One could rightly say, that we Lutherans probablay (sic), find Reformation Day, a little passé (Look, I made a rhyme!). That rhyme may be the most exciting aspect of this tedious contribution to the October 2026 Parish Rebuilder, or maybe not. You decide.
For roughly 500 years, Lutherans have marked the 31st of October as Reformation Day. On that day in 15?? (do you know which year?), Martin Luther posted in Ninety-five Theses against Indigestion (how many of them have you ever read?) because he suffered from a steady diet of bratwurst and sauerkraut. Contributing to this situation, while in the monastery Brother Martin distinguished himself by taking all that monkey business so seriously that it probably exacerbated his troublesome tummy. This ailment grew ever worse, and finally Luther decided that he could no longer stomach the mayhem in the church. So, gaining renewed intestinal fortitude, Luther developed the Reformation Diet of Worms and launched the now renowned celebration of Halloween! See, so boring.
Of course, the Lutheran understanding of the Reformation encompasses much more than Luther publishing his Ninety-five Theses. When posting them, Luther was seeking to correct an abuse of church theology and practice which the pope and some bishops were using to line their pockets with payments for penance which seemed much more satisfactory for sinners than actually doing their penance.
In the Roman Church, then and now, committing sins has two aspects. First, one has broken a commandment of God or of the church, and second, breaking a commandment meant that somehow somewhere damage has been done. So, to address both problems, one first goes to a priest to confess one’s sins and to receive absolution. Then, the priest assigns some task to do to compensate for the damages caused by sinning.
In my standard example, if you steal Billy’s basket ball, you have broken (which?) commandment, and Billy is deprived of his basketball. So, to address this mess, you trot off to church, confess your sins to the priest, received absolution from the priest, and then, it is up to the priest to prescribe penance. For penance, he could instruct you to return Billy’s basketball or to buy Billy a new basketball or perhaps to say ten Hail Mary’s, which is actually more appropriate for stealing Billy’s football (do you remember this example from last year? – so boring). If you should kick the basketball (die) before doing your penance, you end up in purgatory not passing Go and not collecting $200 to buy indulgences to reduce your time in purgatory.
As we know, Luther challenged this and many other unscriptural notions which had infested and still infest the Roman Church. Through the word of God in both law and gospel, however, Luther rediscovered the gospel-filled doctrine that sinners are justified before God by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, thus demythologizing the church. In other words, because we pathetic sinners had completely sabotaged our relationship with God, only God could save us by sending his son in human flesh to recreat our relationship with him. God did and does this purely as a gift.
That is why Reformation Day is so boring. There is nothing for us Lutherans to do to effect our salvation. Nothing! As a consequence, we Lutherans just sit around looking at each other wondering all the while, now what? That is when the mischievous sinner in us says, “Well, since it is the 31st of October, we could do something exciting like dress up in ghoulish costumes and go trick-or-treating, right?”
While passing out free sweet treats to tots, would we not rather prefer to give the gift of God’s word which creates a living faith in sinners? When was the list time you affixed a slip of paper with a Bible verse to those pieces of candy for trick-or-treaters on Halloween or maybe even one of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses against Indulgences?
If you were freed from a great burden or debt or injury or malady with no cost or effort on your part, what would you do? Among the many possibilities, it is probably highly likely that you would tell someone about this great happening in your life. We human beings speak, and we find it almost impossible not to tell someone when something bad or good has happened to us.
For centuries, the church buried the gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone under a monolith of mendacity. Luther’s rediscovery of the gospel, that we are saved on account of Christ as a free gift, is an amazing reality which we find almost too good to believe. The secular world and even many “Christian” denominations bury this truth again and again in one exciting way or another by turning the gospel of salvation into something which we need to do, earn, achieve, or prove.
For us Lutherans, however, knowing that there is nothing which we can do towards our salvation is both a relief and a release to share this same gift of God’s word and love with others. Whereas we cannot earn salvation by sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, in such sharing we are giving God’s gift of salvation to others. Give it a try. The recipients might actually find this good news quite exciting. If so, there is no need to worry. In due course, we can help them become boring, do-nothing-for-our-salvation Lutherans like the rest of us.
Reformation Day, Again? How Boring.
Counting Our Blessings?
Even with the best of intentions, that might be a hard questions to answer. After all, what exactly is a blessing? The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines blessing as: “1) God’s favor and protection, 2) a prayer asking for blessing, 3) a beneficial thing for which one is grateful, 4) a person’s sanction or support.” In addition to these various meanings, defining this term can be particularly problematic if the blessing is “a blessing in disguise”!
