Category: Pastors Corner

Come As You Are?

Mt. Zion, specifically the Choir, received a wonderful gift. Today, on Pentecost Sunday, we are blessing and putting into first use new choir robes sponsored by a generous gift.  On such an occasion it is worth thinking about the bare facts of worship and presentation.

The prevailing ethos of our day might be summed up as “come as you are.” I’ve heard on more than one occasion in my life some form of “God doesn’t care what you look like, he cares that you are present.”  And if I’m ascribing the best construction to such thoughts they come from places like Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well who was very concerned about proper worship.  “Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place people ought to worship…(John 4:20)”.  And we normally skip to the later part of Jesus’ response, “the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and Truth (John 4:23).”  The hymn Just As I Am, without one plea, captures something true about worship.  God doesn’t need anything from us.  He doesn’t “eat” our sacrifices.  He doesn’t exist off of our devotion. He doesn’t need fancy vestments.  And Jesus on more than one occasion would mock the pharisees for their like of “long robes (Mark 12:38).”  The worship that God’s desires – especially on Pentecost – is that in Sprit and Truth.

But the ethos of our day usually takes this much too far. It usually takes it to one of three assertions.

  1. When something wonderful is done for Jesus – like anointing him with costly myrrh (Matthew 26) – there is a tut tut that “this large sum could have been given to the poor.” 
  2. That God does not really care about the form of worship
  3. And ultimately “come as you are” ends with a statement like “God accepts you just as you are.”

It should give anyone pause using the first of these arguments that the bible tells us this was Judas’ argument (John 12:4).  But Jesus’ response comes in two forms. First, “she has done a beautiful thing to me.” Nothing done for God is truly lost.  And beautiful things have ways of reminding us that this is our Father’s world and He cares for it deeply.  Deeply enough that he so clothes the lilies of field that are here today and gone tomorrow. We cannot equal the lilies, but copying the Father is never a bad thing.  Jesus’ second response is “the poor you will have with you always.” This is not a dismissal of the ethical demands of charity, but a recognition that ethics – how you live – is subservient to belief.  That when the God you believe in is present, that takes priority.  Mary chose the greater part (Luke 10:42).

The second assertion is what Exodus 28, for that matter Exodus 25 through the end of Leviticus, should give us pause. God in painstaking detail in those chapters and books tells Israel exactly how they are to worship.  Right down to the garments of the priests. We cannot say that God does not care.  There is even a parable about showing up to the wedding feast without a wedding garment. The problem that the ethos of our day was reacting against was taking such things as a law.  If you did not or could not worship in this way your worship was invalid.  That would break what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman.  But it also went too far in not hearing what Jesus first said to her, “You worship what you do not know, we Jews worship what we do know.” God went into painstaking detail about worship so that we might know him.  Vestments and beautiful things in worship are not about us.  We come as we are without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. These things point to the God whose first work post sin was to cover Adam and Eve in better clothes.  And who ultimately gave us the robe of Christ’s righteousness.

Those earlier assertions all lead to that last one, which really is the natural religion of the day. The logic is something like God made all things.  God is a good guy.  Therefore God accepts us as we were made.  He accepts us just as we are.  There are many problems with this, but I will limit myself.  What God made was good, and we broke it with our sin.  The “good guy” doesn’t accept us as we are, he offers us absolution in Christ. He invites us into the divine life.  Not to stay as we are, but to kill the old Adam and arise in before God is newness of life. Life in the Spirit is one of being conformed to the likeness of Christ. “We shall all be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51).”

We are putting something beautiful into the service of God.  The worship of Spirit and Truth acknowledges the gifts God freely gives.

Ascension Day Guilt

I swear every year I’m going to do something, and every year Ascension Day sneaks up on me and zooms by.  It was May 29th, last Thursday. I suppose I could always cheat and just make the nearest Sunday Ascension Day (Observed), but I always hate moving actual days like that.  The Ascension is 40 days after easter.  Pentecost is 50 days after. Compared to All Saints which is always November 1st, but there is nothing else that connects it to that date. So what I end up doing is reflecting it in the Hymns.  The Ascension is Crowning Day – Crown Him with Many Crowns.  It is the Day he was “seated at the right hand of the Father” so Christ the Eternal Lord.

