The Path of Evil

There are six things that the LORD hates,

seven that are an abomination to him:

haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

and hands that shed innocent blood,

a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that make haste to run to evil,

a false witness who breathes out lies,

and one who sows discord among brothers.

– Proverbs 6:16-19

Proverbs as a book is part of the wisdom literature. The Hebrews have a three-fold segmentation of the Old Testament: the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings. The Torah is the first five books of Moses. The prophets are the history books and the individual prophetic books prior to the exile. The writings are the Psalms, the wisdom literature and any book that came during or after the exile. Part of the purpose of the division is a statement on the authoritativeness of the work. The Torah or the law was deadly serious. Think the 10 commandments carved in stone by the finger of God himself. The prophets are authoritative, but they are also influenced by their specific situation. The writings are even more free. It is all the word of God, but the Spiritual Insight to directly apply something from Proverbs is much higher than from the Law. Christians have often followed something similar in the New Testament. Everybody accepts the binding nature of the Gospels, Paul’s Major Letters and 1 Peter, 1 John, and James on the Christian life. Likewise the Pastorals and 2 Peter, 2-3 John are solid counsel. But as much as Revelation fascinates us, you don’t base any dogma of the church on that apocalyptic work alone. Saying the scriptures are readable by the common man, is not also saying that every reading is appropriate or that there aren’t better and worse readers of the Scriptures.

I saw someone quote the above in an interesting way. They essentially asked: how does Satan work in this world? There are certainly ways that Satan works against individuals, but Lewis’ Screwtape is interesting in this. Individuals are left to minor tempters like Wormtongue or Screwtape himself. The demonic hierarchy is focused on longer term projects. They are always attempting to build the Tower of Babel. So how is that done? According to this interpreter here is the devil’s playbook in this world.

It starts with “haughty eyes.” The old King James translators said “a proud look.” It is something of an idiom in the original that we don’t really have an analog for. Or maybe we do, but it’s rather crude. Someone whose “farts don’t smell.” If you had an Alexa around an 8 year old you know that “Alexa, make a fart noise” was one of their favorite things. Likewise the movie Minions gave them “the fart gun.” Scatological humor is something that kids get, because they aren’t worried about pride. They know we are ridiculous creatures made of dust. Satan’s first act is to get us to think much more of ourselves than those giggling kids. To enter the Kingdom is to be like a child.

Lying and pride go hand in hand. We lie to protect our own picture of ourselves. We might even go so far as to kill someone to protect the lie. Imagine an entire nation engaged in pride, and a lie that leads to bloodshed of the innocent.

The progression of evil is from the heart that devises wicked plans to those who run to carry them out. It starts with a single heart that despises the order of God. It ends with partisans and armies hastening to build concentration camps and gulags and security states. The modern Towers of Babel.

But we aren’t stupid. How do we get led down such paths? The bold lies. The false witnesses. The big lies. Whose purpose is to sow discord among brothers. Those who should feel the bonds of fraternity and fellowship are set against each other.

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination. It’s from the book of Proverbs. It is not the gospel that assures of our eternal salvation in Christ. It is wisdom for living this life. It is the Word that might help us find the “you are here” marker. You know a tree by its fruit. Is it producing innocent blood, evil works and discord?

Needing a Sabbath

“The Lord will get his Sabbath, one way or another.”

That’s an older proverb I unexpectedly heard someone quote the other day. I say older when I mean archaic. Because you’d have to know what a Sabbath is first. Then you’d have to know both who The Lord is and that he commanded one. And it would probably help to understand that this Lord had a bunch of fights in his own day about the Sabbath. All things which are no longer common knowledge. But it struck me that ears might be deaf to exactly the wisdom they need to hear.

