Living the Christian Life

In the Wednesday morning bible study we looked at something I labeled Spiritual Deterioration or Development. How does one grow or destroy the spiritual life? It’s not a typical Lutheran topic. In fact there are factions of Lutherans today who would say that it is not a necessary topic. It’s a quirk of Lutheran ministers that we are all looking for our Luther at Worms moment. Our chance to shout “Here I Stand” in the defense of the gospel. There is a greater demand for works righteousness scolds than the supply, so they often get made up. But for clarity’s sake the topic is out of the third article of the creed. The first is The Father and creation, the realm of academics and sensitive young men. The second article is Christ and Justification, the realm of the broken and he dead and the start of the spiritual life. The third article is the Holy Spirit and Sanctification, the realm of the Church Militant. The academics and the sensitive young men can ponder concepts and those more Luther than Luther can end the creed in the 2^nd article and pretend history stopped in 1521. But preachers need to be able to teach. Especially questions like “How do I actually live this?”

The first general statement about the spiritual life is that there is no neutral gear. One is either in drive or in reverse. The cause of this is largely this fallen world. While one can actively turn their back on Christ in a variety of ways, the fallen world has many structures that will lead you away passively. The lack of a spiritual leader or shepherd is one. Moses goes up the Mount and when he comes down the camp is worshipping the golden calf. Worldly success the bible warns leads to trust in it over the providence of God. “It is easier for camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter eternal life (Luke 18:25).” And there are several things that you might think you have put your spiritual life in neutral, but in reality it is going backward: evil associations, shallowness, emptiness of life, lack of spiritual insight are but a few.

While there are many ways one can passively see the spiritual life slip away, the development of the Spiritual life is active. Unlike your justification which is the work of Christ alone, given to you by grace alone and received by faith alone, your Sanctification is something that you co-operate with the Holy Spirit in. Luther’s word picture of this comes in the catechism on Baptism. “The Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and the new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God is righteousness and purity forever.” And it is that catechism image that frames my answer to “How?”

How does one overcome temptation, sins and evil desires? Before venturing a simple answer a reminder is worthwhile. While the Roman church might hold up the saints as being perfect in this and John Wesley held out perfect sanctification, Lutherans have always held onto the phrase simultaneously sinner and saint. You are Holy right now because the Holy Spirit dwells in you. because Christ has washed you in his blood. You are a saint. And the fundamental act of every saint is repentance, the admission that they are a sinner. “Blessed are the poor in Spirit.” I tend to think of the Spiritual life more like baseball. If you hit .300 you are on your way to the Hall of Fame.

So, how does one overcome or at least stay above the Medoza line (.200)? It’s about spiritual maturity, putting away childish things. By attempting to live the Christian life we become more cognizant and aware of our weak spots. When we pass through the trial we can the recognize the path that lead us there. And when that path comes up again, and it will come up again, we can not walk it. I think this is what the Bible means when it talks about mortifying or killing the flesh (Romans 8:13, Col 3:5), Luther’s drowning the old Adam. We can become mature in the Spiritual life such that we know nothing good lies past certain decisions and we can put them away. But Spiritual Maturity is not all defense. As you put away childish things you also strive for Christlikeness (Eph 4:13). We can do this by imitation. Paul imitated Christ and urged the Corinthians to imitate him (1 Cor 11:1). We can do this by practicing the virtues like courage and love. For me, we know when these opportunities are before us. As Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “God has laid out in advance good works for us to walk in.” We might not always recognize Satan’s bad paths, but the good is usually immediately recognizable. It is just hard. Both for the immature because they might still be bound to the ways of the flesh and for the mature because they might recognize that path as the way to the cross. But this is the imitation of Christ and the saints.

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For Those Who Have Ears…

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Biblical Text: Matthew 11:12-19

Sometimes the word cloud spits out something interesting – like above, the juxtaposition of preach and violence. It is obvious or should be that the intent is not to “preach violence” yet that is so often what eventually happens where the Word of God is preached. That’s kinda what Jesus’ lament in the text is about. The Kingdom of Heaven in this time of grace comes by preaching. It comes by speaking the word of the law which is like a dirge that lets us know we are dead in our sins. It comes by speaking the word of the gospel which is like the flute that lets us know we are at the wedding feast. The great mass respond to neither. But the preaching is for those who have ears. The preaching is not for the world in general. And if you think that you are just arguing about how to build a worldly kingdom – by winsomeness or power. But that is not the gospel nor the heart of the Reformation. That is the preaching of Christ. And in this time of grace, in order to preach the good news, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. It is not a loser theology. It is just a recognition of which Kingdom we are in.