A theologian I listen to made me think a little more this year about why I keep missing Ascension Day.  Although I think her first take was a little off.  There are three accounts of the Ascension in the Bible.  The first two are both by Luke, one at the end of his gospel and the other at the start of Acts. If you think of Luke-Acts as volume 1 and volume 2 of a story, it makes sense to retell the ending. And in Luke’s telling Jesus just kinda drifts up.  Hence you get icons and images of the ascension with nothing but Jesus’ feet showing. Which in this theologian’s telling is kinda silly.  And I guess it is, but that type of thing has rarely bothered me. Superman Jesus is amusing, but really, how are you going to visually depict a spiritual event?  As Ender knew, the enemy is always down, and heaven is always up.  The third image of the Ascension is in the book of Revelation.  It never calls it that, but I’m pretty sure that is what it is.  All Heaven is in a sad state because nobody can ascend to the throne and read a scroll.  But then the lamb, like one who was slain, appears and is seated and proceeds to open the scroll. (Revelation 5).  Maybe a little like my theologian’s embarrassment at those feet, being a good American I don’t know what to do with an actual – as opposed to a metaphorical – enthronement.  I’m fine with the imagery of crowns, but an actual crown?  Americans of my generation can still sing along with Schoolhouse Rock “No More Kings”.

The second embarrassment of emphasizing “seated at the right hand of the Father” is that we think of Kings as having all authority. “Blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever” all of heaven sings.  But what happens when the enthroned lamb starts opening the scroll?  All hell breaks loose – 4 horsemen, and saints asking “how long?” and earthquakes and blood and people calling for mountains to fall on them.  When God is on his throne, all is supposed to be well.  But it is not.

But where do I get that “all is supposed to be well” from?  Where does my image of a King with all authority meaning peace come from?  It certainly isn’t from the experience of Kings in this world.  Even the Sun King of France had his problems.  And the biblical picture of the newly enthroned Son King is of the damage Satan thrown out of Heaven is wreaking upon the earth. “All will be well” is the promise at the end of the story. As my favorite Christmas hymn tells it, “All idols then shall perish and Satan’s lying cease, and Christ shall raise his scepter, decreeing endless peace.” But today? Today the din of battle, the next the victor’s song.

What Ascension means is at long last the return of the King.  The correct person is upon the throne. We probably all have experienced following the wrong person.  The despair that can overcome.  The rats seeking to flee the ship.  The second guessing.  And because Christ has chosen to work in this world through the Spirit and through the church we might have plenty of second guessing.  But maybe that is because we are called to faith.  Not necessarily faith that all will be well here and now, or that all leadership even is good.  But faith that God is working all things for the good of his people.  Faith that because Christ is ascended, what we attempt will not be doomed.  That nothing done for Christ is ever lost.

In This Name, You Shall Conquer

The past week had two days that are worth commenting upon.  May 20th in the year 325 AD the council of Nicaea was convened. That is the council that produced the Nicene creed that we say in church on and off with the Apostle’s creed. This year, 2025 is the 1700 anniversary of that event. May 21st happens to be the veneration day of Saint Constantine who played an important role in that council  – if not the role that Dan Brown and 1000 conspiracy theories have him play.

Starting with Constantine himself, his mother St. Helena, was the original Christian. She was the concubine of Constantine’s father who was the Roman nobleman and eventually the inheritor of one fourth of the Roman empire in the Emperor Diocletian’s succession plan. Technically he got the worst part, the far west including Britain. His father dies relatively early and Constantine becomes his replacement. And rather like the Biblical David, his life is one of warfare consolidating the Empire. In 312 AD, before the climatic battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine had a vision. Eusebius the church historian records that he saw the “Chi-Rho” which is the first two letters of the name of Christ.  The vision told him “In this name, you shall conquer.” He had it painted on all his standards the next day and he did win becoming Emperor of the entire empire. In 314 AD he would issue the Edict of Milan which made Christianity legal in the empire for the first time. Maybe the biggest benefit of this was that churches could now own public space.  Constantine’s mother would proceed to sponsor the building of the original edifices of most of the famous churches from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to Old St. Peter’s in Rome.

