Saturday afternoon I watched the ugliest 45 minutes of football I think I've ever seen.
Granted, there have been games with far more ineptitude on both sides of the ball. I'm calling this one "ugly" because on the one side, the Iowa State Cyclones (remember, I'm a campus pastor at Iowa State University) were playing without their starting quarterback Austen Arnaud and conference-leading tailback Alexander Robinson, and on the other side, my beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers scored seven points and had eight turnovers.
That's right. The final score was Iowa State 9, Nebraska Turnovers 8, Nebraska 7.
It was surreal at the end. The Nebraska defense, led by all-world and soon-to-be-1st-pick-in-the-NFL-draft Ndamukong Suh (pictured here making Todd Reesing make wee-wee in his pants a little - I mean, seriously, who wouldn't make wee-wee when that bad man comes running full speed at you?), would stop the Cyclones, getting Nebraska the ball for what would surely be the game-winning touchdown. Sooner or later, SOMEONE was going to hang on to the ball, weren't they? But, no, it was not to be. Four turnovers inside the five yard line. Two in the damn end zone, for Christian Peter's sake. One from a wide receiver who simply lost the ball while trying to stay in bounds for what would have likely been the touchdown that wrapped up the game. If this game were a painting, it would be The Persistence of Turnovers by Salvador Dali, with the Nebraska offense melting all over the place.
But in the aftermath, I'm not nearly as bothered by this loss as I was by blowout losses to Texas A&M, Oklahoma State and Kansas in 2007. Why? Because for all the bad luck and simple stupidity that's happened in the Nebraska program this year, our boys have been and continue to be a group of fighters, with more resiliency in their pinkies than they showed under the former coaching staff.
Let's be honest: massive recruiting de-commits and the usual exodus of players that comes with any regime change have left this team with scant margin for error, even though it's year two of the Bo Pelini era in Lincoln. Graduation took a heavy toll on this year's program. For all his many injuries, Lydon Murtha is an NFL-caliber tackle, and Matt Slauson is good enough to hang on at that level, too. Joe Ganz, Nate Swift and Todd Petersen would be hard to replace by any means, much less a struggling Zac Lee and a revolving door of inconsistent receivers. Jaivorio Burkes was penciled in as a starter before health problems kept him off the playing roster. Roy Helu, Jr. is a gamer, but something's just not right at the moment, and losing Quentin Castille hurts a lot more than we all thought it would.
Taking all of this into account, Nebraska is still just a few plays away from being 6-1. Think about it for a little bit. Finish out the game against Virginia Tech, and find someone, ANYONE who can hold on to the ball against Iowa State, and in this year of inconsistent performances by teams and individual stars, Nebraska is at the very least a top 15 team, if not top 10.
What gives me the most hope is the players themselves. You get the sense they are hanging in there together, even in these incredibly frustrating times. There isn't any public finger-pointing, and the word from Lincoln is "we are in this as a team." I'll take that and the fight in these boys six days a week and twice on Sunday, thank you very much.
It was a great win for Iowa State on Saturday. They've struggled hard and come up short in some very winnable games this year, most notably against Kansas State and Kansas. I don't feel an ounce of conflict about congratulating Paul Rhoads and his team for playing well and getting the win - after all, the Cyclones are not Colorado or anything. As Coach Pelini said in a remarkably composed post-game presser, they made the plays and got the job done, and suggesting that Nebraska gave them the game takes away the credit they deserve for closing the deal. All the same, even with the good feeling I have about our boys in Scarlet and Cream, I'm sure ready for people to stop talking about what great losers Nebraska fans can be. We like being the classiest fans in college football - we'd just like to go back to the poster that used to hang in downtown bars in Lincoln. It had a picture of Tom Osborne in Memorial Stadium, with the words, "Welcome to Lincoln: You'll Never Lose In A Nicer Place."
What is freedom?What does it mean to be truly free?Is it something like this scene from this week’s episode of the show “Heroes?”
