“Christ helps us,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his prison cell, “ not by virtue of his omnipotence, but by virtue of his weakness and suffering … Only the suffering God can help.”
Letters and Papers from Prison. pp. 360-61
Trans. R.H. Fuller – Macmillan New York 1972
When it comes to loving mankind, God does not need to be pushed into the full consequences of living out His love. It is in living out the fullness of His love that God is being who God is. Such love, in its willingness to suffer the full consequences of that love, is judged by fallen human reason to make God too weak and too vulnerable. Such love would seem to deny His omnipotence.
Yet it is in such weakness and vulnerability that God’s demonstrates the true omnipotence of His love in that He freely empties Himself and suffers for the sake of those He loves. Such love does not consider, and never regrets, the price it willing pays for being so vulnerable. Such love sees only the need for such weakness and vulnerability and the blessed benefit of it. It is through such vulnerability that the Son of God willing comes to meet mankind and save him. Such vulnerability for the sake of another is the perfection of love.
Inasmuch as we have been united with Christ in baptism, Christ is with us in all circumstances and conditions of life. In all these conditions, the love of Christ sustains and upholds us so that we can in faith, dare to love and live with the risks of being so vulnerable that others might be touched by the love of Christ – through us.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Psalm 100:1-5 (ESV)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Though the heart is prevented - it is not yet healed
“The remission of sins has not been instituted in order that we may have permission to sin or that we may sin; it has been instituted in order that we may recognize sin and know that we are in sin, that we may fight against sin. A physician reveals an illness, not because he takes delight in the illness, but rather that the person who is sick may sigh and ask to be delivered from the illness. Indeed, the patient gets hope of health from his faith in the physician who gives him a promise. Thus in Baptism we, too, are translated from darkness into light and into the place where there is remission of sins.” Martin Luther - LW 30 - Catholic Epistles p. 245 CPH
Countless works are both self-prescribed and professionally prescribed, by which a person might be delievered from this particular sin illness or that. Many are successful in preventing this illness from manifesting itself in their lives, but not one of them is healed. As Luther says:
“Although such castigation's have their use, yet sins are not purged away in this manner. Although the heart is prevented from bursting forth, yet it is not healed. Sins are not forgiven because of application to works; they are forgiven when I call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because I believe that He is the expiation for our sins. This is the truth. But the devil does not let us remain on this road. He immediately brings up our works. Therefore let no one cleave to his own works. It is our nature to say: "I have sinned with a deed. Therefore I shall make expiation with a deed." The devil, who strengthens our error, is present. One must attack this sin with the promise that sins are remitted for His name's sake, as Ps. 25:11 ‘For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.’” Martin Luther - LW 30 - Catholic Epistles p. 245 CPH
Countless works are both self-prescribed and professionally prescribed, by which a person might be delievered from this particular sin illness or that. Many are successful in preventing this illness from manifesting itself in their lives, but not one of them is healed. As Luther says:
“Although such castigation's have their use, yet sins are not purged away in this manner. Although the heart is prevented from bursting forth, yet it is not healed. Sins are not forgiven because of application to works; they are forgiven when I call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because I believe that He is the expiation for our sins. This is the truth. But the devil does not let us remain on this road. He immediately brings up our works. Therefore let no one cleave to his own works. It is our nature to say: "I have sinned with a deed. Therefore I shall make expiation with a deed." The devil, who strengthens our error, is present. One must attack this sin with the promise that sins are remitted for His name's sake, as Ps. 25:11 ‘For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.’” Martin Luther - LW 30 - Catholic Epistles p. 245 CPH
Saturday, May 9, 2009
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Blessed Father in heaven, by Your Word alone, light came forth in the midst of darkness at creation.
Then You spoke again and a greater light entered our sin darkened world in the Person of Your Only-begotten Son.
Oh, how I, and those I love and serve, need this greater light to shine within all our hearts this day.
As it is a day which You have made, make also Your Spirit to shine in me and all those who lay upon my heart.
Prepare my heart and mind for the callings You have given me this day, that Your will may be honored above all and in all.
Give me joy in all that I may do, for in each thing I do, I do as Your chosen means of being and bringing good to bear in the lives of those around me.
Be King over my thoughts and desires so that they are nothing more or less than Your thoughts and desires.
Where I have been apathetic, slow, and inattentive to Your will for me, I pray that You would forgive me
and increase my dedication and diligence to You and Your will alone.
In all that my eyes may see, enable me to see only the holy things.
Where I see those things holy that need to be done, make me holy for the doing of them.
Where I see those things holy that have been done, make my lips holy for the praising of them.
Where I see things holy that are too great for me, make my prayers holy for petitioning of them.
Be with each member of my parish this day, and protect them from the devil and his host.
Cleanse their thoughts and desires of all things sinful and wicked.
Let Your Word, heard recently, or heard long ago, be upon their hearts; and by Your Spirit, increase their faith through that Word.
For those caught in the struggle with temptation, make clear to them and guide them to the way of escape that You provide.
For those who succumb daily to the same recurring temptations, work repentance in their hearts and grant them an increase of Your Spirit and grace that they may overcome such temptations and live by a more faithful walk in You.
For those suffering in any form, ease their pain of heart, mind, and body.
For those alone and in despair, let Your companionship with them from the day of their Baptism, fill their hearts and comfort them that they may have the joy of Your attending angels.
Be with all servants of Your Word, and allow them to be only what You’ve called them to be: servants of Your Word.
Wherever Your Word is heard this day, let the hearing thereof, work faith, hope, and confidence in the hearts of all who hear it.
These things I ask do not exhaust the list of all that is needed, nor can they ever exhaust Your ability to answer.
For the sake of Christ, I ask, I pray, and I praise You. Amen.
Day 1 - Prayer of the Day
31 DAYS OF DEVOTIONAL PRAYER - 2008
by Rev. Mark W. Love
Then You spoke again and a greater light entered our sin darkened world in the Person of Your Only-begotten Son.
Oh, how I, and those I love and serve, need this greater light to shine within all our hearts this day.
As it is a day which You have made, make also Your Spirit to shine in me and all those who lay upon my heart.
Prepare my heart and mind for the callings You have given me this day, that Your will may be honored above all and in all.
Give me joy in all that I may do, for in each thing I do, I do as Your chosen means of being and bringing good to bear in the lives of those around me.
Be King over my thoughts and desires so that they are nothing more or less than Your thoughts and desires.
Where I have been apathetic, slow, and inattentive to Your will for me, I pray that You would forgive me
and increase my dedication and diligence to You and Your will alone.
In all that my eyes may see, enable me to see only the holy things.
Where I see those things holy that need to be done, make me holy for the doing of them.
Where I see those things holy that have been done, make my lips holy for the praising of them.
Where I see things holy that are too great for me, make my prayers holy for petitioning of them.
Be with each member of my parish this day, and protect them from the devil and his host.
Cleanse their thoughts and desires of all things sinful and wicked.
Let Your Word, heard recently, or heard long ago, be upon their hearts; and by Your Spirit, increase their faith through that Word.
