Worship

I have an idea.

Why don't we start treating worship as something God calls together, and not a place where we have to feel entertained; or fulfilled; or 'fed,' whatever that means?

It may come as a shock to quite a few people, that we are not here to meet their needs.

Finally, a Fitting Fit to Finish

24. When proclaimed in its purity, the gospel of Jesus Christ comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.

25. There are many easy and false ways to comfort the afflicted. “The gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction.”

26. Society at large is in denial about its sinfulness. Outside of the church, the concept of sin has no meaning.

27. Afflicting the comfortable is always difficult and never well received.

28. The task of evangelism includes the naming of sin.

29. Only those who have been afflicted by the word of God can be properly comforted by it.

30. The task of evangelism includes the pronouncement of forgiveness, not tolerance.

Trying to fix #20

After encouragement, maybe I find this thing salvageable.

So here:

20. When one is concerned about filling pews and offering plates, one is tempted to adopt a position of tolerance.

Okay?

Grace Inflation

One pastor said that Jesus died and rose as proof of God's justice. Jesus was a member of an oppressed people who was crucified because he threatened the power structure, nothing more. So God (sic) had to (sic) raise him from the dead because to leave him dead would be unjust. I took issue with that because I thought it watered down the gospel. If the gospel is only about justice then I am most certainly on the losing side, and I am of all people most pathetic (1 Corinthians 15:19).

That's not so bad, really. I do need reminding that I am called as a disciple of Jesus to act justly and seek justice. I just thought that was a pre-gospel conviction and a post-gospel response, not the sum total content of the gospel.

Then yesterday I read that Jesus died to free us from traditional gender roles. Referencing Galatians, the author wrote that she was freed in Christ not to clean the house. For years I have been the one in our house to do the laundry. Now I know why - cuz Jesus died to make it happen.

Looks like grace is getting cheaper all the time. If we keep minting new graces at the present pace, what will become of our justification?

Judas

Luke 9:1-6, 10.
You gain a whole new perspective on this mission when you remember that one of those twelve was Judas. He too was chosen, commissioned and sent out. He too healed, cast out demons and proclaimed the good news.
What happened to him? I have a friend who is writing a book about Judas - with a positive slant. Perhaps he was not evil and insidious from the start. Maybe he was a man of faith. Maybe Dante was wrong.
This could have implications for you as well. You, too, might be redeemed.

Fit the Fifth (three times fast)

We repeat #20, with the reminder that it is false.

20. Tolerance will fill pews and offering plates; forgiveness will not.

21. The filling of pews and offering plates is not the task of evangelism.

22. Lutherans, and all Christians, evangelize because we are called to do so by Christ himself.

23. The guiding principle of evangelism is love. We love people enough to bring them the gospel.

Jesus Gave Me Away

I don't mind picking up homeless hitchhikers on the side of the road and I wasn't in a hurry to get somewhere, so as soon as I knew he was looking for a ride and not just walking, I stopped to pick him up.

He didn't smell and he wasn't looking for money. He did, however, want to go in the opposite direction; but he told me that before he got in, so that was okay. I didn't mind going back to Rock Rapids, like I say, I wasn't in a hurry.

But I didn't want to tell him I was a pastor. I wanted him to think I was an average person helping him in the name of Jesus. Pastors have to help because it's their job. Anyway, that's what everybody thinks and I wanted him think well of Christian laypeople.

Plus, pastors have to do more than laypeople would, and I wanted to keep the option to say 'no' open.

"So, are you clergy?"

I cannot tell a lie. "Yes, I am."

"I saw your cross." (Very observant. It's a little dashboard cross, but I don't keep it on the dashboard because it goes flying whenever I make a turn. I keep it in a little catch-all ashtray thing.)

Jesus had given me away.

So I took him into town and we looked for another church connection to be the next link in his life. It was a Monday, so there weren't any pastors around. Pastors and barbers take Mondays off. I suppose if we had wanted to get him a haircut, we couldn't do that either.

Eventually he thanked me and we parted. I think he figured I was not being much help, which was true, and he'd be better off looking by himself. He didn't ask, but I offered him a Jackson, which he accepted.

I waved and drove away.

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.

Fit the Fourth

Number 20 appears by itself because it is patently false -

20. Tolerance will fill pews and offering plates; forgiveness will not.

He Loves Us Anyway

So how much can I sin and still go to heaven?

