O King of the Nations, and Great Desire of People

O King of the nations, and great desire of people,
Foundational cornerstone, who unites the twain—
Come, and save the mortal one,
Whom you from the mud did form.

A keystone is the uppermost stone in an archway that holds the arch together. It’s a critical piece. If the keystone is weak, the arch will crumble, and whatever the arch is upholding will topple. A strong keystone is important.

The cornerstone of a building is similar. It’s the stone that lines up the foundation of a building, making sure it’s square. All the walls radiate from that one corner, and if the cornerstone is off, the entire structure will suffer.


Christ our Lord is the cornerstone of our faith and the keystone of the arc of history. Through him all things were made and have their being—he is the very Word through which creation came into existence.

This eternal Word became like us, the mortal ones made of clay, and entered our story. By his breaking into our story, he brought back together the structure of the universe that had fallen out of alignment and crumbled under the weight of frailty and despair. The promise we have from God is that we too will be restored, we too will find strength and assurance, duration and structure in Christ.

O King of the nations, and great desire of people,
Foundational cornerstone, who unites the twain—
Come, and save the mortal one,
Whom you from the mud did form.

Read:
Genesis 2
Colossians 1:15-20

-DS

O Eastern Star, Splendor of Eternal Light

O Eastern Star, Splendor of Eternal Light,
And Sun of Justice: Come—
And illumine those in darkness sitting,
Under the shadow of death.

God’s justice is tricky for some folks…When they think of God’s justice, they think along the lines of the justice that John the Baptist tells us about in Matthew 3:

But when John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” -Matthew 3:7-12

For many, God’s justice is about the Final Judgment, where God will decide who gets into heaven and who’s thrown into the eternal, “unquenchable fire” of hell. It’s an image that scares folks—because it’s meant to scare them. It’s meant to scare folks into repenting and leading a good life. Sadly, when we speak of God’s justice, we’re not primarily speaking about that moment when some will be cast into the lake of fire and others won’t. That’s only part of it—and a minor part of it at that!

Christ embodies God’s justice fully and that’s good news for us. It’s good news for us because we know, no matter who we are, that we can’t live up to the glory that God has desired for us since before the dawn of creation. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but because of God’s lovingkindness, we are made right with God through Christ on the cross—through no goodness of our own.

This justice, this righteousness that God shows us in Christ is a backward kind of justice than the world teaches us. It’s a justice that shines with divine clarity, with divine love, with divine mercy. It embodies the full splendor of deity, as the first light of dawn pierces the darkest hours of the morning. It’s a justice that demands the repentance of all, a justice that will illumine before the world all arrogance and evil and demand a conversion.

God’s justice is more than merely God’s decree on us about our lives lived—rather, God’s justice is about reconciling us to the original order of things, about restoring us to communion with each other and with God, about bringing us into the fullness of life from out of the haunts of death.

O Eastern Star, Splendor of Eternal Light,
And Sun of Justice: Come—
And illumine those in darkness sitting,
Under the shadow of death.

Read:
Malachi 4
Romans 3:19-21

-DS

"The 'Nastiness' of Life" and The Call of Ministry

Yesterday I was flipping through the radio, and I happened to catch the end of a report quoting a pastor. He said, “My job is to protect people from life’s nastiness.” That remark stuck in my crawl.

Our world is full of all kinds of “nastiness.” That’s the reality of our existence as people. Ever since the Fall and we’ve been cast out of Paradise, nastiness is part and parcel to what it means to be a human being. It’s just as much a fact about life as death—the ultimate “nastiness” that faces us in our postlapsarian reality.

postlapsarian- from the Latin post, meaning “after,” and lapsus, meaning “fall” The word postlapsarian is a theological term to refer to life after the Fall of Adam and Eve from a state of created perfection in Eden

Pastors are called to minister to folks where they are, in the midst of their lives, in the midst of their “postlapsarian” realities. The reality for pastors, however, is that they are still human despite their ministry in persona Christi. No matter how much they may try, they can’t make life better for those under their charge or make the “nastiness” of life go away. No matter how much they try, pastors can’t “protect” people from all the brokenness of life.


THE EXPULSION FROM THE GARDEN, by Gustav Dore
Christians do well to realize that the job of the church and all those ministers of the gospel isn’t to make life better, although that might happen. The job of those who serve in the name of Christ is to proclaim the truth—the truth that our world is fragmented and in need of healing and that God promises us healing and restoration through Christ.

When the church tries to hard to gloss over the “nastiness” of life and make the world a better place of our own accord, we neuter Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, rendering it pointless. We make the grace of God something cheap, something that can be experienced without recognition of the imperfection of reality.

The reality, the truth that ministers of God’s Word are called to share, is that God’s grace is costly—so costly that God enters this world with all its “nastiness” and experiences it to the farthest, most terrifying extent possible. God’s grace is purchased with God’s very life…God doesn’t protect us from the nastiness of life, but enters into it with us and unsettles it, upsets it. The “job” of any minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not to protect people from the nastiness of life, but to name it and declare God’s gracious power to deliver us from it.