The first thing I always ask when I hear a proverb is “Is it True?” In this world that is on something of a sliding scale and it often depends upon the context. There are rock solid proverbs – “A fool and his money are soon parted.” There are marginal ones – “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” As long as you are content with marginal returns, accepting what the universe gives you, this is great advice (and holding an MBA and CFA exactly what I’d tell 98% of people), but it is terrible advice to anyone who is after excellence. Financially, you wanted all your eggs on Amazon at almost any time in the past 25 years. If you want to make the Big Leagues, that better be what you are doing all the time. In asking “Is it True?” one of the big helps I find is asking, “Is it biblical?” “Cleanliness is next to godliness” is not, neither is “God helps those who help themselves.” What about this one?

It is not directly a biblical Proverb. You won’t find it attributed to Solomon. Neither does Peter, James or Paul mouth it. But there is a deep way in which “The Lord will get his Sabbath, one way or another” is biblical. When the Israelites took the land of Canaan, God gave them larger Sabbath commands. Every 7 years they were to allow the land to lie fallow. Every 50 years, the completion of seven sevens, was the Jubilee year. All slaves were manumitted, all debts forgiven, any land sold reverted to the family who owned it originally. The Jubilee turned everything Israel thought they owned into a stewardship arrangement. You never actually bought a field, you stewarded it for at most 49 years. Of course there is no actual record of a Jubilee ever actually happening. The Sabbath of Sabbaths was not taken. And no farmer let his field go fallow every seven years, are you crazy!?! What is God going to do, send manna? 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 tells us the 70 years of exile were 1 year for each missed Sabbath. The Lord would get his Sabbath, one way or another.

The second thing I ask when I hear a proverb is “how is it used?” When would someone quote this proverb. The most logical time to quote this is to the work-a-holic. The point being that you should take a rest. The implied threat being that if you don’t willingly take a rest, your body will probably fail in some way forcing a rest. But there is a second time it might be quoted. When someone has put all their eggs in the basket of the world, you might quote this to them. The intention being something like “don’t forget the sacred or the spiritual.” It would be akin to “man does not live by bread alone.” And that is where I wonder if we have become deaf.

Luther’s explanation of the Sabbath commandment is nothing about a seventh day, but about the deeper recognition of the Sabbath. As the Lord of the Sabbath said, “it was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” And that deeper recognition is that we should not despise preaching and the Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Keeping the Sabbath day is about maintaining a proper reverence for the Word of God. It is by the Word we were created. It is by the Word that we have been saved. And it is by that same Word that we live in the promise of the resurrection. That day is coming when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess (Isa 45:23).” The Lord will have his Sabbath, one way or another. The question is: Is your Sabbath one of grace or compulsion and exile? Today we are invited to a Sabbath of grace made for us, but the Lord will have his Sabbath.

What’s a Member?

Membership is an interesting term these days. What does it really mean?

There is a Lutheran theological idea that goes by the name Two Kingdoms. If you read about the Two Kingdoms, you will hear the terms Kingdom of the Left and Kingdom of the Right. Those terms depend upon an old understanding of left-handedness and right-handedness. Right, being the majority, is the direct and straight and powerful. The Kingdom of the Right is the Kingdom where God rules directly. The left, being the sinister (the latin word for left), is the sneaky and winding and weaker. The Kingdom of the Left is still ruled by God, but it is ruled by means. It is ruled through other, sometimes fallen and sinful, things.

Most things we come across in this life are part of the Kingdom of the Left. The church is said to be part of the Kingdom of the Right, but even then I’m quick to say we have to be careful of what do we mean by church. Jesus would remind us that the wheat and tares are sown together. The Augsburg Confession picks up on this in Article 8. “Strictly speaking, the church is the congregation on saints and true believers. However, because many hypocrites and evil person are mingled in this life, it is lawful to use the sacraments administered by evil men…Both the Sacraments and Word are effective because of Christ’s institution and command, even if they are administered by evil men.” The Kingdom of the Right is found there in the Word and Sacraments. These are the things that Christ rules directly. The Word goes out and does not return empty. Christ is present in the bread and wine whether you believe it or not. Which is why we are warned to discern it. These are how God works in this world. Yet, the church is not purely of the Kingdom of the Right. It must exist in this world. And existing in this world means all kinds of troubles: politics, arguments, decisions, financial worries, human traditions, the list could go on. And most of these things are not necessarily troubles, they are simply the tasks delegated to the Kingdom of the Left. They are the things still under God’s providence, but that he has left to us. The Augsburg Confession also teaches that “the church is the congregation of the saints in which the gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are administered correctly.” When Jesus says go and make disciples of all nations he follows it with the means: baptizing them and teaching – word and sacrament. This is the mission of the church in this world.