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Slogans

The Reformation produced quite a few Theological slogans: Law and Gospel, Grace Alone, Faith Alone, Word Alone, Two kinds of righteousness. It is my reflection that you start with some complexity. How life actually works creates some cognitive dissonance with our story of how it works. In Luther’s case the story received was infused grace. “Martin, if you just keep on doing your Monk thing, God will continue to give you more grace. And eventually you will have made yourself a saint. And if not a saint, well, you will have done enough.” And it took someone like Martin Luther and his some might say overactive conscience to pursue that for over a decade and think “it is not, it will never be, enough.” And that is the gospel moment. That is the moment the Old Adam died. The Old Adam that was constantly working hoping to pay off the debt. This is the best of the Old Adam. And it would never be enough. So either God is cruel liar sentencing everyone to torment, or it has to be another way. I can’t merit more grace. It has to be grace alone. And it is a pure reception of the grace by faith alone. I have nothing to do with it. Christ alone has given me the victory. The New Man can rise and live.

That complexity and cognitive dissonance eventually resolves itself down to the slogan. The slogan, the simplicity on the far side of complexity – on the far side of the anfechtung, the struggle – captures it. But then as generations pass they have this slogan and often take great pride in the slogan, but often no longer understand the path to it. They have the answer, but they have forgotten the question. They have the technology, but can barely maintain it let alone create it again.

Those Reformation Slogans I think tend to walk together. If you forget one, or elevate one far above the others, things go out of whack. The gospel breakthrough of the Reformation which we eventually receive in the doctrine of Justification is the chief article. The entire church does stand or fall upon the teaching that we receive salvation by faith alone. But if we lose how that came out of Law and Gospel or a recognition of two kinds of righteousness, we slip into a different type of trouble.

“The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law (Romans 3:21).” Notice that this recognition doesn’t say there is no righteousness in the law. It is the righteousness of God that has been manifested apart from the law. The righteousness of God had been clearly manifested in the law in one way – death. “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through works of the law comes knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20).” The law communicates to us the righteousness of God and that we will never reach it. It tells us all the ways we fall short. But in Christ that righteousness of God has been manifested – revealed, made known, shown – apart from the law. “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Romans 3:22).” God has put forward his righteousness for all as a gift though the blood of Christ. Sinners, you without righteousness of your own, this is yours.

The righteousness of God in the law only kills us. That drives us towards the gospel for life. But that also doesn’t drain the law of all righteousness. We can’t stand before God on the basis of keeping the law. “What becomes of our boasting? It is excluded (Romans 3:27).” But there is still a civil righteousness. That law remains the law. This is how God intended people to live. And the new man who has entered the Kingdom by faith lives this way. It is the daily struggle of drowning the Old Adam and the daily renewal of the new man to live before God.

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Render Unto Caesar – A Meditation on Politics and Proper Authority

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Biblical Text: Matthew 22:15-22

Here in Arizona election month has started. That’s where the introduction starts. The text is Jesus’ famous dodge, “Render Unto Caesar What is Caesar’s and to God What is God’s.” I’m using dodge a bit tongue in cheek, but it was a bit of a dodge because his questioners were trying to trap him in an answer. And Jesus’ answer sidestepped that trap.

And I think he sidestepped the trap in a way that the Bible as a whole addresses human politics. They way we talk and think about politics is about power. And in a fallen world that is often what it is about. Who has it, who gets its, can I secure more of it, and what are the various means of doing that? And Jesus is almost cynical about that. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Whatever dodge you think you have to avoid politics, it won’t work. Politics is the natural state of fallen man. Even Jesus submits to Pilate. But Jesus places that cynicism within a much larger sphere of authority and the proper use of authority. “Render unto God what is God’s.”

Caesar does have some legitimate authority, that being temporal authority. Including the authority to tax, sorry libertarians. But that temporal authority is always under the eternal authority. Those things stamped with Caesar’s image – like coins – pale in comparison to those stamped with the image of God – like you yourself. You owe yourself to God. You owe your worship, which is also a holy fear to God. But even more you owe your love. Because God has loved you in Christ.

