On the Soul at Halloween

Hallow’een – with the original apostrophe – signals where it came from, All Hallows Eve. Of course you have to have an understanding of what the slightly archaic word Hallow means. We still use it in the Lord’s Prayer, Hallowed be thy name. If a saint is a noun – a person, place, thing or idea – to hallow is the verb that makes a saint. Yes, 3rd grade grammar, which is also something that isn’t taught anymore, can be useful. To hallow, is to make Holy. Hallow is a good old Anglo-Saxon word. The words that have replaced it – saint and sanctify – come from the Latin. Hemingway liked short sentences and Anglo-Saxon words. He thought those old words were closer to the living core than the more intellectual Latin.  You take off your shoes when your gut senses the hallowed; the sanctified is something you ponder with your head. Which cuts to the quick?

And that distinction is something I want to think about here.  All Hallows Eve was of course followed by All Saints Day and All Saints was followed by All Souls. The distinction is the medieval one – between those in heaven and those in purgatory. And hence it was something in need of Reform as medieval purgatory is not part of the true teachings of the church. Christ actually did save us. The Holy Spirit actually does hallow us. We do not owe the Pope penance or need to buy indulgences. A Reformed understanding of All Souls might simply be that the judgement as to our final hallowing is not up to us. We can grasp with surety the promise of souls with Christ, which is better by far (Philippians 1:23), for those who evidenced belief. But there are many who might have been baptized but did not evidence belief. Or had not in a long time. We do not know.  And judgement is not ours to make. We commend their souls to the grace of Almighty God. All Souls Reformed is the shadow of All Saints.  If we hold up the Saints as examples of faith to follow. We should also remember that everyone we meet has a soul with all that implies.

And that brings up the question, what is a soul anyway? Modern philosophers would dismiss the word. Tom Wolfe – the guy who wrote The Right Stuff – also wrote a famous article “Sorry, Your Soul Just Died.” What might be shared between ancient philosophers and modern would be that your Soul is what makes you, you. Plato and most of the ancient world asserted that your soul was eternal. It was a little spark off of the eternal one.  And you – your soul – would eternally separate from the one and eventually return to the one. Eastern religion would call it the Wheel of Samsara. Modern philosophers, contrary to the ancient, would say Tom Wolfe’s title. Your soul dies with your body, sorry but nothing of you is immortal.

The Philosophers might bounce between eternal and mortal, but the Psalm writers are the greatest biblical students of the soul. Your soul is not eternal.  You are not Christ, begotten of the Father before all world, God from God, Light from Light.  You are not a spark off the eternal one. You are a creature. You were created. “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).”  But neither are you reducible to just atoms.  The Psalmist knows that he can’t boldly state the immortality of the soul. Lions might tear the soul (Psalm 7:2, 57:4). The soul might melt away (Psalm 119:28). One pleads that the soul might live (Psalm 119:175). Your soul depends upon the grace of God.  But it is that gracious God who sustains you. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…He restores my soul (Psalm 23).” It is God who redeems your soul/life from the pit/sheol (psalm 103:4). It is the LORD who is the consolation of the soul (Psalm 94:19) and makes you the apple of his eye (Psalm 17:8). All this is why the Psalmist says many times, “Praise the LORD, O my soul (Psalm 146:1).”

We might think, and when we think we worry, about our souls – what makes us who we are. But our worry is unnecessary and often unhelpful.  It leads us to false hopes like an eternal soul. It leads us to despair like a dead soul. Instead we put our trust in the LORD, our strength and tower. For He knows our worth.  And he will hallow and keep you – keep your life – in Christ. Know it in your gut.  You are being hallowed.   

Standing Before God

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Biblical Text: Romans 3: 19-28

I don’t often preach from the epistle texts. A part of that is that the Epistles typically lack a hard narrative. I think we as humans understand narrative – the story of a life. And we understand how God works in our lives through the narrative. The narratives that the apostles had were ancient Isreal’s, Jesus and their own. The Epistles end up being authoritative examples of how one does theology – how you proclaim doctrine from the narrative. In that way they are great at teaching, but at least to me less for preaching.