For those caught in the struggle with temptation, make clear to them and guide them to the way of escape that You provide.
For those who succumb daily to the same recurring temptations, work repentance in their hearts and grant them an increase of Your Spirit and grace that they may overcome such temptations and live by a more faithful walk in You.
For those suffering in any form, ease their pain of heart, mind, and body.
For those alone and in despair, let Your companionship with them from the day of their Baptism, fill their hearts and comfort them that they may have the joy of Your attending angels.
Be with all servants of Your Word, and allow them to be only what You’ve called them to be: servants of Your Word.
Wherever Your Word is heard this day, let the hearing thereof, work faith, hope, and confidence in the hearts of all who hear it.
These things I ask do not exhaust the list of all that is needed, nor can they ever exhaust Your ability to answer.
For the sake of Christ, I ask, I pray, and I praise You. Amen.
Day 1 - Prayer of the Day
31 DAYS OF DEVOTIONAL PRAYER - 2008
by Rev. Mark W. Love
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Jesus is the One in Whom God Does God to us.
Jesus is the One in whom God does God to us, the true human in whom God does God to us.
The point is that we can move forward here only if we realize that in and through the human, suffering, dying, and resurrected Jesus we come up against God.
God does himself to us in Jesus.
The PROCLAMATION is the concrete event in which that occurs for us…
It is in and through the humanity, the suffering and the dying of Christ, that we come up against what his divinity means.
He does not come to protect us from death, he comes to do it to us.
He brings death home to us.
He does old beings to death.
The suffering and dying Jesus is therefore the one in whom we meet our end, the eschatological end of our existence in bondage to sin and death.
He is the end of the old being who vainly constructs death-denying projects, who thinks that abstractions such as divinity and immortality can save.
He puts an end to our story negatively and positively.
He is the end (finis) of the old, and the goal (telos) of the new.
The old is put to death so that the new can be resurrected in faith and hope to look to the last day in confidence.
In the proclamation language of act, the divinity of Jesus consists in the fact that precisely through his suffering, death, and resurrection, HE DOES GOD TO US.
As John's Gospel has it, in the instance where Jesus gets into trouble for breaking the old order by healing on the Sabbath, the Son does what he sees the Father doing. Their unity is a unity of doing. "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise" (John 5:19).
He was, of course, killed for that, killed by the likes of us who did not want the old to end because we thought we could bring it to a better end ourselves.
But even in his dying, he does only what "he sees the Father doing" to the end.
As the one who actually dies, unprotected, rejected, forsaken, even by God, Jesus is "the end of us" as beings who thought divinity was a protection.
The crucifixion of Jesus is the end of us.
We cannot see through it.
There is nothing "godlike" here for old beings to recognize.
It is simply the end.
God is through with us as old beings.
There can be no survivors, no spectators.
The only way forward is through faith in the resurrection.
Thus Jesus is the repetition of God to us, because in the first place he is the absolute end of the old, the chaos of darkness, bondage, and sin.
He is the end of all the old being's hopes, dreams, and fantasies.
He shatters our godlike pretensions, even the possibility of finding them reinforced in his divinity.
And Jesus finally exposes why it is we have such difficulty surrendering the language of being and its surrogates.
Like the law, it is our last hope as old beings, our final defense as gods, against having to die.
Like Peter's "confession," it is our last line of defense against God.
If we could align Jesus on our side as the warranty for our divinity, then we would not have to say with Paul those shocking words, "For [Christ's] sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse (skubala), in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ.... that I may know him and the power of his resurrection (Phil. 3: 8-10).
Theology Is For Proclamation – G.O. Forde
The Preached God - Jesus: The Man in Whom God Does God – pp. 100-103
The point is that we can move forward here only if we realize that in and through the human, suffering, dying, and resurrected Jesus we come up against God.
God does himself to us in Jesus.
The PROCLAMATION is the concrete event in which that occurs for us…
It is in and through the humanity, the suffering and the dying of Christ, that we come up against what his divinity means.
He does not come to protect us from death, he comes to do it to us.
He brings death home to us.
He does old beings to death.
The suffering and dying Jesus is therefore the one in whom we meet our end, the eschatological end of our existence in bondage to sin and death.
He is the end of the old being who vainly constructs death-denying projects, who thinks that abstractions such as divinity and immortality can save.
He puts an end to our story negatively and positively.
He is the end (finis) of the old, and the goal (telos) of the new.
The old is put to death so that the new can be resurrected in faith and hope to look to the last day in confidence.
In the proclamation language of act, the divinity of Jesus consists in the fact that precisely through his suffering, death, and resurrection, HE DOES GOD TO US.
As John's Gospel has it, in the instance where Jesus gets into trouble for breaking the old order by healing on the Sabbath, the Son does what he sees the Father doing. Their unity is a unity of doing. "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise" (John 5:19).
He was, of course, killed for that, killed by the likes of us who did not want the old to end because we thought we could bring it to a better end ourselves.
But even in his dying, he does only what "he sees the Father doing" to the end.
As the one who actually dies, unprotected, rejected, forsaken, even by God, Jesus is "the end of us" as beings who thought divinity was a protection.
The crucifixion of Jesus is the end of us.
We cannot see through it.
There is nothing "godlike" here for old beings to recognize.
It is simply the end.
God is through with us as old beings.
There can be no survivors, no spectators.
The only way forward is through faith in the resurrection.
Thus Jesus is the repetition of God to us, because in the first place he is the absolute end of the old, the chaos of darkness, bondage, and sin.
He is the end of all the old being's hopes, dreams, and fantasies.
He shatters our godlike pretensions, even the possibility of finding them reinforced in his divinity.
And Jesus finally exposes why it is we have such difficulty surrendering the language of being and its surrogates.
Like the law, it is our last hope as old beings, our final defense as gods, against having to die.
Like Peter's "confession," it is our last line of defense against God.
If we could align Jesus on our side as the warranty for our divinity, then we would not have to say with Paul those shocking words, "For [Christ's] sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse (skubala), in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ.... that I may know him and the power of his resurrection (Phil. 3: 8-10).
Theology Is For Proclamation – G.O. Forde
The Preached God - Jesus: The Man in Whom God Does God – pp. 100-103
Monday, May 4, 2009
GOD WILL LOVE HIS CREATION
“God forbid that He should abandon to everlasting destruction
the labor of His own hands,
the care of His own thoughts,
the receptacle of His own Spirit,
the queen of His creation,
the inheritor of His freedom,
the priestess of His religion,
the champion of His testimony,
the sister of His Christ! ...
Now as He requires from us love to our neighbor,
after love of Himself,
so He will do what He has commanded.
He will love the flesh [mankind] which is His neighbor.
He will love it, though it is infirm,
since His ‘strength is made perfect in weakness.’
He will love it, though it is disordered,
since ‘those who are whole do not need a physician, but those who are sick.’
He will love it, though it is dishonorable,
since ‘we bestow more abundant honor on the less honorable members.’
He will love it, though it is ruined,
since He says, ‘I am come to save that which was lost.’