The prayer of the day is the perfect prayer for political season. “May we so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal.” Because this is what Satan and Caesar and even our own gut so desire. That we trade the eternal for the temporal. That we trade ourselves, our worship and our love, for things that rust and decay.

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The Anointed

There is this ancient object called The Cyrus Cylinder. I’ve put a small picture of it nearby. Inscribed in cuneiform on it is the announcement of Cyrus and the Persian’s victory over the Babylonian Empire and the reasons the victory happened. Those reasons according to the Cylinder are three: 1) The Babylonian King Nabonidus had suppressed the cult of Marduk, 2) That Marduk chose Cyrus to free his cult and 3) The reasons Marduk chose Cyrus were his virtues, strength and leadership skill. In other words, “I’m so great even a god needed help from me.”

We don’t always have such an archeological piece as the Cyrus Cylinder, but I often get the feeling the important parts of the Old Testament are written more or less as counterweights to ancient propaganda or myths. That Yahweh would occasionally get a bit annoyed as the pompous pride or simply the mythic falsehood and pronounce something like our Old Testament Lesson from Isaiah 45:1-7. And since it is the word of God it stands while the boasts of rulers disappear. In this case The LORD spells out three reasons why “Cyrus is my anointed (Isaiah 45:1).” And none of those reasons line up with the Cylinder.

The first reason is so that we might know that “the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by name” is also the one who breaks the doors of bronze and cuts through the iron bars. Just like Pharoah starts off boasting that he does not know this LORD, by the end, at the bottom of the sea, he certainly did. And recorded in Ezra 1:2-4 Cyrus issues just this acknowledgement. “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (Ezr. 1:2 ESV)” The second reason that the LORD has chosen Cyrus is so that his people might return from exile. “For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by name, though you do not know me (Isaiah 45:4).” Israel in exile had heard the prophet Isaiah’s promises of return, but they despaired of them coming true. How could they ever? And the last reason Isaiah gives is that “people may know, from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides me; I AM THE LORD, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:6).” Unlike Cyrus’ boast about Marduk and the gods need for him, there is no Marduk. There is only The LORD. And The LORD keeps his promises. Especially when we have no idea how it can be done.

Our hope does not rest on the virtues or strengths of any human ruler. The LORD calls them today and tomorrow they are gone. If the LORD wants something done, it will be done. And the LORD works these things out for the good of his people. While we walk in darkness the LORD brings light (Isaian 45:7). While we experience calamity, it is the LORD who brings well-being. And he does it in the most amazing ways. Our hope is in the character of the LORD himself.

And what is this character? It is Christ who knocks down the gates of brass – Satan’s lies – and cuts through the iron fetters – our sins – which had bound us. We who looked for treasures in the darkness and hoards in secret places and came away empty have been given heaven by grace. We have been given the name of God that is above all names. And God himself has written our names on the palm of his hands. Christ is our Cyrus, and a much better anointed he has been, opening gates that will not be closed (Isaiah 45:1).”

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A Wedding Garment

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Biblical Text: Matthew 22:1-14

The parable we pick up today often gets lumped in with those of the end time or eschatological parables. And being about the Wedding Feast is certainly has some of those shade. But how this one is told it has much more to do with the impact of the gospel in this age. The parable is about two things: 1) the invitation and summons to the feast and 2) the wedding garment. And how this sermon thinks about that division is grace alone and faith alone. And I’d assert like all the longer parables you really need to identify the part that causes offence to hear it. The offence in the first part is in the change and reminder of the grace. You have to accept it. In every generation there are those who take the invitation – the grace – for granted. They assume it is theirs, they presume upon God, because of their name or lineage or learning or some other part. But the Kingdom of Heaven is for those who respond to the summons. Now is the wedding feast. Come. And the Kingdom is for those who show up. Who accept the grace at its calling.

The second offence point is both easier and tougher. It is the wedding garment. The unlimited grace of God is on offer, but it can only be received in one way – through Christ, through faith. There are all kinds of reasons people might show up at a wedding, even crash a wedding. But you don’t get to crash the eschatological banquet in your way, wearing your clothes whatever they might be. You have to have the wedding garment. Which is faith in Christ alone. This is the distinction summed up in the aphorism “many are called, but few are chosen.” The grace of God is available to all. The call of the gospel is universal. But there are many who want it their own way. The chosen wear the righteousness of Christ.