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to us counting our blessings is not a matter of definition but of disposition. According to the formal definitions above, a blessings is primarily something which is given to be received by another. In that respect, a blessing is a gift, is something granted, and perhaps that makes counting them difficult. This may be so because we take just about every aspect of our lives “for granted.” This disposition often leads to a sense of entitlement, and when our sense of entitlement is called into question, then our sinful sense of envy frequently takes over.
This dynamic of envy is as old as humanity itself. “In the beginning …,” after God created Adam and Eve, God gave them a glorious garden filled with every living thing. Everything creaturely was granted to them. What more could they want or need?
The crafty serpent, however, came up with an idea for envy. He led Adam and Eve to believe that God was withholding something from them, namely his divinity. In reality, God was doing nothing of the sort. A creature is a creature made by a creator. A creator does not make another creator. Thus, by their very natures as creatures, Adam and Eve were complete. God had given them their existence, life, and a universe in which to live in relation to God, to one another, and to everything else. In other words, all of reality was created as God’s pure gift to humanity.
When Adam and Eve, however, started listening to the serpent and stopped listening to and trusting God, their whole perspective was distorted and destroyed beyond belief. When they stopped believing God, they started to assume that God’s gift was now their possession to which they were entitled. Furthermore, this sense of entitlement extended to wanting to be like God himself (Gen. 3:5). Humanity continues to maintain this disposition; so hopelessly possessed by its sense of possessing that God is perceived not as their creator but as their enemy, even as the devil himself (Mt. 12:22-24).
So, when we wake most days, we take it for granted and “earned” that we wake up in our beds. We take it for granted that we get dressed in our own clothes, in our own homes, in our neighbourhoods, in our towns, in our country, etc. Beginning each day with such grandiose entitlement, when was the last time that you stopped and thought that each breath which we take is a gift of the atmosphere which is part of God’s grand creation? Unconsciously, minute by minute, breath by breath, our bodies inhale and exhale in rhythmic fashion free of charge our atmosphere which provides us with the life-giving and life-sustaining oxygen for the entirety of our lives. Yet, we take each breath thoughtlessly and thanklessly for granted.
So, when was the last time that you stopped and considered that each breath is a blessing? Likewise, almost entirely unconscious of its continual efforts, when did you last thank God for every heartbeat which brings that life-sustaining oxygen to the thousands of cells in your body? Sadly, we probably worry instead whether our stocks are up or down, whether our cars are new or not, whether our clothes are out of fashion, or whether our cell phones now being twelves months have reached obsolescence! In a life plagued with envy, the breathing and beating which keep us alive remain taken for granted.
Instead of thanking God for each and every breath which we take (from his creation) and instead of counting each breath as a blessing, our sin has so warped our perception of God and of the reality created by his breathed word that we not only take his creation for granted, but we also expect God to fulfill our godless fancies and fantasies. Then, when God does not do so according to our wishes, we write him off as no God at all and withhold our belief. In this, our sinful derangement, we like Adam and Eve exhibit our blindness to the fact that the “god” of our fancies only exists as an atheistic figment of our distorted imagination.
Into such idolatrous godlessness, God’s son, the second person of the Trinity, became incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. After roughly 33 years, our sinful godlessness caught up with him. While hanging on the cross, “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’” Then, “… calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last” (Luke 23:46).
Ash Wednesday and Lent. What? Already?
It is that time of the year again. The Lenten season is upon us, and to be extra penitential no one should use any seasoning in their food. There is a “reason for the season,” but in interests of Lenten good taste, should our food taste good? Some seasoned pastors would say, “Yes,” but other salty, old dogs in clerical collars would disagree. Without any degree of reflection on this important topic, however, preparations are already being made at St. Luke’s for Ash Wednesday and Lent.
Strictly biblically speaking, there is no scriptural foundation for Ash Wednesday or for Lent. Whereas one can read in the Old Testament about people repenting in “sackcloth and ashes” and spending time in the wilderness tempted to do and doing ungodly things, apart from Jesus’s 40 day venture into the desert, where the devil got his just desserts, in the New Testament sackcloth and ashes have gone out of style, and the entire world is viewed as a pagan wilderness in which unbelievers seem “tempted” to hear and believe the gospel.
Two thousand years later, particularly in many US churches, the only ashes involved at the beginning of Lent arise with the smoke when the pastor cooks the soup. As many are aware, Martin Luther had little time for Ash Wednesday. In fact, Luther was keen to dispense with just about anything in the church smacking of paganistic mythology derived from and introduced by humanity’s pious sinfulness. Taking that further, many other Protestant denominations and groups have dispensed altogether with the “trappings” of liturgical seasons, the lectionary of readings, and so forth.