He will love it, though it is sinful,
since He says, ‘I desire the salvation of the sinner.’
He will love it, though it is condemned,
for He says ‘I shall wound and also heal.’
-Tertullian”
Tuesday – Easter 3
TREASURY OF DAILY PRAYER – 2008 - CPH
A PRAYER –
Bless all your people, the flocks of your fold.
Send down into our hearts the peace of heaven,
and grant us also the peace of this life.
Give life to the souls of all of us,
and let no deadly sin prevail against us, or any of your people.
Deliver all who are in trouble,
for you are our God,
who sets the captives free;
who gives hope to the hopeless,
and help to the helpless;
who lifts up the fallen;
and who is the haven of the shipwrecked.
Give your pity, pardon, and refreshment
to every Christian soul,
whether in affliction or error.
Preserve us, in our pilgrimage through this life,
from hurt and danger,
and grant that we may end our lives as Christians,
well-pleasing to you, and free from sin,
and that we may have our portion and lot
with all your saints;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Liturgy of St. Mark, 2nd-5th centuries
Prayers Across The Centuries – 1993 Harold Shaw Publishers
the labor of His own hands,
the care of His own thoughts,
the receptacle of His own Spirit,
the queen of His creation,
the inheritor of His freedom,
the priestess of His religion,
the champion of His testimony,
the sister of His Christ! ...
Now as He requires from us love to our neighbor,
after love of Himself,
so He will do what He has commanded.
He will love the flesh [mankind] which is His neighbor.
He will love it, though it is infirm,
since His ‘strength is made perfect in weakness.’
He will love it, though it is disordered,
since ‘those who are whole do not need a physician, but those who are sick.’
He will love it, though it is dishonorable,
since ‘we bestow more abundant honor on the less honorable members.’
He will love it, though it is ruined,
since He says, ‘I am come to save that which was lost.’
He will love it, though it is sinful,
since He says, ‘I desire the salvation of the sinner.’
He will love it, though it is condemned,
for He says ‘I shall wound and also heal.’
-Tertullian”
Tuesday – Easter 3
TREASURY OF DAILY PRAYER – 2008 - CPH
A PRAYER –
Bless all your people, the flocks of your fold.
Send down into our hearts the peace of heaven,
and grant us also the peace of this life.
Give life to the souls of all of us,
and let no deadly sin prevail against us, or any of your people.
Deliver all who are in trouble,
for you are our God,
who sets the captives free;
who gives hope to the hopeless,
and help to the helpless;
who lifts up the fallen;
and who is the haven of the shipwrecked.
Give your pity, pardon, and refreshment
to every Christian soul,
whether in affliction or error.
Preserve us, in our pilgrimage through this life,
from hurt and danger,
and grant that we may end our lives as Christians,
well-pleasing to you, and free from sin,
and that we may have our portion and lot
with all your saints;
for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Liturgy of St. Mark, 2nd-5th centuries
Prayers Across The Centuries – 1993 Harold Shaw Publishers
Monday, April 20, 2009
WOUNDS THAT REMAIN TO HEAL - JOHN 20:19-31
We come again to the text from which comes the account of DOUBTING THOMAS.
Why is Thomas the only one to received a nickname and a negative one at that?
I’m if you think about it, what don’t we refer to Peter as – DENYING PETER, or Judas as BETRAYING JUDAS?
Why this particular nickname?
Many different reason are given for this.
And while this does refers to what Thomas did, i.e. DOUBTING THE MESSAGE OF THE APOSTLES THAT THE LORD HAD ARISEN,
The title of DOUBTING THOMAS identifies a particular wound that Thomas suffered with.
Like Lou Gehrig’s Disease refers to the illness that took a young vibrant baseball player’s life. The medical term for Lou Gehrig’s disease is AMY-OTRO-PHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS, or ALS – a disease the destroys the nervous system.
The title DOUBTING THOMAS refers to a particular kind of wound that Thomas had.
It is a wound that all have – a wound within.
DOUBTING THOMAS refers to the deadly wound of DOUBTING, to that deadly activity of SHIFTING ONE’S FAITH TO SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE LORD.
DOUBT is the wound that sin works upon the heart and life of every human being. We are born with this wound, as David diagnosis his condition in Psalm 51:5 I WAS BROUGHT FORTH IN INIQUITY, AND IN SIN DID MY MOTHER CONCEIVE ME.
Yet in truth, Thomas wasn’t the only apostle afflicted with this wound of doubt. In the details of Luke’s account of that first Easter, we find Jesus chastising the other Apostles for their slowness to believe or doubt: Luke 24:25
AND JESUS SAID TO THEM, "O FOOLISH ONES, AND SLOW OF HEART TO BELIEVE ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN!
Yes, doubting was Thomas’ wound and while many belittle and malign Thomas for his doubt, this day – we thank God for Thomas sharing his wound with the apostles and the Lord.
We thank God that He inspired John to include this account of Thomas.
For you see, Thomas’ wound is our wound.
You see – Thomas lived in the real world just like you and me.
Thomas was dealing with very real events, very real actions or inactions on his part.
He has seen Jesus’ betrayal.
He had abandoned the one He called Lord.
He witnessed the lies and false accusations raised against Jesus
He had seen Jesus wrongly condemned.
He had seen Jesus die.
AND IN ALL THESE EVENTS –
HE WHO LOVED THE LORD –
HE WHO SAID WITH PETER, THAT HE WOULD DIE RATHER THAN FALL AWAY FROM JESUS –
THIS THOMAS – DID – NOTHING.
And where was Thomas on that first Easter night? NOT WITH THE REST OF THE APOSTLES.
HE WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE – WE KNOW NOT WHERE BUT HE WASN’T WITH – THOSE HE LIVED WITH, ATE WITH, STUDIED WITH, WALKED WITH AS THEY TOGETHER FOLLOWED THE LORD.
Yes, Thomas was a man with a wound – a deep wound.
And this was a wound that filled Thomas with pain. The pain of a wounded heart that one suffers at the loss of a loved one, the pain one has from a conscience torn and tattered by guilt, because they’d done a loved one some wrong, and while they certainly regretted it, the one loved died before that he could apologize, he could make amends.
Yes, Thomas was a man of great pain.
The pain of having his life and the future he saw and planned for with the Lord, completely destroyed.
Nothing remained for Thomas – but his wound and the pain it brought.
Yes, Thomas was a man filled with doubt – AND WE NEED TO BE GRATEFUL THAT HE SHARED HIS DOUBT.
You see Thomas is a man who lives in the real world. Thomas needed real things he could count on. For Thomas was a man who had to deal with very real things that yet remained.
We too, like Thomas, live in the real world and have to deal with very real things.
Like the notice that our job has been eliminated.
Like the check that bounced.
Like the child who just won’t listen.
Like the supposed friends who talk behind your back.
Like the spouse who doesn’t seem to care.
Like the conscience, the mind, filled with the voice of echoing and accusing guilt, that will not shut up.
Like the sickness, the cancer, the illness that won’t go away.
Like the desire for something that is wrong. A desire only seems to grow stronger rather than weaker.