-DS

O Key of David, and Scepter of The House of Israel

O Key of David, and Scepter of the House of Israel;
What you unbar, no one locks; what you lock, no one unbars:
Come and lead the captive from the house of bondage,
The one sitting in darkness, under the shadow of death.

When we say we find the key to something, what we mean is that we found the piece makes all the pieces fit together. We found the connection between things that we knew existed, but just couldn’t quite figure out. The key to something is the connector that makes it possible to go from one set of circumstances to the next. It unlocks the way forward.

Life is full of unpleasantness. Sometimes it flows over us like a torrent—ever piling bills, the death of family and friends, turmoil in the wider the world. Sometimes the goodness of life never seems to come our way—a hoped-for day off denied by a supervisor, a rejection letter for your child to their top college of choice, a holiday spent alone. We who live in this world are surrounded by unpleasantness, and it’s merciless. We’re trapped inside its clutches and can’t lock ourselves out or lock it up.

God comes to us and shows us something different, something more. God comes and enters the unpleasantness with us—enters this world of disease, this world of death, this world of sin. But God comes holding the key to unlocking this world’s shackles. Christ proclaims to us that the way is open to us—a way open by the truth. This truth God gives us in Christ—a truth that shows us just what kind of hellish state of affairs this world is in in and where we find ourselves in, but what’s more, just how merciful God is toward us.

Christ shows us a way full of grace and truth, a way of sacrifice and love, a way that triumphs over all the unpleasantness of this life. Christ gives us a word of hope, love, and grace that can unlock the way to bearable living in this life, and to a blissful eternity in the next. He hands the keys of heaven, the keys that unlock the truth of God’s mighty mercy—a mercy that comes to us in our meekness, our insignificance, and our dispiritedness. The same keys that bar the way of evil and untruth from taking hold of our lives ever again—for even the gates of hell shall not prevail against us.

O Key of David, and Scepter of the House of Israel;
What you unbar, no one locks; what you lock, no one unbars:
Come and lead the captive from the house of bondage,
The one sitting in darkness, under the shadow of death.

Read:
Matthew 16:16-28
Romans 3:21-28

-DS

O Root of Jesse, Who Stands as an Ensign of the People

O Root of Jesse, who stands as an ensign of the people,
Before whom kings their mouths silent make,
Whom the nations shall supplicate—
Come to deliver us, do not tarry now.

Families are critical part of who people are. We mark who we are and where we come from by our families. We have security in stable families and we find love, compassion, and nurture among the people who are so close to us, they share a common bloodline, a common biological make-up, a common root as it were.

In Christ, God enters the human story—as one like us in all respects. God becomes a human being and lives among us as a real and genuine human being. Jesus has a family—a family that stretches back in the deepest reaches of history. A family made up of great people of God who themselves were nonetheless broken people, needing of God’s deliverance and transformative newness in their lives.


God’s entry into our story is more than just a way of standing in solidarity with us in all the dreck of our lives. God’s entry into our story offers us a way to something new, a means to become part of a bigger story, a different family, a new Tree of Life with a deep, sustaining root. God promises us we are part of the bigger picture, the story that roots itself deeply into the very fabric of time, into Christ Jesus, the very identity of God in. Because of Christ, God grafts us into the family of God and makes us children of a higher purpose—children who by their lives are called to reflect the glory of their Father, their Father who created us and all things for the pure delight of it.

For us, the testament of this promise is Jesus Christ, who stands as a witness to the world of God’s abiding and dogged insistence to deliver us from the brokenness of our current reality. What's more, God promises to bring us into a life of fullness and fruitfulness as members of a family, a family whose root is Christ. God lovingly incorporates us, making us children and heirs to the promise that Christ has embodied for us in life and in death.

O Root of Jesse, who stands as an ensign of the people,
Before whom kings their mouths silent make,
Whom the nations shall supplicate—
Come to deliver us, do not tarry now.

Read:
Luke 3:23-38
Romans 11

-DS

O Blessed Lord, and Ruler of the House of Israel

O Blessed Lord, and Ruler of the House of Israel,
Who to Moses in the flame of the burning bush appeared
And to him the Law in Sinai did give—
Come to redeem us by an outstretched arm.

Redemption is rooted in the very law of creation. God’s redemption is one that comes to us as a defiance of the rulers of this world and all the powers that defy God—sin, death, and the devil. God gives us a law modeled on the very order of creation—an order that demands life at its fullest.

When our world is dismal and full of hopelessness, when we find ourselves deep in the foreign land of sin’s captivity—there God breaks into our life with all the glory of a blazing fire. God breaks into our lives and demands redemption for us and for the natural order of things with a word that rings as clear as any legal decree. This word is handed down to us from on high as with a clarity that is the order the universe.


This is our God, the God who first spoke a word of being and gave order to all existence. The God who spoke to Moses from a fire that refused to destroy, but inspired him to deliver the Israelite people to a land of milk and honey, a land of abundant life. The God who promises us that this world’s order of death and disease, of brokenness and imperfection do not, cannot have the last word. For our God has broken into our story and brings us redemption with all the force of a mighty outstretched arm against all those forces that would defy the order of abundant life—in the here and now and for all eternity.

Our God’s law of life kills this world’s law of sin.