Is that freedom?To be welcomed on the one hand, and coerced on the other?To receive promises of unconditional love while also hearing that conditions do indeed apply?Jesus says “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”Well, our friend Sylar here has seen the truth about himself, and he is most certainly not free.Sylar, knowing the truth, might find himself more of a slave than ever before.
Freedom is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days.And, of course, today we celebrate “Reformation Sunday.”The commonly-held belief is that today we celebrate the Protestant Church throwing off the shackles of their Roman Catholic oppressors.Well, in this Reformation week, there has been a lot of hullabaloo this week between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England, one of those “churches of the Reformation.”Here’s a commentary from Time Magazine:
‘At first glance, the surprising news on Tuesday that Pope Benedict XVI has created a new structure to welcome some disenchanted Anglicans into the Roman Catholic fold … might look like a happy reunion. But the Vatican's establishment of new "Personal Ordinariates," in which Anglicans, including married priests, can practice Catholicism while maintaining much of their own identity and liturgy, reveals more about the growing internal rifts within each of the two churches than any sign of real hope for reuniting the fractured Christian communion.
For Anglican leaders, the Vatican announcement is the latest minefield to manage in their ongoing effort to avoid a full-fledged schism within their 80-million-strong church, which includes 2.2 million American Episcopalians. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams is juggling the gripes of Anglicans of all philosophical stripes and ecclesiastical sensibilities, most notably as battles over women and gay clergy have undermined that prized "communion" within Anglicanism for more than two decades.
In the centuries since King Henry VIII pronounced the Church of England independent from papal authority, certain Anglican conservatives have always drifted back to Rome, "swimming the Tiber," as reverting to Catholicism was called. But in the past two decades, more and more seem to be doing so. Benedict's latest ruling confirms and expands earlier ad-hoc decisions by Pope John Paul II to allow several married Anglican priests to convert and remain in the clergy.
Under the new structure, groups of Anglicans can move into a local Catholic Church that will be headed by former Anglican clergy, who can ease them into Catholicism without their having to kiss goodbye their own pastor or the rites they were raised on. Married Anglican priests who convert, like married priests in the Eastern Rite of Catholicism, will not be eligible to become bishops.
The Vatican's doctrinal chief, Cardinal William Levada, told reporters on Tuesday that Catholic leaders were simply responding to requests by certain Anglicans to find a comfortable home in Catholicism. "We have been trying to meet the requests for full communion that have come to us from Anglicans in different parts of the world in recent years in a uniform and equitable way," said Levada, who would not specify how many Anglicans he expected to convert. "With this proposal, the church wants to respond to the legitimate aspirations of these Anglican groups for full and visible unity with the Bishop of Rome." In a joint written statement, Williams, who as Archbishop of Canterbury is the worldwide spiritual head of the Anglican Church, issued a joint statement with the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, saying the decision "brings an end to a period of uncertainty" for those Anglicans who have sought to convert.
But while seeming to douse one flame, the opening of an officially recognized channel for reverting to Roman Catholicism could spark other conflagrations within Anglicanism, both from conservatives and progressives who are suspicious that Rome is poaching their faithful. Indeed, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's outgoing chief of ecumenical affairs, used a press conference last week to try to curb such fears, insisting that Rome was "not fishing in the Anglican lake."
The incoming converts, however, may offer a false comfort to Catholics that Rome is winning the battle for Christian hearts and souls in the West. Indeed, in the bosom of Europe, where traditional Catholicism became an immense political force, the church is very much on the defensive. The Pope's eagerness to find a home for the core of conservative-minded Anglicans follows the his outreach earlier this year to the traditionalist breakaway movement founded by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, which opposes the modern-minded reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
Even Tuesday's news of the forthcoming arrival of like-minded Anglicans to reinforce the traditionalist ranks carries a built-in risk for the Catholic hierarchy. Church liberals will point to the married priests leading Catholic masses as living proof that it's finally time to toss out the celibacy requirement for the clergy.’[1]
It is interesting and painful to watch these kinds of things happen in the church.Interesting because we Lutherans believe that we share the fullness of the gospel with both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church.Painful because that sharing the gospel of Christ means we cannot stand alone, ever.Their wounds are our wounds.Their blessings are our blessings. When they rejoice, we rejoice. When they suffer, we suffer.
