Temporal Blessing of the Land

“The distinction between law and gospel is the highest art in Christendom.” – Martin Luther

When modern Lutherans have thought about Law and Gospel they have tended to do so in two ways. The first is as an individual. The law condemns me; the gospel proclaims my salvation. And that is fine…as far as it goes. The second way is more troubling. We have tended to put law and gospel in contradiction to each other. Because the law condemns me we label it “bad,” while the gospel is “good” because it saves me. And anytime someone brings up the law we dismiss it because we are free in the gospel. Those two ways of pondering the distinction of law and gospel have at least been debated. There are minority reports on the 20^th and 21^st century handling of this highest art which take them to task. There is a third part that just floats under the surface like an iceberg. Everything in law and gospel has been focused upon salvation. And don’t get me wrong, salvation is important. You might even say ultimate. But we are not taken immediately out of this world (John 17:15, 1 Cor 5:10). “How then shall we live” is important. And how we shall live together is also important.

The Old Testament lesson for this week (Deuteronomy 30:15-20) comes from Moses’ final words to Israel after 40 years in the wilderness before they take the promised land. Moses’ worlds are clear law. “If you obey the commandments of the LORD you God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules…”. There are some interesting distinctions made like the gradations in the law – commandments, statutes and rules – which we might think of as the moral law, the civil law and the kosher laws of religious cleanliness. But it is the law which demands that our hearts follow it, but that law has no ability within itself to compel hearts. Israel was always a stubborn and stiff-necked people, like all sinners. But the promise that is attached to this law is neither an individual promise nor a salvation promise. If you keep it…“you shall live and multiply, and the LORD will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” The promise, at least this one of the law, is about the here and now, and it is more about the collective.

God in his grace is giving Isreal the land. That is the gospel. God promised that to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and God keeps his promises. Ultimately that gospel promise of the land is fulfilled in the New Jerusalem and the life of the world to come. But the law of God is good and wise. If the society one lives in is one that respects the 10 commandments (commandments), and if that society has civil laws that are both upheld and respected (statutes), and if that society has folk ways that are shared (rules), things will go better. That is not a promise of a rose garden for every individual, but collectively, that is a place where people can live. They are not worried every day about murder and theft and calumny. That is a place where people would desire to have children (multiply). That is a place where “the mandate of heaven” has fallenjoyfully – “the LORD will bless you.” These are not the blessings of the gospel which come to us by grace. No amount of doing these things earns us heaven. But the way the LORD has created this world, these things are part of that natural law.

Sin of course runs in us and we are always looking for ways to take advantage. If everyone else walks in those ways, but I defect from them, I can get all kinds of private benefits. But as everyone defects, it all falls apart. “If your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land.”

The law has no ability to enforce itself. But by grace God has given us the land. God has given us the world to come, and God has also given to us this place. He has both given us salvation and everything we need to support this body and life. And our lot has fallen in a blessed place. As Moses said to Israel, “choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” That you may live in eternity, but also that God might bless our native land and firm may she ever stand.

Will Few Be Saved?

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Biblical Text: : Luke 13:22-30

Questions can come from the variety of places. Especially questions like asking Jesus “will few be saved?” And in Jesus’ answer to the man I hear at least two different assumptions about the purpose of the question. This sermon is structured around a 2×2 box of motivation behind the question. Are you truly asking about others, or are you asking about yourself? And then are you optimistic about your chances or pessimistic? It explores each one of those purposes of asking and how Jesus’ answer addresses it.

Others/Optimistic = In line with many of the promises from Abraham to Revelation

Others/Pessimistic = Redirects away from the fate of others toward yourself. Are you walking the narrow way?

Self/Optimistic = The danger square. Many will say “Lord, Lord”

Self/Pessimistic = You, come up here. The call of the gospel. The last shall be first.

And it is that last one that meshes with its spacial or directional metaphor that meshes with the Old Testament lesson of the day (Isaiah 66:18-23). That last box is also what Lutheranism is really made to address. When you find yourself as Wednesday’s child, you are very near the heart of the gospel.