But today was Reformation Day (Observed). And there is a narrative – the story of Martin Luther and the Reformation – that ties directly into the doctrinal teachings of the Epistle lesson. This Romans passage on the Righteousness of God is what Luther was reading when he had his “tower experience.” That experience was when the gospel was cemented in his brain.

This sermon attempts to weave that narrative, and Paul’s doctrine together with how we might live our lives – how we might tell our own stories. How the righteousness of God comes to us. How it is the sure foundation. And How we might build on that.

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God’s Word is Our Great Heritage (A Reformation Day Reflection)

It’s an internet joke these days that if you identify something you don’t like you can blame it on Luther. The more ridiculous the claim, the better the joke. It’s a little like playing “Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon” that old game of connecting any actor however young, old or foreign to Kevin Bacon with a maximum of seven movies.  Which itself was an absurdist take on the sociological observation that we are all within seven degrees of separation from anybody on the planet. Blame it on Luther takes a modern problem and through a Rube Goldberg string of other bad things eventually ends with ‘See Martin Luther started all bad things.” Now the Roman Catholic apologists meant it for evil, but the internet – and maybe God – has turned it into good (Genesis 50:20). As every time someone blames Martin Luther, the Great Reformer’s actual words eventually get quoted. And those Words almost always are firmly established on God’s Word.

Our sending hymn this Sunday is God’s Word is our Great Heritage. It comes from Denmark and was published to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Reformation.  It was originally set to the Great Reformation hymn tune of A Mighty Fortress.  The tune we sing it to was published in the United states for the 400th anniversary of the Reformation. The text was originally an attempt to extend the work of the Reformation to Danish Pietists. Their heirs in New Ulm, MN thought the text was so important, but in English it would no longer fit A Mighty Fortress, that the choir of St. Paul’s church set it to the current tune. It reflects in itself the idea of a true Heritage. At that 300th anniversary Rationalism – think Thomas Jefferson cutting up his bible to remove the parts that just couldn’t be true – was ravaging the church. Grundtvig the author was originally at odds with his Lutheran pastor father.  But in his own studies and work eventually moved closer to Dad.  The hymn was a token of that.  At the 400th the big question in the US might have been: Can the Gospel withstand the translation from the language of the Old Country to English or would the Heritage be lost? The Choir of St. Paul had an answer.  And so we, soon after the 500th anniversary, also have the question that the hymn perfectly presents to us.

The text is worth looking at closer

God’s Word is our great heritage/And shall be ours forever;

To spread its light from age to age/ Shall be our chief endeavor.

Through life it guides our way,/In death it is our stay.

Lord, grant, while worlds endure,/We keep its teachings pure/Throughout all generations.

It starts with a gospel promise. God has given us his word and it will always be ours. Now that is a statement of the objective Gospel. The incarnation of Jesus Christ happened, and Jesus lives, the victory is won.  The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church with that proclamation.  And that proclamation is for you. God has done this for you.

And as with every proclamation of the objective gospel, it subjectively asks us how are we then going to live? Grundtvig’s hymn puts forward three things that are part of our subjective receptance of that gospel.  First is the call to evangelism.  To Spread its light from age to age. The hymn doesn’t expand on this. But that evangelism can take place in many ways.  Something we probably should recover from those pietists, we all need evangelized. The home is a primary location of evangelism. Second, the hymn puts forward the Word of God as our guide in life. The summary of the law is a good place to start.  Love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.  But lastly the hymn says, “in death it is our stay.” Regardless of your evangelism and walk, the gospel is not ultimately about works.  It is about faith. It is about believing that the works of Jesus – God’s Word – are our great heritage. And that nothing shall separate us from the Love of God is Christ. Not even death.