Perhaps you disagree.Then let me ask you this:how do you think the Vatican and the Church of England reacted to the news that the ELCA is now preparing to bless same-gender relationships and to install pastors in those relationships in congregations willing to call them?Regardless of what we as individuals might think about that change, it has fractured the unity of our church and placed our relationships with other churches on fragile ground.And I can guarantee you that many of our fellow Christians who are watching our church navigate these stormy waters are hurt to see us mistrust, misrepresent and mistreat each other as we sort out our way into the future and who can join us on that road in good conscience.
I love my church.But I also know who we are in my church.Pastor Robert Farrar Capon may have put it best when he wrote the following:
If we are ever to enter fully into the glorious liberty of the [children] of God, we are going to have to spend more time thinking about freedom than we do. The church, by and large, has had a poor record of encouraging freedom. She has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that she had made us like ill-taught piano students; we play our songs, but we never really hear them, because our main concern is not to make music, but to avoid some flub that will get us in dutch. She has been so afraid we will loose sight of the laws of our nature, that she made us care more about how we look than about who we are; made us act more like the subjects of a police state than fellow citizens of the saints.[2]
Here is the point, friends:we are slaves, you and I.We are not free.We are enslaved, every last one of us, to the point of sin and death.Some of us, like Sylar in the video from “Heroes,” are slaves to our past mistakes.Some of us are slaves to the fears of what might happen if we don’t protect ourselves from every threat, real or imagined.Some of us are slaves to sex, slaves to drugs, slaves to our appearance or our possessions.All of us are slaves to ourselves in one way or another:we are enslaved by the seductive whispers we hear:“you could be better, much happier, if you’d only ________.”And all of us, even and especially the most faithful of us, are slaves to those churches we call our spiritual home.Yes, even our churches can enslave us, in this way:whenever the church becomes more important than the One in whose name it is gathered, the church becomes a tyrant and an enslaver.
But there is good news to be heard this day, here in this church.Right here, in the midst of all our disagreements and fears, in the midst of our uncertainties and our misplaced certainties, in this church which can sometimes enslave us, Jesus Christ, the living Gospel, comes to us and sets us free from our sins.It is a done deal, by the word of Jesus himself.
This is why we celebrate Reformation.And by Reformation, I don’t mean we celebrate a mythological rebellion started 500 years ago by a German monk with authority issues.That was never, ever the point.What we celebrate this day is this one simple truth:Jesus Christ has freed us from sin and made us all members of the family of God, forever.Every last, living one of us, no matter what emblem you might find on our hymnals and outside our doors, has been set free by Jesus from everything that enslaves us.Freedom, without a single condition or contingency, is yours for the taking, right now.
Throughout the checkered history of the church, we have often lost sight of the gospel.In Luther’s time it was indulgences and ignorance that led people away from the saving truth of the gospel.But we have done little better.We have placed our faith in denominations, in individual pastors, in understanding the Bible in a certain way, in one style of worship, in one particular verse from scripture – you name it, we’ve been enslaved to it.But none of those things can save you, friends.Denominations cannot save you.Congregations cannot save you.Your campus pastor cannot save you.Contemporary worship cannot save you.Organ music cannot save you.Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson cannot save you, the Archbishop of Canterbury cannot save you, and the Pope cannot save you.And, last but certainly not least, The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther cannot save you.Only Jesus Christ can save you.Only Jesus can free you from your sins.Only Jesus can make you a member of the household of God forever – and in your baptism, Jesus has done exactly that.
This is the freedom we celebrate when we celebrate Reformation:we celebrate that God makes us free in Jesus.We celebrate the Spirit’s work turning the church back to her savior, freeing us from our idolatry to live for Jesus alone.We celebrate the freedom to be loved without condition, to be adopted without qualification, to be made whole where all we have known is brokenness, failure and regret.