The seed bed of the conspiracy theories comes from Constantine’s role in starting the Council of Nicea.  He convened the council of Bishops from all over the Empire. Early Christianity had two ongoing doctrinal disagreements.  The first was about the nature of God and the second very close about the nature of Christ. It really came down to the question of how did Jesus participate in the Godhood. One camp headed by a man called Arius held that “there was a time when Christ was not.” The godhood of Christ was derivative of the Father. The orthodox camp held what we find in the Nicene Creed – “begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”  The conspiracy theories operate much like any reporting on religion in our press today.  Doctrine or religion isn’t a real thing. Politics is the only real thing. So the Nicene creed and the entire council were just an assertion of political power by the consolidating Emperor Constantine who was looking for a faith to unite the empire behind his elevated rule.

But just like our modern day journalists who don’t “get religion” and so view it only through the lens of politics, anyone who does get it could tell you betting on Christianity to unite a political movement is a losing bet. From stories of St. Nicholas (yes, Santa Claus) punching Arius at Nicaea to the 300 plus year aftermath, as the hymn says the church is almost always “by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.” Politicians in every age may try to make the faith utilitarian, but Christ himself is on the throne and such plans quickly come to nothing. But the creed – the symbol of the faith – is still in use 1700 years later.

The world we live in is a messy one. Its politics are pluralistic. Much like Constantine managing Pagans, Christians, Jews and every other form in the broad empire.  And Satan still has his sway on this old earth.  The church’s judgement of Constantine has long been contrary to a reductionist power politics view only.  Jesus promised that the Spirit would lead his followers into all truth. And as any Christian would probably tell you the paths of the Spirit are often quite surprising.  The church’s judgement has long been that God used the rule of Constantine to end the on and off Roman persecutions of his people. To gather the bishops together to make the formal statement of the faith that has stood for 1700 years. To build spaces of worship still in use today.  And ultimately to allow the further proclamation of the gospel as the 300 – 600’s AD would not just Christianize the empire, but also well beyond its borders. Constantine may have thought the conquest would be his by means of arms.  And on that one specific day it was.  But the larger conquest was of hearts.  “In this name – the name of Christ – you shall conquer.”    

A Thought on Travel

“Wherever you go, there you are.”  I tend to think about that aphorism anytime I have to travel. For some reason I couldn’t remember where it comes from this time, so I made the mistake of googling it. It appears that there has been a popular book by that name recently. So, all the current links google served up were from some Western Buddhist wannabe. But the original place I remember it from is Thomas A Kempis in his “The Imitation of Christ.” His larger context was The Cross.

“No one is so touched with a heartfelt sense of the Passion of Christ, as the man whose lot it has been to suffer like things. The cross, then, is always at hand, and everywhere awaits you. You cannot escape it, run where you will; for wherever you go, you take yourself with you, and you will always find yourself.”

A more modern translation of that runs:

“So, the cross is always ready and waits for you everywhere. You cannot escape it no matter where you run, for wherever you go you are burdened with yourself. Wherever you go, there you are.”

I usually hate travel.  Unless I’m going to some all inclusive beach resort, the effort and expense of travel just never seem worth it. I’m not unmoved by the Romance of it. I’d love to go to Constantinople. The problem is that Constantinople doesn’t exist.  And even Istanbul doesn’t exist as it is in my conception. I’m convinced that travel is on so many people’s lists of dreams to do because they are running from the cross. They have bought into the simple Jimmy Buffet transaction – Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude – without contemplating He Went to Paris, or even better “Hell, it could be my fault.” We think we can run away from the cross.  Yet wherever we go, there we are. Whatever we thought we were escaping, we bring it with us. But what is it we bring?

When Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mark 8:34),” we often take this as a call to some form of the ascetic life. We look at the cross as doing something that our authentic selves does not want. But that is the way to works righteousness, or maybe even worse, to the perennial martyr. What it really means is crucifying the Old Adam. It means mortifying the sin that lives within our members. For it is only then that we meet our true self.  For Jesus’ invitation is followed by the saying, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (Mk. 8:35 ESV)”  We can travel around the world sucking the morrow out of life, and we shall lose it. For wherever we go, we are like poor Marley’s ghost, adding links to the chain of who we think we are.

But wherever we are, at whatever age, or place or spin of fortune’s wheel, there is a cross. Christ chose the cross.  He set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). And it is only through the cross that the true Christ was shown.  “This man is the son of God (Mark 15:39).” It is in picking up our cross that we for the first time know who we are. Who is the person we have stopped running from?  What have we accepted as the call of love in our lives?

Wherever we go, we are burdened by our sinful nature. It used to be standard reading – Pilgrim’s Progress.  The initial picture of Christian on his pilgrimage is carrying this heavy bag.  And he thinks that bag is everything. It is only at the cross that the bag falls off and Christian knows himself. His pilgrimage is just beginning.  His travels are extensive. But from that point on it is himself.  And his walk is heavenward all the way. We imitate Christ when embrace the cross, when we attempt to live the call of love in our lives and stop running from it.

Trusting Providence

We are reading through Genesis in the Wednesday bible study. Only slightly tongue in cheek I shared that the rest of the bible is footnote to Genesis. It is all there in the beginning. Yes, the entire history of Isreal, and then Jesus, and the church, certain fill things out.  But one of the New Testament’s favorite words is to be made full – “When the time was fulfilled…that the scriptures might be fulfilled.” (You can look up that word fulfilled in your concordance and see all it’s uses.) The mental picture of the word is that the form is already present like a pitcher or a jug or 40 gallon vat of water.  Events fill it up or even change the water into wine. The form is fulfilled, made full. Genesis is the empty 40 gallon vat. And it all fits in the there.

As part of that form, there is a funny little story in Genesis 12:10-20. Most interpreters pick up on the Exodus parallels.  Going into Egypt because of a famine.  Plagues. The plunder when leaving. All of which are fulfilled.  But in the midst of that I think there is something better to ponder with Abram. In the immediate prior verses, God has made his covenant with Abram.  And it is that covenant of pure grace and promise.  “Go…I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).”  If the covenant with Noah was the promise of temporal providence – “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease (Gen 8:22)”  – this is the promise of eternal providence.

And immediately comes the test. “Now there was famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt. (Gen 12:10).” Now one of the things we have to understand about Abram is that he is a very rich man.  He has a full household.  He has herds and flocks and slaves and everything.  So when Abram goes to Egypt, a symbol for the world, he is dealt with by Pharoah as an equal. So does Abram deal with Pharoah out of faith in the providence of God, or does Abram try and deal with Pharoah on worldly terms?  If you know the story, or if you just know human nature, you know Abram immediately defaults to worldly terms.  He tells his wife Sarai to say she is his sister.  He passes Sarai over to Pharoah as part of a treaty. And Abram, already a rich man, receives everything that world can give. “And for her sake [Pharoah] dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.”

It’s a repeating pattern with Abram.  He believes the promise, but he’s always trying to figure out how he can speed God up, or how he can help God fulfill the promise. It’s a repeating pattern with us. It is not that we don’t believe God’s providence.  We just have trouble seeing His time and His ways. And living in the midst of the Egypt – in the midst of the world – we are always trying to cut deals to help God out.  The problem is that our deals with the world are the equivalent of giving our wife to Pharoah’s harem. We hand over the one through whom the offspring is promised to those who would mistreat her. We might get everything the world offers, but we’ve given up the pearl of great price.

The good news is that with signs and wonders – the plagues here, eventually the God-man who takes the plague of the cross upon himself – God still provides.  His covenant with us in Jesus doesn’t depend upon our perfection.  It is not upon us to make it full. God fulfills it. He has fulfilled it in Jesus, and he is at work fulfilling it in you.