O Blessed Lord, and Ruler of the House of Israel,
Who to Moses in the flame of the burning bush appeared
And to him the Law in Sinai did give—
Come to redeem us by an outstretched arm.

Read:
Exodus 3
Galatians 6

-DS

O Wisdom, From the Mouth of the Most High Proceeding

O Wisdom, from the mouth of the Most High proceeding,
From farthest bounds to farthest bounds pervading,
Mightily and sweetly all things ordaining,
Come to bring us understanding.

Wisdom—it’s more than simply being smart. It’s something that goes deeper than that. It’s something that is more than simply being right. It’s something that goes deeper than that. Wisdom is about being at peace and harmony with the order of things, with the way things are “supposed to be.” To be wise is to be attune to creation and all its intricacies.

We in our culture often talk of wisdom coming with age and experience. A wise person has had a chance to live life, make mistakes, and learn from them. But what of God’s wisdom? God’s wisdom is as timeless as God’s very existence.

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

God’s wisdom was there when the very foundations of the universe were called for into existence. The wisdom of God, whose incarnated coming is nigh. When this wisdom enters our story, it brings understanding—understanding about who we are and who God is. It brings understanding of our brokenness, understanding of our failings, understandings of our selfishness, understanding shortcomings. But it also brings understanding of God’s mercy, of God’s grace, of God’s transcendent truth, of God’s all-encompassing desire that creation be at harmony with itself and with God.

But most importantly, it brings understanding that in our brokenness, we are nonetheless tied to God's greatness. That is God's wisdom, the righting of the wrongs about this world and God's promise is that we are part of that healing.

O Wisdom, from the mouth of the Most High proceeding,
From farthest bounds to farthest bounds pervading,
Mightily and sweetly all things ordaining,
Come to bring us understanding.

Read:
Proverbs 8
John 1:1-14

-DS

Book Review - "The Devil: A Very Short Introduction" by Darren Oldridge

The Devil: A Very Short Introduction is a compact book by Darren Oldridge, whose title points right to its content. It was published in 2012 by Oxford University Press. It can be purchased in paperback for $10.76. ISBN: 978-0-19-958099-6

This book is a helpful guide to the history, depiction, and beliefs surrounding one of the most known yet most enigmatic beings in the study of theology—the Devil. In it, Oldridge addresses how the Devil has come to occupy a place within the teachings of the church from a simpler past in the Hebrew scriptures.

Before addressing the notion of particular being named the Devil or Satan or Lucifer, Oldridge addresses the concept of evil itself. This is a good place for any discussion about the Devil to begin. For we attribute the source of evil to the Devil. It therefore makes good sense to begin the discussion at this place.

Why is the Devil even a concern? Answer: because evil exists, and the Devil is responsible for it.

The book's strongest feature is Oldridge’s history of the Devil. For those who have only a cursory, Sunday school understanding of the Devil, this is particularly enlightening. Oldridge writes, “Some may find the historical approach to the Devil problematic, however. This is because it assumes that religious ideas are shaped by the cultures in which they emerge, and they change in response to developments within these cultures.”

This worry is one that plagues Christian theology in areas not concerned with dæmonology as well. To insist that culture in any impinges on theology for many folks makes them question their entire theological way-of-thinking. For them, theology is something that exists in a vacuum, completely removed from the physical world. Not only is this way of thinking about things patently false—theology does intersect our culture—it is inherently and dreadfully dangerous. It is closely related to Oldridge’s later observation that today’s culture discounts the existence of Satan, despite a long-standing tradition that points to the contrary.

Oldridge concludes the book by saying—“If the prince of darkness existed, he would surely rejoice that this truth is easily forgotten. He might even, as Charles Baudelaire suggested, choose to encourage our ignorance by pretending he does not exist at all.” What Oldridge is saying here is that today we rely so heavily on our senses of logic and good order for the world that we can’t possibly allow for some creature such as the Devil to be part of our worldview, and it’s precisely this notion that the Devil uses to further his diabolic agenda. What better way to hide than to not even exist?

In response to the concern about culture influencing how we approach the whole question of the Devil—and anything else theological for matter—Oldridge writes that the past is our best source of information for the Devil’s activity in this world. The past, while culturally bound, does not dictate our the truth, although it does give us a guide to look at when perplexed. For Christians, part of our past is Scripture and the interpretation of it. In light of that reality, we can also approach questions about the Devil, who makes appearances in Scripture as well.

Quoting the historian Jeffery Burton Russell, himself an expert on the Devil, Oldridge writes—“The ‘only sure knowledge we have about the Devil is our knowledge of his historical development.’” It’s through the recounting of experiences of people gone before us, themselves part of culture, that we today are even able to speak about the Devil and his working of evil in the world.

For anyone who need a “very short introduction” into the question of the Devil, this book is a good choice. In its 104 thematic pages, the book packs a lot of information that could merit a second or third reading. In addition to the meat of the matter, Oldridge includes an extensive, helpful bibliography of almost ten pages.

This book is a good resource for anyone who has questions about the question of evil in our world and the way that that question has been tackled throughout history.

-DS

Brief Thoughts for the Day: What is Worship?

A good theology of worship has as its foundation a theology of the cross.