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Wisdom Lit

One thing Lutheranism has always struggled with is the life of the Christian after their justification. Luther opens this bottle of 100% grace. A proof that strong had not been tasted since Paul wrote to the Galatians. And it was a necessary slug. Christians were wandering around thinking that buying an indulgence would get them into heaven faster. They were praying to relics and saints when prayer is only for God. They were doing what they could and then trusting God for the rest. Never stopping to realize that what we could do without God was nothing. If I have to do it, the work is never done. But justification is God’s works. It is already done. I just need to believe it – faith alone.

The trouble soon manifests itself though. How then do I live? And Lutherans have tended to have two answers to this. The first answer is always a bit like the hippie-commie Acts 4 commune. They all sold everything and held everything in common (Acts 4:32). Live out of the freedom of the Gospel. And like hippies everywhere, they aren’t wrong, if we were living in the fullness of the Kingdom. Unfortunately the story of Ananias and Sapphira comes next which makes plain both our sinful natures and the grace with which we trifle when we give such answers.. Most Lutherans reintroduce the law, something called the third use, as the way that God intends us to live. And this is not wrong. The law is good and wise. The problem tends to be two-fold.

Reintroducing the law after having the 200 proof grace feels like the morning after 200 proof slugs. But the greater danger is that we end up as lawyers back arguing points of the law and looking for ways we contribute. And we lose the grace again. 200 proof watered down to traces.

Our epistle lesson for the day (Hebrews 12:4-24) – focusing on Hebrews 12:12-17 – addresses this problem as Wisdom Literature. Wisdom Literature has always been trouble for the strict Lutheran Law-Gospel thinking. Because wisdom does make demands. Live this way. “Lift up drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees (Hebrews 12:12).” It feels like the law. But unlike the 10 commandments which are equally applicable to everyone, Wisdom Literature is more guideposts. You are living in the freedom of the Gospel, but watch out for this. As this it is less law, but more gospel encouragement.

“Make straight paths for your feet.” That is biblical talk that if you are feeling tired of carrying the cross, if the discipline of the Father feels heavy, walk in clear ways. Simplify. Do that “so that what is lame many not be put out of joint but rather be healed (Hebrews 12:13).” As one who has been limping around for a few weeks because I refused straight paths and things in my feet were put out of joint, I get it. Not every day is spiritual training day. Learn to recognize your pains.

The wisdom from Hebrews 12:14-17 is a bit more complex. The tension in the communal Christian life is established between “strive for peace with everyone” and “and for holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” Striving for peace is easy if you forget about holiness. Just accept everything. But what that ends up doing is denying grace. Because the Christian walk is not about acceptance, but absolution. We all sinned and all have been forgiven. And that grace puts us on the path of holiness. If we are all walking that path together, but there is one who is walking not through grace, but because their sin has just been accepted, that is the “root of bitterness.” And I’ve seen this many times. The one denied grace realizes they are not walking the same path. And often calls attention to it. Those walking under grace will often turn and ask “what about that one?” The examples given are “the sexually immoral” and “Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal”. That root of bitterness in other places might be called a scandal or a stumbling block. There is a great difference between welcoming the repentant sinner, and accepting those who despise and ignore the gathering like Esau or live proud public immoral lives.

200 proof grace is strong enough to absolve any sin. The wisdom is in how to drink it.

The Alien Work

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Biblical Text: Luke 12:49-56

The Gospel lesson for the day often gets put in the “hard saying of Jesus”, but Jesus doesn’t think it belongs there. At least if I’m reading it correctly, he is amazed that we can read the times. And what are those times? They are times of division. The Word of God is proclaimed. That Word does not return empty. It accomplishes what it goes out for. But that purpose ends up being a division. The intention or desire of the Word is the proper work of God. God wishes to “help, save, comfort and defend” his people. But God has not created robots. We have the agency to reject the word. In which care that Word accomplishes the alien work of God. That alien work is the work of the outer darkness.