So what is membership? In the Kingdom of the Left, which is a necessary thing, it is things like keeping a roster, tracking attendance, seeking people to serve. Soon we are going to need a Treasurer – notoriously one of the tougher roles in the Lefthand Kingdom to fill. The negative side of all of this is when people come to think that because my name is in somebody’s spreadsheet in the church office, I am saved. Just because the Kingdom of the Left recognizes your membership, doesn’t mean The King does. “Many will say Lord, Lord, we ate at your table…Go away, I do not know you.” The real meaning of membership is found in that Righthand Kingdom. The questions that are asked in the Reception of members are many of the same questions asked in the Baptismal liturgy – “Do you believe in God: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit?”. They are the same questions asked of confirmands – “Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully?” They are sometimes hard questions – “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away?” Membership in the Kingdom of the Right is about faith. It is about being part of the saints and true believers.

The church operates in both Kingdoms. But at all times we need to remember that the Kingdom of the Left exists and operates at the command and purpose of the Kingdom of the Right. Having all the T’s crossed and I’s dotted, but lacking faith is not the church. But likewise we can’t go bury our talent expecting God to prosper it. We must at least give it to the bankers to receive it back with interest. The talents, God’s providence, is given to us to use.

What is membership? It is the saints putting the talents given to work.

Filling the Void

Today is a tongue in cheek day in the office. Somehow Annessa and I both will root for Duke. As I say to my boys when they ask incredulously “how can you root for Duke?” Sons, you’ve got to respect greatness. But today Duke is playing the University of Pittsburgh, an institution I am an alumnus of and have been a cheering fan of ever since. It isn’t the Alma Mater, but Grove City is not in the ACC, so there are no loyalty pangs. When I was attending the school Basketball was the thing. The football team was mediocre and had been losing to Syracuse and West Virginia, the real rivalries. The Basketball team had even climbed to a number 1 ranking a few times. But since that coach (Jaime Dixon) left, the team has been on the slide. But someone got smart, hired a former Duke player (Jeff Capel) and the team got better. And it really got better this year when Coach Capel finally realized that Pitt was never going to be Duke and started using the transfer portal to bring in talent. Predicted to finish last, they ended up in what was a 5 way tie for the top. Which places pastor and secretary on opposite sides today.

That is all fine and good, but this is pastor’s corner, aren’t you supposed to say something at least vaguely spiritual if not downright theological? Yes, yes I am. So here is the connection. If you have been part of our mid-week bible studies, this past week was the Jacob and Leah and Rachel and Bilhah and Zilpah story. And I only somewhat tongue in cheek held up that competition as a scoreboard. If you know the story the rivalry was between sisters married to the same man. The scoreboard was number of sons. It is a story of competition and longing and attempting to fill that gnawing void.

Any athlete, other than Michael Jordan who is still attempting to crush his enemies and friends, will eventually tell you that winning is great, but what they miss when they can no longer play is being part of the team. That’s why many hang around too long. They know they can’t do it anymore, but they need that team. The smarter of them will move to coaching, the smartest to the front office. The dumb but really good will eat forever on faded glory. When you see one of these in their 60’s you realize your crumbs of adulation mean more to them to fill that void than they mean to you as a curiosity. It is the rare athlete that figures out how to fill that void in other ways. Roger Staubach never had that void being the Navy man. Barry Sanders didn’t need it and even left early while he could still walk. Philip Rivers for me was always a fascinating case. Our sports press is terrible around religion. They are a bunch of atheists covering usually a group of believers and so don’t get it. Rivers never won a Super Bowl. Those Chargers teams with Ladanian Tomlinson and Junio Seau and a bunch of other names were great. They should have won 2, maybe 3. Most athletes the never-was would eat up. Seau died early. Rivers is accepting. I’ve only seen one reporter ask him this question. And Rivers points at his wife and 9 kids and his faith. That void is more than filled.