Like the moist clotted dirt laying alongside a freshly dug grave.
Yes, like Thomas we must live in a real world with very real things we have to live and deal with every day.
Real things that our eyes and limited reason seem to tell us that God isn’t greater than, God isn’t more than, God isn’t able to deal with these all too real things for us.
Things so real that they seem to prove that God loves other people more than us.
All these very real and very painful things – are nothing other than the CRUSTIES, OF THE HIGHLY FEVERED, AND DEEPLY SENSITIVE SCAB.
A scab that has dried over the deadly wound that sin has made upon our hearts, upon our minds, and upon our lives.
And so we find ourselves standing with Thomas declaring all to boldly with Thomas:
UNLESS I SEE IN HIS HANDS THE MARK OF THE NAILS, AND PLACE MY FINGER INTO THE MARK OF THE NAILS, AND PLACE MY HAND INTO HIS SIDE, I WILL NEVER BELIEVE.”
Thanks be to Thomas for sharing wound.
Thanks be to Thomas for offering his wound up for all to see.
For this is our wound. And it is to Thomas, to Thomas and his wound heart of DOUBT that Jesus comes.
And what are Jesus first words – to Thomas and to all? NOT – WHY DID YOU DOUBT.
No – Jesus says: PEACE TO YOU.
Jesus says there is now no hostility, no war, no division between me and you – we are one.
And what does Jesus do?
Does Jesus shun this DOUBTING THOMAS?
No, he comes to him – and offers Thomas His wounds.
THEN JESUS SAID TO THOMAS, “PUT YOUR FINGER HERE, AND SEE MY HANDS; AND PUT OUT YOUR HAND, AND PLACE IT IN MY SIDE. DO NOT DISBELIEVE, BUT BELIEVE.”
Now this is such a critical thing. A very real thing that Thomas and the rest of the world needs so desperately to note.
Jesus has Thomas – PUT HIS FINGER INTO THE NAIL HOLES IN HIS HANDS. PUT YOUR FINGER HERE.
HE HAS THOMAS PUT HIS HAND INTO HIS SIDE. AND PUT OUT YOUR HAND, AND PLACE IT IN MY SIDE
Now I want you to think about a fleshly wounds you had. Wounds that you and I have suffered: Whenever we get cut or scraped or the like.
Within a few minutes to an hour the wound has dried over. It has scabbed over. God’s way of having the body protect itself.
Now in this room Jesus comes with His wounds, wounds he has had for now 10 DAYS.
Remember it is a week after Easter that Jesus comes to the apostles in their locked room.
If Jesus wounds are like ours – wouldn’t they’d be dried over? Wound they’d be sealed over.
Yet Jesus has Thomas put his finger into the nail hole. He has Thomas put his hand in his side.
NOW HERE’S QUESTION – HERE’S THE GOSPEL.
WHAT KIND OF WOUND – REMAINS OPEN?
WHAT KIND OF WOUND REMAINS UNSEALED?
WHAT KIND OF WOUND IS ANYONE ABLE TO PUT THEIR FINGER AND HAND INTO?
ONLY A RESURRECTED WOUND? –
ONLY A WOUND THAT FOREVER REMAINS AN OPEN LIVING WOUND.
A RESURRECTED WOUND THAT LIVES – NOT TO BE HEALED – BUT A WOUND THAT LIVES TO HEAL THE MORTAL WOUNDS OF OTHERS.
This resurrected Christ, this Christ who would not remain dead, this Christ who is resurrected to remain and reign as our Lord and Savior, forever bears in His body – living resurrected wounds.
Resurrected wounds that Jesus brings and invites Thomas to touch, so that sin’s wound of doubt might be healed and he believe.
Living wounds that remain to heal us of our wounds.
Now do we understand the prophesy of God through Isaiah the Prophet: 53:5
HE WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS; HE WAS CRUSHED FOR OUR INIQUITIES; UPON HIM WAS THE CHASTISEMENT THAT BROUGHT US PEACE, AND WITH HIS STRIPES, WITH HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED.
What does Jesus touch us with in baptism - his holy life and death, his holy flesh – his holy wounds that yet remain to heal us of sin’s wound.
What is wanting forgiveness, but a cry that we might touch those resurrected wounds that they might rule over our all too real wounds, that we might be healed.
What is confession of our sins – but offering up, as Thomas did – our wounded hearts and actions that Jesus might come and touch us with His wounds and we be healed in forgiveness.
What is the absolution that a proclaimed, but Jesus touching us through the Pastor’s flesh, with His fleshly wounds that remain to heal and make us whole.
Every time we come to the Lord’s Supper, what is it but Jesus’ words on in the locked room: PEACE TO YOU –
COME – TOUCH ME AND BE HEALED.
COME – TOUCH ME, RECEIVE MY WOUNDS THAT I OFFER.
COME TOUCH MY WOUNDS THAT WILL REMAIN TO FOREVER HEAL YOU SO THAT YOU MIGHT BELIEVE.
PEACE TO YOU.
Wounds that once touched by them, we say boldly with Thomas:
MY LORD AND MY GOD!
THANK GOD FOR THOMAS SHARING HIS WOUND, BECAUSE IT IS YOUR WOUND AND MINE.
THANKS BE TO JESUS WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS.
THANKS BE TO JESUS WHO IS RESURRECTED AND EVER REMAINS – TO COME, TO OFFER, AND TO WORK HIS RESURRECTED LIVING WOUNDS UPON US AND OUR WOUNDS – THAT WE MIGHT BE HEALED.
CHRIST IS RISEN – HE IS RISEN INDEED.
CHRIST IS RISEN – HE IS RISEN INDEED.
ALLELUIA!
Why is Thomas the only one to received a nickname and a negative one at that?
I’m if you think about it, what don’t we refer to Peter as – DENYING PETER, or Judas as BETRAYING JUDAS?
Why this particular nickname?
Many different reason are given for this.
And while this does refers to what Thomas did, i.e. DOUBTING THE MESSAGE OF THE APOSTLES THAT THE LORD HAD ARISEN,
The title of DOUBTING THOMAS identifies a particular wound that Thomas suffered with.
Like Lou Gehrig’s Disease refers to the illness that took a young vibrant baseball player’s life. The medical term for Lou Gehrig’s disease is AMY-OTRO-PHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS, or ALS – a disease the destroys the nervous system.
The title DOUBTING THOMAS refers to a particular kind of wound that Thomas had.
It is a wound that all have – a wound within.
DOUBTING THOMAS refers to the deadly wound of DOUBTING, to that deadly activity of SHIFTING ONE’S FAITH TO SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE LORD.
DOUBT is the wound that sin works upon the heart and life of every human being. We are born with this wound, as David diagnosis his condition in Psalm 51:5 I WAS BROUGHT FORTH IN INIQUITY, AND IN SIN DID MY MOTHER CONCEIVE ME.