And appropriately it ends with a prayer. Something very like “Thy Will Be Done.” Let us keep its teachings pure, throughout all generations. The will of God is certainly done.  Hell will not prevail.  The church has been built on the cornerstone of Christ. We pray that this gospel would remain ours.  Though 300 years, 400 years, 500 years, throughout all generations.  Because this Word is life. 

On Not Losing Heart (or Who you pray to and What you pray for)

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Biblical Text: Luke 18:1-8

As a Protestant I am tied to a doctrine of perspicuity. All that fancy word means is that the typical Christian is able to read and understand the scriptures. The intro to this sermon elaborates a bit, but the reason I was thinking about that is because this gospel lesson is one that I think pushes that border. The plain reading would be something like “go be a monk and pray all the time” or “pester God more.” But neither of those I’m convinced are what it is about. Instead, like all parables, it is first about who God is. It reveals God the Father to us. And second, it is a nudge toward what we should be praying for. I’ll admit that the second point is not as direct, but I still think that the typical Christian who has been catechized can see it. Because it hinges on what is justice. The woman demands justice against her adversary. And yes, we have temporal adversaries which is why we pray for our daily bread. But our real adversaries are those comic things: the devil, the world and our sinful nature.

This sermon is about praying and not losing heart – keeping the faith – that God will finally deliver us from evil.

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Choices, Choices, Choices…

We could say that life is ultimately about making choices, but that doesn’t really capture it.  It is more about living with the choices we have made. In multiple fields of study “path dependence” is a meaningful thing.  In math there are things that appear reversable, but really aren’t. For example 2^2 (two squared) is 4.  But if you take the square root of 4, theoretically reversing the square, 2 is one answer, but -2 is also possible. -2*-2 is 4. Squaring is technically not reversible. Most of life is not reversible. And if we try to reverse things we often end up on the negative side of the ledger satisfying nobody.  Moving forward is the only real path.

I’ve been thinking about choices recently for a couple reasons. I’ve noticed in my kids and not just my kids, a hesitancy, maybe even a fear, about making choices. Something that goes beyond the simple procrastination that affects 99% of us. (Yes, I am writing this on Friday, two days after I wanted it done.)  I’ll ask my youngest, “how are college applications going? Where are you applying?” And he will leave the room. I’ll ask the middle child, “So, have you had enough time off?  Have any initial thoughts? Anything Dad could help with?” And he will continue playing a video game.  Or positively start making dinner for us. Path dependent irreversible decisions. But like Rush (the band, not the radio voice) would say, “if you refuse to decide, you still have made a choice.” Unlike math, life comes with default decisions that the world will press on you.  And the world’s defaults are usually pretty poor.

The fear of choice, or the fear of living with them, that can paralyze might be the most common, but it isn’t the only reaction. Two others are nostalgia and recklessness. If the kids are paralyzed, there is plenty of longing for the way things used to be. But decisions have been made.  And those decisions landed us here.  And because it is life, those decisions are irreversible. The problem of sin is that we have to live with its effects. The ultimate one being death.  But it is not just sins.  Most things we choose in life are not choices of black or white. We are not that good.  We choose between different shades of gray. The materialist might point at the 2nd law of thermodynamics – everything ends in heat death.  The Christian understands that we live in a fallen world. Perfectly fine choices can still end up troubling. And we find ourselves longing for some time we didn’t have to live with the results. The flip side is recklessness. Sure, why not become a day trader. Bet it all on Bitcoin at $100,000. I have an acquaintance who recently lost $10M paper dollars in just such a way. Easy come, easy go.

