snow

The snow was falling softly to the ground. It drifted lazily down, adding a fresh frosty layer to everything. Out the window she saw a husky walk by on a long leash, looking quite at home in the snow. The person walking behind it was bundled up against the falling snow. They disappeared beyond the view of the window, and everything was still once more, except for the falling snow. She noticed how flakes would come close to the window in the corner by the building wall, looking almost as if they had gotten lost and drifted there quite by accident. Then the flakes got smaller again, and she turned back from the window to the scenes in front of her.

practice

She walked quickly down the sidewalk, hoping this counted as exercise. Sometimes walking was good for thinking, but she did not really feel like thinking this evening. It was almost as if she had too much to think about. It was a cool summer evening, normal for this part of the country. The flowers were lovely, the grass and trees were green, and she thought briefly of the heat and drought back home. The pavement here was still wet from the earlier rain showers, and she could still catch the scent of rain in the air. As she rounded a corner she caught the sunset through the trees. It was the usual glowing pinks; pretty, but not the brilliance she could often see back home. She wanted to go home, but the time was not right yet. She ducked some low hanging branches and rounded another corner. More flowers, and a bird that did not look familiar in the growing twilight. She imagined it looked at her for a moment, sharing the moment with her. She kept walking, around the last corner. She saw a young man who was meandering rather aimlessly down the sidewalk toward her. In the world now, passing any stranger at odd hours heightened her senses. She smiled briefly at him as she passed, and was surprised by the smile he returned. It was brighter than she had anticipated, and there was something about it that seemed to light up his face for the brief moment it took her to pass him. Surely malintentioned men did not smile like that. People were a mystery, and fascinating. All their lives, intricately balanced and woven, meeting one another briefly or at length, all moving this way and that but ultimately toward the same destination. People were fascinating. She reached the door, unlocked it, and headed inside.

Luther and Christ crucified

 The heart of Luther’s understanding of Christ crucified is Christ our Redeemer, who “brought us back from the devil to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness” (Large Catechism, 434) and maintains us in this. Christ is the heart of it, and without Christ nothing would be accomplished because we can do nothing apart from Christ.

Christ took ourselves upon himself when he took on human flesh, and in that incarnation and our union with Christ through faith we are given his righteousness and he takes our sin. Luther called this Christ wearing our mask. “Therefore when, inside our mask, He was carrying the sin of the whole world, He was captured, He suffered, He was crucified, He died; and for us He became a curse. But because He was a divine and eternal Person, it was impossible for death to hold Him. Therefore He arose from death on the third day, and now He lives eternally; nor can sin, death, and our mask be found in Him any longer; but there is sheer righteousness, life, and eternal blessing” (Galatians commentary, 6). This is called the happy exchange or the fortunate exchange. Christ takes all our death and sinfulness and gives us his righteousness and life. Luther likens this to a marriage, saying that when Christians are united to the bridegroom, Christ, as his bride, what was his is ours and what was ours is his, and he has conquered our sin (Freedom of a Christian, 4). Christ had mercy on us in our distress and in our sin, had mercy on us, and was crucified, died, and raised for us. Christ could take us on because of his divinity, and because of his humanity we could share in his conquering of sin, death, and the devil. Those things no longer have the final word, because Christ has overcome them. Luther says this is the comfort Christ gives us through faith.

In Luther’s Freedom of a Christian he talks about the two natures of humanity, the inner man and the outer man. The inner man is who receives the righteousness of Christ through faith after he realizes he is sinful and needs Christ and then believes in Christ. The state of the inner man determines the actions of the outer man, and this is where good works are involved. Just as a tree is known by its fruit, so is a man by his works. Luther gives an example: “A bishop, when he consecrates a church, confirms children, or performs some other duty belonging to his office, is not made a bishop by these works. Indeed, if he had not first been made a bishop, none of these works would be valid. They would be foolish, childish, and farcical. So the Christian who is consecrated by his faith does good works, but the works do not make him holier or more Christian” (Freedom, 7). Because a Christian is justified by Christ, because Christ has traded his holiness for our sinfulness and conquered sin, death, and the devil so that we might have life and righteousness, we do good works because they flow from the depths of our redemption and our new holiness we have received.

Thus Christ crucified and raised for us is the heart of everything. We trust Christ for our redemption and salvation and we receive faith to hold us in these promises and this new life that has been wrought through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

taking up the cross?