All of us – Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Christians of every stripe and color – are swept up into Reformation.Whenever the gospel of Jesus gets loose and raises another sinner out of death into life, Reformation happens.Whenever lives are changed, whenever wounds are healed, whenever our bondage to anything other than Jesus is broken, we are swept up into Reformation.Thanks be to God:the Reformation of the church continues, until that great and glorious day when our bonds are broken forever in God’s reign, free to worship and serve the Creator in whose image we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
23ish students and members of the Iowa State University community gathered at Cafe Milo tonight for an interfaith conversation about dating. Groups sponsoring the event and represented in attendance were (in no particular order): Lutheran Campus Ministry (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), Collegiate Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church-USA), Lutheran Student Fellowship (Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod), the ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society, Catholic Student Community (Roman Catholic), Campus Crusade for Christ and Wesley Foundation (United Methodist Church).
We are now nearly two months removed from the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Life together continues, even amidst disagreement. But it's interesting how the ELCA's decision to move forward on allowing monogamously partnered gay and lesbian people to serve in rostered ministry pops up in the most interesting places. Saturday night, at the Iowa State -Baylor football game, I was working in the Lutheran Campus Ministry concessions booth when an obviously intoxicated student found out we were the ELCA campus ministry. He was a member of Beta Sigma Psi, the Lutheran fraternity, and amidst the slurred descriptions of how happy he was to find us, he blurted out, "We're not hating on gays here, are we?" After assuring him that the concession stand wasn't the place to "hate on gays," and that, in fact, our campus ministry is an open and affirming ministry, he heaved a sigh of relief and staggered off to find his friends. Or throw up on something. I'm not sure which. *grin*
It just shows how you never, ever know who's watching or what people are thinking about the church. Tonight we'll join the Presbyterian, United Methodist and Roman Catholic campus ministries and the Atheist & Agnostic Association for a conversation about dating at a local coffee shop. You wonder - who might be watching, and what might they think about the church if they overhear us in conversation, disagreeing but not hating on each other? On the one hand, the church doesn't engage in these types of conversations as an evangelism tool, but I can't help but hope someone might be impressed enough to come see what else is happening in a place where we can live in disagreement respectfully.
Apparently natural selection has eliminated blogging as the weak link in my life for the past few weeks. Who knew?
The semester is ON. Work continues apace. Preaching has been a struggle at times. We're looking at another 18 months of terrible twos at the very least, with more fun to come as the girls' ability to argue and fight expands with age. Money is tight - very, very tight. So I feel as though I've been treading water for the past month. Thankfully, thus far I've been able to keep my head above the waves.
So, life is good, but uncertain, unsure, unsettled at best. Beloved is working her tail off, too, and it leaves us with very little time to just be a family together. Last weekend we traveled to Nebraska for my brother's wedding, which was a wonderful, beautiful weekend with many family and friends. The only problem? It was over FAR too soon.
I keep hoping that I'll grow more efficient with my time, and to a point I think I've done that, but I keep wondering - is efficiency really the issue? Am I just trying to do too much? Life has so much to offer that I want to do it all (well, most of it - I could do without the sea slug smoothie the folks on Survivor had to chug down in tonight's episode).
I want to be a better blogger, but I've been choosing the far more important job of being a better husband, father and pastor (in that order, mind you), and I think I've made the right choice. Then again, this post only took a few minutes - really, how hard can it be? *Sigh* I guess I'll never learn...
Sorry to have to bring this news to all of you, especially as Dave and I have been Marriage Care all-stars in the past, but it now looks almost certain we’ll divorce.
I don’t know what to tell you; I’m not entirely sure how it happened myself.A little more than six weeks ago, he first announced his intention to leave, and after a couple attempts at reconciliation, he moved out, announced he wasn’t willing to put in any more effort at reconciling, and sent me a divorce petition through a lawyer.We still correspond, and while he still seems to care for me, there’s a lot in his decision that I’m not privy to, it seems he’s been planning it for a while, and he’s been more invested in splitting up than trying to reconcile.