The next time we find ourselves deep in negotiation with the world, pause for a second. Do we need what the world is offering? What are we giving in exchange for it? Has not God promised us “everything we need to support this body and life?” It might feel like a famine, even to a rich man with herds like Abram. But is our deliverance truly in Egypt?

Why Pray for the Cardinals?

It is not something that modern Lutherans or Protestants spend a lot of time thinking about, but then you only get a new one every decade or so.  In my lifetime there have been 5 popes: Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis. And John Paul I barely counts. And the reality is that as the leader of roughly 1.5 Billion Roman Catholics what any Pope says or does has an impact on the church as a whole.  There is an old saying often applied, “if Rome catches a cold, Wittenberg sneezes.”  There is a list of doctrines that the church has always taught, that many protestant branches have changed with the spirit of the age, but if Rome were to change them, the worldly politics would be rough for any church continuing to confess them. That might explain some of the anxiety of the Francis years because that occasionally looked like a possibility. As a Lutheran it is easy to say “popes and councils may err.” (Luther wrote a treatise under that title.) But to a believer in Papal infallibility, that 2000 years of Popes could teach one thing in faith and morals and you could wake up the next day with the living Pope teaching something else; it went right to the heart of what they confessed.

So, as over the next week, weeks(?), months(??) that we see a new Pope elected, I thought it might be worthwhile to review what we Lutherans believe, teach and confess about that office. Maybe surprisingly the Augsburg Confession – the 1530 primary confession of the Lutheran Church – is rather silent on the bishop of Rome.  Everyone, maybe Luther excluded, still hoped for a church council at that time to adjudicate all the issues. And it was only Luther himself who was excommunicated and declared an outlaw. The Augsburg Confession later section restricts itself to commenting on practices it believes need to be universally reformed: Marriage of Priests, The Mass, Confession, Monastic Vows along with some others. It also closes with an article on Church Authority (Art 28). Maybe foreshadowing the fuller teaching, it limits itself to speaking about “the power of bishops.” The pope by implication being merely the Bishop of Rome and not a universal Bishop. The authority of all bishops is simply “that which they have according to the gospel.  For they have been given the ministry of Word and Sacrament (paragraph 20-21).”  “If they have any other authority or jurisdiction…they have this by human right. (paragraph 29).”

In 1537, what was implied in the Augsburg Confession, is made explicit in two works: The treatise titled The Power and Primacy of the Pope and Article III.4 of the Smalcald Articles entitled The Papacy.  Both are rather short and clear.  You can read any of the Confessional articles yourself at https://bookofconcord.org/ or ask me for a copy of them, we have some extras. The treatise puts forward three claims of the papacy, which the modern papacy would still hold. 1. The Pope is by divine right supreme over all bishops. 2. That by divine right the pope operates in both the Kingdom of the Right (the gospel) and The Kingdom of the Left (the Civil Realm) with the authority to appoint and remove rulers. 3. That the pope is “The Vicar of Christ” which means simply that he is in the person of Christ in all that he does. Now the modern Roman church may moderate on these occasionally due to practicality, but just like indulgences, they are still there.  The treatises teaching can be boiled down to the assertion that all of these are usurping the throne of Christ. It is Christ that is the head of the church. It is Christ who appoints both church and state rulers through various means.  And Christ needs no vicar as he is present wherever the church gathers.  The treatise holds out a distinction that none of these claims are proper by divine right.  The pope cannot bind consciences over his actions in these areas. But, by human right and custom, one can certainly consult the bishop of Rome. Philip Melanchthon the writer was still hopeful of a council healing the schism.

Luther in the same year wrote his article on the Papacy which is more strident, although it really addresses the same three claims.  It opens, “The Pope is not, according to divine law or God’s Word, the head of all Christendom.  This name belongs to One only, whose name is Jesus Christ.  The pope is only the bishop and pastor of the Church at Rome and of those who have attached themselves to him voluntarily or through a human agency.  Christians are not under him as a lord. They are with him as brethren.” Luther continues to imagine a “by human right” papacy, but concludes that this would have to be a failure. And in his toughest statement asserts, “This teaching shows forcefully that the pope is the true Antichrist. He has exalted himself above and opposed himself against Christ.  For he will not permit Christians to be saved without his power (paragraphs 9-10).”  That “saved” is the confession that our sins are forgiven by faith alone.  The absolution does not require the pope’s penance.  If we believe Christ, our sins have already been forgiven and not even the pope can stand in the way.  To the extent the pope stands in the way of the absolution, he opposes Christ.