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The Horror

Yes, I spend too much time watching TV. And yes, I know it is not a favorite genre. But Halloween approaches. And horror happens to be the genre that speaks to fears and anxieties we can’t always express. And in doing so walks on profoundly Christian ground – you might even say Holy Ground. And we happen to be in the midst of something of a golden age of Horror film.

First of all I’m not talking about Freddy or Jason or the jump scare schlock that 16 year olds used to like to use as the excuse to get close at a drive-in. Some of that stuff does still get made, but that version of horror was never a real fright. Neither am I talking about a monster of the week series about hunting Bigfoot or the Mothman or a Chupacabra. I’m thinking about movies like the recent Backrooms, Obsession, the Nosferatu remake or maybe the start of this It Follows. Likewise the works of Mike Flanagan like The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass and his series TV vision of Carrie.

Now Pastor, what the heck could a nice Christian find in any of that? Well, the first thing I’d say is that a recognition that there are more things in creation than are dreamt of in our philosophy is dawning on people. Nosferatu makes it rather explicit. Everyone associated with poor Ellen Hutter either dismisses her thrall to the Vampire or tries to treat is with the most advanced scientific technology that cutting edge Germany could offer. When all that technology has to offer fails. And when they go outside of pure technology reaching for occultist psychology, it too fails. What do they do? What is the only thing that kills the vampire and prevents the fall of the entire area? Ellen’s willing sacrifice of herself, her blood, holding the vampire until the Sun rises. There is power in the blood. Backrooms has something of the same theme. People stumble upon a strange parallel world of hallways and rooms that look like abandoned offices or the backrooms of a zombie mall. It’s all the parts of the world that our scientific buffered selves (thank you Charles Taylor) have cut off and say don’t exist. But just because we’ve put them in the buffer, doesn’t mean they aren’t there. In that movie they all get lost in the backrooms. It is an interesting question whether the moral would be keep up your personal buffers, or something like the backrooms can’t grow and cause such fright and obsession if we kept ourselves more porous – the phrase Charles Taylor in a Secular Age uses to contrast with the buffered self.

There is this thing called the uncanny valley. Most fakes ended up on the wrong side of it. You could tell they were fake although the closer they were the more nervous you became. Think the pod-people from the Body Snatchers. But AI seems to have crossed that uncanny valley. Even a year ago it was still easy to say “that’s AI.” Today? Have you tried chatting with one? I can see why there are people who think it has a soul. And since we have exiled the vocabulary and structure – good theology – with which we could talk about such things, we get the horror. Our anxiety and fear about things we don’t have the words to describe anymore. The artists are struggling to recover the words or as the internet joke about sex and marriage goes – recreate them from first principles. And it always starts in horror. When you all of a sudden realize that you are naked in the middle of a dark garden and something is walking in it.

Last thought about this. Horror artistically is like repentance is to faith. It is the first step. And you don’t know what comes next. Does that thing walking out there seek to destroy me? Or does it love me? Key horror themes. Some horror ends on Holy Ground when you are saved by an act of love. When God shows up in whatever form he takes. In some the characters choose poorly and the monsters do eat them. As Paul says – work out your faith with fear and trembling.

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Service and Mission

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Biblical Texts: Ecclesiastes 3:9-15, Galatians 2:1-10, Mark 10:35-45

The Sunday was given to LWML – Lutheran Women’t Missionary League. The texts for the day were not the typical lectionary texts, but were chosen by the organization. And if you listen, I’m not exactly sure why. You could pick better texts. But they do contain the themes of LWML – service and mission. Which honestly are the same theme. Service is very often what mission looks like in the local context. And the LWML as a collection of people is usually what most embodies Christ’s words in the gospel lesson. That whoever would be great among you must be a servant.

So the sermon definitely intended to make that point and acknowledge the work done by the local LWML. But you can’t just throw Ecclesiastes into the reading list without addressing what The Teacher is saying. So the sermon starts out grumpier than normal because it reflects the chosen texts. But I think it has a deep point. God has put eternity in our hearts. But God has also answered most of The Teacher’s complaints about this in the person of Christ. And if you want to feel eternity now you have to lose yourself in service. Or as The Teacher put it take joy in the toil and good that is before you.