However, questioning the suitability and perhaps even the viability of observing Ash Wednesday and Lent consequently calls the rest of the liturgical seasons and calendar into question. Even if Christians were prepared to give up Lent for Lent, would they be as keen to give up other parts of the liturgical year, such as Christmas and Easter? Doing so could really throw a spanner in the works both in the church and well beyond it. If implemented, how would Christmas and Easter (C&E) Christians know when they should attend church during the year or at all? Also, what would happen to the economy? If Christians dropped Christmas and Easter, the profit-driven, pagan retailers would probably find themselves begging the church to reimplement these holidays (holy days) for their own financial gain. Although Lent does not have the same appeal as Christmas and Easter, some crafty merchants might promote the first Wednesday in Lent with a view to turn ash into cash!
Although such observances (called adiaphora or “middle things”) are wholly dispensable, Lutheran churches have generally retained liturgical and church seasonal practices as part of an ethos of teaching and preaching the word of God. The seasons, the colours, the set pericope readings, etc., serve as tools to teach and preach regularly and collectively about the life of God engaged with the sinners whom he seeks to save. As Martin Luther reminds in his exposition of Psalm 51, one of the seven penitential Psalms, handy during Lent, “The proper subject of theology is the sinful human being, guilty and lost, and the justifying God and saviour of the sinful human being. Whatever is sought or discussed in theology outside this subject is error and poison” (WA 40, 2:328, 17-19 = LW 12: 311 – author’s translation).
Focusing one’s mind and the congregation’s life as a whole on our sinfulness is something which we sinners do not readily do. Have you ever wondered why so many non-liturgical churches with no pericope end up being bastions of the so-called “prosperity gospel”? Often in such churches, God is portrayed as having a biblical recipe for your success, health, and well-being (and maybe even a trip to Disneyland). If you do X, Y, and Z for God, God will reward you with ________________ (fill in the blank). Reminding people that they are “by nature sinful and unclean” or that they are “in bondage to sin and cannot free themselves,” simply does not sell (although it has led people to buy indulgences). Consequently, even though such churches celebrate Christmas and Easter, the probably do not observe Lent.
More important than being reminded of our individual and collective sinfulness, frequently expressed in soup supper gluttony rather than in confession of sin, Lenten observances offer us sinners another opportunity during the week to gather to hear the good news of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ to effect the forgiveness of our sin and to reconcile us depraved, deplorable sinners with himself. Midweek we take advantage of an extra opportunity to hear once again how our human sinfulness spared no effort to kill the Christ sent to save us. What good news it is to hear how God, rather than destroying us in righteous rage, takes us into the life, death, and resurrection of his son to free us from the devil’s soup of sin and death and to give us the gift of eternal life.
What Is and What Unifies the Church?
As members of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, we probably all have ideas about what a church is or at least should be. If we have spent time in other branches of Lutheranism or in other Christian denominations, we might have a broader perspective about what “church” is. St. Luke’s Theological Academy is offering a course entitled “Christian Denominations” this winter, and it is designed to provide course participants with such a perspective if they have not acquired it themselves.
Compared to the biblical and Lutheran confessional perspective of church, the variety and diversity of Christian denominations can be quite overwhelming and thus distracting. The sheer number of Christian groupings is mind boggling, and many of those groupings do not consider other groupings to be “church” in the proper sense. For example, the Roman Church maintains that it is the true church and that all Protestant groupings are “ecclesial communities,” i.e. church-like entities but not really church.
The reason why there are so many denominations and why there often is a wide variety of streams within a single denomination is because most Christians and Christian groupings do not differentiate well between law and gospel. In other words, they add more or less law to the gospel which then becomes their defining characteristic. For example, our friends in the Episcopal church are “defined” by being structured around bishops (episcopos in Greek), particularly bishops in “historic succession.” They believe that their succession of bishops is gospel when, in fact, it is unfortunately just another aspect of the law. Thus, in their own ways, other denominations adhere to their own self-defining laws which they confuse with the gospel.
In contrast, the Bible often uses the image of Christ’s body, and not an institution or organization, to describe the church. For example, in his letter to the church in Corinth, St. Paul writes, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit (I Corinthians 12:4-13 – ESV).
Likewise, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul also writes, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Ephesians 4:1-7 – ESV).