But there are roughly 1.5 Billion Roman Catholics, fellow Christians.  In the words of the confessions they have “attached themselves to him voluntarily or through a human agency.” And it is only good and right that we should pray for them at such a time.  Both that a good and faithful man might be elevated to such an office, and that he would not get in the way of the proclamation of the gospel, but that he would be their brother in the faith.

Easter Mystery

The great truths of any faith are always a mystery.  What do I mean by that?  What is a mystery?  I’m not thinking of Scooby Doo and the mystery machine, nor Sherlock Holmes or your favorite writer.  Those are all mysteries that can be solved.  A fact is hidden that the investigator can reveal by the end of the book or episode. No, the mystery of a faith is something that is already completely revealed.  It has been revealed before the face of all people. The mystery of a faith is something that can be intuitively understood.  It makes complete sense, and yet is non-sense. Our minds can’t really process it.  Even though we might see it. 

The sacraments are such mysteries.  Water, bread and wine do amazing things. And we can see what they do in the lives of the faithful.  But do we really understand how the Spirit hovers in those waters?  Can we really grasp how we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ?  We recognize the body of Christ. Comprehend is a different matter.

The greatest of these mysteries is the resurrection. We all have an intuitive grasp that death is a horror, an enemy, not natural. As much as the materialists of our generation want to say that death is a natural part of life, it isn’t. It’s part of the life of sinners. It is part of life in a cracked world.  But death is not a rightful inhabitant.  But how do sinners combat their just penalty?  “For in Adam we all die.” (1 Corinthians 15:21).  God in his great mercy has sent us a champion. “In Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21). 

Staring directly at the mystery is tough.  Mysteries are singularity events. We can’t really penetrate them in themselves. How exactly God and man together is one Christ is the mystery of the incarnation. You can meditate on Christmas forever and not understand it. But it speaks to our souls.  You can stare at the empty tomb and not understand.  But it breathes hope.

Isaiah captures that hope so well.  The promise of the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65:17). For that is what the resurrection is, the first fruits of the new creation. And in the new creation, “the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” It’s a common question about heaven “what about those who aren’t there?”  Or, “what about fill in the blank of something that meant so much here?” They shall not come to mind.  Why?

Isaiah’s answer I think is simply the reality of the resurrection shall turn this broken creation into Paul’s light momentary affliction. “I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people.” If God is glad, can we be anything but? “No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.” And Isaiah goes on to list things that are sadly too common – not mysteries at all in this world – that shall not happen in the new.  “They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity (Isaiah 65:23).” The teacher of Ecclesiastes – all is vanity – shall be out of work.  And the wolf and the lamb shall graze together.

We see the effects of the mystery.  Even now we can see the mystery at work.  Name another place outside the church that gathers together such different people. But what we see today is nothing compared to that day.  The day that the last enemy is destroyed forever. Have a blessed Easter. 

7 Words

I made a mistake in service planning this year.  I always prefer working from assigned readings, but the Wednesday midweeks don’t have a formal lectionary.  There are multiple informal ones.  Each LCMS Seminary provides some cheats.  The Synod worship committee itself does so as well. Along with a couple other sources. So I usually just pick up one of those as the assigned reading and run with it. Why? It prevents me from overthinking these things.  Something I am prone to do.  But back in late January when I was forced to think about this – Ash Wednesday was March 4th – I was not yet thinking about Holy Week.  So when the midweeks suggested reading the Passion story over the 7 weeks I said to myself “sure, that sounds good. I’ve done catechism reading the past couple. Something different.” Not thinking, “oops, that will cause the same text to be read at least three times in 10 days.”