Yet in truth, Thomas wasn’t the only apostle afflicted with this wound of doubt. In the details of Luke’s account of that first Easter, we find Jesus chastising the other Apostles for their slowness to believe or doubt: Luke 24:25
AND JESUS SAID TO THEM, "O FOOLISH ONES, AND SLOW OF HEART TO BELIEVE ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN!
Yes, doubting was Thomas’ wound and while many belittle and malign Thomas for his doubt, this day – we thank God for Thomas sharing his wound with the apostles and the Lord.
We thank God that He inspired John to include this account of Thomas.
For you see, Thomas’ wound is our wound.
You see – Thomas lived in the real world just like you and me.
Thomas was dealing with very real events, very real actions or inactions on his part.
He has seen Jesus’ betrayal.
He had abandoned the one He called Lord.
He witnessed the lies and false accusations raised against Jesus
He had seen Jesus wrongly condemned.
He had seen Jesus die.
AND IN ALL THESE EVENTS –
HE WHO LOVED THE LORD –
HE WHO SAID WITH PETER, THAT HE WOULD DIE RATHER THAN FALL AWAY FROM JESUS –
THIS THOMAS – DID – NOTHING.
And where was Thomas on that first Easter night? NOT WITH THE REST OF THE APOSTLES.
HE WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE – WE KNOW NOT WHERE BUT HE WASN’T WITH – THOSE HE LIVED WITH, ATE WITH, STUDIED WITH, WALKED WITH AS THEY TOGETHER FOLLOWED THE LORD.
Yes, Thomas was a man with a wound – a deep wound.
And this was a wound that filled Thomas with pain. The pain of a wounded heart that one suffers at the loss of a loved one, the pain one has from a conscience torn and tattered by guilt, because they’d done a loved one some wrong, and while they certainly regretted it, the one loved died before that he could apologize, he could make amends.
Yes, Thomas was a man of great pain.
The pain of having his life and the future he saw and planned for with the Lord, completely destroyed.
Nothing remained for Thomas – but his wound and the pain it brought.
Yes, Thomas was a man filled with doubt – AND WE NEED TO BE GRATEFUL THAT HE SHARED HIS DOUBT.
You see Thomas is a man who lives in the real world. Thomas needed real things he could count on. For Thomas was a man who had to deal with very real things that yet remained.
We too, like Thomas, live in the real world and have to deal with very real things.
Like the notice that our job has been eliminated.
Like the check that bounced.
Like the child who just won’t listen.
Like the supposed friends who talk behind your back.
Like the spouse who doesn’t seem to care.
Like the conscience, the mind, filled with the voice of echoing and accusing guilt, that will not shut up.
Like the sickness, the cancer, the illness that won’t go away.
Like the desire for something that is wrong. A desire only seems to grow stronger rather than weaker.
Like the moist clotted dirt laying alongside a freshly dug grave.
Yes, like Thomas we must live in a real world with very real things we have to live and deal with every day.
Real things that our eyes and limited reason seem to tell us that God isn’t greater than, God isn’t more than, God isn’t able to deal with these all too real things for us.
Things so real that they seem to prove that God loves other people more than us.
All these very real and very painful things – are nothing other than the CRUSTIES, OF THE HIGHLY FEVERED, AND DEEPLY SENSITIVE SCAB.
A scab that has dried over the deadly wound that sin has made upon our hearts, upon our minds, and upon our lives.
And so we find ourselves standing with Thomas declaring all to boldly with Thomas:
UNLESS I SEE IN HIS HANDS THE MARK OF THE NAILS, AND PLACE MY FINGER INTO THE MARK OF THE NAILS, AND PLACE MY HAND INTO HIS SIDE, I WILL NEVER BELIEVE.”
Thanks be to Thomas for sharing wound.
Thanks be to Thomas for offering his wound up for all to see.
For this is our wound. And it is to Thomas, to Thomas and his wound heart of DOUBT that Jesus comes.
And what are Jesus first words – to Thomas and to all? NOT – WHY DID YOU DOUBT.
No – Jesus says: PEACE TO YOU.
Jesus says there is now no hostility, no war, no division between me and you – we are one.
And what does Jesus do?
Does Jesus shun this DOUBTING THOMAS?
No, he comes to him – and offers Thomas His wounds.
THEN JESUS SAID TO THOMAS, “PUT YOUR FINGER HERE, AND SEE MY HANDS; AND PUT OUT YOUR HAND, AND PLACE IT IN MY SIDE. DO NOT DISBELIEVE, BUT BELIEVE.”
Now this is such a critical thing. A very real thing that Thomas and the rest of the world needs so desperately to note.
Jesus has Thomas – PUT HIS FINGER INTO THE NAIL HOLES IN HIS HANDS. PUT YOUR FINGER HERE.
HE HAS THOMAS PUT HIS HAND INTO HIS SIDE. AND PUT OUT YOUR HAND, AND PLACE IT IN MY SIDE
Now I want you to think about a fleshly wounds you had. Wounds that you and I have suffered: Whenever we get cut or scraped or the like.
Within a few minutes to an hour the wound has dried over. It has scabbed over. God’s way of having the body protect itself.
Now in this room Jesus comes with His wounds, wounds he has had for now 10 DAYS.
Remember it is a week after Easter that Jesus comes to the apostles in their locked room.
If Jesus wounds are like ours – wouldn’t they’d be dried over? Wound they’d be sealed over.
Yet Jesus has Thomas put his finger into the nail hole. He has Thomas put his hand in his side.
NOW HERE’S QUESTION – HERE’S THE GOSPEL.
WHAT KIND OF WOUND – REMAINS OPEN?
WHAT KIND OF WOUND REMAINS UNSEALED?
WHAT KIND OF WOUND IS ANYONE ABLE TO PUT THEIR FINGER AND HAND INTO?
ONLY A RESURRECTED WOUND? –
ONLY A WOUND THAT FOREVER REMAINS AN OPEN LIVING WOUND.
A RESURRECTED WOUND THAT LIVES – NOT TO BE HEALED – BUT A WOUND THAT LIVES TO HEAL THE MORTAL WOUNDS OF OTHERS.
This resurrected Christ, this Christ who would not remain dead, this Christ who is resurrected to remain and reign as our Lord and Savior, forever bears in His body – living resurrected wounds.
Resurrected wounds that Jesus brings and invites Thomas to touch, so that sin’s wound of doubt might be healed and he believe.
Living wounds that remain to heal us of our wounds.
Now do we understand the prophesy of God through Isaiah the Prophet: 53:5
HE WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS; HE WAS CRUSHED FOR OUR INIQUITIES; UPON HIM WAS THE CHASTISEMENT THAT BROUGHT US PEACE, AND WITH HIS STRIPES, WITH HIS WOUNDS WE ARE HEALED.
What does Jesus touch us with in baptism - his holy life and death, his holy flesh – his holy wounds that yet remain to heal us of sin’s wound.
What is wanting forgiveness, but a cry that we might touch those resurrected wounds that they might rule over our all too real wounds, that we might be healed.
What is confession of our sins – but offering up, as Thomas did – our wounded hearts and actions that Jesus might come and touch us with His wounds and we be healed in forgiveness.