It is that division of the ages that is taking place today in this world. Christ did not come to bring peace to this world, but division. Because his proper work saves us from the devil’s kingdom. But many will reject that work and demand the alien work be applied to them. The peace comes when the work is completed. It’s a passage for us to understand this existence. To not give up hope. As long as there is breath the Word might accomplish its proper work. But we should not lose heart seeing division. The division is in fact proof of the power of that Word.

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What’s a Prophet?

Prophet has always been this strange class to me. So many people line up to claim the mantel prophet. Cultural prophet, moral prophet, financial prophet, they line up in almost every sphere of human activity. And they line up with a complete misunderstanding of the call. I suppose the biggest thing that gets attached to the idea of a prophet is some kind of future predictor. There is also some romantic ideal of standing athwart some all powerful leviathan long locks blowing in the breeze. But that is a huge misunderstanding of the gig. The definition of the prophet is the one who speaks the Word of the Lord.

Our Old Testament Lesson of the day (Jeremiah 23:16-29) wants to draw some clear lines. And they are lines that resonate down to us. On the one side of the line are the false prophets. And those false prophets have two modes of speech. The first is to substitute their own plans for the Word of God. ‘They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:16).” The second is to dull the conscience of those who are listening. “They say continually to those who despise the Word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you (Jeremiah 23:17).’”

What is the purpose of each of those modes of speech? The second is that each of us has had the law written on our hearts. Over time we can callous our hearts and make them hard, but we have a natural reaction to sin and evil – to jumping the curb of the law. We know that sin stores up wrath. But because we want to go on sinning, we collect people who will tell us “No disaster shall come upon you (Jeremiah 23:17).” We want to find those voices who will affirm us. The first mode is more complicated. What is the point of listening to someone else’s dream? Yes, we might buy into it. But I think the point God reveals a bit later, “who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another (Jeremiah 23:27).” Mankind lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And if you turn away from that meat, you replace it with junk food. Even the absence would remind us of the Word. So to forget it, we find other dreams.

The false prophet’s gig is to run out your clock and make you forget the Word. Contrary to this the prophet speaks the Word. “If they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds (Jeremiah 23:22).” The Word of the LORD does not return empty. It carries out what it intends. And the results of the false prophet and the authentic prophet are compared to straw and wheat (probably better translated chaff and grain.) The Word of the prophet is true spiritual food. That of the false prophet only fit for the fire. “And is not my word like fire, declares the LORD (Jeremiah 23:29).” The works of all will be revealed in due time. Don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line.

Jesus the prophet – heard in the Gospel lesson (Luke 12:49-56) – picks up on that. “I came to cast fire on the earth.” The very WORD has come. And that WORD causes the division. Do we yearn for affirmation of our ways? Which will never come. Or do we hear the absolution and turn from our ways toward the ways of the Lord? The prophet is more Firestarter than romantic hero. Be careful if you see a lineup of people wanting the gig.

The Raven

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Biblical Text: Luke 12:22-34

I’ve never really found belief in God to be that big of a problem. A materialist philosophy is so obviously full of holes it requires more faith than any of the world religions. But a base belief is God doesn’t really buy you much. It answers a bunch of questions that ultimately don’t mean much to you personally. It just moves you onto the questions of the character of this god. Is he a Loki trickster? Is he a god that requires child sacrifice? Is he the Calvinist God who would condemn billions on hell without a chance to demonstrate his grace? Or is he the God the prophets proclaimed – slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love?

The Gospel lesson is Jesus in prophet mode. “You are worth much more than birds.” He’s proclaiming the steadfast love of God for his creation. Which still brings on the question, how do we know? We know: 1) because the life of Christ fully reveals the love of the Father. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son. 2) because we have faith and that faith endures and hopes and is not put to shame. If you put that faith in the things of this world, it never returns anything. If you put that faith in god, he gives you the kingdom.

