Hearing Is Doing

The 16^th Sunday after Pentecost–September 8, 2013

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

“if your heart turns away, and you will not hear…” Vs. 17

     Moses’ time is drawing to a close.  In just a little while he will ascend the mountain for a glimpse of the Promised Land.  His successor Joshua will lead the people into it.  Moses will die upon the mountain, the last of the generation of people who failed to listen to the promises of their God when He said that He’d deliver the Promised Land to them.  Because they didn’t hear their good God’s good Word, they wandered in the wilderness until that unhearing and unheeding generation died.

     Moses was the last and he wouldn’t set foot in the Promised Land either.  But he preached to the people gathered before him awaiting their entry into it.  He preached the importance of their listening to… of their hearing… of their heeding the Word of the Lord.  All they would receive would come from that Word.  Heeding it surely meant life and goodness.  Not hearing it surely meant death and evil.  God’s Word was their life.  Outside of that Word there was nothing but death.

     Moses seems fond of the word “obey” or at least his translators are.  While the origins of our English word obey rest in the combination of two Latin words for “direction” and “hear,” its ancient sense is obscured today.  In those bygone times, those who heard, did.  They could do no other.  In the modern religious situation, the use of the words obey and obedience cannot be separated from an act of the human will—a choice.  The human act of “willing” is inserted between hearing and doing. 

     Moses was well aware that the people before him still carried the idols their parents brought with them out of Egypt (cf. Jos. 24:23; 1 Sa. 7:3).  He knew their hearts were already turned away so he tells them “choose…” “choose life…” choose to have the Word of your Lord in your ears.  It is your repentance and it will repent you.

     So, too, you who wander  among the idols of your own making:  Choose to hear the Word of the Lord.  It will repent you of your old self and its “willing” and make you the new person whom God wills. 

Table Talk:  Discuss how choosing to hear the Word takes away choice
Pray:  Heavenly Father, give us the Word of life, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Table Talk is provided by
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and authored by Timothy J. Sweson

Visible Righteous Is Civil Righteousness

The 15^th Sunday after Pentecost–September 1, 2013

Proverbs 25:2-10

“It is the glory of God to conceal things…” Vs. 2

     Solomon has provided you with an important teaching in these verses.  The teaching is begun by the first verse and its contrasting statements:  “the glory of God…” vs. “the glory of kings…”  It declares a vital distinction between the glory of God in which he conceals things and the glory of kings which is to search things out.  Kings display their glory in majesty and might.  God conceals his glory in the weak and foolish. (1 Cor. 1:28)

      You also receive this teaching through other words from God such as “Truly, you are a God who hides himself…” (Is. 45:15) and “The secret things belong to the Lord…the things that are revealed belong to us.” (Dt. 29:29) and “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Ro. 11:33)… as you hear these and similar passages, you find that Scripture teaches a distinction between God hidden in his majesty and God revealed in his Word.  It also teaches the distinction between your receiving the divine righteousness of eternal life and your achieving the civil righteousness of mortal life.

     Luther taught this distinction and maintained that kings and secular authorities had the duty to coerce those unwilling to be good so they’d behave well enough to benefit the neighbor and civil society.  This is called civil righteousness.  Secular (civil) authorities rule, then, as given by God for the maintenance of civil order.  God works good even as it is concealed within the ambiguous work of human agents:  “…the heart of kings is unsearchable.” (vs. 3)  Their true intentions are hidden from you even as they coerce and cajole some good from you by their promises and threats. 

     What joy, then, for you to receive the revelation of your Father in heaven’s heart through Jesus Christ your Lord!  “No one has ever seen God.  It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (Jn. 1:18)  Jesus, the Word of God, comes straight from the heart of God so that you would know God’s true intention for you.  The glory of God’s salvation is concealed beneath Jesus’ death on the cross “for you.”