What is the absolution that a proclaimed, but Jesus touching us through the Pastor’s flesh, with His fleshly wounds that remain to heal and make us whole.
Every time we come to the Lord’s Supper, what is it but Jesus’ words on in the locked room: PEACE TO YOU –
COME – TOUCH ME AND BE HEALED.
COME – TOUCH ME, RECEIVE MY WOUNDS THAT I OFFER.
COME TOUCH MY WOUNDS THAT WILL REMAIN TO FOREVER HEAL YOU SO THAT YOU MIGHT BELIEVE.
PEACE TO YOU.
Wounds that once touched by them, we say boldly with Thomas:
MY LORD AND MY GOD!
THANK GOD FOR THOMAS SHARING HIS WOUND, BECAUSE IT IS YOUR WOUND AND MINE.
THANKS BE TO JESUS WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS.
THANKS BE TO JESUS WHO IS RESURRECTED AND EVER REMAINS – TO COME, TO OFFER, AND TO WORK HIS RESURRECTED LIVING WOUNDS UPON US AND OUR WOUNDS – THAT WE MIGHT BE HEALED.
CHRIST IS RISEN – HE IS RISEN INDEED.
CHRIST IS RISEN – HE IS RISEN INDEED.
ALLELUIA!
Monday, April 13, 2009
THE PASTOR AND THE CROSS – A NECESSITY
Neither the accumulated wisdom of all the earth and the skies, nor languages, the Church Fathers, and daily reading of the Holy Scripture, nor immense learning and eloquence make a man a good theologian or pastor if the cross is not added.
The cross is God chosen means for Christ and therefore us. It is through the cross God purifies, cleanses, strengthens, and perfects the light of His true knowledge, of true faith in Christ, of true understanding of the divine promises, proper prayer, hope, humility, and all the virtues which He has first planted in the heart through the Word.
Those are foolishly secure spirits rather than real Christians who live each day happily and joyfully, thinking that when they read the laments of Jeremiah or Ezekiel, the prayer of a Jonah, and other Psalms, they are hearing only empty words and vain dreams of someone in the past; therefore they can neither understand these descriptions of a faith struggling under the heaviest of trials nor can they speak of them to others. Neither do they understand or perceive that these words speak of the daily ongoing struggle of the saint and sinner that takes place in the heart and life of a believer.
Accordingly we should equip ourselves for the cross, for as we look upon what was done to Christ, his body, his dignity, his divinity by church and state, so we see in every degree, what the sinful nature, the world, and Satan will do to the saint of God. Yes, the cross is just as necessary for those who wish to serve the Church as air and food are for the maintenance of the body.
How can any person be able to continue to understand the Gospel or continue to teach it to others if he himself has not and does not constantly experience the power of the Gospel in the midst of the on-goring sorrows and trials of our pilgrimage here on earth?
As written David Chytraeus (1531 - 1600) and edited by Rev. Mark W. Love.
A PRAYER
Give perfection to beginners, O Father,
Give intelligence to the little ones,
Give aid to those who are running their course.
Give sorrow to the negligent,
Give fervor of spirit to the lukewarm.
Give to the faithful a good consummation.
for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
St. Irenaeus
The cross is God chosen means for Christ and therefore us. It is through the cross God purifies, cleanses, strengthens, and perfects the light of His true knowledge, of true faith in Christ, of true understanding of the divine promises, proper prayer, hope, humility, and all the virtues which He has first planted in the heart through the Word.
Those are foolishly secure spirits rather than real Christians who live each day happily and joyfully, thinking that when they read the laments of Jeremiah or Ezekiel, the prayer of a Jonah, and other Psalms, they are hearing only empty words and vain dreams of someone in the past; therefore they can neither understand these descriptions of a faith struggling under the heaviest of trials nor can they speak of them to others. Neither do they understand or perceive that these words speak of the daily ongoing struggle of the saint and sinner that takes place in the heart and life of a believer.
Accordingly we should equip ourselves for the cross, for as we look upon what was done to Christ, his body, his dignity, his divinity by church and state, so we see in every degree, what the sinful nature, the world, and Satan will do to the saint of God. Yes, the cross is just as necessary for those who wish to serve the Church as air and food are for the maintenance of the body.
How can any person be able to continue to understand the Gospel or continue to teach it to others if he himself has not and does not constantly experience the power of the Gospel in the midst of the on-goring sorrows and trials of our pilgrimage here on earth?
As written David Chytraeus (1531 - 1600) and edited by Rev. Mark W. Love.
A PRAYER
Give perfection to beginners, O Father,
Give intelligence to the little ones,
Give aid to those who are running their course.
Give sorrow to the negligent,
Give fervor of spirit to the lukewarm.
Give to the faithful a good consummation.
for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
St. Irenaeus
Friday, April 10, 2009
WHAT IS THE CROSS?
What is the Cross?
What is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man crucified on a Cross?
What is the human body of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God nailed to a cross?
What is the human body of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God nailed to a cross – crying out: MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?
What is the crucifying an innocent Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God?
What is the Cross – the crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God?
Now I’m not asking the favorite Lutheran question:
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
NO –
If we are know the Cross for what it REALLY IS, rather than what some illusion would have us to believe it is –
Then we must ask and answer this question:
WHAT IS THE CROSS?
WHAT IS THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS, THE CHRIST, THE SON OF MAN AND THE SON OF GOD?
IT IS THE SAVING ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH DEALING WITH THE GOD OF HEAVEN WE HAVE REJECTED IN SIN.
IT IS THE SAVING ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH DEALING WITH REJECTION OF THE GOD OF HEAVEN, WHICH WE RIGHTLY DESERVE.
IT IS THE SAVING ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH DEALING WITH EARTHLY AND DIVINE CONSEQUENCES WE RIGHTLY DESERVE FOR OUR SINFULNESS.
IT IS THE ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH DOING FOR US – WHAT WE CANNOT EVER DO - TO BE FORGIVEN BY THE GOD OF HEAVEN, TO BE FOREVER RIGHT WITH GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.
THE CROSS – IS THE ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH – SECURING US AND SAVING US FROM OUR FALLEN HUMAN CONDITION OF SIN, DEATH, AND HELL.
THE CROSS – THE SAVING ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH LIVES ON TO SAVE IN CHRIST – WHO’S CRUCIFIED HUMAN FLESH WAS RESURRECTED TO REIGN THROUGH THE CROSS WITH HIS RESURRECTION.
Where the Gospel is proclaimed – there the activity of the Cross and the Resurrection is taking place.
Where the water and the Word come together in Baptism – there the activity of the Cross and the Resurrection is taking place.
Where the Absolution is proclaimed – there the activity of the Cross and the Resurrection is taking place.
Where the Body and Blood of Christ are received in faith – there the activity of the Cross and the Resurrection is taking place.
In our Lord Jesus Christ - the activities of both the CROSS and the RESURRECTION for us - are ever at work preserving us unto life everlasting.
God grant us a simple faith and through it, the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen.
A PRAYER
We worship Thee, O Crucified!