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Interesting Lines

There are some biblical lines that stick out. They seem like throwaway lines. Extra epitaphs added at the end of the story. Like at the end of Moses’ life. “His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. (Deut. 34:7).” Or when Isaac finally finds a place to pitch his tents, “And there Isaac’s servants dug a well (Genesis 26:25).” Or the introduction to Isaiah’s call, “In the year King Uzziah died (Isaiah 6:1).” They seem innocuous enough, until you stop to think about them and realize how deep they can actually be. Moses’ sight might be his physical sight, but it is also what allows him to see the Promised land from afar. He will not enter it, but God allowed him to see it. Moses was always clearsighted in the ways of God. But what exactly did he see up on that mountain? Isaac was a digger of wells. Maybe if as a kid you had been strapped down to an altar, you would find something else with which to praise God. And the water, the living water which bubbles up to eternal life, which is not simple water only, is a deep and eternal well. I’ll leave the puzzling over Uzziah to you.

Our Epistle lesson for the day has a bunch of those phrases, but the one I want to call out is applied to Abraham. “And he went out, not knowing where he was going (Hebrews 11:8).” Normally taking off on a journey not knowing where you are going would be frowned upon. Failure to plan is planning to fail and all that. But then Abraham is the man and model of faith. And a journey is a metaphor for life. When we “go out” do any of us know where we are going? Oh, we might have an idea, a goal, an aim. But knowledge? The younger we are – like elementary kids – we just go out the door each day and whatever we meet that day, there we are. Only a few 8 year olds have plans for the day. Yet most seem to be right where they belong. Trusting that those around them have arranged things just so. Abraham would occasionally try and help God out, but largely he wandered around like an 8 year old. Whatever the day brought, the day brought.

He may have not known where he was going when he set out, but by the end he seemed to have a better idea. “For He was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder was God (Hebrews 11:10).” Abraham’s journey of not knowing took him out of Ur, the original Babylon. It took him all the way down to Egypt. He dealt with Sodom and Gomorrah and the Philistines. In all his journeys in life Abraham had seen every city that man might build. And he knew that none of them were where he was going. He didn’t know where he was going, but he had faith that God would build the city. I imagine Moses’ keen eyes were seeing the same city as Abraham.

At the core of any man of faith is an interesting tension. There is a contentment with where one is for God has blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love and still is ours today. He has provided me everything I need to support this body and life. And yet…and yet there is a longing for a better country. One that we know we cannot see perfectly. One that is not possible in the land we have set out from. And if we want to settle into contentment here in this land, we probably could. But the faith keeps our eyes looking at the horizon, our ears desiring a clear trumpet. For any sign of The City, a heavenly one.

Dividing the Inheritance

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Biblical Text: Luke 12:13-21 (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-26)

This is a stewardship sermon, but I don’t think it is the common stewardship sermon. It is both more aggressively local than most I’ve given or heard, while I think also being more about the spirituality of money that is universally applicable. The specific situation of our congregation might or might not be shared, but the self-examination called for, and the opportunity of the gospel offered is the same everywhere.

The gospel lesson starts off with a familiar complaint, “tell my brother to divide the inheritance.” Even if we ourselves have not been there, we know that spot. And Jesus has two responses to the man. The first is that Jesus is not that man’s judge in this. What providence has given to each of us is up to us to use. But Jesus’ 2nd response points to the spiritual trap of money or hoards of money. There is a point where the money and vocation that providence has given us to support this body and life, to thank God and to help our neighbor becomes our life itself. Our lives become more about collecting than about caring.

I can’t call it a universal law, but everywhere a church has a budget problem, there is a law issue and a gospel promise. The law issue is too many people are living on the wrong side of that trap line. They are laying up treasure for themselves and not being rich toward God who has given it to them. But the gospel invitation is to bring it in. You can look a Haggai 1 and Malachi 3 for the OT examples. The sermon text has all the references. But that is exactly what God says. Bring in the full tithe. Test him in this. See if He doesn’t open the heavens with blessings or everything needed. That isn’t the prosperity gospel. The sermon gets a bit into why not. It is simply what God says. Bring it in and watch the Kingdom move, both in your congregation and in your own life.

