“The point is not how well we are doing for God but what God has promised us.
This means that in the face of our doubts or unbelief the question to ask is not 'How could I be doing better?' but rather, 'What is God’s promise to me today?'
We need to develop the theological skill of 'turning the verbs,' as one Lutheran theologian put it, that is, making God the subject of the theological sentence and not the object of our works and resolutions.
Faith, our trusting relation to God, is not a product of our efforts but a miracle of hearing.
In fact, perhaps the best story in the Bible for showing both the human predicament and God’s action comes in Mark 7, where Jesus speaks to a deaf man to make him hear.
The paradox of this action – speaking words to someone incapable of hearing them – is precisely what happens to us every time we wander into a worship service. This paradoxical speaking to the deaf (or, in the case of the young man at Nain in Luke 7, to the dead!) begins in baptism and continues every day thereafter.”
Pg. 34 - Formula For Parish Practice: Using the Formula of Concord in Congregations
Timothy J. Wengert
That is a priceless citation. Thanks.
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