That is the place where Leah eventually gets to. She will have a relapse or two. Sin is tough, we all do. But after her 4^th son Leah says, “This time I will praise the LORD.” That child was Judah who would be the heir of the promise. Leah had been trying to fill the void with a competition she would never win. And even if she did – and you can argue that she did – it still wouldn’t or didn’t fill the void. Augustine’s famous quote is that we are restless until we find our rest in thee. His confessions are one long tale of competition that never fills the void. Of stealing pears because he could, but not even eating them. But then finding what fills it.

Finding God, as Leah found out, doesn’t necessarily end the competition. We might even get pulled back into sinful ways of competition. But when that void is full, we can be happy warriors. The victory is ours. Whether today we win or lose, that distant triumph song steals on the ear. And hearts are brave and arms are strong. Hail to Pitt, today at least!

Apocalypse Now?

As a kid I always loved looking at the pictures that you often could find in the back of bibles. There would be the maps, but there would also often be representations of things like the Ancient Temple. Encoded into space (architecture) would be a certain meaning. The entire place was to be holy, a place for prayer, so when the Jews made the court of the gentiles into a marketplace, Jesus gets properly mad. Because right in that architecture was the idea that the gentiles were not to be excluded, even if they were not priests. All Israel was a nation of priests. That nation itself would have divisions. There would be the court of the women which also contained the place the Levites – the priestly tribe – sang as the gateway into the court of the Israelites which included the Altar. The sacrifices were a public thing. Then you had the temple proper with a court of priests – Levites and Aaronic. The Holy Place – only Aaronic priesthood – with the table for the showbread, the lampstands and the altar of incense. And finally the Holy of Holies where only the High Priest would go containing the Ark of the Covenant. The encoded meaning wasn’t that each group was holier than the rest. The encoded meaning was that we all need a mediator with the Holy God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And upon the cross, when the veil of the temple was torn, we found our mediator in Jesus Christ. “Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? (Ps. 24:3 ESV)” The incarnate son.

Most churches still keep some of that old architecture. Even modernist sanctuaries like ours have their nods. The pulpit, lectern, and table are all a step up. The nave or ark of the church is separated from the narthex or the courtyards by doors. The reason I’m thinking about these things is two-fold. The first is they help me make some distinctions. There are things I would write in this corner that I would probably not bring into a Bible Study. And there are things that I’d bring into a bible study to ponder that I would not bring into the pulpit. There are appropriate places for business and rank speculation. The second is a bit of speculation from personal mediation that feels impossibly old.

We often say that our enemies are the devil, the world and our sinful nature. And we have plenty of problem with these. But if you read the Old Testament or study the BC world it feels like something else is different. I’d posit that the “something else” is what Jesus says in Mark 3:27 where the strong-man is bound, or in Luke 10:18 where Satan falls like lightning. Apocalyptic Revelation talks about Satan bound with his only power being deception (Rev 12:13ff). Paul would say our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers and principalities (Eph 6:12), but those dark forces have been hampered for a long time. The history of Israel and the ancient world shows us what happens when those forces are unbound. Paul reminds us in Romans 1 that the wrath of God revealed is when “God gave them up.” When we exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship the creature instead of the creator.

The three “gods” – the unholy trinity if you will – were Baal, Molech and Asherah. The ancient world was syncretistic, so those names would morph, but the symbols and offerings would often remain. Baal being the worship of pure power. Molech being the worship of destruction and death. And Asherah being better know as Venus or Aphrodite, the worship of eros. When you see things like the statue recently installed over the Appellate Court building in NYC (I’m not putting that image here) something has changed. When alongside Moses, Maimonides and other law givers is installed a golden image with horns and tentacles, something new-old is being worshipped. Architecture and public art tell you how those in charge of a society would organize it. For a long time we were organized on Christian principles. What comes in when we turn our backs on those is not John Lennon’s Imagine. What comes back are the spirits once cast out (Matthew 12:45).