A charming young daughter once came to her parents and said, "Mom, Dad, I have a question.

"See, I'm planning to run away from home and live in the most dangerous part of the city. There I will accumulate for myself the most abusive 'friends' I can find. I will become addicted to alcohol, heroin, crack, and a lot of other drugs I haven't even heard of yet. I have a strong sense that I will become anorexic and possibly also bulimic because I will come to hate myself so much. To pay for my drug habit I plan to steal and to sell my body. Perhaps I will get a job feeding carob pods to pigs, but I'm not sure what that means. Eventually, I imagine, my new lifestyle will lead to my death somewhere in an alley all alone.

"Oh, no, don't misunderstand me! I'm not asking for permission to do all these things. I've already decided.

"What I need to know is, when I do all these things, will you still love me?"

Her parents resisted the urge to scream, "HELL NO!" because they knew it wasn't the truth.

Fit the Third

I repeat #14; it's sort of transitionary.

14. “Tolerance” is a milk-and-water virtue unfit for the kingdom of God.

15. Tolerance will never be enough for God’s kingdom, because one can tolerate another person from a distance. Living together in a community of faith requires forgiveness.

16. Forgiving is not the same as forgetting, excusing or ignoring.

17. Forgiveness happens when the sinned-against says to the sinner, “What you did genuinely hurt me; but I am not willing to let that hurt destroy our relationship.”

18. Forgiveness, therefore, requires love.

19. Forgiveness and love are Christian virtues.

Coram Deo

I turn you to a well-written article in the October 2008 issue of the ALPB Forum Letter, by its editor, Richard Johnson. Drawing out Luther's interpretation of the Canaanite woman, Pastor Johnson reminds us that we are all the Canaanite: we are all so far from God (in sin) that we have no right to stand before him. Again, we have no inclination to stand before him that does not come from the Holy Spirit.

The best line in the whole essay (my opinion) is this: "If I do not understand how far I am from God, how little I am compared to God, how unworthy I am even to come into God's presence, then nothing else about Christianity can make sense."

Grace is not grace if it does not forgive sin. Thus Christianity can not be about justice (although it may result in Christians being nice to other people), because justice implies the accessibility of human righteousness.

Read the whole article. alpb.org

Reverend Spock

Luther famously said that he could be convinced of a theological tenet by Scripture and plain reason. Scripture I know. What did he mean by "plain reason?"

From the way Luther used scripture, it seems his plain reason is what a philosophy student would call logic. Logic is the tool of philosophy in a way similar to math as the tool of science.

Exemplum gratia:
1. Saturn is an extrasolar planet
2. If Saturn is an extrasolar planet, then all the grass in my front yard is pink.
3. If all the grass in my front yard is pink, then either Barack Obama is a democrat or John McCain is a democrat.
4. Barack Obama is not a democrat.
5. Therefore, John McCain is a democrat.

The reader will notice immediately that all five of the above statements are false. However, as any first year philosophy student can tell you, the logic of the argument is quite solid. That means that if statements 1-4 were true, then because of the structure of the argument, statement five would also have to be true. As blatantly false as this argument is, the problem is with the assumptions, not the logic.

Luther used scripture to supply his assumptions. Plain reason sorted out what the scripture said, so that scripture could interpret itself, and saints of any time and place could use it as their rule and norm.

I have a friend who is making a certain theological argument. It's one of those "God is doing something new" theologies. The Holy Spirit is moving, God continually makes all things new. You know the drill. She has the logic thing down. She makes a very good argument. But where is scripture?

She could probably think of a good proof text for her point - I just came up with a couple myself. But foundational scripture is lacking.

When people like me complain that scripture is losing its authority, this is what we mean. It's easy to make a sound logical argument for just about anything, but only if the assumptions are weak.

Fear and Trembling re: fear and trembling

It bothers me that I seem to have lost my sense of dread. Or something. I am not supposed to be so right with God that I have lost my fear and trembling. When I step into the pulpit, I am supposed to be shaking in my boots that the Word I am about to speak applies every bit as much to me as to the least of these. I don't have that - not much.

It must be that I have become comfortable with the message. Not the message of the Word, certainly, but the message I have been drawing from the Word. I-Knew-I-Was-Right-All-Along stuff is easy to preach. Only; I wasn't.