Table Talk:  Why must a civil/divine righteousness distinction be taught?
Pray:  Heavenly Father, show me your heart through your Word.  Amen

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Discernment

Greetings to you on this day that the Lord has made; it is a day for us to rejoice and be glad!  Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and from his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

One of the several responsibilities within the Student Services Division is to work with inquiring and curious people who wonder whether they should take classes from us, enter one of our programs, or even whether they are being called by the Holy Spirit for a more involved and a more public ministry within their local church or their church body.  This “wondering” is often referred to as the process of discernment.  Those inquiring and wondering people are in the process of discerning whether or not they are being called by the Holy Spirit.  In other words, would their enrollment be of God, or not?

When I was in the parish, I often encountered sincere people who expressed their greatest desire saying, “I just want to know God’s will for my life so I can do it.”  They, too, were engaged in the practice of discernment.  Sometimes… most of the time… it overwhelmed them.  Putting every decision, every action, up to such scrutiny as to whether or not it is the will of God for your life soon proves exhausting.  Those sincere people from the parish and the inquiring and curious ones deciding to take classes share a similar weariness.  The practice of discernment is wearying.  Deciding whether or not the call is of the Holy Spirit can be exhausting as the “wondering” drags on.

Popular culture generally confuses the process of discernment with something often described as “listening to your heart” or “discovering your authentic self.”  These practices turn your attention inward so that you can hear your inner voice—the authentic voice of your true self.  Such listening, though, is not the process of discernment.  It fails two tests.  First, we are not trust our own heart.  Jesus has a pretty low opinion of the human heart and its capacities.  The human heart is the source of all that defiles a person—all evil ideas and inclinations (Mt. 7:21).  Heartfelt sincerity is not trustworthy.  Second, the Holy Spirit does not work with an inner voice but with an external word, the Word of God.  The fifth article of the Augsburg Confession testifies to this when it calls the preached word and the delivered sacraments “instruments” through which the Holy Spirit works. 

Our tradition certainly holds that there is an “inner” call as well as an “outer” call.  The inner call of our tradition is not the same as the one understood by culture.  Popular culture prioritizes the inner call, making the desires of the person’s heart or authentic self sacrosanct, unable to be thwarted.  It is the person’s “right” to follow the desires of their heart or their authentic self.  In our tradition, however, the inner call is always subject to ratification by an outer call, an external call.  Because the internal call cannot be easily separated from the ambition of a sinful heart, our tradition ratifies the inner call with the voice of a neighbor:  brothers and sisters in Christ speaking singly or corporately, personally or institutionally. 

When I work with inquiring and curious people who wonder whether they should take classes from us, they mostly wonder about their inner call.  I work with them in beginning the process of discernment.  Most of that discernment is teaching them to hear the outer call.  Certainly, we tend to the inner call but we start to look for all the ways that inner call is being ratified by the outer call. 

Often, the first sign of an outer call is the encouragement of their pastor to become more deeply involved in the life of their congregation or church body.  Sometimes, this outer call precedes the actual awareness of the person’s inner call.  As our inquiring and curious prospective student becomes more deeply involved in their congregation, other members more give them encouragement to take up formal study.  This was certainly true in my journey to seminary.  My neighbors… my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ become so insistently encouraging that I often joked, “I wasn’t called to seminary; I was pushed.”

Once the prospect student applies, another instance of the outer call occurs.  The application requires letters of reference.  In those letters, the references speak singly and personally in ratifying the inner call of the prospective student.  As the application process continues, there are assessments of skills and education by our registrar.  The assessment process culminates in an admission interview during which several of us converse with the prospective student in what could well be called a “testing or discerning” of the prospective student’s inner call.   A successful admissions interview results in a further ratification of the person’s inner call.

The now-admitted-student’s church body has its own discernment process for ratifying the student’s inner call.  This discernment is accomplished by the various church bodies’ ministry committees.  They meet with and work with our students as they take classes and undergo pastoral formation.  Eventually, there will be an expression of an outer call when the ministry committee endorses the student for parish ministry.

At that point their names go before congregations.  The Holy Spirit working through the call of a congregation delivers the authoritative voice of the external or outer call.  It is the final ratification of the person’s inner call that may have been experienced years before.  This call of the Holy Spirit is the voice of God setting the newly-called into their particular office.