Note in both passages written to two different churches St. Paul describes a diversity of members unified in the one Spirit through one baptism into to the one body of one Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is not by chance that in the Augsburg Confession (AC), the first Lutheran statement of faith written in 1530, Lutherans understand the church and its unity in the following fashion. Article VII of the AC reads,
“It is also taught among us that one holy Christian church will be and remain forever. This is the assembly of all believers among whom the gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel. For it is sufficient for the true unity of the Christian church that the Gospel be preached in conformity with a pure understanding of it and that the sacraments be administered in accordance with the divine Word. It is not necessary for the true unity of the Christian church that ceremonies, instituted by men, should be observed uniformly in all places. It is as Paul says in Eph. 4:4, 5, ‘There is on body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism’” (The Book of Concord, Tappert, 32).
The notion that the gospel alone defines the church and its unity is distinctly Lutheran. This position is not a matter of theological exclusiveness or arrogance. Rather, only the gospel creates the faith by which we sinners are justified, i.e. saved. The law does not and cannot create faith. Therefore, if the gospel (properly differentiated from the law) is not purely proclaimed in word and sacrament; that is, if the gospel gets watered down with the law, then a very real danger exists that people either will be led to believe wrongly about the one, true God or, worse, will be led to believe in a false god. In either case, our mission and their salvation is at stake.
As Lutherans, many things in our lives and in our world of sin continually threaten to overwhelm and to distract us from our primary mission which is to proclaim purely the gospel of Jesus Christ in word and sacrament. Let us pray continually that Christ and his gospel will continually unite us to remain focused on the gift of salvation which he has given us to share with other sinners like ourselves.
Create in Me
The Lenten liturgical season is quickly upon us. Ash Wednesday takes place on 22 February. Lent is considered a penitential part of the church calendar year and is thus signified with purple paraments (which are not to be confused with a pair of mints).
Psalm 51 is one of the seven penitential psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143). Penitential psalms, or portions thereof, express and confess our sinful condition and ask God for saving grace. Lutherans regularly use a portion of Psalm 51 in their liturgy, namely
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Ps. 51:10-12).
Little known is that those failing to recite these psalms on a regular basis run the risk of ending up in a penitentiary. So, start reciting. Most people do not want to be behind bars, except, of course, bartenders.
Whereas that might be a bit of an exaggeration, in the history of the Roman Church if one committed a sin, one faced two problems. First, one has sinned and now requires forgiveness which is obtained through the Sacrament of Confession and Absolution. Second, one needs to compensate for the damage caused by such sin, which takes place through penance. For example, if you steal Billy’s football, in addition to confession and absolution, you would need to make up for the misdeed, either by returning Billy’s football or buying him a new football or, instead of those, perhaps saying ten “Hail Marys.” The last penalty does little to help Billy, but it is particularly fitting in football.
In the Roman Church, if one should die after confession/absolution but before having fulfilled one’s penitential obligations, one gets a free trip to purgatory. The word “purgatory” comes from “purge.” So, in purgatory one is purged through torment, usually by fire of some sort, and when one if purified, one finally pops into heaven. This process is, unfortunately, painfully slow because those in purgatory cannot quicken the process. Fortunately, the pope, being the gracious chap that he is, can grant indulgences to shorten or remove time in purgatory, particularly when the living do something to benefit the powerless dead populating purgatory.
These indulgences are issued by the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary. The pope’s second most recent indulgence, “Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary on Plenary Indulgences for the Deceased Faithful,” was promulgated on 27 October 2021. That decree renewed the indulgence issued on 22 October 2020 which was issued in light of COVID 19. Here are the opening paragraphs of 2020 indulgence:
“This Apostolic Penitentiary has received many petitions from holy Pastors who have asked that this year, due to the “Covid-19” epidemic, pious works to obtain the Plenary Indulgences applicable to souls in Purgatory, be commuted in accordance with the Manual of Indulgences (conc. 29, § 1). For this reason, the Apostolic Penitentiary, on special mandate of His Holiness Pope Francis, willingly establishes and decides that this year, in order to avoid gatherings where they may be forbidden:
a. — the Plenary [full] Indulgence for those who visit a cemetery and pray for the deceased, even if only mentally, normally established only for the individual days from 1 to 8 November, may be transferred to other days of the same month, until its end. These days, freely chosen by the individual faithful, may also be separate from each other; …” *
Isn’t that good news! Have you ever lain in bed on Sunday morning thinking that you should go to church but might skip it anyway? Well, in the Roman Church you can lie in bed and pray for the dead in a virtual cemetery, and presto, you have sprung someone from purgatory! What could be better, sleep in on Sunday and save a soul? If, however, you are not one of the faithful, i.e. not a Roman Catholic, or if do not believe in purgatory or both, you are condemned and do not have a prayer.