I long for the Word to convict me. The gospel is at stake here, because if I am not convicted by the law, then there is no grace for me.

This Sunday there's that guy at the wedding banquet. He gets kicked out for not wearing a wedding robe. He just might convict me, because he just might be me. But then, if I read enough commentaries on who he really is, I might find out he isn't me; then I'd be safe again.

A wise seminary professor once said, "Read the Bible. It will shed a lot of light on the commentaries."

Fit the Second

7. Where other denominations define themselves by polity or tradition or by manner of living, Lutherans define themselves theologically. Ask a Lutheran what it means to be a Lutheran and the answer should be, “We believe, teach and confess . . .”

8. Lutherans should cease calling themselves a “mainstream” denomination.

9. There’s a lot of water in the Mainstream. In order for the Lutheran Church to call itself a Mainstream denomination, we will need to water down our theology considerably.

10. Lutherans do good theology when they ask the question, “Why did Jesus have to die?”

10a. The strength of God’s grace lies in the sinners it redeems, not in the sin it denies.

11. A strong theology of original sin is necessary for a strong theology of grace.

12. Lutherans have a strong theology of original sin.

13. If Lutherans were to water down or temper their theology of original sin, and therefore also their theology of grace, they would be denying their distinctive gift of theological depth.

14. “Tolerance” is a milk-and-water virtue unfit for the kingdom of God.

Oh Foolish Generation

Every generation considers itself to be the pinnacle of human achievement.

Those who have gone before are unsophisticated, bigoted and superstitious. I suppose we can't really blame them for not coming up to our level of wisdom.

In the opposite direction, we have the youth, whose self-absorption is unbelievable. When are they going to wise up and listen? We have such good advice to give, based on years of experience!

Yesterday at the book display of my church's publisher, I noticed a trend. There were a few books from Luther; one Bonhoeffer; one Julian of Norwich. All the other books were by living authors. So much for the wisdom of generations.

I think sometimes that my church is trying to reinvent Christianity.

Somewhat fewer than 95; Fit the First

I wrote these a while back, when I was inspired by an article in First Things by Philip Turner. Here are the first six -

1. Every Christian denomination has a gift with which it may bless the whole Church of God.

2. Other Christian denominations do a better job of presenting certain aspects of our common faith than Lutherans do. In some loci it is their gift to lead and ours to follow.

3. The proper approach to the gift God has given us is not to deny or downplay it in a false sense of humility,

4. nor to hold it as private property,

5. nor to revere it as the only good and true gift of God, as if our brothers and sisters with other gifts had nothing.

6. The Lutheran gift to the Church is theological depth.

Ancestor Worship

AMERICAN: So, tell me about the religious life of the Japanese people.

JAPANESE: Our traditional religion is called Shinto. We worship our ancestors.

AMERICAN: Oh, we Americans have the same thing. We call it perpetual care.

The Cross

"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' [Matt. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." - Martin Luther
"When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Rich Young Ruler

One day, a RYR approached Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what must I do to be in solidarity with the poor and oppressed?"
Jesus answered, "What does your church, mosque, synagogue, or other benevolent association teach you?"
The RYR said, "I must read newspapers, write letters, and only buy cappuccinos at certified fair trade shops."
Then Jesus said, "Um . . . okay."
In joy the RYR cried, "All these I have done!"
And Jesus looked at the RYR in love and said, "Just one more thing."
"Yes?"
"You got a car?"

Accept none!

Solidarity is no substitute for repentance.
Tolerance is no substitute for forgiveness.
Justice is no substitute for redemption.
Scholarship is no substitute for theology.

At the feast

Yesterday I celebrated Communion in my parish. As I was distributing the Body of Christ along the rail I came upon a woman, a rock-ribbed Republican if ever there was one. "The Body of Christ, given for you." Immediately next to her was a man, one of the most liberal Democrats in the county. The Body of Christ was given for him, too.
As they got up from the rail, he helped her. She smiled at him.
We had a meeting after services to discuss the frequency of Holy Communion. They voted to have it only twice a month because if you have it too often, it isn't special.