But such things are the very purpose of books like Revelation or Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 24. “See, I have told you beforehand.” Christ is already victorious. Your life is already hidden away with Christ. Whatever comes we have no reason to fear. Those old powers can do nothing but flail impotently against that. They are judged, the deed is done. We only await the final word that sends them away forever.

A Penitential Season (A Reflection on Lent)

Seasons and Holidays always have a chicken and the egg effect. Is the season or holiday where it is because something happened then, or was there already a celebration of some sort that was infused with theological meaning? The classic atheist taunt that Christmas was originally the Roman Saturnalia is an example. Which I’ve always taken as just strange. What if it was, who really cares. Add onto that the question of how strong must the theological meaning of the birth of Christ have been to completely take over a pagan festival? The cynic might reply, “you think Santa Claus and black Friday aren’t a pagan celebration?” Yes, yes.

This type of question goes back to the OT feasts. There were three primary ones: Passover, Pentecost or Weeks, and Sukkot or Booths. The theological meanings are rather clear. Passover was God bringing Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Pentecost or Weeks was when Moses received the law on Mt. Sinai. Sukkot’s theology is rooted in the wilderness wonderings and God’s providence for all Israel. All three holidays also have an agricultural basis that the bible acknowledges. Passover planting, Weeks the early wheat harvest (the Holy Land being a place of multiple harvests) and Sukkot the big harvest. We live in a sacramental world. Everyday things are infused with the Spirit.

Lent’s chicken and the egg is something that we moderns probably forget. Your grand-parents, maybe your great-grandparents, certainly further back didn’t. By late February what had been stored for the winter was probably getting repetitive. Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras was the day you took out the last of the really good stuff from the larder, if you had any left. Did you start the Lenten fast because of the theological meaning, or because all you had left in the pantry was wheat for bread and scraps for soup?

Living in a sacramental world I think can go both ways. The material reality of our existence can point toward spiritual meaning. Likewise a Spiritual truth can suggest a material practice. In our world of material abundance I’m not exactly sure we’ve worked out what a penitential season means. Fasting can be meaningful, but it is certainly better when the entire community is doing it. And not even Rome seems to have the ability to mandate the fast. The Spiritual truth that Lent captures is that we have all fallen short of the Glory of God. What a fitting material practice would be escapes me. I’m often tempted to say we are all living a long lent. We are surrounded by a material abundance unimaginable to most of human history, yet far from being fat, dumb and happy, we are collectively the most medicated and depressed society ever. Man lives not by abundance, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And when God withdraws his word, no amount of abundance can replace it.

Lent as a season not to give things up, but to pick things up anew would strike me as better. What practices have our abundance squeezed out? Has Netflix eaten our prayer? Return to prayer. Has the BMW payment squeezed out charity? Recommit to alms giving. Has fast food and business ended the family meal? Make room at the table for something from scratch that begins with prayer. And if your family won’t join you, ask your neighbors, until someone accepts. Lent as a season to choose the things that truly feed might be a meaningful material practice. If you try, let me know.

The End of the Epiphany Journey

I truly hope I am not stealing any of Pastor Kalthoff’s thunder here. So I’m going to zoom out from the textual specifics to the end of the season. Transfiguration is the end of the season of Epiphany. It starts back on the 12^th night of Christmas staring at a strange star that has risen in the east. That star asked the Magi a question: do you want to see what this means, or are you comfortable here? Their journey is one of knowing something – a king has been born – but not knowing what that means. And lots of things they assumed must be changed. They head to Jerusalem and Herod, to be told to go to Bethlehem. They are given a map, but they instead follow the renewed star, possible angel, that guides them. They offer gifts for a King, to peasants in a stable. They return home a different way. The season of Epiphany is a season of seeing exactly who this Jesus is: Babe, Israel reduced to one, stand-in for us in the Jordan, miracle worker, preacher, Son of God. And it ends with this eschatological vision of the Glory of the One and Only Son, full of grace and truth. In the season of Epiphany we have heard and seen and have come to know.