That is to say, that worship is a place where the unexpected happens—God comes to us in such simple things as words, water, and bread and wine. A theology of the cross always turns convention on its head and reveals God to us in ways that the wider culture would say is impossible.

For example, God comes to us in the ancient words of the creed when we confess with our own lips the same confession from the fourth century—“For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven and was made man.” Such a confession transgresses all kinds of boundaries—boundaries of culture, boundaries of language, boundaries of geography, and even the boundaries of logic itself. This is just one example of how worship embodies the reality of a theology of the cross.

The cross is at its very heart, at its very center the reversal of logic and expectation. No one expects God to hang on a cross, let alone die for the sinfulness, the brokenness, and all the general vileness of this world and humanity.

But it precisely in the cross that God is revealed for who God is—as the source and fountain of all love, grace, and truth. A truth that reveals all that this world is and all that God is—all the imperfection of this world and its reliance on God’s gracious love for us, a love that is willing even go to the ends of perdition to turn this world’s ways of sin, death, and destruction on their head. In worship, we enter into this mystery as members of God through Christ our Lord, whose death on the cross means life for us and for the world.

-DS

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It’s that time of year again. It’s that time of year when we’re busy doing this and doing that. We have this family event to drive to, that school concert to go to, that work Christmas party to attend. The month of December is full of activities to keep us busy as the approaching Christmas holiday draws ever nearer.



The church is a bit different, though. The church takes time to sit back and “enjoy” the season before Christmas. This time is the church’s season of Advent. In it, we wait for the coming of God in Christ by preparing ourselves in prayer and meditation. We wait for the coming of Christ by rejoicing at God’s promise to be with us, to abide with us, to be our Emmanuel. We wait for the coming of Christ by beholding what wondrous blessings God has showered on us already in the life and death of Christ, as God with us and God for us. Advent is a time that we as the church intentionally celebrate God’s first coming as a baby in a barn at Bethlehem as well as look for the promised return in glory at the end of all time. As we look for that time, we wait…we prepare…we rejoice…and we behold.

A popular song I’m sure you’ll be hearing when shopping for Christmas presents or driving from the many activities that fill this pre-Christmas season is “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” While this song focuses on the Christmas holiday, it in fact holds a lot of truth even in this frenzied mad dash to December 25. This is indeed one of the most wonderful times of the year. A time for us to step back from the craziness of our lives and to appreciate, to really “enjoy” the abundant blessings God showers on us and to look forward to that a time to celebrate Christ’s coming as well as look forward with hopeful expectation to his returning.

Happy Advent everyone!

-DS

What does Luther mean by Christian Freedom?

           In Luther’s On Christian Freedom, he elucidates the meaning of Christian freedom. His definition and explanation come as a reaction to the church’s teaching on penance and the sale of indulgences. Luther first publicly reacts to what he considered an abomination in October of 1517 when he nailed[1] his 95 Theses to the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. In 1520, Luther writes On Christian Freedom to make clear his understanding of Christian duty, justification, good works, and each concept’s relationship to the other.

            Luther begins by making it clear that faith in God comes through hearing. Luther writes, “One thing and one thing alone is necessary for the Christian life, righteousness and freedom, and that is the most holy word of God, the Gospel of Christ.”[2] Several paragraphs later Luther writes, “For faith alone is the saving and efficacious use of the word of God.”[3] For Luther, this faith comes through the hearing of the Gospel of Christ proclaimed and through the inward work of the Holy Spirit. One cannot come to faith in Christ on one’s own account because humans are bound by sin. One is dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit for one to become a faithful witness of the Gospel of Christ.

            Second, Luther takes on the question of how one is justified before God. This is a continuous battle for Luther in his writing and preaching because of the Roman Church’s teaching on penance and sale of indulgences. The masses believed that one must do good works or purchase indulgences in order to allow one to be justified before God. Luther was appalled at this notion and said that faith alone justifies. He writes, “It is clear that the soul needs the word alone for life and righteousness, because if the soul could be justified by anything else, it would not need the word and consequently, would not need faith.”[4] Luther emphasizes that no external works justify a human being. A human is justified by the grace of God through faith in Christ Jesus alone!

            Justification by grace through faith, faith through hearing/proclamation, and the work of the Holy Spirit led Luther to identify the true meaning of Christian freedom. He writes, “…Anyone can clearly see how the Christian is free from all things and is over all things, so that such a person requires no works at all to be righteous or saved.”[5] This is not to say that an individual will do nothing once one is given faith through the work of the Holy Spirit. Luther holds that works automatically follow when one receives faith as gift. He writes, “These works, however, ought not to be done under the supposition that through them a person is justified before God.”[6] Instead Luther writes, “The person does them in compliance to God out of spontaneous love, considering nothing else than the divine favor to which the person wishes to comply most dutifully in all things.”[7] Luther’s understanding of Christian freedom is that Christians are freed from the tangles of sin through the resurrection of Christ to love and serve their neighbors. Luther asserts Christian freedom in concisely in two sentences saying, “The Christian individual is a completely free lord of all, subject to none. The Christian individual is a completely dutiful slave of all, subject to all.”[8]

---

[1] Maybe nailed, maybe posted at the university, maybe did not post. Regardless, this work was circulated and led to the Protestant Reformation.