In one of my classes we had to write a paper about who Jesus is. As I was reading the textbooks and my classmate’s papers, I noticed there is much talk of discipleship requiring us to take up our crosses and to take up this mantle of self-sacrificing servanthood. In reflecting on this most recently, it has occurred to me that this seems to presuppose a lack of suffering before taking up the cross. If the call to discipleship means taking this up, we must not have already been carrying it. However, Jesus does not say these things to the people out of whom he casts out demons or to the sick that he heals. He tells them to proclaim what God has done for them, or to go their way and sin no more, etc. He speaks it while teaching, he speaks it to the rich, he speaks it to those who ask about it, but the healing is a different matter. Is that because these people already carry crosses, have already been crucified by their infirmities? They have already been sacrificed on the altar of social and religious norms and paradigms, broken by the weight of these burdens. Is there a message in this for today? Should we consider that some are already so broken by life that preaching a call for discipleship like this is not good news, but infirmity upon infirmity? They need to be healed first, and discipleship can follow.

Jesus is Stalking You

This is my article published in the Feb. 16, 2011 edition of Luther Seminary's Concord (Vol. 40, Issue 5).

Moral deliberation is something we do all the time, whether we realize it or not, so I was glad to see that as the topic for this year’s Mid-Winter Convocation. I was also glad to hear, in several different lectures, the speakers say the Bible does not function primarily as our Christian moral compass. I think it a disservice to the Bible to simplify its purpose like that. As Willimon pointed out, we proclaim Jesus the Christ before we proclaim moral and ethical declaration, and the purpose of preaching is to put Jesus among the people. It is God’s work above ours, so we do our part by getting Jesus out there, and then let him take over and finish the job.

It is the age old question of why we preach, and what ministry is for. Are we raising up good citizens, or children of God? Not that we cannot or should not be both, but sometimes we get the order reversed. As good Lutherans we know that works do not save us, and through Christ we are God’s before we are good.

Not that moral and ethical deliberation should be laid aside: we still believe we Christians are morally and ethically bound, and the Bible can inform that. The many workshops dealt with those sorts of issues, and how we work with one another when we do not agree on moral and ethical interpretations of Biblical passages. I think we are all too human to ever come to agreements about everything, but as Willimon reminded us, God specializes in taking the wrong people and making saints out of them. “It is a miracle, people, please don’t give up!” We are all still dependent on a gracious God to receive the sinner, no matter how good we are (or think we are).

So we come to seminary so we can learn more about moral and ethical deliberation and how many ways we are not as good at it as we might like to think. We have all heard some kind of call, though, and committed two or more years of our lives to this work. Willimon mentioned Matthew 28:18-20, popularly known as the Great Commission. In verse 20, Jesus reminds us, “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age,” or, as Willimon translates it: “I will stalk you forever.” Willimon said, “to be a preacher means being stalked by the living Christ.” It is only fair to extend that to those of us who will not preach in a pulpit in front of a congregation but will proclaim the Word in other ways in our various callings (though I suspect most of us will formally preach at least once). It was not promised to always be easy, but go forth, dear community members, and do not fear. You are not alone, Jesus is stalking you.

thoughts on John 3:1-21

I am beginning to appreciate the wonders of a lectionary as I try to come up with a Bible passage each week to lead a Bible study over. I lately have started to wonder if I'm running out of Bible. Which is ridiculous, of course, but nevertheless there are passages I never want to touch, and after having done this for a couple of years I wonder how soon I can reuse passages. I usually end up preparing this the afternoon before (shh don't tell), so I settled on John 3:1-21 this week, even though in my old tradition it got a lot of coverage. Apparently Lutherans don't use it nearly so much, although I did find it in both A and B years in the lectionary. Regardless, this time I put out my own thoughts more so than my fairly typical group discussion model, so I wanted to put those here also.