In any case, I just wanted to send this letter because I thought you should know, and wanted to ask for your prayers at this time.It has been a whirlwind of emotions for me (as I’m sure it’s been for Dave), but God has provided much comfort in this trial.
Again, sorry to get back in touch only to give such bad news.If you want, you can consider it our effort to help the odds for the rest of the couples in a place where half of all marriages end in divorce (one has to try to keep her sense of humor in times like this.)
Thanks.Michelle.”
I got that email a few years back from a friend who spent two years in a Marriage Care group at Luther Seminary while I was a student there.I knew her well, because I was in the same Marriage Care group.Unfortunately, I also knew what she was feeling very well:I sent a very similar email to the same friends.Out of the five couples in that Marriage Care group, two of them are now divorced.
So, let’s begin this time together with the facts:I stand before you under a sentence of condemnation from this morning’s gospel passage.At one time, a pastor in the midst of a divorce was expected to remove himself or herself from the ministry, as a pastor is supposed to be a person of high moral standing and an example to the community to which he or she is called.That is no longer the case, but divorce remains a serious wound in the church and in the world at large.But Jesus presents another way of looking at our failings, and I hope you’ll hear it, as I do, as good news for sinners.
The first thing to do is acknowledge that Jesus isn’t kidding in our gospel reading this morning.In fact, he takes a question that was asked as a legal trap and elevates the answer by changing the debate completely.In the law given to Moses from God in the Old Testament was a provision where a man who found something objectionable with his wife could present her with a certificate of divorce, put her out of his house, and that was that – he had divorced her.(Keep in mind that women had no equal rights under that law – a woman couldn’t divorce her husband)But rather than getting trapped in legalities, Jesus began to address the intent God has had for creation from the beginning.Jesus claimed that even the legal concept of divorce is recognition of how far humanity has wandered from what God intends for creation.
“From the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’”Our Old Testament reading says that Adam was created first, and that Eve came after, as a helper to Adam.But the Hebrew is not so simple, and the story is more than it seemsIn the Hebrew language, all nouns have a gender – they are either masculine or feminine.But in this case there is an exception.The word for “man” is a-dam.Literally, it means, “One from the earth.”It refers to God forming humanity out of the soil.AND a-dam has no gender.Literally, you should read these first few verses in our Old Testament reading with “The Human” wherever “Adam” appears.A-dam does not become ha ish, “the man,” until God creates ha ishah, “the woman.”Some traditions use this passage to justify a higher order for men; an honest reading of the text tells us that man only becomes man when woman is created; our genders can only be defined by their relation to one another.Notice that in the Genesis passage it is the man who leaves his family to be joined to his wife, while in Jesus’ time women were given as property to their husbands.The Pharisees, like many in that time, saw women as possessions, while Jesus insisted that God has meant for all humanity to live in creative partnership together, and Jesus used the testimony of Genesis as proof of what God means for us to be.
But why would God allow divorce, if God has a different intent for human relationships?Jesus said it loud and clear:God allows divorce due to the hardness of the human heart.This is where God’s intent for creation meets our brokenness head-on, and rather than condemning broken vows or life-destroying marriages, God has created a means by which the worst of human sinfulness might be redeemed and reconciled with God’s creative intent.Genesis is clear that God does not mean for us to be alone:that is the reason God creates a second human to partner with the first.But notice how God creates the partner; the a-dam must give something of itself before the partner is suitable.It is not good for us to be alone, but we are not suitable partners for one another without some measure of self-sacrifice; this is who God means us to be.Where that sacrifice is no longer present, the relationship is troubled – this is true in marriages, in friendships, in every relationship that we can imagine here on earth.Sometimes there can be a rebirth to the relationship.There are marriages and friendships that suffer through rocky periods and emerge stronger for having been tested in the fire.But sometimes relationships die, or are killed by sins committed one against the other, and all that happens in the rocky times is an insult and defacing of what was once a healthy, vibrant relationship.Sometimes relationships can poison us to the point where we either choose divorce, the end of the relationship, or we commit ourselves to a living death, where something God has created in us dies slowly and in great anguish.It is this kind of suffering that divorce is meant to prevent, and it is this kind of death that God works against by allowing divorce due to the hardness of the human heart.Relationships die because we either cannot or will not forgive – that is the hardness of the human heart.