Discernment is simple, yet difficult—ambiguous, yet certain.  Left to ourselves and turned inward upon ourselves we have only that difficult task of listening to the ambiguous voice of our human heart.  Yet, when the call of the Holy Spirit finally comes through the congregation, the difficulty and ambiguity fall away for we receive the simple certainty that God has spoken.  Between those two events we wait and learn to listen to the voice of our neighbors as they ratify, or not, that inner call.

Courtesy of "Word ad Work"--the magazine of the Institute of Lutheran Theology

http://ilt.org/images/newsletter/pentecost.pdf

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The Curse is Rolled Back

The Resurrection of our Lord – March 31, 2013

Isaiah 65:17-25

“Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth…” Vs. 17

     The Lord will not let Isaiah stay silent when it comes to the ultimate future he has in store for his people:  plans to give them a future and a hope (cf. Jer. 29:11).  Isaiah breaks forth with the Lord’s promise of creating a new heavens and a new earth:  (Isa. 42:9) and (Isa. 48:6).  Such is the future Isaiah promises… such is the future of which Peter speaks (2 Peter 3:13)… and such is the future which John sees in his apocalyptic vision. (Rev. 21:1)

     The new heavens and the new earth are promised by Isaiah, testified to throughout Scripture, and delivered in Jesus Christ.  He is the Messiah, first promised by God when he declared to the serpent in the Garden:  “…her [Eve’s] offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Ge. 3:15)  From the very moment in which the curse was imposed upon Adam and Eve, they, and all subsequent generations, have lived—not only under the curse—but under this promise as well:  One born of woman will come and bear the curse, bring the curse to an end, and reign eternally in a new heaven and a new earth.  “The former things shall not be remembered or come into mind…” (Isa. 65:17)  In that new creation which is yours now in Christ Jesus, all that the curse imposed is rolled back.  Your tears and suffering come to an end.   The curse on man’s labor is lifted.  The enemies—sin and death—conquered in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, finally come to their end.

     All these things are yours already though you do not see them.  Luther calls your attention to 1 Peter 1: 6-12 where Peter not only declares these things immediately certain but also that they await their revelation.  Luther counseled:  “Therefore whoever is tormented in his feeling by sin and death, let him rise again in the Word and kingdom of Christ and say, ‘My Christ lives’ ” (AE 17:388)

Table Talk:  Discuss your living Lord’s victory over sin and death

Pray:  Father, give me certainty of baptism’s promise: death to the old & new life in Jesus Christ, even though I’m still a sinner; amen.

Timothy J. Swenson

Institute of Lutheran Theology

910 4th Street, Brookings, SD 57006

605-692-9337

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admin@ilt.org

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Moses' Second Song

Table Talk for Palm/Passion Sunday – March 31, 2013 

Deuteronomy 32:36-39 

“There is none that can deliver out of my hand” Vs. 39

Moses sings a second song. The first song of Moses was inspired by the Lord delivering Israel from the hand of the Pharaoh by the people’s safe passage through the Red Sea and the subsequent destruction of the Egyptian army. Moses sang: “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously…” (Ex. 15:1-3) Moses’ second song (Ex. 32:1-43) came as the people were about to enter the Promised Land. Moses sang and on the same day received word from the Lord about how he was to die. In his second song Moses anticipates the peoples’ further unfaithfulness to their Lord: “His people have been unfaithful to him; they have not acted like his children – this is their sin. They are a perverse and deceitful generation.” (Dt. 32:5)

Such is the context of our text today: Moses prophesies the peoples’ future unfaithfulness and the Lord’s response to it. This anticipates the end of Joshua’s life when he, too, stood before the people remembering and anticipating their unfaithfulness (Josh. 24:14-23) and demanded: “Choose this day whom you will worship!” When your ears are tuned to hear it, there is repetition throughout the history of the people: 1) unfaithful rebellion by the people; 2) chastisement by the wrath of God; 3) lament and repentance by the people; 4) deliverance by the hand of their Lord.

Our text today connects with two great promises delivered to you through the history of God’s people. One comes in verse 36:“when he sees that their power is gone…” These words anticipate the Lord’s answer to the Apostle Paul when he prayed for the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9) The second promise comes from our Lord Jesus himself: “My Father, who has given [the sheep] to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” (Jn. 10:29) You, the sheep, hear his voice and rest on your Lord’s faithfulness, not your own.