As we get started, I would like to note that while Nicodemus is not present in any of the other gospels, he appears two more times in John, once defending Jesus' right to a trial (and getting some flack for it), and then towards the end when Jesus is crucified Nicodemus goes with Joseph of Arimathea to wrap Jesus body and bury it, and Nicodemus is credited with bringing the myrrh and aloes. So Nicodemus appears to have taken something out of this encounter.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again (or from above) and Nicodemus asks "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" I have heard a couple of different takes on this. Growing up, the impression was more that Nicodemus was being sort of sarcastic, not honestly asking but just being irksome. I started to wonder if that was really the best understanding, and later found some people who truly thought Nicodemus was confused and asking. Upon my own reflection most recently I thought quite possibly there is a bit of sarcasm, but out of a genuine confusion, not knowing at all what to say to what seems to be such an outrageous statement, and thus relying on mock certainty to maintain some composure.
When Jesus tells Nicodemus one must be born of water and the Spirit, some groups have used that water as argument for requiring baptism for salvation. Others have said that the water is a reference to physical birth, and I would argue more for that understanding, because then that also creates a parallel with the next statement, that what is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of Spirit is spirit.
Then there's this talk about wind and Spirit. For a random tidbit, the Greek word is the same for both, and in other places can mean breath, and Hebrew shares this peculiarity with the word for wind/spirit/breath. In thinking about this section, though, I wondered what it means. Truly, parts of this entire passage here have long been a bit confusing to me, although in some ways I think that is characteristic of the way John's gospel speaks, more so than the synoptics. I don't really think these couple of sentences mean we are going to go through life like tumbleweeds. It made me think, then, of the random people that touch our lives in brief moments. The stranger in the store who helps you when you've dropped some things, or the person you pass on the street who smiles at you when you are having a bad day, etc. We have never seen these people before and won't see them again. Maybe this is one way the Spirit blows through our lives.
In the next two verses Jesus switches to using some plurals, we and you, which makes me think it becomes a bit like Trinity vs humanity. Jesus says, "If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?" What are these earthly things? Laws? Worship? Justice? Since we haven't gotten being human right yet, how can we expect to get all the faith stuff right? Jesus is the only one who's done and seen it all, ascended and descended.
"Just as Moses lifted up the serpent...so must the Son of Man be lifted up." Moses was instructed to build a bronze serpent and put it on a pole after the Israelites got themselves into a spot of trouble with God and serpents were sent throughout the camp to bite them. Anyone who had been bitten and looked at the serpent on the pole would be healed. In this same way Jesus is lifted up on the cross, and if we look to that we can be healed. My study Bible also noted that this reference to 'lifted up' could also include resurrection and ascension, and I like that, because it makes Jesus being 'lifted up' more complete. The serpent Moses lifted up offered a temporary healing from a physical affliction, Jesus being lifted up offers a permanent healing for a spiritual affliction.
Vs. 17 says the Son was not sent to condemn but to save. Jesus was not like the angels sent to check on Sodom and Gomorrah, to see if they were bad enough to be judged, but Jesus was sent to save us regardless of how bad we were.
It is interesting that this passage ends with the bit about evil and darkness vs light and good, because Nicodemus has come to see Jesus at night. Jesus admits at the beginning that he thinks Jesus is a teacher from God, so it seems Nicodemus is looking for the light in the darkness. John's gospel likes metaphors, and light/darkness is a big one. Judgment comes when we do not seek the light but continue in our darkness, for the darkness keeps us captive. So we come to the light, Jesus, and we are freed.

million dollar jeans

I was reading my friend Phil's blog this morning about how we often have a misconception that Jesus, and God, come to us in nice clothes with a clean-shaven appearance. The Scriptures do not support this misconception. Jesus hung out with tax collectors and sinners, people considered 'dirty' by their very natures. Jesus' disciples ate with unwashed hands, so Jesus must have, also, or they would have washed like Jesus.
I think it's good to be reminded of this, and it made me think of my own job. I work as a cashier at Lowe's, so I get to interact with every kind of customer that walks through the doors, and they cover a broad spectrum of people. Some of them come into the store because they have to get things so they can go to work. Some of them come in because they need things to keep up their living spaces. Others come in just because they can, and there are nice, shiny, pretty things they can spend money on. Working in retail is definitely an exercise in studying sociology if you are paying any attention. Most of my favorite customers are the ones coming in because they work in some kind of maintenance or construction and have to buy supplies. These (mostly) guys (with a few women) know me and I know them, some of them I can do their accounts in my sleep, down to phone numbers and PO's. Most of them come in without suits or ties, maybe not dirty but definitely in work clothes (some of them do smell, but that's what happens when you work hard like that). They are nice, friendly, and seem pretty comfortable with who they are even though they probably don't consider themselves anything special. Then I have other customers, contractors and rich people building houses, and some others who come in from local businesses and the local university, who clearly feel they are superior to many of the people around them. They treat me and my coworkers as means to an end, acting as if they think we are clearly less intelligent and less capable than they are. There was a customer one day who was accusing one of my coworkers of ignoring her (except she was on her cell phone and he didn't know she was talking to him) and said that her plane ticket was worth more than a month of his salary. I have other customers, contracters and local big money/big name people who will come in and say 'do you know who I am?' Hate to tell you, but nobody cares, not if that means you are mean and unbearable. You aren't God's gift to creation; that was Jesus, and Jesus certainly wouldn't treat people like that. Another group that I have noticed some degrading treatment from is some of the people that come from the university. Every now and again I get someone from there who is a supervisor of something, or somehow kind of important, and they treat me like I am clearly an idiot because I just work as a cashier, so I must not know anything.
The point, really, of all of this, is that it is important that Jesus hung out with the losers, because that means God didn't forget about us. We don't always know why people are in certain situations, why they dress the way they do, why they might be homeless or out of work, but circumstances do not make a person bad or good. The rain falls on the just and the unjust, and the wind blows where it will, and we cannot make one hair on our head black or grey, so we should probably be a little more reserved in our judgments of others, because we never know when we are going to be judged with the same measure. I mean, look at Jesus.