Why? Because Palm Sunday has become Palms and Passion.  Why? Because attendance at Good Friday services had dipped significantly. And Going from the King riding into Jerusalem to shouts of Hosanna to Resurrection morning seems to skip something significant to the Gospel in between. So the Passion was added to the Palms. And the typical Good Friday service is the dousing of the lights while we read the Passion. If I was thinking, I would have changed that service to an alternate “Seven Last Words” service. Maybe next year.  There are several wonderful choral arrangements around that theme.  Might be an interesting challenge for the choir.  Lutheran Service Book 447 – Jesus, in Your Dying Woes is our hymnbook placeholder for such a service.  It is a wonderfully tight three stanza each meditation on the collection of Jesus’ words from the cross.

So, I’m sorry for the repetition. But, it is something important. And there is enough in there for more than three meditations. So I thought here I’d offer the thumbnail of an alternate mediation – the Seven Last Words.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” – Lk. 23:34

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  – Lk. 23:43

“Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”  – Jn. 19:26

“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – Matt. 27:46

“I thirst.”  – Jn. 19:28

“It is finished” – Jn. 19:30

“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” – Lk. 23:46

That is the traditional ordering. The first three show Jesus’ continued care for others even while being crucified. From those farthest away who don’t know what they are doing, who he begs forgiveness for, to those closest. Making sure that his mother was cared for. In between comforting the repentant thief whose hours were almost as short as his own. There is something about the order of love in those sayings.  We cannot neglect those far away, while at the same time we have a specific duty of love to those nearest.

The next two reveal something of the split of the Synoptics Jesus who is first human and revealed to be divine, and John where Jesus is always divine, but also shown to be the true man. The synoptic human Jesus suffers everything that we do, including the worries that God has forsaken us.  Luke caps these human worries off with the last words, the great confession of Faith.  “I trust you Father.” We all find ourselves there.  Can God really be with us in suffering and death?  Faith’s response is yes.  “I commit my soul to the Father.”

John’s words are the words of the divine. The thirst of Jesus is not the thirst for the sour wine, it is the thirst for more to be at the table, when he will again drink of the fruit of the vine. His life, his incarnation, his passion, is for all mankind that we might come to the heavenly feast.  And this divine Jesus’ last words for John are the judgement, “It is finished.” Salvation has been secured.  The redemption price has been paid.  The New Adam has withstood his temptation, and sin and death shall rule no more. The Righteous King has been crowned.

God cares for us – those close and those far away. He desires us all to be at the banquet. His salvation is done. The only question is the one of faith.  Do we trust what God has done to commit our spirit to Him? Proofs I see sufficient of it, ‘tis the true and faithful Word.

A New Thing



I can’t remember when I first ran across this comic but it captures something deep, both about the sinful nature, but also about the deep magic of creation.  The 2nd and 3rd panels are the sinful nature portions. It isn’t the first panel because new things are not necessarily sinful.  It is when we refuse to love and cherish the relations we’ve been given (4th commandment), when we refuse to support our neighbor (5th), destroy our neighbor’s possessions and income (7th), entice away our neighbor’s household (10th) that we throw things up into the air just to see where they might land.  We want things to be different, and the only way the sinful nature knows how to do that is by destroying our neighbor or even ourselves. And when we do, “oh no.”  The punishment of sin is living with its effects.

But our Old Testament lesson for this Sunday (Isaiah 43:16-21) is a good meditation and captures that first panel.  God has a habit of intervening in the lives of his people, of wanting things to be different.  Before the flood “The LORD was sorrowful he had made them (Genesis 6:6).” So he pledged to do something new, saving eight souls in all.  Getting off the Ark things continued as they were, culminating in the Tower of Babel.  So God chose Abraham as his own giving over the nations.  You can walk through other such changes. Judges ruled for 400 years until God has Samuel anoint Saul King.  Saul’s Kingship didn’t last his lifespan when God decides on something new and anoints David. The monarchy reaches something of an end and God sends them to Babylon – something new. And with each something new from God you could say he is just doing it like the central panel.  Throwing stuff up and seeing what sticks.  But that is not God’s revelation of himself.

“Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters (Isaiah 43:16).” The waters are always the chaos of the world.  God is the one who separates waters from waters bringing order out of chaos. God is the one who makes a way. The mighty men – “the chariot and horse, army and warrior (Isaiah 43:17)” – are brought forth and extinguished by God. In the midst of sinful man throwing things up and going oh no, God makes a way.  God makes good things happen out of our oh nos.

The great “new thing” that Isaiah is ultimately talking about is Christ. As a hymn puts it, “The Ancient Law departs/and all its fears remove/For Jesus makes with fearful hearts/A covenant of love..” “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old (Isaiah 43:18).”  When we are standing in the middle of our next “oh no”, God has already made a way in Christ.  And the response of the people of God is “that they might declare my praise (Isaian 43:21).” God wants a new you.  He wants a you that has been formed by himself and his word.  He wants a you justified and sanctified by his indwelling Spirit.

But it is verse 19 of our lesson that has always intrigued me.  “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” As much as we might want things to be different, the sinful nature wants to control the change. We don’t want the change if it is not in our control.  But the way of God is the “new thing.” The will of God is done, but is it done amongst us? Do we see the way that God is making for his people?  Are we willing to stop trying to force our ways that end up in “oh no” and attempt to perceive God’s way? That way doesn’t always look great.  It’s in the wilderness, past wild beasts and jackals.  But the way God makes brings rivers to the desert and extracts honor from the beasts. It gives drink to my chosen people. It’s the opposite of just throwing stuff up; it builds up and provides. Do we see it? Are we willing to let Christ make us different?

Meditation on Now and Not Yet

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  – 2 Corinthians 5:17

It’s a person theory, but all the trouble in Christendom stems from what this verse is talking about.  Here the Apostle Paul is talking Old Creation and New Creation, but he has other ways of talking the same thing. The Kingdom which is passing away and the Kingdom Come. The Old Adam and the New Man. And there are many others.  The way that it fixes in my mind is actually from John. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared (1 Jn. 3:2 ESV).” – the now and the not yet. Now we can already claim the resurrection. Now the promises are all fulfilled in Christ. But stubbornly some of them are not yet ours by sight.  They are ours by faith.

If you are within the church we all wish that we were now perfect.  There is an expectation that if we are not part of the Kingdom things should be smooth.  So when minor disagreements crop up, not even mentioning gross sins, how is this place the Kingdom is a natural question. That fact that the church now is the gathering of sinners, forgiven by Christ, but still dealing with the Old Adam is often forgotten.  Yes, the new has come, but the old is still passing away.  Daily the old Adam must be drowned.

Externally the church now still deals with the old creation.  And the Old Creation recognizes the church for what it is, the Omaha Beach of the New Creation, the place where now the Kingdom Comes, if not yet in full power. Now the church forgives sins.  “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).” And that reconciliation comes through the proclamation. Now, your sins are forgiven.  “As a called and ordain servant of the world, I pronounce the grace of God onto all of you.” Not yet have we been made perfect.  Not yet does the truth of that proclamation shine forth to all who hear it.  The Prince of this Old World knows it and now fights hard against. But the residents of it? Not yet have all seen the way, the truth and the life.

Living in the overlapping of the now and the not yet is constantly frustrating. Not only in dealing with others both inside and outside of the church.  The most frustrating part is when that now and not yet are within ourselves. Now we know what we should do, but we do not yet do it. Not yet have we mortified the flesh, because now sin still lives in our members. We often find we are at war with our very selves. We are the new creation, but the old hangs around.  And the fact of the old hanging around, if we are wise, prevents us from claiming and acting on the now, when what we are desiring is not yet. If we are foolish we plunge ahead only to find ourselves worse than the starting point.  The law has not been put away, and not a jot or tittle will disappear until the fulness of the Kingdom.

The now and the not yet is the right division of the law and the gospel. Now the gospel comes to us in word and promise.  The not yet becomes the now by faith.  But the day comes when that Kingdom will come in power. But the power is not yet. Now it comes in poorer form. A message of reconciliation. A rumor of resurrection. “God making his appeal through us. (2 Corinthians 5:20).” And we implore you, be reconciled to Christ, now. Trust the Word.