Lutherans did not originally include a portion of Psalm 51 in the liturgy merely for penitential purposes. Rather, the Reformers believed that the Roman doctrines of penance, purgatory, and indulgences negated the work and person of Jesus Christ. If one can lie in bed and pray for the dead to help them pop out of purgatory, then Christ and his cross were null and void. In the Reformers’ eyes, the Roman Church could conjure up this and other false doctrines because God had withdrawn his Holy Spirit from the papcy. For the Reformers, the verse, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me,” was an earnest plea from the whole church to God to protect the truly faithful from the fate of becoming faithless.
Sadly, if one views the Lutheran world today, it would appear that whole swaths of Lutherans have succumbed to the same fate as the papcy. Some so-called Lutherans are even willing to overlook things like purgatory and indulgences to find ecumenical favor with the pope. Such thinking is equally a denial of the person and work of Jesus Christ in whom the church already has its true unity. When one adds thereto countless “Lutherans” placing trendy, political ideologies over and above the principles of scripture, it would appear that what was once a reformation of the church has become yet another deformation of it.
We at St. Luke’s are not immune from the society in which we live. Instead of giving up something this Lenten season, perhaps we might like to add something by daily praying Psalm 51:10-12 as our earnest plea to God to protect us from being imprisoned by false gospels and their resultant faithlessness to which even we penitential sinners so easily succumb.
*https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/tribunals/apost_penit/documents/rc_trib_appen_pro_20201022_decreto-indulgenze_en.html
I Had an Epiphany!
It was on the Sixth of January. If it was not apparent, you had one too, which is not to be confused with one two, but who’s counting?!
The term “epiphany” comes from the Greek word epiphaino, which is not to be confused with “heck if I know,” although they sound similar. Epiphaino means “to show” or “to appear” or “to make an appearance.” For western Christians, Epiphany is the festival day observing the arrival of the three Magi (wisemen or kings) to see the child Jesus after they had followed the star in the night sky. In this tradition, Epiphany means that Jesus is revealed to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.
In the liturgical year, Epiphany also marks the end of the Christmas season, i.e. Epiphany comes on the 13th day after Christmas, after your true love has showered you with numerous gifts for the preceding twelve days. If your true love did not shower you with gifts on the twelve days of Christmas, that is a topic for another newsletter.
In German tradition, it was and is common to put one’s Christmas tree up only for the twelve days of Christmas. So, the tree went or goes up on Christmas Eve. Singing Christmas carols around the tree or playing instruments might also be done. Germans did and some still do use real candles instead of electric lights to illuminate the tree. So, when the candles were lit, it was common for a bucket of water to be close at hand. Things could get very precarious if the tree not only went up but went up in flames on Christmas Eve, and someone simultaneously kicked the bucket. To avoid such mishaps, in our house we use electric candles on the tree, which is erected on Christmas Eve and taken down on Epiphany.
From Scripture, we do not know why the Magi believed that the star which they were following would lead them to the one “born king of the Jews” (Mt. 2:2). As Matthew states in that chapter, the Jews already had a king, namely Herod. Maybe like Joseph, the Magi were informed about the star’s significance by an angel in a dream. Apart from the star, however, Scripture leaves us in the dark on this matter.
Nonetheless, the Magi arrive. They know whom they are seeking. They ask directions to find him. They have their baby gifts in hand, and off they go to Bethlehem. “And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh” (Mt. 2:11). Scripture does tell us that the Magi were indeed warned in a dream to depart without making Herod any the wiser. So, some of their journey was a dream vacation.
Matthew’s gospel begins with this story, Gentiles coming to worship the newly born king of the Jews. Matthew’s gospel closes with Jesus, the newly resurrected king, sending his disciples to teach all Gentiles and to baptize all those who come to faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19). In the intervening chapters, Matthew gradually moves his audience into a position to leave their Jewish-centric world view behind in order to reveal the gospel of Jesus Christ to the predominately Gentile world filled with pagan gods and beliefs.
It seems a daunting task for the early church to receive, and it was. It took centuries for Christianity to become a world phenomenon. From our perspective as western Christians, it seems as if we are again immersed in a world full of pagan gods and beliefs, even if those who hold to such do not consider themselves to be “religious.” Today, western society finds itself in this position, sadly, because it has foregone its teaching responsibility both in the home and in church.
