  Here Paul describes his and our condition, namely, that we CANNOT DO THE GOOD BUT ONLY THE EVIL.  That is a terrifying truth that hits American Folk Religion right between the eyes.  We can only do the evil?  WELL, OF COURSE!  We are enslaved and as such we do what the prison master commands.  This kills us, St. Paul writes.  The 10 Commandments are NOT A MORAL COMPASS but a condemning judgment on every person.  It kills.  We die. 

The second word of Jesus in the beginning of his ministry in Galilee after “repent” is “believe.”  After we die then out of nothing God creates NEW LIFE and that life is CHRIST HIMSELF living in us as a redeeming reality (Regin Prenter, “Spiritus Creator”, page 50).  “Belief” or “faith” is CHRIST HIMSELF.  Or to put it another way the believing that is in us is CHRIST’S FAITH.  It is NOT your faith or my faith.  It cannot be because we are DEAD.

St. Paul’s writings are infused throughout with this remarkable reality.  He continually uses phrases like, “in Christ,” “Christ in us,”  “through Christ,” “the faith of Christ,” “Christ for us,” “for Christ.”  (It is not unusual for these references to be blurred in translation into English because of failure on the part of the translators.  I would refer you to the Greek and recommend the original King James Version as the most faithful in translation.)      

You catch a flavor of this in Romans 7:25. Right on the heels of his description of “repentance” he cries out in verse 24: “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of DEATH?”  Then in verse 25, we have a “through Christ” reference.  “Thanks be to God THROUGH Jesus Christ our Lord!”

A fine passage that speaks directly to Jesus’ declaration of the kingdom being near: repent and believe in the gospel, is St. Paul’s declaration to the Galatians: “I through the Law DIED (Jesus:“Repent”) 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!  And the life I now live in the flesh I live BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD (Jesus: “believe in the gospel”)who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:19-20). (The Greek reads “by the faith of the son of God” as does the correct translation by the original King James Version.  Most English translations read “by faith” which can imply that it is of our doing, as if we were still alive!)   

  

All this is by the work of the Holy Spirit.  No person dies to the Law, that is “repents,” and no person has Christ has their life, that is “believes,” unless the Holy Spirit has worked it in them. He is the one who uses the Law to kill and mediates Christ as our new life. 

“…the ungodly does not ‘come’, even when he hears the word, unless the Father draws and teaches him inwardly; which He does by shedding abroad His Spirit.  When that happens, there follows a ‘drawing’ other than that which is outward; Christ is then displayed by the enlightening of the Spirit, and by it man is rapt to Christ with the sweetest rapture, he being passive while God speaks, teaches and draws, rather than seeking or running himself” (Luther, “The Bondage of the Will,” page 311).

Through Christ’s death and resurrection we have been redeemed.  In our baptism we were united with him in his death and as he was raised we have been given a new life, CHRIST HIMSELF (Romans 6:3-4).  “For you are DEAD and your life is now hid with Christ in God. When CHIRST, WHO IS OUR LIFE, appears you will also appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).

Challenges Facing the Word Alone movement

At the last Word Alone Theological Conference, I sat on the concluding panel in response to the keynote speakers. Each person en-paneled was given opportunity to address the gathering and the keynote speeches. Follow the link to discover what I found as three "challenges" facing the Word Alone movement.

2009-11-11 Word Alone Panel Presentation

Luther Theological Conference: First Sermon Posted

The first Sermon from the 2008 Luther Theological Conference at Brookings is up:
"Disciplined Christians--a sermon reflecting preaching to the bound will."
You can read it at the link below.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcxw5gn_7wqgmknfh

Leave Comments, please.

How do "I" go about preaching to the bound will?

1) by remembering Forde's admonitions "preaching is First Order Discourse" and "preaching is DOING the text to the hearer." I understanding the first as being in the form: "I say unto YOU." I understand the second to mean that preaching is the "active" word working on the passive hearer, literally--as Forde often commented--doing the "electing" deed itself.

2) this means that certain types of sermons do not work well in this genre: motivational, explanatory, even exegetical. They all require some form of assent on the part of the hearer.

3) I think the type of sermon that works in this genre is one that works to "expose" both the bondage that is there and the reality that Christ has already dealt with it.

4) preaching to the bound will has "moments" which are like the punchline of a good joke: when it is delivered, all that was said before is reinterpreted in the new light of the punchline and it "catches" people.

5) Both humor and story serve to "soften" the hearer so that they are susceptible to being "caught." I remember Forde's sermon "Caught in the Act." When I preach an "expose'" sermon, I like to think of it as "catching" my hearers in the act of being who they are--sinners, dead in their sin yet alive in Christ.

Consequently, this sermon "Disciplined Christians"--a title exposing discipleship as the "discipline" of the mortal which we cannot escape, has three "catch" points where I sink the hook:

1) Now don’t tell me you haven’t stored up your neighbor’s faults, hoarding them for some occasional, late-at-night fondling. Exposing that our neighbor's faults are of much more use to us when we keep them close--sort of festering--than to get them out in the open and clear them up.

2) Do you hear that? What do you say to Jesus? "Me? I'm supposed to forgive them? Not me, Jesus. I'm not that kind of person. I'll die before I forgive them!" "Forgive!" Jesus commands. "But Jesus, I can't. It'll be the death of me." "I know, says Jesus, "It was the death of me, too. I died for such forgiveness." Exposing that "forgiveness equals death," a death we're not ready to experience but one which Christ has already undergone.

3) Your neighbor’s fault, your neighbor’s sin has been the occasion, not of his expulsion, but of your being graced. Exposing the whole passage in a new light: Christian discipline--for which this Mt 18 passage--is often cited--is not just neighborly confrontation but Christ confronting you with death and new life.

Conclusions:

1) Some people at the conference found the first "hook" offensive" in that "fondler" is a loaded word in today's context.

2) Most at the conference found the second "hook" to be the most effective, even recommending that the sermon end there.

3) Even I found the third "hook" the weakest--not for its content, but for its presentation. The language and deliver could be revised to "set the hook" harder.

Okay, what say you?

2008 Luther Theological Conference: "Preaching to the Bound Will"

What fun we had!
Five preachers, five sermons, and a roomful of bound wills.
Were any set free?
Well... I can tell you this: The Word of God was preached, what the Holy Spirit did to those wills is the Holy Spirit's business.
Five preachers, five sermons, five different styles and presentations, and a roomful of critics.
What did they say?
Stay tuned. As I get permission to post the sermons, I'll put them up and YOU can make your critique in the comments.