But so what? This is one of my favorite phrases of all time. Don Draper in Mad Men says it to his protégé Peggy who has found herself pregnant and unmarried in the late ‘50s. Counseling her to get rid of it he says, “You will be surprised at how fast this never happened.” And Peggy’s character, like her mentor Don, lives that out. The events of life seemingly never leaving a mark on either. It is that way with many spiritual experiences. It’s the mystery of the seed that falls on rocky soil. It springs up for a short time, but soon is gone. It has no root. There is a list of once famous people who detailed their experience and their turn away from it: Paul Verhoeven (director), Barbara Ehrenreich (author), AJ Ayer (atheist philosopher). In an instant they all knew something, and then left it and went back to their current lives. Knowing doesn’t mean willing to live. Epiphany leads us from the baby in the Manger to the Mountaintop experience. We know.

And then Jesus hits us with the question. Are you following me down this mountain?

The hymn I slotted as the sermon hymn is one of my favorite modern ones. Stanza 1 sings the story. All hymns start in the biblical text. With our voices we remember, we recall the experience, we make it real before us. Stanza 2 starts to step beyond the story. Knowing and walking down from the mount, what does Jesus mean for us? Mountaintop experiences are things we ponder in our hearts. We don’t live in them like booths. They live in us. And if we have truly gained and kept their truth – not surprised at how fast they didn’t happen – they help us walk the valley in faith. And that valley is always the shadow of death. It is always the valley of the cross. The only way out is through. And you wouldn’t want to miss it.

The last stanza is the one that gets me every time. It’s the prayer. Lord, we have come to know. We leave this mountaintop for Calvary. And we know this is good if not exactly how. We also know that we would not move from this spot, not without your help. Lord, transfigure our perception with the purest light that shines. Recast our life’s intentions to the shape of your designs. Let us find no other glory than what lies past Calvary. Guide our steps, our living, and our dying, and our rising, by your will.

We know. Do we follow?

(FYI: The Hymn Referenced is LSB 416 Swiftly Pass the Clouds of Glory. I’d post a link, but you are better off searching it yourself. Or coming to church to hear and sing it! The copyright prevents easy sharing.)

Rectification of Names

I understand that it can be tedious. But somewhere between High School and my ordination I became a big fan of Confucius. Why you might ask. Seems odd for a Lutheran Pastor. The biggest reason was his answer to the question: If you were made Emperor, what would be the first thing you would do? Confucius’ answer was: the rectification of names. What did he mean by that? All words being used would be clearly defined before they could be used. In a united and functioning society nobody thinks about this because they all roughly share the same definition. Even in an early stage Weimar Republic people share enough definitions to communicate. But then you get to the stage where people start electing Nazis to fix it. Different groups have their own dictionaries. Smart people learn to “code switch” knowing which dictionary to use by which group they are in. Which of course penalizes the less verbally adaptable. And you find yourself in hot water because the dictionary changed overnight and you didn’t get the update. Ancient China in the time of Confucius was at that point. And instead of electing Nazis to kill everyone not using the correct dictionary, Confucius thought there was a better way – the rectification of names. Call things what they are with clear definitions first for to the good of everybody.

The second generation of the Lutheran Reformers – names like Chemnitz, Andrea and Chytraeus who you probably haven’t heard about – were good Confucians. Not only did you have a Roman Catholic dictionary and a basic Lutheran dictionary, you started to have Calvinist Dictionaries, and Radical Reformer dictionaries, and more important for them intra-Lutheran splits. Their answer is something called the Formula of Concord. The Formula is the last confessional work that all Lutheran pastors subscribe to as part of the Book of Concord. It is the last binding dogmatic work of the Lutheran Church. And it is almost completely a work of Rectification of Names.