Table Talk: Discuss faithfulness and hearing the word in obedience
Pray: Father, by your word, deliver to me a new and clean heart; amen

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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost—July 15, 2012

Amos 7:7-15

“Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel...” vs. 8

     Amos is receiving another authorization for the office prophet into which the Lord has placed him.  Like you read in Ezekiel last week, here in Amos you read of another image of justification.  Last week it was the image of standing upright before the Lord.  This week it is the image of a plumb line—a string with a weight at the end.  When the weight hangs on the end of the string, the string marks a straight up-and-down vertical line—an excellent way to measure the “uprightness” of a wall or of a people.   By implication, God’s people Israel would fail to measure up—they would not be “upright” and, like a tilted wall, must be torn down and rebuilt. 

     God’s justification of his people is dramatic and terrifying.  Listen to its description:  “Made desolate…”  “Laid waste…”  “With the sword…”  “Die by the sword…” “Go into exile…”  God justifies by reducing them to nothing and then—from that nothing—raising up a new people… a new person… and a new creation (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17)

     When God first justified you, he did so in the water and word of Holy Baptism.  By being baptized into the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your old sinful self was drowned and you were raised up a new creation.  While you are still “in the flesh,” your baptism is to be used every day through confession and absolution.  These two will repent you and forgive you your sins.  In this forgiveness of sins you will know that you have been set free from that triumvirate of powers—the devil, the world, and your sinful self.  When you are no longer bent over in their bondage, you are stood up straight; you’ve been “plumbed” and found upright—justified.  This is the daily dying to sin and being raised up to walk in newness of life.  It is the Christian life: baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.


Table Talk
Timothy J. Swenson

The Institute of Lutheran Theology

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost—July 8, 2012

Ezekiel 2:1-5

“He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet...” vs. 1

     Ezekiel is being placed in the prophetic office.  He has just beheld a mysterious and incomprehensible vision and been so dazzled by the glory of the Lord that he fell to the ground, face in the dirt.  While he is in that position—one that recalls Genesis 3:19 “you are dust and to dust you shall return”—the humbled Ezekiel receives a personal address.  The mysterious vision and dazzling glory had produced a mighty and chaotic sound but now, in a word from his Lord, Ezekiel is given a new standing.  Just like he had no time to consider whether or not to fall on his face, Ezekiel has no time to consider whether or not he will stand because the Spirit entered him and stood him up… up on his feet and upright before the Lord. 

     The movement Ezekiel underwent here in these first two verses is the movement of confession and absolution.  Ezekiel, confronted by the glory of the Lord, is struck down to the dust, humbled and repented.  So, too, are you when you are confronted by the glory of the Lord delivered in the Word (“God who is faithful and just” even in the face of his people’s sinful rebellion).  Ezekiel, from that position of humility and reminded of his mortality, hears the Lord speaking, has the Holy Spirit enter him, and is set on his feet by it.  So, too, are you when you’ve been repented and driven to a confession (an agreement with God) of your sinfulness; God’s word of forgiveness delivers the Holy Spirit and you are righteous, upright, and justified—blameless (cf. Ge. 3:12)—before your Lord.


Table Talk
Timothy J. Swenson

The Institute of Lutheran Theology

www.ilt.org

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost—July 1, 2012

Lamentations 3:22-33

“The Lord is good to those who wait for him…” vs. 25

     We often hear and declare that “the Lord is slow to anger…” (Ex. 34:6 & others), but, to people caught up in lament, it seems that the Lord is just plain slow.  Do you find yourself waiting for the Lord… waiting for the Lord to answer prayer… waiting for the Lord to provide strength and hope… waiting for the Lord to fulfill long-standing promises?  If so, you have a predecessor in the book of Lamentations.