[2] P. 3

[3] P. 4

[4] P. 5

[5] P. 16

[6] P. 19

[7] P. 19

[8] P. 2 – Unfortunately Luther does not mean that Christ has freed me to do whatever the hell I want. This is not to say that I could not do whatever I want because I can. will not go to hell because my salvation is secured by my baptism and thus faith. But the reality is that I cannot do whatever I want because my faith and conscience will not allow me! (End of footnote rant/randomness).

"Election Day Prayer" - Thy Will Be Done

Today is Election Day.

Folks across the country will be going to polls to cast votes about the future of our nation, states, and communities. In Virginia and New Jersey, people are voting for their governor. In Colorado, citizens are addressing the issue of forming a new state. In many states, judicial elections are happening. There are exciting things happening. Election days are always exciting times—even on “off year” election cycles. They’re exciting, and they’re important as well.


For Christians, elections might seem like tricky matters. Some Christians believe faithful folks have no place casting votes or being involved in civic matters. Others see it as their civic duty to establish a “Christian” faithview as a framework for governance. Whatever the case, Christians have a voice at election time.

Wherever you come down on the issue, Christians who do participate in the civic processes of our government do well to engage in heartfelt, faithful a prayer throughout. A prayer that God’s will be done, be it through elections or other means. In praying this prayer, it’s paramount for us to remember that although we often mean well and act as faithfully as we can, our prayer that God’s will be done ultimately is directed at the Divine and might produce fruit we might not first expect.

The wise words of the Prophet Isaiah speak to the unexpected ways of God:

Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. -Isaiah 58:6-9, NRSV

Several months ago, I had the privilege to preach on the Lord’s prayer for a congregation in my home synod. The Spirit called me to preach about praying for God’s will at all times when we offer up our prayers:

Why do we pray? To plead for God’s will to be realized? Or is our prayer tinged with a blue or red hue, hoping God will swing the election the way I want or have the courts rule as I desire? Are we like Abraham, with our own sense of justice, when we come before God with our prayer? “Thy will be done” rises daily off the lips of countless Christian in prayer. If we believe God answers our prayers, why the discouragement when things don’t go as we’d hope? Is it possible, deep down, we’re not really praying “thy will be done,” but rather “thy will as I know it should be done?”

It’s easy for us to make our prayers about us—what we think is best for this country, for this world, for the Kingdom of God. It’s easy for us to think we’re guided by the Holy Spirit in our praying for particularities, whatever they may be. It’s easy for us put our faithful trust on an inwardly focused place, instead of in the outwardly focused place of God. But when we pray “thy will be done on earth as in heaven” we put our trust in Christ and not in our own holiness, and we seal it by faith, declaring the Kingdom, with all its glory and power, belong to God alone. That’s the kind of prayer Christians should be about before heading to the polls—and any other time they offer up pleas and thanksgiving to God.

In closing, I offer this prayer that I wrote for Election Day, for as St. James writes, “The prayer of the righteous one is strong and effective." ….

Almighty Father, ruler of highest heaven, we come before you today as our nation casts votes to decide a course of action for our future. Inspire the people of our nation by the power and wisdom of your Spirit, that we might act justly toward all people in concord with your divine will; through your Christ Jesus, Your holy Son and our Lord of lords and King of kings, who reigns together with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

-DS

For All the Saints: The Faith Lives On

One of my favorite hymns of the church is generally only sung once a year—“For All the Saints,” set to the Ralph Vaughan Williams tune Sine Nomine. The hymn is epically dramatic with it’s grand intervals, vaulted Alleluia chorus, and extensive seven verses. It’s a hymn fit for a celebration! Today we mark that celebration in the solemn Feast of All Saints.


The hymn begins “For all the saints, who from their labors rest.” The Feast of All Saints is the time in the church year that Christians remember the triumphant faithful who’ve died in the past year—and in some places, even longer before than that. All Saints provides a chance to celebrate the rich history, deep roots, and intimate connectedness with the whole cloud of witnesses that surrounds the church—past, present, and even future.

The author of Hebrews writes:

And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, -Hebrews 11:32-12:1, NRSV

Ours is a faith rooted deeply in the past. In many ways, we are hugely indebted to those who’ve gone before us for persevering in the race set before them—the race that Paul speaks of when he tells his faithful disciple Timothy to “fight the good fight of the faith.”

Before us today have gone countless saints of the church who’ve witnessed by their lives of the Spirit’s wondrously mighty and mercifully gracious power in their lives. The fact they called themselves Christian alone is testament to the mighty deed of God’s conversion in their lives. “For,” as St. Paul writes to the church at Corinth, “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

We who, although we will die in this body, find hope and receive faith by God’s grace poured out to us in the sacrificed life of Christ on the cross so that we, strengthened by God’s promise of life abundant and eternal, might fulfill our Godly commission to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that Christ has commanded us. Only rooted in the promise of Christ, revealed and glorified in the cross, are we empowered by the Spirit to make that witness to “all nations.”

It’s in vogue in the church today to have a scorn for tradition.