For a generation or two or three, the church has failed to catechize its future generations with a goal to teach and preach the word of God as a matter of life and death, a reality reflected in Jesus’ own crucifixion and resurrection. It its humble way, St. Luke’s seeks to address this problem. This winter St. Luke’s Theological Academy (SLTA) is offering three courses, ten weeks each. The modules are: 1) Worship: What, How, and Why (17 January 7:00-8:30 pm), 2) Introduction to the New Testament (19 January 7:00-8:30 pm), and 3) Foundations of the Christian Faith (22 January 4:00-5:30 pm). The course fee for the first two modules is $25.00, and the third is free. You can register online on St. Luke’s website or with the church office.
It’s Christmas!
The Advent season is upon us. The tree is up in the church. The lights will shine in the darkness, reminding us that,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5).
Throughout history, God has acted through his word. God’s word is by nature act and action. The First Book of Moses recounts, “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:3-4).
The darkness of the void before creation was a darkness which none of us can imagine because the darkness was not just a matter of lack of light. It was a matter of no matter at all, nothing, i.e. no-thing yet existed, not even the “matterlessness” of light itself. God, however, was there, and God made “there” come into being and did so through his word.
For many in our day and age, the material world is all that there is, all that exists. Some very intelligent people spend a lot of time and effort seeking to debunk the notion of God and of creation as his action. They invent numerous theories about how the “big bang” could have happened without a god or the God. It is a lofty task to deny the existence of God, one to which seemingly more and more people are called. We see it everywhere in the world around us, and we also see it in ourselves.
In the midst of God’s pristine creation, he created Adam and Eve, and although there is no biblical evidence that God created Eve towards the end of the day, together our first parents brought the darkness of sin into God’s glorious creation. Consequently, despite the earth basking in the light of the sun, each one of us is born into a darkness which prevents us from truly seeing God in all that there is. Whereas Adam and Eve were created in the image of God, the rest of us have been born in sin. So, we seek to fill that darkness with the so-called light of human reason. When one considers the multitude of highly advanced, technical, and intricate ways in which we can kill other human beings, reason’s bright ideas paradoxically and tragically contribute to the darkness of our fallen world.
In the dark of night shepherds were watching their flocks. Then, an angel appeared, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. “And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’”
Wrapped in swaddling cloths, concealing his glory, the shepherds found the Christ child, the word of God made flesh, the light of the world in the shadows of a cow shed. For the next three decades, Christ’s glory would continue to be concealed. He would join his father in the family trade until the day when he would trade his carpentry skills for a path which would lead to his cross. There, he would give himself for you and for me.
The Advent season is upon us. The tree is up in the church. The lights will shine in the darkness for you and for me. Let us proclaim “the good news of great joy for all the people” and let them know, “It’s Christmas!”
Reformation Celebration 2022
Five years have elapsed since the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. Five years ago, I was fortunate enough to attend the 13th International Luther (Research) Congress which was held that year in Wittenberg, Germany to mark the anniversary year. Luther scholars from around the world were in attendance. The last time that I had been in Wittenberg before that was in the summer of 1987 with Janet prior to marriage and prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. By 2017, Wittenberg had been considerably renovated since its days in communist East Germany. Time changes much, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.
This year I was able to attend the 14th International Luther Congress, and I did so because it was in Thousand Oaks, CA, which is not quite as historic as Wittenberg. I harbored reservations about attending as most of the speakers were unknown to me, and of those who were, I held doubts about their scholarly intentions. In other words, like in the rest of the world, secularized ideologies with roots in Marxist/communist thought are on the march in new guises. As Wittenberg was once held in a quasi state of neglect in communist East Germany, Luther scholarship is being drawn into a quasi intentional state of communist ideologies in pseudo-theological garb. Whereas many good scholars were in attendance, a shift away from good scholarship was evident. Times change, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse.
Five years ago, St. Luke’s and other area Lutheran churches joined forces to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation with serious scholarship, sacred song, and festive food. Pastors teaching at St. Luke’s Theological Academy offered short, theological presentations, each of which was followed by a hymn. Then, the pastor panel took questions from the audience in “stump the chump” fashion which was edifying and entertaining for all. Finally, the eating festivities began. Since that time, some of our teaching pastors have taken other calls or retired. Some of our congregations’ members are also no longer with us for various reasons. Combined with the attrition caused by COVID and its various restrictions and lock downs, would it be a good idea in these changed times to gather churches together to celebrate the Reformation? Yes, of course it would!