Does God mean for any of us to divorce, to claim that what one does in divorcing a spouse is right?Absolutely not.Even in the case of abusive marriages, where the actual physical life of the abused is at stake, a divorce is not the ‘right’ answer, merely the least sinful way forward.God allows divorce because of our brokenness, our frailty, our heard hearts that can’t be what they were meant to be in God’s creation.The question of divorce being right or wrong assumes that what is allowed is right, but that’s not the case.God means for us to be different, to be people dedicated to self-sacrifice, defined by the depth of our love for one another.Jesus made it clear that divorce, while legal, is not what God means for us to be, and no amount of legal wrangling will make it so.But Jesus didn’t leave us there, either – Jesus provides the answers we need to hear, both in his words and in his deeds.He shows us what life is as God means it to be – life received as a child receives life, a gift, something undeserved and far beyond our ability to repay, and yet something we have received and are meant to enjoy to the fullest.
Jesus lived as God meant him to live – as one who gave all of himself for the sake of the world.The reading fro Hebrews this morning says that Jesus is the vision of God’s creative intent, that in Jesus creation has found a true reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.Yet how do we know Jesus?Not through his teachings alone, but in his suffering and death on the cross.Jesus gave himself for others; this is who God has meant for us to be!From the moment God created the partner for a-dam, God has meant for us to find our identity in giving ourselves for others, and Jesus is the perfect reflection of his Father’s will for creation.We are to be who we were meant to be – a people created for one another, defined by our service to others and our care for the creation that has been given to us.
Make no mistake:divorce is divorce.Sin is sin.Two wrongs do not make a right.We cannot hide behind our lesser sins because we’re ashamed of our greater sins.We cannot clothe ourselves in righteous morality and be suitable partners to each other.We cannot shame our neighbors or our partners into relationships that are what God intends them to be.We are broken, flawed, hard-hearted, unable to return to what we were before Sin claimed us as its own.But Jesus also comes to give what we cannot give:mercy, forgiveness, and the chance to try yet again.In Jesus we sinners are broken and whole, a people bound by sin yet free because of the love of God in Jesus Christ.Like the powerless children Jesus welcomed in the last few verses in our reading today, Jesus invites us to come to him and receive grace.Jesus comes to us and asks us to stop hiding in our legal wranglings, because the rags of our self-righteousness and high morality are nothing compared to being clothed in his mercy, forgiveness and love.
There are no easy answers when it comes to living in relationship with others.A friend of mine wrote on Facebook the other day that the Genesis passage reminds her that even the most irritating person she knows was handcrafted by God.Not one of us is perfect, not one marriage isn’t marked by some sin along the way, and not one of us can hope to live in God’s loving reign by means of what is legal.It is grace that brings us here, forgiveness that marks our life together, and love that keeps us going when our brokenness poisons our relationships with sin.In this life you will live broken – in this life you will see relationships end badly – in this life you will find yourself wondering, as I did, “how in the world did I get here?”But when those days come, remember first that you are a treasured child of God, broken by sin but made whole by the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.As the psalmist sang, “what are mere mortals that you, God, should be mindful of them, human beings that you should care for them?”Whatever we are, we are loved by God, and that, my friends, is the answer under which all other questions are judged and found lacking.Be God’s beloved children, broken and made whole, and live in that love.Amen.
The image is from Jonny Baker's blog. Click the image for the link.
Tomorrow night, representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Roman Catholic Church, and the United Methodist Church will gather in Chicago to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. It was, and remains, a significant moment in the relationship between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, who were the first to be separated by the condemnations of the Reformation and subsequent disagreements.
Here's the thing, though: the JDDJ isn't worth much more than the paper on which it is printed.