What glories didst Thou lay aside;
What depth of human grief and sin
Didst Thou consent to languish in,
That through atoning blood outpoured
Our broken peace might be restored!
Though with our shame we shunned the light,
Thou didst not leave us in the night;
We were not left in sin to stray
Unsought, unloved, from Thee away;
For from Thy cross irradiates
A power that saves and recreates.
O loved above all earthly love,
To Thee our hearts adoring move;
Thy boundless mercies yearn to save
And in Thy blood sin’s wounds to lave.
O speed the day when men shall see
That human hopes are all in Thee. Amen.
by Albert W. T. Orsborn
What is Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man crucified on a Cross?
What is the human body of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God nailed to a cross?
What is the human body of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God nailed to a cross – crying out: MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?
What is the crucifying an innocent Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God?
What is the Cross – the crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ, the Son of Man and the Son of God?
Now I’m not asking the favorite Lutheran question:
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
NO –
If we are know the Cross for what it REALLY IS, rather than what some illusion would have us to believe it is –
Then we must ask and answer this question:
WHAT IS THE CROSS?
WHAT IS THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS, THE CHRIST, THE SON OF MAN AND THE SON OF GOD?
IT IS THE SAVING ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH DEALING WITH THE GOD OF HEAVEN WE HAVE REJECTED IN SIN.
IT IS THE SAVING ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH DEALING WITH REJECTION OF THE GOD OF HEAVEN, WHICH WE RIGHTLY DESERVE.
IT IS THE SAVING ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH DEALING WITH EARTHLY AND DIVINE CONSEQUENCES WE RIGHTLY DESERVE FOR OUR SINFULNESS.
IT IS THE ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH DOING FOR US – WHAT WE CANNOT EVER DO - TO BE FORGIVEN BY THE GOD OF HEAVEN, TO BE FOREVER RIGHT WITH GOD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.
THE CROSS – IS THE ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH – SECURING US AND SAVING US FROM OUR FALLEN HUMAN CONDITION OF SIN, DEATH, AND HELL.
THE CROSS – THE SAVING ACTIVITY OF GOD IN HUMAN FLESH LIVES ON TO SAVE IN CHRIST – WHO’S CRUCIFIED HUMAN FLESH WAS RESURRECTED TO REIGN THROUGH THE CROSS WITH HIS RESURRECTION.
Where the Gospel is proclaimed – there the activity of the Cross and the Resurrection is taking place.
Where the water and the Word come together in Baptism – there the activity of the Cross and the Resurrection is taking place.
Where the Absolution is proclaimed – there the activity of the Cross and the Resurrection is taking place.
Where the Body and Blood of Christ are received in faith – there the activity of the Cross and the Resurrection is taking place.
In our Lord Jesus Christ - the activities of both the CROSS and the RESURRECTION for us - are ever at work preserving us unto life everlasting.
God grant us a simple faith and through it, the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen.
A PRAYER
We worship Thee, O Crucified!
What glories didst Thou lay aside;
What depth of human grief and sin
Didst Thou consent to languish in,
That through atoning blood outpoured
Our broken peace might be restored!
Though with our shame we shunned the light,
Thou didst not leave us in the night;
We were not left in sin to stray
Unsought, unloved, from Thee away;
For from Thy cross irradiates
A power that saves and recreates.
O loved above all earthly love,
To Thee our hearts adoring move;
Thy boundless mercies yearn to save
And in Thy blood sin’s wounds to lave.
O speed the day when men shall see
That human hopes are all in Thee. Amen.
by Albert W. T. Orsborn
Thursday, April 9, 2009
ONLY GOD CAN DEAL WITH GOD
"Only God can deal with God. Thus there is a battle. It is God against God. The abstract God (the God of the Law) cannot be removed but must be dethroned, overcome, 'for you' in concrete actuality. The clothed God must conquer the naked God for us. We can never escape on our own. The revealed God must conquer the hidden God for you in the living present. Faith is precisely the ever-renewed flight from God to God: from God naked and hidden to God clothed and revealed [in Jesus Christ]. Thus Luther insisted that we must cling to the God at his mother's breasts, the God who hung on the cross and was raised from the tomb in the face of the desperate attack launched from the hidden God/Satan. There is no other way.
The question at stake is whether one will believe God in the face of God."
p. 22 - Theology Is for Proclamation - Gerhard O. Forde (Fortress 1990)
A PRAYER
Oh that I might rest in You, my Lord and my God!
Oh! that You would enter into my heart, and so fill it, that I may let go of my pride and embrace You, my sole good!
What are You to me?
In Your pity, work this embrace in me.
What am I to You that You demand my love, and, if I give it not, You are justly angry with me, and threaten me with grievous woes?
Is it then a slight woe to love myself more than You?
For the sake of Your mercies, which are new every morning, tell me, O Lord my God, what You are to me.
Say unto my soul, I am Your salvation.
So speak, that I may hear.
Behold, Lord, my heart is before You; open my ears and say to my soul, I am Your salvation.
After this voice let me quickly flee from myself and my pride, and take hold of You.
Let nothing hide Your face from me.
Let me die to what my pride would make of me, lest I die without what You in Jesus Christ has made of me.
Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge my soul so that You may enter it and fill it, so that there is no room or reason for pride to live within me.
My heart is ruined,
Create in me a clean heart.
My heart has pride within it that would keep me from You and offends You.
I confess it to You as You alone can cleanse my sin within.
Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults, spare Your servant from the power of my enemy within.
I believe, and therefore I have confessed against myself my transgressions to You.
And You, my God, have forgiven the iniquity of my heart.
I will argue against Your judgment for You alone are true.
Yet, my Lord, I fear that my sin of pride might deceive me and I begin to deceive myself.
O Gracious God, who can never be deceived, let me ever remember that all men are like grass, and even if I be like the flower of the grass in all its glory, the grass always withers and the flower ever falls. But Your Word, the Word given to me in my Baptism – stand forever. Amen.
The question at stake is whether one will believe God in the face of God."
p. 22 - Theology Is for Proclamation - Gerhard O. Forde (Fortress 1990)
A PRAYER
Oh that I might rest in You, my Lord and my God!
Oh! that You would enter into my heart, and so fill it, that I may let go of my pride and embrace You, my sole good!
What are You to me?
In Your pity, work this embrace in me.
What am I to You that You demand my love, and, if I give it not, You are justly angry with me, and threaten me with grievous woes?
Is it then a slight woe to love myself more than You?
For the sake of Your mercies, which are new every morning, tell me, O Lord my God, what You are to me.
Say unto my soul, I am Your salvation.
So speak, that I may hear.
Behold, Lord, my heart is before You; open my ears and say to my soul, I am Your salvation.
After this voice let me quickly flee from myself and my pride, and take hold of You.
Let nothing hide Your face from me.
Let me die to what my pride would make of me, lest I die without what You in Jesus Christ has made of me.
Narrow is the mansion of my soul; enlarge my soul so that You may enter it and fill it, so that there is no room or reason for pride to live within me.
My heart is ruined,
Create in me a clean heart.