Naturally,

Before you read this one, do keep in mind what I said about being wrong in helpful ways. I really don't know Buddhism very much at all. As you see, that won't stop me from discussing it with a certain amount of pigheadedness. Criticism I can take, but no nitpicking. I will delete you.
Buddhism is the highest level of thought attainable by natural theology. If you look at the world around you and notice all the tragedy and pain and injustice; then give up on the world as a horrible place, to be left as soon as possible; then you are an existentialist and you gave up too early.
A Buddhist will look at the same world with some hope. Things are this way. Perhaps they are supposed to be this way. Everything happens for a reason. Must be Bad Karma. Keep trying the best you can. If things don't get better in this life, perhaps there will be another and you can try again.
So the source of hope is mostly conjecture. Maybe there is some Holy Spirit movement here, bringing about some of the hope. There's also quite a bit of static interfering with the signal.
More hope is available. Much more.
The only way to move beyond natural theology is by revelation. For this, there is no substitute for the Holy Spirit.

Junkyard Jesus

"I don't like it here, Jesus," Peter said. "Why bring us to this old junkyard, anyway?"
"Look at it, Peter," Jesus encouraged. "What do you see?"
"Nothing. Just a bunch of old cars. Rusty, dead, worthless old cars."
Jesus called Nathanael over. "Look - isn't that a '66 Mustang?"
Nathanael liked to work on cars. He was instantly excited.
"Yeah. That's a classic!"
"Could you fix it up?"
"I don't know. It's pretty far gone. Would take a lot of work." But Nathanael knew it would be worth it. His eyes showed that every moment he would spend working on that old car would be sheer pleasure. The grease stains, even the unavoidable cuts on his hands would be worn as badges of honor.
"Now," Jesus spoke to the whole group, "somebody tell me what junk is." He didn't have to look directly at Philip when he asked. But Philip was always ready with the complete, technically correct definition.
"Junk is part or all of a mechanical contrivance which is somehow separated from its original intent," the disciple answered. These cars are junk because, although they were once used for the transportation of one or more individuals, they are no longer suitable for that purpose."
"Perfect," James grunted.
"However," Philip continued, "while the cars are junk, they are far from worthless. Junk is not the same as trash, because it is conceivable that junk may be recovered. In the right hands, such as those of our friend Nathanael here, junk cars can be restored."
Then Jesus began to teach them, saying, "Truly I tell you, you are junk. I found you here, in this junkyard of a world, not living up to your intended purpose. I could have left you to rust into trash. But I love you. So I have come into this world to recover you, and to restore you to your original purpose."
Judas had a vague feeling he'd just been insulted. The others only looked at Jesus blankly. Finally Peter's hand shot up.
"Yes?"
"Jesus, could we go now? These junkyards just aren't safe."

The Z L Canon

I confess an inordinate like for the book of Ecclesiastes. Other than chapter 3, this one doesn't have a lot of fans; and even the fans want to delete "a time to hate." The one time I was asked to preach a baccalaureate, my text was chapter 5.
Proverbs is very popular, at least in my sub-world. I don't get much out of it, though. Too many answers.
Job is great; it can be a life in itself - but only if you read the middle chapters too, not just chs. 1 and 42.
Lutherans never trusted James, because of all that works stuff. See? Distrust of action.
Which brings us to Acts. We've always liked the witness to God's work in the world. When Acts comes up in the lectionary, we say things like, "See how the Holy Spirit is always one step ahead of the apostles!" Then we say the book should not be called the Acts of the Apostles, and there are no more apostles in our day, and other stuff to explain why the book ended.
We also like the gospel of John and the first letter of John and other books we can read, mark, learn and inwardly digest. We like anything we can meditate on indefinitely.

There's really no excuse for this. Scripture is Scripture, and the parts we don't favor are all the more the stuff we need. Struggle with it - struggle physically, not just mentally.

In And Not Of

The constant struggle of the Zen Lutheran, from what I can see, is to be in the world and not of it. Comfort lies on either side: either by going along with the world or by seceding from it. I believe I mentioned how comfortable denial is.
But staying on the fence is painful, cuz it's got those pointy things on top. Here, they're cross-shaped.

How to keep from sinning

Since one of our first needs as humans is to be thought blameless, here are two ways to keep sin at bay.