Every place where Lutherans were fighting Lutherans would have its own article to address the argument. The first part of every article is “The Status of the Controversy” which was a paragraph that defined words used and captured the basic argument between all sides engaged. The Concordists would not allow disagreement to fester through the use of squishy terms that meant different things to different people. Nor would they allow any group to not recognize their position. After everyone agreed upon terms and what the argument was, they addressed the argument in two ways. First, they made affirmative statements. One of the famous Lutheran phrases comes from these, “We believe, teach and confess…”. They set forward on the basis of scripture and plain reason what the doctrinal teaching of the church should be in regards to the controversy. This usually took a few steps to really address it, but the point was concord – a true peace between people arguing, an agreement on truth. After they affirmed what the true teaching should be, they condemned various false teachings in the air (“We reject and condemn…”).

How do we find ourselves in Weimar? We allow people to change definitions and use private dictionaries. Instead of positively putting forward in the best way possible what we believe, teach and confess, we rely on tribal markers to sort good guys and bad guys. (Oh, you aren’t using my dictionary, you go on the bad guy list.) Our politicians and church-politicians today, instead of saying “I’m for X” all compete to say nothing, hoping that you read into whatever they do, say what you think, and so vote for them. And maybe more importantly we never clearly state what is out of bounds. Why do we find ourselves here? Because saying things like “deeds, not creeds” sounds like a warm fuzzy. And for a while you can coast off of previously shared understandings or at least known boundaries. Because Weimar, at least early Weimar, is profitable to the powerful who can surf the dictionaries and attempt to enforce theirs. Making everything a power game of who has the biggest megaphone helps the powerful.

None of that is the Way of Jesus Christ who said things like: “whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. (Lk. 12:3 ESV)” and “have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. (Matt. 10:26 ESV)” and “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. (Matt. 5:14 ESV)” The way of Christ is the way of all hidden things being brought into the light. The way of Jesus includes clear teaching, not the soft lights of Weimar to hide the things done in the darkness.

What About My Dead Cat?

Our mid-week bible study was on the flood this week, so the combination of two by two and recently putting down a pet cat had me thinking about the animals. It is a cliché question, “will I ever see my beloved pet again?” And that question is usually treated in one of two ways. The elder being questioned might simply answer “yes” from a caring but ultimately patronizing place. It is what the questioner wants to hear, so you say it. The flip side of this elder is the one who has read Aquinas and thinks it the height of spirituality to tell the questioner, “no, animals have a lessor spirit” thereby initiating them into higher spiritual knowledge. But let me suggest that the biblical picture is more nuanced. I’m still going to say yes, but this is more about the reasons why.

The first reason is that God created them and declared it good. “And God said, ‘let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds – livestock and creeping things and beast of the earth according to their kinds…and God saw that it was good.” To do away with something that is good would itself be an evil act. That is ultimately what Satan wishes to do, negate every good thing. The good has its own existence from God. All evil can do is attempt to negate it. But one day, that last evil, death, shall be put away and the Good shall be crowned.

The second reason follows that act of creation. As Luther would add to his explanation to the first article of the creed, God not only made me and all creatures, but “he still preserves them.” The bible is full of passages about God’s care for the creatures of the earth. My two favorites are from Jesus and Jonah. Jesus takes the sparrow as his example. I think he takes it because of its complete humbleness. Nobody goes, “oooh, a sparrow.” Yet Jesus says, “are not 5 sparrows sold for 2 pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.” A little bit later he will talk of the Ravens who have always had an air of woe about them long before Poe took up his pen. “Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them.” God remembers even the sparrow and feeds the haunting raven. But the one that sticks in my mind is from Jonah. Jonah is sitting outside Nineveh, the work of preaching done, wanting and hoping for its destruction. The last line of the book is “should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many cattle.” One gets the sense that Nineveh’s deliverance might be more because of those cattle than anything. The animals are part of God’s continued providence.