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Hidden Impressions

There are some weeks or fortnights that get indelibly marked in your mind. And I’ve usually found that there is some piece of media – music, movie, TV show – that you just happen to have been listening to that becomes the shorthand for that time period. The week my brother died it was this CD by a group called Butterflyfish. I was attempting at the time to build a VBS around the songs. Anyone who has done a GROUP VBS knows the format. There is a song of the day for 5 days. There is an overall theme song. There are one or two reworked hymns which are usually the best songs. This disc included a Doxology in that category. Day 4 – the highest attendance day, kids disappear on Friday – is resurrection day. That Butterflyfish CD had this incredible Day 4 song, “All Sad Songs”. “I know all sad songs have another verse/It’s the one the heavenly choirs rehearse/For that day when the broken will mend/And the sad songs will end.” It is not Evening and Morning or O God, Our Help in Ages Past, but it was what I was listening to at the time. And it stuck. Putting that record in takes me right to that week or right to my brother.

When in the idiocy of the world we all decided to larp the black death, and all of a sudden my kids were home all the time. And the job of keeping a struggling church afloat became even tougher. Having sheriff’s cars drive through your lot most Sunday’s because you complied with the “no more than 10” rule by having 4 services instead of one, was memorable. Especially when you got more visitors than you expected because yours was one of the few doors open. The TV show that marks that time for me is Stargate SG1. COMET was showing three episodes an evening. I could DVR them and in 90 mins at the end of the day escape into the fantasy of stepping through the Stargate to a world that hadn’t lost its mind. It’s not that there weren’t some theological works that also kept one sane, but echoing the Apostle Paul sanity isn’t always about “prophetic powers and understanding mysteries and all knowledge (1 Cor 13:2).” Those things aren’t nothing, but absent love, I’m still empty. And the can-do attitude of Col. O’Neill was honestly more important that any deep understanding. Which five years later we might just be entering into some reflection. I’m told I have to go see the movie Eddington in these matters. We’ll see. Might still be too early. I can feel the anger still.

I suppose I should be getting around to a point. The past fortnight has been one of those. Having a major surgery at 86 years old focuses the mind, or at least it focused my dad’s. He’s been gathering all his “in case this all goes wrong” files and having “last suppers.” This has included many extra evening trips to correct or rescue from disaster various computer files and passwords. It has also included wrangling the entire family together on some type of decent behavior. This fortnight also has graced me with the gout flareup such that walking is difficult. Preparation for a Congregational meeting. Annessa, who keeps me sane in the office, telling me she’s getting a real job. And a few other sidebars. Somehow I stumbled upon Detective Bosch in this fortnight. A salty LA detective that never lets go of a bone. The note he hangs on his desk reads, “get off your a** and go knock on doors.” He’s got a sharp eye and plenty of courage, but Bosch’s greatest attribute? Nothing life throws at him is too much if you just do the work. The truth reveals itself in the end.

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossian 3:3-4)” That’s the apostle Paul in this week’s Epistle lesson sounding very Bosch like. “Put to death what is earthly in you…put on the new self, which is being renewed.” What exactly we will be, we do not know. But we press on. We do the work. Because the way, the truth, and the life are hidden in that work. And one day all will be revealed.

Knowing God

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Biblical Text: Genesis 18:17, 20-33 and Luke 11:1-13

Superficially this is a sermon about prayer. It is an encouragement to prayer. But beyond that superficiality it is a sermon about knowing God. Can you know God? If so, how can you know God? What the sermon meditates on are three ways of knowing God. The first is not unimportant, but it really isn’t enough. It is knowing God as information. This is the way the demons know God. The second is knowing God through His word and promises. This is faith or the faith. And ultimately all ways of knowing God are grounded in his universal revelation of Himself in Scripture. But we are also invited to pray. And Prayer, as the Old Testament lesson of Abraham interceding for Sodom is an example, tell us something personal about God. Prayer is a personal knowledge of God. The sermon expands on this and the great invitation we have to know our God personally.

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