Every Reformation Sunday is a good time to celebrate the Reformation, but despite the changed circumstances, it is particularly important for us to celebrate the Reformation this year to give thanks to God for all the blessing which we have received from all of those who helped us to become Lutheran, to be Lutheran, and to remain Lutheran. As II Timothy 4:3-4 states, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” If that was the concern in the earliest days of the church, how much more so is that temptation alive and well today.
Because attention to faithful teaching seems to be so tenuous, faithful Lutherans can begin to feel a bit isolated and alone. So, the opportunity to gather with fellow Lutherans and to be edified by faithful Lutheran pastors is a cause for celebration, not just to remember the Reformation but to continue to be equipped to serve the truth of the gospel and gospel-congruent truths in our own day and age.
So, on Sunday, 30 October, St. Luke’s is planning to hold its first post-COVID Reformation celebration. The format for the festivities will be similar to that outlined above. We will start with short presentations by the pastors, have a Q&A time with the pastors, sign a some hymns and then close with Oktoberfest fare. So, please mark your calendars, plan to attend, and invite some friends.
The Gift of Faith
Lutherans assert that the chief doctrine of the church is justification by faith alone, the doctrine by which the church stands for falls. That is a very bold statement. Not only does that make this doctrine the determinative factor in theology, but it also defines the understanding of the church. This may seem a logical conclusion, but viewed from a different perspective, it also raises the question whether those churches, which do not hold this position, are truly churches. That is both an intriguing and unsettling thought.
Complicating this matter is the fact that the notion of “justification by faith alone” does not have a great deal of warmth or human touch or “warm fuzzies” or the like. If one says, “God loves you,” that seems much warmer, much more interpersonal. Importantly, however, these two expressions point to one and the same dynamic.
The doctrine of “justification by faith alone” is driven by “grace alone.” If one reads the Bible even in only a cursory fashion, one sees lots of law and legal arrangements. This commandment and that commandment or this rule and that rule pervade the Bible, especially the Old Testament. According to the Old Testament, those who follow God’s laws are blessed for many generations, and those who do not suffer the consequences usually only for “three or four” generations. This limited detriment is itself a form of grace in that God does not drive sinners into the ground for all time.
Within the legal framework of the Bible, the notions of being righteous, of righteousness, of justice and of justification are at home. Those who follow God’s laws are righteous, and those who do not ere not. Biblically, God is a righteous God, even if sinful human beings do not always perceive God as such, as if sinners could truly understand God’s true nature. So, when the righteous God judges, he can declare those judged to be innocent or guilty and thus righteous or unrighteous. When God forgives, that does not diminish the guilt. Instead, it means that despite being guilty, the sinner is forgiven because of God’s favor or grace.
Viewed this way, both God’s love and God’s grace are one and the same. Interpersonally, the relationship between God and human beings results from God’s love. Biblically-legally, the relationship between God and human beings is based on God’s grace. To clarify this, if one appears in a secular court for a parking ticket, the judge would not forgive the ticket out of love, but may do so out of grace or favor. The language that we use is contextual, even if is describes a similar or the same dynamic.
On the face of it, like other denominations, we Lutheran’s are tempted to think that stressing God’s love is more attractive than talking about justification by grace alone through faith alone, and it some ways it is. So, why do Lutherans stress the latter? Whether we do so in relation to God’s laws, society’s laws, or our own personal standards, we human beings tend to judge our lives and the lives of others by the deeds done, by the words said, and by the thoughts thought. Where those are “good,” one is often rewarded, and when they are “bad,” one is often punished, whatever that may mean in any given circumstance.
In relation to God, however, the situation is more complicated. Even though God does love us, God also expects us to be not simply sinless (as a negative) but righteous (as a positive) in all aspects of our lives all of the time. For us to be in relationship with the one, true, righteous God, we too need to be true and righteous. As we all know, this is an impossible order for fallen human beings. This impossibility is reflected in the idea that if we love God, we will obey his commandments. Sadly, we do not keep his commandments, and when we do, we think that we have gained, or worse, have accumulated some sort of righteousness. Such “righteousness” is in reality mere self-righteousness, which is just another expression of our sin. So, our doing “good” in our own eyes is all too often also our undoing.
The doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone, however, is rooted in the communication of the good news from and about the crucified and risen Christ who in God’s love died for our sins on the cross and was raised for our righteousness (see Romans 4:25). As a negative, God in Christ takes our sin from us onto himself, and as a positive, he gives us in exchange his own righteousness so that we can be in relationship with the one, true, righteous God. This all happens when Christ’s word and Christ’s sacraments create the gift of faith in us alone by which we receive his righteousness or just judgement.
The doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is both a description and a doctrine of the reality of God’s love for us in the legal framework of the Bible. Where this doctrine is not preached and taught, neither is this Christ preached and taught. Where this Christ is not preached and taught, there cannot be a Christian church because this Christ is for all intents and purposes absent! Pray continually that this Christ will be preached and taught at St. Luke’s. If he is not, then as a church you should neither stand for it nor fall for something else.
Monkey Business
Alternatively, we might spell that “monkie business” or perhaps “monkee business.” As many know, monkeys are a member of the primate family, and bishops are often called “primates,” which begs the question whether bishops specialize in “monkey business.” Perhaps similarly, the erstwhile rock band called “The Monkees” had a major hit (actually written by Neil Diamond) called “I’m A Believer,” which has been altered into a Christian pop song, “And then I saw His face, now I’m a believer …” Can Christians monkey with songs like that, and if they do, will they have to face the music? Worse yet, if they get up to “Monkie Business,” someone might throw the book at them! (Monkey Business is a children’s book, one of whose character is the “eefil’ Dr Hubris Wildebeest Klench.”)
In his commentary on the 45th Psalm, Luther warns that Protestants run the risk of adopting new ways of “works righteousness” which rival those undertaken by monks in monasteries. Luther writes,
“In rejecting the works of the old monks, they bring forth new monks. Let us not be too secure against this pestilence, either. Each one of us bears in his breast a great monk. That is, each would like to have such a work in which he could glory: ‘Behold, I have done this. Today I have satisfied God by my prayers, by my good works, so I can enjoy greater peace of mind.’ It has happened to me, too, that when I have carried out a work of my calling I am much happier than if I had not done it. In itself, to be sure, it is not wrong to be happy, but this happiness is without faith and impure and is of the sort that would take the conscience captive and disturb a person. Because the conscience is a most delicate thing, it cannot be guarded sufficiently against this vice of presumption. For that reason let no one be secure. We who confess Christ should walk in fear and grow in faith, and acknowledge that we each bear in our breast a monstrous and disgusting monk, that is, a foolish and carnal delusion of works, the ruin of faith.”
So, have you ever felt good about doing a good deed? Of course! We all know that there is something nice about doing good deeds, when we get around to doing them. Furthermore, good deeds often come with rewards. Sometimes the rewards are built into the deeds, like earning a merit badge in scouting or receiving a certificate for community service which we can then hang on our bedroom walls. To double the benefit, if we do enough community service, we can also save a lot of money on wallpaper! Think how environmentally friendly that would be. Perhaps that is actually a third benefit, but can we monkey with the environment?
The notion of “good works” has bedeviled humanity since its plucking of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. That fruit would supposedly give human beings the knowledge of good and evil, or is that “eefil”? The irony of Adam and Eve’s deed is their thinking that one could know good from evil if one disregards God will and does evil. Viewed differently, would Adam and Eve have done evil if they had known the difference between good and evil? If so, then one could then argue that if God had instructed Adam and Eve about the difference between good and evil, then perhaps they might not have done evil. In short, it is all God’s fault that humanity is the mess which it is, right? Such thinking by sinful, human reason is truly the monkey business.
According to Luther, the “monk” in each of us is the flesh of each of us. That flesh lives contrary to the spirit of God which through the gospel created faith in our carnal human lives. In other words, in our fleshly selves “we are by nature sinful and unclean,” but when the Holy Spirit calls us through the Gospel, enlightens us with his gifts, and sanctifies and preserves us in true faith, then having become thereby “good trees,” we bear good fruit, i.e. we do good works.
In God’s eyes, that which is “good” is done out of faith in his son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. That which is bad is not done out of faith but instead for any other reasons. So, of all the “good deeds” which you do, by that criterion, how many “good works” do we actually do? Like other Protestants, Lutherans have devised all manner of schemes to try to answer such questions, and all those schemes seem based on following some law or rule or the like.
Fortunately, there is another approach, a gospel (good news) approach, which is much simpler and better. I call this “proclamatory ethics.” This means that our “good works” are based neither upon their own apparent qualities nor upon our real or feigned motives. Instead, a gospel-guided “proclamatory ethic” seeks in its deeds to proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to others, i.e. deeds done in faith for faith. In so doing, “our” good deeds are not ours. Instead, they are merely an extension of the gift which God has given to humanity in Jesus Christ. In that sense, it truly does feel good to do such “good works” because they were first done in Jesus Christ for us sinners to do, in turn, for others remarkably as “little Christs,” as Luther would say. Such deeds done as good news to others are, indeed, truly good.