What then are we to do?  We can’t go back.  Wallowing in nostalgia is like Harry Potter staring at the Mirror of Erised.  As Dumbledore tells him, many people have lost their one life staring at it. Yet repeatedly going all in doesn’t seem wise.  And pushing it all out might be the worst – getting pushed down a path you never even chose. Three things worth keeping in minds at such times. First, “All things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).” That might sound hopelessly polyanna-ish or trite, but it is really the promise that God loves you.  His providence is with you.  The Spirit helps us in our weakness. Trust that even if you find yourself leaving Ur for a land you do not know (Abraham) that God is working in you for good. And he has good works laid out in advance for you to walk in (Ephesians 2:10). So Walk in them. Second, you really have eternity. This world may feel highly pressured, but try living into that promise.  “We believe in the resurrection of the death and the life of the world to come.” The paths that you will walk will be infinite and better than today. So keep walking. And lastly the teacher, “there is nothing better than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; and to eat and drink and take pleasure in all your toil – that is God’s gift to man (Ecclesiastes 3:12).”  Find the joy in what is set before you.  Find the joy in the walk.  It’s heavenward all the way.

Problem, Solution, and Zombies

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Biblical Text: Luke 17:11-19

The text is the 10 lepers. It is the standard text for Thanksgiving for obvious reasons – the one who gives thanks. But I have to admit that most sermons on it feel like they miss the gospel. Or maybe I should just say they all assume the gospel. This sermon is as clear as I can make it from this text.

We have a problem. Our problem is a lot like leprosy used to be. A known march toward death that you can do nothing about and which separates you from everything you love. You could say we have a trinity of problems: sin, death and the power of the devil. And like the lepers we are left to plead, “master, have pity on us.”

We have a solution, and that solution is a universal one. Jesus has defeated sin on the cross. His resurrection makes a way past death. And he has bound the strong man – Satan – stealing us. The only revealed God ever who has walked in our villages and streets has freed us from our problems. All 10 lepers were healed.

The question is – How then do we live? One of the ten returned to give thanks. Our new life begins with thanks. Thanksgiving aligns us with our Lord and Savior Jesus. And that Jesus tells us to “rise and go our way, our faith has made us well.” Our way is now the way of Christ. We travel with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We walk with angels all the way. And we walk that way by faith. There are the zombies of our problems still out there – The Devil, The World and our Sinful Flesh. But that is what they are, zombies. We have been healed. And in faith we walk past.

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Ruthian Apologetics

You occasionally get asked, “how do you know it is true?” It being the Bible or Christianity in general or maybe even simplistically God. And there are all kinds of apologetic answers.  You could start with Anselm’s Ontological argument as one of the oldest and Philosophically speaking still an active form. You could go with Aquinas’ Five Ways.  Three of them versions of the Cosmological Argument. The final one an argument from design.  All of them fancy ways of saying, “Have you looked out the window? You really think that came from nothing?” I think the Apostle Paul might agree with my tongue in cheek summary, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made (Romans 1:19-20).” Paul saying “look out the window.”  The problem with all such arguments is that they are really arguments for a god.  And arguments for a god are not the same thing as knowing that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is real.  How Luther would qualify it would be that they are all arguments for the hidden god, Paul’s invisible attributes. And while we can observe the attributes, we don’t’ know God.

The Bible taken as a whole is the story of the Revealed God.  It is the story of God no longer hiding behind the masks of power and might riding upon the storm.  Ultimately we have the full revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. As Jesus replies to Philip’s plea, “Lord, Show us the Father…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:8-9).” In Christ we see the steadfast love of God for his creation. We see the God who says he is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  And so Luther would say that when the hidden god troubles us, we turn to the revealed god in faith that “yes, we have seen the father.  And he is not the god we so much dread, but our savior.”

But when you ask the “how do you know” question I think someone is asking for what makes it work for you.  And the final answer has to be the Holy Spirit.  “I believe I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him.  Bu the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” That Luther’s explanation to the third article of the creed. And final answers are true, but that question might be rephrased as something like “How has the Holy Spirit enlightened you?”