But all of that simply points at stuff within this world. What gives me a sense of the animals’ spiritual worth? The funny story of Balaam gives me one point. We talked a bit about that story in last week’s sermon. Balaam’s donkey eventually prophesies to Balaam. But before that there is this humorous scene of Balaam riding the donkey and an angel appears holding a sword. The donkey can see the angel and it stops. Meanwhile Balaam is blind to the spiritual reality. The poor animal tries to save Balaam by turning aside. Balaam responds by beating the poor beast. But the donkey persists in trying to warn Balaam in multiple ways. The animals can at times be more spiritually aware than we are.

When you layer on top of that potential spiritual awareness two other things. First being that God’s covenant after the flood is not just with Noah, but is “an everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” The animals are worthy of the covenant. The Apostle Paul talks in similar ways in Romans 8. “All creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.” All creation waits with eager longing for the revealing. Those animals that are part of the Noahide covenant wait with longing for the final revelation and the freeing of our bondage. All creation has this hope. If you aren’t going to be there, why hope for it?

I’ll finish this mediation by returning to Jesus’ word’s about the sparrows. “They are remembered. Not one of them is forgotten before God.” In this sense all those animals are very much like us. Our hope is in God remembering his covenant. He has engraved us on his hand and will recall us from the pit. The same type of statement is given about the sparrows sold for pennies for sacrifice. God remembers them.

So I think that simple “yes” is correct. But there are some mighty good reasons behind it. Reasons that go to the heart of the Gospel. The entire world is Gods, and he’s going to remake it all good.

How to Have an Argument

The season of Epiphany this year gives us a continuous reading from the book of 1^st Corinthians. Our Sunday morning bible study is using that as a springboard to study at least some of that letter a bit deeper. The context of at least the first four (4) chapters of 1 Corinthians are divisions or arguments in the church. And I’m not writing this up because I think or feel coming a great argument within Mt. Zion. I’m writing this up because the time to think about arguments is when you aren’t having one. When you are having them, all we sinful humans think about is winning them.

What Paul does in the first two chapters of First Corinthians is make a clear distinction between how arguments in the world take place and how they should take place within the church. How they take place in the world is that we run to various forms of power. We make appeals to authority: “I follow Paul…Apollos…Cephas…Christ.” And in making appeals to authority, we seek to trump whoever else has been claimed. But in our claiming of these various authorities, we assert that they would disagree with each other. Within the church this is out of bounds. Paul does not disagree with Christ. We might not yet understand how they actually agree, but the fault is with our understanding, not the scripture or the apostles. “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?” The answer is no. The task is to understand why, repent and reform our lives together.

Anselm would call that “faith seeking understanding.” Paul in 1 Corinthians would just call it life under the cross. In the world, if we do not have an authority to invoke, or if all authorities are hopelessly corrupted, we would turn to a couple of other arguments: reason and practicality. “Jews demand signs and Greeks wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.” Now signs could be demands for miracles, but they are also just the pragmatic question “does it work?” If it does you should be able to show me something. Likewise, we should be able to reason together. The problem with these things in spiritual matters is that we are sinners and our vision is hopelessly clouded. What is wisdom to us is foolishness to God. Our natural ways will never bring us to God. “No human being might boast in the presence of God.” Instead “we boast in the Lord.” Anything we know spiritually comes first as a revelation of Jesus Christ. And the greatest revelation is that cross. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” Strength usually works. Wisdom is a good thing. But in spiritual matters? They will fail you. Lean not on your own understanding, but have faith that Christ is the way and the truth.

Why is this the case? Because “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.” The indwelling of the Spirit is necessary. Which you have from your baptism. Faith is a prerequisite to arguing with each other correctly in spiritual matters. Why? Because we then share the same Spirit. We then “have the mind of Christ.” If we are worldly, what we want to do is win the argument. And the ultimate way to win is to destroy the other. If we are spiritual we want together to receive the gifts that Christ has given us. You have received the Spirit from God such that under the cross we might together remain reconciled to Christ and to each other. Reconciliation, which is foolishness to those who have the Spirit of the World.

That basically brings you up to where we are in our study. I’d invite you to join us on Sunday morning after snacks.