My heart has pride within it that would keep me from You and offends You.
I confess it to You as You alone can cleanse my sin within.
Lord, cleanse me from my secret faults, spare Your servant from the power of my enemy within.
I believe, and therefore I have confessed against myself my transgressions to You.
And You, my God, have forgiven the iniquity of my heart.
I will argue against Your judgment for You alone are true.
Yet, my Lord, I fear that my sin of pride might deceive me and I begin to deceive myself.
O Gracious God, who can never be deceived, let me ever remember that all men are like grass, and even if I be like the flower of the grass in all its glory, the grass always withers and the flower ever falls. But Your Word, the Word given to me in my Baptism – stand forever. Amen.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Art of Being a Blessed Beggar
There was an art to begging. From bitter experience beggars knew that they were far more likely to receive a handout if they approached people nicely and appealed to their better nature with a little discreet flattery rather than if they were aggressive and demanding. So they usually appealed for help by saying, "Kyrie, eleison!," "Lord, have mercy!" This cry was heard almost every day in every street. The Gospels tell us that needy people used the same cry when they appealed to Jesus for His help (Matthew 9:27; 15:22; 17:15; Mark 10:47-48; Luke 17:13).
It was, of course, shameful to beg. Respectable citizens took pride in earning a living and in having enough wealth to support their dependents. Apart from some con men and women, no one chose to become a beggar. Desperation alone drove them to seek charity from others in public-and they begged only if they had no other option.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) contains the teaching of Jesus on the life of a disciple. That sermon begins with an astonishing summary of His teaching: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). Here Jesus congratulates those who are spiritually impoverished and commends spiritual poverty as the mark of discipleship. The Greek word for "poor" is also the term for a beggar. Those who are poor in spirit have no spiritual assets or credentials. They have nothing to offer to God the Father; they receive everything from Him. The poor in spirit are not spiritually rich and powerful; they receive the Holy Spirit as beggars who ask for what they do not have. The Father's kingdom is theirs as a gift, something that is always received and yet never possessed. Unless they receive God's kingdom, they can never enter it and reign in it as kings together with Christ (Mark 10:15; Luke 12:32; 22:28-30).
This countercultural beatitude sums up the whole of Christian spirituality. It contradicts popular religion and common piety. Popular piety presupposes our unrealized spiritual potential; it seeks spiritual enrichment and empowerment through the practice of appropriate spiritual exercises. In contrast to this desire for spiritual self-improvement and self-development, Jesus teaches that we begin, continue, and end our spiritual journey with Him as beggars before God the Father, the heavenly King. We do not, as we follow Jesus, become increasingly self-sufficient. Rather, we learn, bit by bit, the art of begging from God the Father, until at our death we can do nothing but say, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!"
Martin Luther knew all about begging. On the evening of the night before he died, he penned a short meditation on how he had learned to understand the Scriptures from his pastoral experience. His short reflection ends with the words, "We are beggars. That is true.."
Because our spiritual life depends on our receiving from God, Christ teaches us to become beggars together with Him. Like Him, we receive everything from God the Father (John 3:35; 5:19; 8:28). This makes it hard, yet at the same time easy, for us to live as His disciples. It is hard because we take such great pride in our own achievements and self-sufficiency. We do not like to ask God, or anyone, for anything. Far better to do without than to become dependent on others! Yet it is also easy because our spirituality does not depend on our performance but on our receiving from God. No one is more or less spiritually advantaged. To change the picture, we must all become as little children, helpless infants that are totally dependent on their mothers (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14-15; 1 Peter 2:2).”
From: GRACE UPON GRACE by John Kleinig CPH 2008
On the Cross – Christ was made povertous of things earthly and things divine. His cry on the Cross was that of a beggar – WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME? WHY HAVE YOU LEFT ME SO POOR, SO NOTHING? SO LIKE EVERY HUMAN BORN ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH?
The Resurrection of povertous beggar Jesus Christ on that first Easter is the message of what the Living God provides for the sinful povertous beggars who come in humble repentance and faith, just as they are, without one plea, but that the blood of Jesus – the beggar was shed for me.
Kyrie! Kyrie, eleison!
It was, of course, shameful to beg. Respectable citizens took pride in earning a living and in having enough wealth to support their dependents. Apart from some con men and women, no one chose to become a beggar. Desperation alone drove them to seek charity from others in public-and they begged only if they had no other option.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) contains the teaching of Jesus on the life of a disciple. That sermon begins with an astonishing summary of His teaching: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3). Here Jesus congratulates those who are spiritually impoverished and commends spiritual poverty as the mark of discipleship. The Greek word for "poor" is also the term for a beggar. Those who are poor in spirit have no spiritual assets or credentials. They have nothing to offer to God the Father; they receive everything from Him. The poor in spirit are not spiritually rich and powerful; they receive the Holy Spirit as beggars who ask for what they do not have. The Father's kingdom is theirs as a gift, something that is always received and yet never possessed. Unless they receive God's kingdom, they can never enter it and reign in it as kings together with Christ (Mark 10:15; Luke 12:32; 22:28-30).
This countercultural beatitude sums up the whole of Christian spirituality. It contradicts popular religion and common piety. Popular piety presupposes our unrealized spiritual potential; it seeks spiritual enrichment and empowerment through the practice of appropriate spiritual exercises. In contrast to this desire for spiritual self-improvement and self-development, Jesus teaches that we begin, continue, and end our spiritual journey with Him as beggars before God the Father, the heavenly King. We do not, as we follow Jesus, become increasingly self-sufficient. Rather, we learn, bit by bit, the art of begging from God the Father, until at our death we can do nothing but say, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!"
Martin Luther knew all about begging. On the evening of the night before he died, he penned a short meditation on how he had learned to understand the Scriptures from his pastoral experience. His short reflection ends with the words, "We are beggars. That is true.."
Because our spiritual life depends on our receiving from God, Christ teaches us to become beggars together with Him. Like Him, we receive everything from God the Father (John 3:35; 5:19; 8:28). This makes it hard, yet at the same time easy, for us to live as His disciples. It is hard because we take such great pride in our own achievements and self-sufficiency. We do not like to ask God, or anyone, for anything. Far better to do without than to become dependent on others! Yet it is also easy because our spirituality does not depend on our performance but on our receiving from God. No one is more or less spiritually advantaged. To change the picture, we must all become as little children, helpless infants that are totally dependent on their mothers (Matthew 18:3; Mark 10:14-15; 1 Peter 2:2).”
From: GRACE UPON GRACE by John Kleinig CPH 2008
On the Cross – Christ was made povertous of things earthly and things divine. His cry on the Cross was that of a beggar – WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME? WHY HAVE YOU LEFT ME SO POOR, SO NOTHING? SO LIKE EVERY HUMAN BORN ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH?
The Resurrection of povertous beggar Jesus Christ on that first Easter is the message of what the Living God provides for the sinful povertous beggars who come in humble repentance and faith, just as they are, without one plea, but that the blood of Jesus – the beggar was shed for me.
Kyrie! Kyrie, eleison!
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