     The author of Lamentations is under siege.   Jerusalem is surrounded by the Babylonian army.  The lack of food and water has driven the population to desperate means to avoid starvation.  Death stalks the streets… death from without as the enemy’s arrows and missiles fly through the city… death from within as starvation and violence march through the city.  The Lord withholds deliverance.  To the eyes of reason, there is no hope, only a bitter end.  Yet the prophet does have hope, hope that does not come from reason but from the promises of God.  “The Lord is my portion… therefore I will hope in him” (vs. 24).  This besieged prophet holds a hope not from his senses or his reason but a hope delivered by the Word of the Lord… a Lord of great faithfulness.  Waiting… hoping in such faithfulness is not waiting at all.

     This Lord is the same one who claimed you at your baptism… the Lord who said, “I am the Lord your God!”  No waiting required!  Your Lord, the who came to you in baptism, does not make you wait.  Instead, your Lord comes quickly… quickly, in a Word which forgives your sins… quickly, in a meal that delivers Jesus Christ to you…  Your Lord is always coming to you, no waiting required… coming to you in the font, from the pulpit, and at the altar.


Table Talk

Timothy J. Swenson

The Institute of Lutheran Theology

www.ilt.org

The Nativity of St. John the Baptist—June 24, 2012

Isaiah 40:1-5

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
     for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Vs. 5

     Today’s readings are a break in the “Sundays after Pentecost”--an opportunity to turn our attention to John the Baptist.  These verses delivered by the prophet Isaiah in announcing the end of Israel’s exile are used as well by the gospel authors to introduce John the Baptist.  Evidently these authors saw and delivered a connection between the release of Israel from her Babylonian captivity and the release of the world from its captivity to sin.

     The Baptist says of Jesus:  “He must increase but I must decrease”  (John 3:30).  In Jesus the “glory of the Lord shall be revealed…”  While in the flesh, Jesus’ glory was to be lifted up on the cross—not exactly an attractive sort of glory.  There in that humiliation and death, God hides his glory, forgives sins, and releases the world from its captivity.  There lifted up on the cross, Jesus drew all people—all flesh—to himself (Jn. 12:32) so that they could “see it together.” 

     You, accustomed to the glory of the world, can never “reason” your way to the cross where glory hides beneath its opposite.  You can’t “reason” your way to faith.  But the Holy Spirit does call you through the gospel and establish you in faith.  Your own understanding or effort cannot accomplish this.  It is the work of God.  Your work is nothing; Christ’s work is everything.  The mouth of the Lord has spoken, and spoken well through his prophet John.

Timothy J. Swenson

The Institute of Lutheran Theology

www.ilt.org

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

The Second Sunday in Advent C

December 5, 2010

Wilmington and Trinity Lutheran Churches

Alexander and Arnegard, North Dakota

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Romans 15:4-13

Matthew 3:1-12

“Of a Shepherd and Some Snakes”

Greetings to you on this day that the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan… But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers!” (Matthew 3:5 & 7) John singles out the religious leaders of his day for particular attention and uses their presences as the occasion to give a vivid description of the Messiah’s coming. During these Sundays in Advent, I’ll be preaching on the three estates: family, church, and government. These estates have been established by God as gifts while we wait for the final revealing of Jesus Christ—the Son of Man—in all his glory.

The first estate to be given is that of family. It’s establishment came at the marriage of Adam and Eve. It is maintained as subsequent families establish themselves by marriage and continue from generation to generation. Family is the foundation of community and of commerce. Family is the place of work and play. It is the arena in which God’s good gifts of this creation—food, shelter, clothing, daily work, and all we need from day to day—are provided, earned, and received through a vast, interwoven set of obligations.

Now all of us know that the obligations of family, the demands of work, the necessity of provided food, shelter, clothing, and all their ancillaries—those obligations get overwhelming. God had an answer: church. Church was the place where people stopped. It was their limit. When that limit approached, the people could do nothing more than worship before it, contemplating the mystery—not of their work—but of God’s work. The reformers called it “The Divine Service”—the place and time where God served himself to his people. The people could do nothing more than receive what God was doing to them. This was their worship: to simply receive. And to know that they were receiving everything God had to give simply because God wanted to give it. They had to do nothing to earn God’s gifts. God served the people by giving gifts and the people served their God by receiving them.

Church and worship would come to be reinforced by established commands and rituals: the commandment “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy” and the sacrifices of the Temple which formalized the forgiveness of sins. Those who lead the family in church and worship were established as a hereditary priesthood—the Levites. They were often compared with shepherds.