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Seven Deadly Ones

I guess I’m just not made for Vegas. My favorite thing about it is the food. Every culinary school grad with dreams of being the next celebrity chef I think moves to Vegas. The net result is that even in an outskirts of town “resort” hotel casino the food is fantastic. Nothing comes from a bottle or a premade bag. Everything is hand made from ingredients delivered that day. It’s a Glutton’s paradise.

But our evening off was a Monday which unfortunately was the day that most of the shows took off also. Unless you wanted to indulge Lust at Magic Mike, the Thunder from Down Under, or the generic Cabaret, the pickings were slim. Although it was interesting that libidinous female shows greatly outnumbered those aimed at men. There might be a story about our current moment in that. Female lust is celebrated while male is slightly embarrassing or just tacky. Although nature still has a say as we will all probably find out as what goes on at Cornell doesn’t stay at Cornell.

When the shows didn’t pan out, after I engaged in a bit of Envy over someone who could drop $250 per ticket to get into the Sphere without blinking, Sloth took over. Hotels used to be known for terrible mattresses. Not anymore. It has been a long time since even the cheapest place I stayed in had a mattress that crooked my back. So instead of hunting for the highlife, a two hour nap mid-afternoon indulged my inner slug. And I felt a tinge of Wrath at the conference organizers that the schedule started at 8AM. They could have at least pushed it back to 9 AM. Then I could have indulged both sloth and gluttony in the same morning.

So, I suppose that leaves me two deadly ones. I certainly understand greed, but the flashing lights of the slots and video poker hold little attraction. A few years ago sitting at a blackjack table brought a little frisson, but looking at one this time all I could think was “that’s not going to pay the mortgage.” The Monday Night Football game (GO Bears) might entice both my greed and pride. I could tell myself a story that I have just enough math skills left that I’d be part of the “smart” money. And the payouts at the sports desk are definitely better. As it turns out I should have bet my Bears and their 3^rd string QB. It would have paid for the trip. But alas, I’m a glutton, not a greed head. And writing that I just indulged my pride. Although not as much as if I had the winning ticket to prove it.

I suppose after that tour of the seven deadly sins I should address the subject of the conference. A subject sure to break anyone’s pride. Sitting there amid the temptations of Vegas talking about addiction. And specifically porn addiction. You don’t have to go to Vegas anymore to indulge lust. Maybe that partially explains the lack of male aimed shows. Why see the cabaret when your phone is a portal to a different world? Now the conference was full of medicalizing terms – dopamine cycles – and warnings – three stages of addiction. And without judgement upon the reality of them, that’s the way our culture allows us to talk about it without shame. Because that is the natural outcome of indulging sin, shame. Adam and Eve recognized they were naked, stitched together fig leaves and hid.

And you can’t address the sin, until you get past the shame. God called out “where are you?” and asked “who told you, you were naked?” And eventually he made them clothes. Fig leaves don’t last near long enough. The medicalizing that we do that helps past the shame, though I believe it has a wrong aim. It’s aim is management. The worst of it can be an attempt to normalize it, reference “minor attracted persons.” It’s what I call the problem of the church of acceptance. We admit we are sinners, and we just accept it. The gospel is not about acceptance. It is absolution. Sin and shame take their toll. We die. But Christ has freed us. We can drown that Old Adam and his addictions and the new man can arise to live forever. And yes, it is a daily struggle. And yes we will often fail. But we are not just sinners. We are saints. God not only gave Adam and Eve clothes, He gave them a promise. That snake would die. And in Christ it does.

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Crooked Teeth

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Biblical Text: Matthew 21:23-32, Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

The proverb in the Ezekeil text has always caused me some problems. It never made sense in English until I broke it down. Part of the reason I believe is that we have a few English proverbs that cover the same space, including a different one from the Bible itself. God also tells them not to use it, so maybe that had some sway. Also I don’t think we exactly had this situation play out in the same way until the current generations. Because that is what the proverb is at its core, a generational conflict. And not just a conflict, but a generational blame game.

Which is why both the OT text and the Gospel lesson are about forgiveness. Our way, man’s way, may be about a full debt accounting and a desire for Karma. But that is not the way of God. The entire purpose of Christ is forgiveness. This sermon develops that theme and why forgiveness is the acid test of living the faith.

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