And Pentecostals might say something like “I spoke in tongues.”  Likewise people might have seen a miracle. Now I might personally be somewhat skeptical of this one. We seem to have an infinite ability to say “that didn’t happen.” But Jesus does say, “even though you do not believe me, believe the works (John 10:38).” Maybe you had your own personal Eunice and Lois and you believe them (2 Timothy 1:5).  “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed (John 20:29).”  That is probably the most common way.  But for my part, it is books like the book of Ruth, our old testament lesson for today (Ruth 1:1-19).

There is no way, absent the power of God, that this story survives history. You can place it alongside the lineage of Jesus is Matthew. Not that Luke’s genealogy is bad, but Luke’s goes back to Jesus as “the son of Adam and the Son of God.”  And that is something typical for ancient Kings.  They were all the son of God.  Like Augustus, the Son of the Divine Julius. The story of Ruth is part of the genealogy of David.  And it is the type of story that ancient Kings would have stamped out.  Don’t focus on the romance of it.  The revealed God parts.  Focus on foreigner.  Ruth was a Moabite.  Focus on the poverty. Naomi leaves Israel because they are poor and returns poorer without a husband.  Focus on how the family line is all but dead. Focus on how they are nothing and it is the mercy of Boaz that saves.  And then realize that Ruth and Boaz are King David’s great grandparents (at least in Matthew’s genealogy.)  No ancient human king is admitting any of that. And even if the King does, his line three generations later would clean it up.  “We were always royal.” But this is the genealogy of Jesus.  This is a King who is not about his invisible attributes of power and might, but about love and salvation. Which is the story of Ruth and Boaz. And the fact that it survives is an act of the revelation of the Father of Jesus, the Christ. 

God, You Cannot Be Serious

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Biblical Text: Habakkuk 1:1-2:4

I think this longer passage – the lectionary as read cuts out important parts – is one of the most important in the bible. At least to the curious. Habakkuk the prophet has had it. He asks the question that I think many people do when things are going well, “God, where are you? Why do you do nothing?” And unlike most places, here God responds. He is doing something. He’s sending “the Chaldeans.” Now the Chaldeans are just code for Assyria/Babylon/Persia, the great power that takes Israel into exile. And God elaborates on who they are. It is what God often does, set one evil against another. But we don’t like that. The prophet doesn’t like that. He pushes back at God a second time. “Really, that is what you want me to go preach? Babylon?” And God answers one more time. And he makes clear what he is after – faith.

This sermon sets Habakkuk’s story in the light of Adam, Eve and the Old Snake. What Satan is always pitching in knowledge. “You will know.” It is not that God won’t grant knowledge, but that knowledge from God comes at the appropriate time. When we have the wisdom to handle it. Satan doesn’t care the damage it leaves. The “Violence”. The “Justice perverted.” But God does this because he is not really about knowledge. He wants us to have faith. He wants us to trust Him. And that is the second answer. Habakkuk, write the vision. It’s the same vision as always. The promise of Christ and his kingdom. And its the promise, “It will come. Wait for it. The righteous live by faith.”

On a rhetorical note, these sermon gets a little hot. To me it was meant to match the prophet’s complaint.

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Scandal, Mercy and Love

In the gospel lesson this week (Luke 17:1-10) there are three distinct groupings. And in a surface reading they might seem to have nothing to do with each other. Random sayings of Jesus collected and roughly situated in the narrative when he might have spoken them, but otherwise not connected.  That type of arrangement isn’t unheard of, for that is roughly Proverbs or most wisdom literature. Random sayings collected around some age or event or theme.  But I think they might have a better flow than that first glace.