If you are a conservative, I would suggest putting your focus on individual sins. Rank them. Make sure you hold the worst sins in absolute disdain. Naturally, these will be the sins you would never think to commit yourself, and, helpfully, you have no trouble avoiding. If you can keep away from them, why can't everyone else?
Now that you have identified the worst sins, and these are clear to all, whatever sin you had disappears. After all, you are not a murderer, are you? Compared to them, you're blameless. Tada! Sin's gone!

If you are a liberal, you might try the ills of society route. Put all sins in the context of 'we.' Our society does a lot of really bad stuff, like wars, oppression, and so on. Don't forget the ones that were committed centuries ago. Then place yourself above all that. "We" always means other people. Since you identified the problem, and you are the prophetic voice against it, once again, you cannot be blamed.

Isn't denial wonderful? So simple, it's just a matter of pointing out the sins of others.

If neither of these routes suits you, then go into your room and shut the door; kneel down and pray like this: "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner."
The only alternative to self-justification is divine mercy.

Jesus at the P.O.

I never expected to see Jesus there at the Post Office. In fact, I didn't really want to. I just came to see if my package had arrived.

See, I ordered a bunch of stuff from JesusOnLine; but who knew he would deliver it personally?

Looking over the catalog carefully, I chose the Eternal Salvation (family four-pack), the inner peace, the cosmology set and the personal justification. I even made room in a closet to store all that stuff, you know, so it wouldn't get in the way and I would trip over it on my way to Real Life.

So I was all set to pick up my stuff and leave quietly. I went to the P.O. at a slow time, even, when not many people were there. I opened the door casually, so as not to arouse suspicion. I looked in my box, and sure enough, there was a yellow card. That's what they put in your P.O. box if you have something too big to fit in there, so you have to come over to the window and claim it.

I knew it had to be my stuff from Jesus. So I went to the window, all excited. But there he was. He was the one at the window giving people their stuff.

I didn't know it, but there's apparently some sort of policy that you can't just order stuff from Jesus. You have to take him, too.

So now I have a house guest. And he's always hanging around.

Mr. Marty Existence

The way Luther put it sounds pretty existential. "I believe I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in the Lord or come to him." It's like that picture that's been around - the one of the famous philosopher (not famous enough for me to remember who) standing on a floating piece of ice with his hat and cane, like he's waiting for the bus or something. But the bus never comes. The bus sank in four miles of ocean. He's probably still on that ice, waiting.
Or the play, Waiting for Godot.
What makes it all Lutheran is that we do not recapture our essence. Rescue comes by, of all things, a man dying on a cross.

You reading assignment for next time is Shusaku Endo's Silence. If there is a next time.

All Grace

Where Lutherans are Most Zen: distrust of action. Works Righteousness is the label we stick on stuff we don't like when we want to shut down all discussion on the topic. Lutherans recoil at the thought of their actions counting for something.
The way Kant said it, actions cannot be ethical in themselves. Only intentions can be judged good or bad.

(I'm not really sure I'm doing justice to Kant here. You should get used to having me misinterpret philosophers. If you write a comment on this like, "Kant never said . . . " followed by lots of yadas, you missed the point. Maybe Kant never said it or meant it, but he should have. Or somebody should have. We need people to be wrong in helpful ways.)

Oh, and by the way: Intentions are always bad.

So that kind of sets us back. People like to think they can do the right thing; but it seems pretty obvious to the Zen Lutheran that they don't. If the only hope for humanity is more humanity, well, that's where hope gets flushed.

This is going to end up being quite existential. You do remember Kierkegaard was Lutheran, right? I'll get around to misinterpreting him later. For now just remember the father of existentialism was a Danish Lutheran.

Zen Lutherans are failed romantics. A romantic is someone who dreams that things can be better. When they don't get better, they come to us.

But don't look here for pessimism, cynicism or despair. Just look for grace.

Zen? Lutheran?

There is some stuff in Zen that seems like the exact opposite of Lutheran stuff, so maybe you're asking how in the world these two go together. Zen/Buddhist:Lutheran/Christian, for one thing most obvious. So maybe this can't be done. Then again, maybe this is your first koan.
Zen is the practice of reaching within oneself for wisdom. And given the Lutheran aversion for all things incurvatus in se, we see an obvious pitfall. But what if we take seriously the promise of the Holy Spirit, calling, gathering, enlightening and sanctifying? It is the Spirit in us that brings us to faith.