It’s in vogue in the church today to be critical of too much reflection on our roots. There is even in some corners a scorn for the past, for tradition—as if it were a set of shackles keeping the church from moving forward into new, brighter, and more exciting “nations” where disciples hunger to hear the Word of God’s good news.

This criticism is at times fair—the church cannot remain beholden to the past. At the same time, a church that forgets its roots, forgets where it’s been, forgets the lives of the countless saints who’ve run the race set before them—that church does itself a huge injustice and robs itself of the richness and abundance Christ promises us when we were baptized into him and all the faithful—past, present, and future.

The one-time Lutheran, later Orthodox theologian Jaroslav Pelikan remarked concerning tradition—“Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” That is to say, the traditions of the church nourish us and give us examples to set before us for our lives. When we make tradition into the object of our faith, it becomes traditionalism and becomes an idol. We preserve tradition at the expense of the gospel.

But tradition, the devoted contributions and lives of the faithful who’ve gone before us since the time of Abraham and Sarah, Phoebe and James, Luther and Mother Teresa,

Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. -Jaroslav Pelikan, 1983 "Jefferson Lecturer"

and countless others through the ages—that kind of tradition speaks to the transforming power of the gospel in the lives of people like you and me. Tradition is one thing we can point to and say, “God does break into our lives and act.” Without the tradition of the past generations, our lives of faith would lack a kind of richness that we are truly blessed we have with it.

Today as we commemorate the great saints of the church we name and all those other great saints who go down without a jot or tittle in the annals of history, let’s keep in mind their great contributions to our faith lives. Let’s keep their faith alive as a testament to the living power of God’s word to transform lives. And let’s, as the striving faithful of this age, take heart in the words of the hymnist, who writes—“The golden evening brightens in the west; soon, soon to the faithful servants cometh rest; sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.”

Finally, let's find hope in these words that the race set before us ends in “paradise the blest”—a paradise marked by eternal communion with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and all those saints triumphant who rise in bright array as the King of glory passes on his way. The faith of our forefathers, the faith of our foremothers, our faith, and the faith of later generations is centered on this—on Christ the Lord of Lords, the King of kings by whose death we live. Thanks be to God for all those faithful who laid a foundation for our faith and by whose lives we see displayed the truth of Christ’s transformative life sacrificed for us.

-DS

Reformation Day: To Celebrate or Not to Celebrate

This past Sunday, the sanctuaries of many Lutheran churches looked as if someone took a red paintbrush to them and went wild. The occasion—the Festival of the Reformation of the Church, a time in the evangelical church’s life where we remember the activity of the Holy Spirit in reforming the church that began on October 31, 1517 and continues to this day. In the church, feast and festival days marked by an emphasis on God’s activity through the Holy Spirit are recognized with the liturgical color red.

After worship, I ran into one of the parishioners and remarked about how nice it was to see all the red in the sanctuary. Her response was less than enthusiastic. She told me she hardly thought the Reformation was a time for celebration and that surely when the Last Day is finally past, confessional and denominational differences within the church will be no more. I had to agree with her. The Reformation is hardly a time to celebrate division in the church—although that’s what many Protestant folks make it about.

On October 31, 1517, the Martin Luther nailed 95 Theses outlining grievances with the Catholic Church to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

The Reformation is truly a celebration about God’s activity in the world and specifically in the life of the church. We who confess a belief in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen—we celebrate on Reformation God’s amazingly creative work in our lives. We who confess a belief in God Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, who for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and for our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered death and was buried—we celebrate on Reformation God’s amazingly gracious and radically gratuitous outpouring of self for our sake. We who confess a belief in God the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who has spoken through the prophets—we celebrate on Reformation God’s continued speaking to us, both in the 16th-century and in this day. To celebrate the Reformation of the Church is to celebrate the very activity of God in the history of the world—an activity that is about life in abundance.

The stark reality, for Christians such as ourselves who confess a belief in the “one holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” is that the unity we so long for in Christ isn’t fully known among us now. In the Reformation gospel text for this past Sunday, Jesus tells his disciples “You will know the truth and the truth make you free.” Knowing the truth, however, can cause tension, strife, discord, disunity, and conflict. The truth has a way of calling us on the carpet and making us realize that our brokenness and insufficiency.

At the same time, the truth also reveals to us God’s extraordinary love and grace in the face of our failings, this world’s brokenness, and all other problems that face us. We who’d like to think if we just work hard enough, if we just pray hard enough, if we just come before God with a pure enough heart—we who make our salvation about what we do find the truth that God’s already promised us life and promised it abundantly to be a difficult message to shallow.

When remembering the activity of the Holy Spirit in the world, not just during the Protestant Reformation, but also at other times in the life of the church, two verses come to mind—two verses attributed directly to Christ himself.

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword, -Matthew 10:34.

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me, -John 17:20-21.

Christ’s fervent desire is that his church, his holy bride, be one with him and God the Father. His death and his resurrection assure us that we are one with him and by the waters our one baptism, we are made members of not only him but of one another.

But Christ also recognizes that his message isn’t one that is easy to hear or to bear; rather, it is one that will cause all sorts of problems precisely because it’s about the truth—the truth of who we are and who God is. The truth that left to our own devices, our natural inclination is to worry about individualized selves at the expense of the rest of creation. Christ comes proclaiming to us both by his words and by his very life, the truth that God will overcome that inward turning selfishness and incorporate us through the continual and constant activity of the Holy Spirit into a new paradigm marked by a unity that emanates from God.