And I think that in the first block, our translations gets us off on a bad foot.  They record, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come (Luke 17:1).”  And they continue with the condemnation of the millstone around one’s neck. It is not that temptation is a wrong translation, but that it doesn’t really capture the effect of what is being said. The word used is the Greek world that we directly take as our English word scandal. And the meaning is not our contemporary celebrity petty “scandals” which are more a humorous public failing.  The better meaning is an action that causes someone to lose faith, or maybe an intentional disheartening of the faithful. Scandals are sure to happen.  It is a sinful and fallen world. But woe to the one who scandalizes, who intentionally disheartens these “little ones.” Now any such scandal probably involves a temptation. One thinks immediately of the Roman Church’s priestly sexual abuse scandal.  But honestly I think what the Pope said this week is also just such a scandal.  To have the highest bishop of the largest tradition actively dishearten the faithful in the very area the church is most prophetic is a scandal. And Jesus is talking to his disciples.  If you are a teacher or a leader in the church, it is a warning about “Paying attention (Luke 17:3).”  Millstones attach to these things!

But that harsh but good reminder is quickly followed up by something unimaginable.  Imagining a god of vengeance and wrath has never been hard.  Believing in a god who forgives “seven times in a day (Luke 17:4)” is harder. Yet that is the command of Jesus, “if your brother says…’I repent’ you must forgive him.” God is a god of mercy, and he expects his people to have mercy also. Mercy to the extent of that number of completion – “seven.”  Full forgiveness. Because in Christ we have been fully forgiven.  The disciples’ response makes sense – “increase our faith (Luke 17:5)!” The request feels nonsensical.  Scandalize me once, shame on me.  Scandalize me twice, shame on you!  It only makes sense in the world of faith. When one has faith that The Father is who Jesus says he is, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  When one has faith that Jesus came for sinners. Then anything can happen.  Even a tree being planted on the sea (Luke 17:6).  The strangeness of the Kingdom.

The last section might be more for those disciples that have been at this a long time.  Maybe you are at the end of your forgiveness.  Maybe you are just tired of being taken advantage of.  Or maybe you labor under some idea that if I do this – live forgiveness in this world – this world will give some back to me.  I don’t think that is an uncommon feeling. “No good deed goes unpunished” as the fractured fairy tale has it.  Jesus’ gives the disciples a salutary reminder.  The rewards of discipleship are not this worldly. In this world we are servants (those translators again, more pungent slaves.)  Christ would have been perfectly fine issuing the commands and “we would have only done our duty (Luke 17:10).” But what Jesus precedes this with is telling.  No earthly master would tell his slave to “come at once and recline at table (Luke 17:7).”  The slave would do the preparation and might get something after.  But Christ has prepared a table.  And he has told his servants to come and eat.

The Kingdom of God operates differently. It intends to overcome scandals, not with duty, but with mercy and love. Mercy toward one another for the millstones we all might carry. Who among us has not been the cause of scandal? Love from the Father in the body and blood of His Son which covers us and make us whole.

Looking Up

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Biblical Text: Luke 16:19-31

People want to use this text to get glimpses or insights into the afterlife. But I honestly think that is rather boring. There is nothing in the Rich Man and Lazarus that gives any special insight. It is a heaven of sorts and it is a hell of torment. You can argue a bit and make a distinction between sheol, the Old Testament pit or abode of the dead, to which apparently all went, which upon Holy Saturday the victorious Christ lead the saints out in triumph and the post resurrection reality. But this sermon doesn’t want to get lost in those weeds, and for purposes of the story itself, it’s a distinction without a difference.

This text is not about glimpses of the afterlife, but it is looking up in this one precious life. It’s about how the Kingdom of God operates on different rules than this world. And it’s about how one finds true meaning. It’s a plea to look up and recognize everything that is going on around you. To see the Lazarus at your gate. To see that person or that work of God that we have become blind to. And know that today is the only day we are given to do that work of mercy. In regards to meaning it corrects our understanding. We tend to think that we need the sign and wonder and that would give us meaning. But the signs and wonders are given. A man has risen from the dead. We are given the promises of God in the sacraments. And there are others all around. But without the Word we don’t know what they mean. Like poor Lazarus, they become part of the scenery we step over. It is the Word – Moses and the Prophets in the story – that tells us what the signs and wonders mean. And how they are incorporated into our regular lives in days and months and seasons. How we can live in sacred time illuminated by the resurrection.

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