Don't misunderstand: our relationship with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters is better now than it has been for centuries, and that is a good thing, worthy of celebration. But let's not pretend that unity exists where it does not, and the JDDJ has not removed the difference between us in how we view salvation:
The good Cardinal George shows us the difference that still exists between Lutherans and Roman Catholics on the doctrine of justification. Lutherans believe that works are not meritorious - that, in fact, works can be a dangerous distraction from the grace freely and fully given by Christ without our cooperation or worthiness. As Luther himself said, "The Law says, 'Do this,' and it is never done. Grace says, 'believe this,' and everything is already done."
This is not to say that Lutherans despise works, either - we merely note that their place is completely separated from salvation. Good works are the deeds of one who has already been saved by the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. Good works are an important part of the faith we share as Christians; indeed, Luther also described Christians as "most free lords of all, subject to none, and most dutiful servants of all, subject to all." As Paul writes in Galatians, "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but rhough love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Works are important - they are the means by which we live out the grace God has bestowed upon us. But a theology that confesses that works are meritorious is not a salvation of justification by grace through faith apart from the works of the law, and we shouldn't pretend that it is.
Ten years ago, Lutherans and Roman Catholics gathered at a church in Augsburg to sign a document stating that we no longer condemn each other as we once had. That, in itself, is a noteworthy accomplishment in the history of our blessed church, the Body of Christ in which we are indeed one regardless of what our differences may be. Those differences remain, however, and should not be minimized or glossed over. Let us continue to converse with one another, to speak the truth to each other, and pray for the day when we can, at last, celebrate an agreement about salvation upon which we fully and completely agree.
Grace & peace, Scott The picture is the pulpit in the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) in Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany. Luther's tomb is just under the pulpit.
On the recommendation of a student, I sat down & watched The Reaping tonight after everyone else had gone to bed. Not a terrible movie. Not great, but not terrible. Basic story (no spoilers) is this: Woman of Faith ordained in some faith resembling Catholicism (but obviously not, because, duh, she's WOMAN of Faith. But it has to be Roman Catholic because, really, whoever heard of a non-RC priest studying ancient prophecies at a monastery in the middle of the desert?) becomes Woman of Science after losing husband and child whilst serving God in Africa. Woman of Science proceeds to debunk as many miracles as she can, making a name for herself in the process and, apparently, leading her to a professorship at LSU (I didn't know they had a forensic mythology debunking department at LSU, but they showed the football stadium, so Q.E.D. she's a professor of miracle debunking at LSU). Small town in Louisiana sends Handsome Single Guy to LSU because, apparently, the Ten Plagues of Exodus are happening again, and they need her help to explain what's actually going on. And the local police are more incompetent than Handsome Single Guy. Add dramatic tension in the form of a possibly innocent young girl the same age as Woman of Science's daughter would be, move to the inevitable realization that something more than science is going on, and stir. Serve with popcorn in a dark room late at night.
After watching a movie on DVD, I usually check out the special features, in the hopes there might be something interesting. The special features for The Reaping included one piece entitled "The Science Behind the Ten Plagues." I figured, what the heck - let's see what they've got to say.
The minute the feature begins, I hear a familiar voice. Then I realize it's Dr. Terry Fretheim, Professor of Old Testament at my alma mater, Luther Seminary.
My Old Testament professor, who is a man of great faith, is on a special feature about the scientific explanation of the Ten Plagues of Exodus. Said special feature is attached to a movie about how the Ten Plagues happen again. Except that they aren't the Ten Plagues. And the woman working so hard to disprove them becomes a believer again, because of the plagues, even though the plagues that seem to be happening aren't really the plagues, or, at least, they aren't the Biblical plagues, which she's still not sure about. Meanwhile, the special feature featuring a faithful OT professor tries to show how they weren't plagues at all. Did you get all that?
Yeah. Me neither. But it sure is funny to think about as I head off to bed.
Who was the “rabble,” anyway?The writer of Numbers mentions “rabble among” the Israelites, but doesn’t give a definition.Who were they?What was their story?How did they get hooked up with the people of Israel?Moses is leading a family of some 600,000 who all descended from Jacob during their sojourn and captivity in Egypt; how did a “rabble” get thrown in with them?