But John doesn’t compare the Pharisees and Sadducees with shepherds; he calls them the illegitimate spawn of snakes. The “church” situation had gotten quite complicated by the time of John. The Jewish nation was occupied by the Roman army. The Romans had overcome the previous occupiers. The Jews had helped them do this and had thus earned a privileged status as an allied nation rather than an occupied nation. The Jews were allowed to keep their own civil government and their religion. The Romans had one requirement: that there be order in the streets.

This requirement became a challenge. The Jews still had the Levite priesthood but many other religious denominations had arisen: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots. The Zealots posed a big problem: they were revolutionaries wanting to drive out the occupying Romans. They used guerilla warfare to accomplish this. These tactics threatened the Jewish religious establishment. The establishment had a good thing going. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Levites all came together in a ruling council called the Sanhedrin.

The Sanhedrin governed the operation of the Temple. It was the site of one hundred thousand sacrifices per year. The meat from sacrificial animals, the grain and the oil were all a major source of food for the people of Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin governed the operation of the people’s lives—enforcing and adjudicating the various laws; working closely with Roman authorities who provided the man power for the imposition of penalties and the collection of the Temple tax.

John and subsequently, Jesus, threatened to upset the lucrative system the religious authorities had developed. Those authorities had corrupted “church” and turned it into a religious system. Instead of providing a divine service wherein the people simply received the gifts of God, those religious authorities had turned the divine service into an industry for their own benefit and enrichment. Instead of being receivers of God’s gifts, the people were required to give to God. The estate of church had been stood on its head. The shepherds had turned into snakes.

Ole was dying. He sent a message to his IRS agent and his lawyer, asking them to come to his bedside. They arrived and sat next to the bed. Ole lay back on his pillow and smiled contentedly. After sitting in silence for a while, the lawyer had to ask, “Ole, why are we here.” Ole answered: Jesus died between two thieves, and that’s how I want to go, too.”

So God who had always been the giver, became the ultimate giver, and gave his son—Jesus the Christ—who would be the only and final shepherd God’s people would ever need. Jesus the Christ came to give his life in order that everyone would know—all the people of every time and every place—that everyone would know that God gives and gives and gives. God serves his people and their proper worship is to simply receive what he gives—namely to receive the gift of his Son, the Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd says, “Come to me all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” When all creation is broken by sin, the daily work required for daily bread oppresses us. Family, community, and commerce become a burden. Sinful creatures are oppressed by their labor. There is no rest for the wicked. There is no rest, except in Jesus Christ. Jesus the Good Shepherd gives rest from our labors, peace for our souls, and forgiveness for our sins. All these are the gifts of a gracious God who wants you to know the truth about yourselves and him: God serves you through church and you serve your neighbor through family, community, and commerce. When you know this truth, you are repented and near the kingdom the heaven. You just have to wait for its final revealing.

And, while you wait, enjoy church. There you will hear John the Baptist naming the brood of vipers so you will know them; there you will hear Jesus declared the Good Shepherd for you; there you will hear the truth about yourselves and God; and there, having heard the truth, you will have had God’s work done to you so you can do your work for your neighbors while you wait

Thanks be to God! Amen

While You Wait

01 Advent A Isaiah 2:1-5

November 28, 2010 Psalm 122

Wilmington & Trinity Lutheran Churches Romans 13:11-14

Arnegard & Alexander, North Dakota Matthew 24:36-44

“While You Wait”

Greetings to you on this day that the Lord has made—a day for us to rejoice and be glad! Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Apostle Paul declared: “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:11) When you don’t know the hour or the day of the appointed time, you have to settle for just knowing that the time of waiting is getting shorter. None of us like waiting. One of the funniest comedy routines I’ve ever heard was by Ken Davis on waiting. One beauty salon, he said, was capitalizing on people’s impatience. They’d posted a big hand-written sign announcing: “Ears pierced while you wait.”