The celebration at Reformation is not of the division within the church—a division that is natural for humanity by its very inborn nature. The celebration at Reformation about God’s revelatory truth made clear to us time and again by the incessant work of the Holy Spirit. It’s a truth that shows the brokenness, corruption, and sinfulness of ourselves and of this world we find ourselves, but what’s more, it’s a truth that shows us God mends all brokenness, purifies all corruption, and erases all sinfulness through Jesus Christ.

The renewing and life-giving power of the Spirit shatters our image of a comfortable, self-reliant world and replaces it with God’s radical, Christ-centered reality. For the unity that we celebrate at Reformation isn’t a unity of doctrine, practice, or institution. It’s a unity that transcends all our human capacity of understanding and finds its meaning in God through Christ Jesus. What we celebrate on the Festival of the Reformation of the Church isn’t the unity of the church; rather, we celebrate the unity Christ incorporates us into when we catch glimpses of the truth of who we are and who God is.

-DS

The Pope’s Confession: “I am a sinner”

A lot of hubbub is going up on “both sides” as His Holiness once again makes statements about inclusivity, forgiveness, acceptance, and life together as the Body of Christ, with a specific eye cast toward women and gays and lesbians. Traditionalists are quick to point out that the pope isn’t saying anything contrary to long-standing Catholic teaching; progressives are ecstatic about the compassion Francis is calling for.

To be sure, the pope’s changed the tenor of the discussion, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The pope hasn’t changed any policy, only the way the church talks about the policy. In fact, the practice of the Vatican has shown in fact that the implementation of status quo policy will, sadly, continue.

In the interview, however, where His Holiness made his statements about moving beyond divisive issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, he made another statement that, although picked up by the mainstream media and some religious outlets, has by and large fallen to the wayside. That’s a shame because it’s the more radical statement of all the others. Asked who he is, his answer was honest and human:

I do not know what might be the most fitting description…I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.

This humility to make this claim, to own this reality, to confess his own condition as a sinner—this humility is what makes this pope so attractive to so many. It’s what makes him so refreshing. It’s not his disregard for tradition when it stands in the way of the gospel. It’s not his statements that sound radically inclusive or openminded (he is, after all, a Jesuit and they are encouraged to rigorously engage issues and debate them from all angles). The fact that he, the pope, the supreme pontiff of all Christendom, as far as Roman Catholics are concerned, the vicar of Christ on earth—the fact that he admits his brokenness and inadequacy is refreshing and it really does reflect more about the man Jorge Bergoglio than the words “I am a sinner” first belie.

I was once asked what my favorite verse from the bible is. Now, in all honesty, that’s hard for me. I love the bible and to find one favorite verse is difficult. But I had to “produce” a verse so that my interlocutor wouldn’t think I’d never read the bible or some such. So my mind went to one of the verses I quote a lot, from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Rome: “For all have sinned and fail to live up to the glory of the God,” (my translation). The person I was talking with challenged me to find a verse that gave hope. My response: this verse gives me all kinds of hope.

When I hear “For all have sinned and fail to live up to the glory of God,” I don’t just hear “You’ve sinned and fail to live up to the Glory of God,” but rather that I’m not alone in that failure. I’m not the only one who’s come short of God’s demands for my life; in fact, all have sinned, and failed to live up to God’s expectations. If God can love those other people, who are also sinners, then God must also love me too despite the fact that I too am a rotten sinner.

All people are on the same sinking ship of sin, and God promises to rescue us all from it—not just those who we would say are especially holy or pious...because they too are sinners before God their creator.

That is a radical statement of inclusivity. It’s a statement that puts me in the same boat with all other people, and it puts all other people in the same sinking boat I’m in as well. No one can claim some kind of moral or spiritual superiority over me—because “all have sinned and fail to live up to the glory of God.”

When his Holiness makes a confession “I am a sinner,” he’s telling the world he doesn’t see himself as somehow holier or more sanctified than the rest of us. He’s a sinner—just like the lot of us. He’s “a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon,” as he himself says. God has called him to a particular task, to lead the flock of St. Peter, and he has responded to that call by the grace of God. The fact that he confesses his sin so openly is refreshing from the head of a church that, whether intentionally or not, has behaved toward the world as if its on some higher moral playing field.

Francis’ admission to the world of his humanity is what’s truly refreshing about him. Granted, his statements about love and compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation are all refreshing in their own right, but they themselves are the product of the deeper realization of this pope that he is a man called by God to love and serve his neighbor and not lord that calling over those under his charge. He’s a sinner—just like the rest of us.

-DS

Quote for the Day: "Matthew as Story"

While reading to prepare a bible study for Saturday, this quote stuck out to me from Jack Dean Kingsbury's Matthew as Story. It gets the meat of the matter in a simple sentence:

In Jesus' perspective, the debates concerning law and tradition are all to be resolved by the proper application of one basic principle, or better, of a single attitude of the heart, namely, utter devotion to God and radical love of the neighbor.