Though waiting for the main event—that is, waiting for the coming of the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory to gather the elect—though waiting for that event wears us down, Jesus warns: “You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Be watchful, be ready, be prepared—these are the qualities expected of those who wait. Just like disaster preparedness, there is no end to the experts who are willing to sell you advice or market their products to you so you can be appropriately watchful, ready, and prepared for the coming of the Son of Man and be numbered among the elect.

For two thousand years there’s been one religious prescription or another as proper preparation for the end times. Various times in church history have called for retreat to the desert; isolation in monasteries, holy pilgrimages, sacred duties, giving your heart to Jesus, working for peace and justice, etc. Martin Luther saw through the pretense of all these sorts of labors to their uncomfortable truth: these prescribed labors were more about the maintenance of the religious institution and its enrichment than about doing God-given work. Luther lumped all the labors prescribed by the religious leaders into one category: self-chosen works—that is, those things people choose to do as demonstrations of their own holiness or preparedness for their being one of the elect.

In contrast, Luther held that we do not get to choose our works but that God gives work to do while we wait. He called for people to be busy doing the things God had created humanity to be doing. This work is delivered through the three estates God established: family, church, and government. These things were readily available in the first chapters of Genesis. The first people, Adam and Eve, had been given three estates—three arenas or “institutions”—in which to be doing the things God had given over to them. The very first estate was that of family: established with the “marriage” of Adam and Eve and continued through the instruction to them “Be fruitful!” The second estate was that of church: established by the Word of God which set limits upon them “You shall not eat!” while at the same time giving them everything they needed “You may eat freely…” The third estate was that of government and came after they’d been expelled from the Garden. Force and coercion was now necessary to restrain sin; read how God handled Cain after the death of Abel.

During this Advent season with its warnings to be ready, on watch, and prepared, I’ll be preaching on how our work in these three estates is our readiness and preparation.

Jesus himself points to the household as the arena of proper preparation for the coming of the Son of Man. In the verses immediately following our gospel text for the day, Jesus declares: “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.” (Matthew 24:45-46) The household—the family—is the first estate established by God and endorsed by Jesus as an arena for our labors while we wait.

Essential to the establishment of the family is the coming together of man and woman as husband and wife—the one flesh of Genesis chapter two. Just as scripture declares in Genesis 5:2—“He created them male and female; when they were created, he blessed them and named them “humankind,”” so too does it declare: “and the two shall be one flesh.” Marriage is the foundation upon which the estate of family—and subsequently all the activity of economy—is built. As Luther sees it, the biblical understanding is simple: strong marriages equal strong families, strong families equal strong communities, strong communities equal strong commerce between them. Marriage, family, community, commerce—in each of them humanity has a variety of vocations: husband, father, citizen, boss.

Each vocation is a God-given duty so that we are some benefit to our neighbor. In the carrying out of these various duties we are doing the work of being “wholly-human”—that’s with a “w” and two “l”s—wholly. This is the “wholly-ness” which inspired Luther to declare a mother with babe on her knees and the servant with a mop have a work more holy than any bishop in his robes.

When he comes, Jesus Christ can find us employed in no better and greater task than in doing our duty.

A black poet -- French E Oliver, 1921 writes:

“There’s a king and a captain high,

And he’s coming by and by,

And he’ll find me hoeing cotton when he comes.

You can hear his legions charging in the regions of the sky,

And he’ll find me hoeing cotton when he comes.

There’s a man they thrust aside,

Who was tortured till he died,

And he’ll find me hoeing cotton when he comes.

He was hated and rejected,

He was scorned and crucified,

And he’ll find me hoeing cotton when he comes.

When he comes! When he comes!

He’ll be crowned by saints and angels when he comes.

They’ll be shouting out Hosanna! to the man that men denied,

And I’ll kneel among my cotton when he comes.”

If you are doing your duty, however simple that duty may be, on the day Christ comes there will be joy for you.^[1] Those off doing their self-chosen works of dissipating vice or religious virtue will not be ready, watchful, or prepared. God has given us work to do while we wait so that our neighbors will share in this creation’s abundance. Thanks be to God Amen

---

^[1]The Gospel of Matthew : Volume 2. 2000, c1975 (W. Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, Ed.). The Daily Study Bible, Rev. ed. (317). Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.