-DS

BOOM Worship :)

Today’s worship in the chapel at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia was what I like to call “BOOM worship”. The onomatopoeia, “Boom”, really means nothing other than the pseudo-emotion that I feel once in awhile during worship. Sometimes this emotion happens during high liturgical masses, but other times (often to my surprise) this happens during unconventional worship. Some would call this Boom the Holy Spirit’s presence, but I think that’s a little too proverbial for me.

The Rev. Dr. Karyn L. Wiseman Associate Professor of Homiletics and Director of United Methodist Studies at LTSP preached and presided at the Wednesday Eucharistic service. There is always much to be expected when Wiseman preaches because she was trained specifically in homiletics and liturgy. I could hardly wait to see what the Spirit would do during worship, and how Wiseman would preach the Gospel and proclaim the Word.

Wiseman’s service did not follow the traditional Lutheran ordo, which led to an early reading of the psalm and the assigned gospel text. The text that was assigned was Luke 15:1-10, the Revised Common Lectionary reading from the 17th Sunday after Pentecost.

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, "Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

I was minding my business while Wiseman began to read the gospel. Suddenly, one of my colleagues (and friends) stood up and rushed out of the sanctuary crying. I was concerned and within 10 seconds of her exodus, myself and three others left the sanctuary to check on our friend. When we came outside to see what was wrong our colleague was smiling and told us to go back inside because it was part of the “thing”. We were all laughing as we went back in, though we were still confused. When we entered the space others asked us what happened and if our friend was alright. We just nodded and waited to find out what would happen next. When Wiseman finished the gospel and began her sermon she quickly remarked on what happened. This served as the illustration for her sermon. It was a BOOM kind of impact that it had on all of us because it was right there in our faces. She told us that this “experiment” has been done in various religious settings and most times no one moves because they are so focused on remaining in the place where they are “supposed to be.”

This text is often preached concerning the one sheep that is lost. Instead of preaching about the sheep that is lost, Wiseman preached a sermon concerned with the fate of the other 99 sheep. By nature, sheep are not intelligent animals, or they do not appear intelligent by our standards. They are so interested in sticking together that they would die together before they moved to another place without guidance of the shepherd.

There are so many things that we lose in our lives: car keys, credit cards, cell phones…. We are tied to the things that we have because we are products of a consumeristic culture. That wasn’t what this was about though. Wiseman had individuals place items that they often lose or represent loss on a table place by the baptismal font. Many individuals brought the usual suspects. I placed a necklace on the table that was given to me by my last field education site where I spent a year in ministry with them. It represents loss for me because when I left the congregation to move to another site I felt deeply grieved. This ritual action allowed me to reflect on my experience and to let go of the grief I still held within myself. Others felt similarly and were called to remember that we don’t have to cling so tightly to things. Likewise, we do not need to cling so tightly in a herd to people who look like us, talk like us, and believe the same things as us! The sheep that wanders from the pack is the bravest of sheep.

Wiseman encouraged the community to be brave enough to go out and stray from the flock. She said that when you’ve strayed too far the Lord will come for you and bring you back into the fold. This was an unconventional exegesis of the text, but I think it worked well in this community. The message gave us all a little BOOM feeling inside and encouraged us to use that BOOM elsewhere.

- LB

Pastrix - Book Review

Book Review - Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint (2013) Nadia Bolz-Weber - ISBN-13: 978-1455527083 - List price: $22.00

This book would benefit anyone who wants to read a memoir about an unconventional pastor. This book is especially helpful for individuals who would benefit from pastoral formation or other forms of spiritual formation. One should take heed if one is easily offended by language considered foul because the author does not dance around her words. She says what she means and how she feels, which adds to the overall mood and flow of the memoir.

Nadia is articulate and explains the plight of a pastor, but more importantly Nadia sheds light on the plight of every human person. The problem with sin and suffering in our world, our inability to work to God, and humanity’s utter dependence of the grace and mercy of God. Over and over again the author comes back to the theology of the cross in which her entire narrative is grounded. Nadia’s chapter entitled, “Clinical Pastoral Education” was especially helpful to understand how the theology of the cross really affected her life and ministry. Another place where Nadia talks explicitly about the theology of the cross is in her narrative concerning the earthquake in Haiti. Nadia states, 

“We choose to believe Jesus was there in Haiti. We know he was there. He was there. He was there. We will not keep silent (132).”

Nadia begins the journey through her recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction, and moves quickly to her search for meaning. She searched for meaning in different religious expressions and schools of thought--Nadia eventually met a Lutheran Pastor, married him, and wound up in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Nadia searches deep within herself. She pulls stories out of her deepest being. Stories of not only accomplishment, but she recollects stories of utter failure and seeming disaster. This further drives Nadia to her ultimate point. She, and the rest of humanity, are utterly dependent of God and God continues to come to humanity through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ.

I recommend this book with high regard--not because Nadia is a celebrity pastor in my own denomination, but because Nadia is entertaining, truthful, honest in diction, and completely captivating.

* Theology of the cross is a term defined by Martin Luther referring to humanity’s ability to know God through the cross--through the suffering of Christ, death of Christ, and resurrection of Christ.

-LB