What about Eldad and Medad?The Bible says they prophesied, but it doesn’t say what they said, nor does it ever mention them after this.Who were they?Why was it so important to mention them?What’s the difference if they prophesied in the camp or not?
What was James talking about, with all this healing jargon?I’ve never healed a single person in my life, though I’ve prayed fervently for their health.James says that Elijah was a human being just like us, but I’ve never felt the call to command a three-and-a-half-year drought, and challenging queens and kings just isn’t my thing.Does that mean I’m not righteous?I’d love to bring back sinners from wandering, but I can’t even get my wife to stack the dishes right – how am I supposed to do these greater things?
Who was this mysterious person casting out demons in Jesus’ name?He didn’t give a name to John, and John didn’t give one to Jesus.Who was he?Jesus was teaching his disciples, his 12 closest companions, but they completely missed everything Jesus said – how was some unknown healer able to do miracles in Jesus’ name?Why was John so worried?
It seems like everything in my life causes me to stumble.Even the good things make me stumble.How much to I need to remove to make sure I enter the kingdom of God?Where do I start?Where does it end?
And the most important question in all of these goes unasked:Who am I?Let us pray.
Father, we come to You confused and uncertain.The dangers that surround us are not nearly so threatening as the dangers with us.We stumble and wander and lose sight of You, our Keeper and Protector.Make us whole.Heal our wounds.Feed us with Your love, and guide us through our darkness.In Your Son’s name we pray.Amen.
The quick and easy way to address these readings would be to give short, to the point answers to all the questions that get raised.For example, Bible scholars suggest that the “rabble” were slaves in Egypt from other lands:when the Israelites got the heck outta Dodge after the Passover, the “rabble” got outta Dodge with them.
Eldad and Medad?Never appear again in the Bible.We’re not sure what their prophesying contained.Their prophesy isn’t the point of the story, anyway, so you don’t need to worry about them.
James & Elijah?Special people for special times.Not in the same circumstances as we are today.The call of a prophet is for a certain time and place, and the time of the prophets ended with the last, John the Baptist, who pointed to Jesus as the new and only prophet of God His Father.Healing miracles are a function of the Bible’s record, nothing more – we would understand it much differently today, with our medicine and our electricity and nearly all the mystery of human existence crowded out by technology and science.Don’t worry about healing miracles and your righteousness:we live differently today.
This is the quick and easy way to address these readings. Every word I just said is true:I’ve said some of these words myself in certain situations where they seemed appropriate.But there’s nothing of God in these words.Explanation, yes.Interpretation, yes.Definition, yes.But are these words of salvation?No – and that’s the problem.One cannot explain, interpret or define one’s way into the kingdom of God; that takes a word of promise.
Moses can’t bring us a word of promise today:he’s too busy worrying about the discerning palate of the rabble.It seems that freedom in the wilderness, with a daily ration of manna, is not as tasty as slavery with a dash of onion & leek soup.
John can’t bring us a word of promise today:he’s too busy worry about the renegade exorcist who hasn’t filled out the requisite paperwork required of a proper disciple.It seems that following in the footsteps of the disciples is more important than casting out demons in the name of the one the disciples are following.
What’s going on here is the usual list of blunders, performed by a cast of thousands.It’s enough to make anyone with a smidge of hope for the human race weep uncontrollably.Moses can’t handle the rabble.James thinks that we just aren’t praying right.John and the disciples are still missing the point.Jesus can’t teach, so he resorts to threats.God pulls a page out of my mother’s playbook and says, “Fine – you want meat?!?I’ll GIVE you meat!”Where, oh where, shall I find my hope?What shall I, a simple campus pastor, do to find a gracious God this morning?
Then, suddenly, the promise is there, hidden underneath all the debris of our failings and God’s anger.Here is the promise:the rabble were allowed to stay.No one cast them away from the people of Israel.Not only were the rabble allowed to stay, but they were fed with the same miraculous manna.No crumbs from the table here – the rabble had a place of honor next to the children of Abraham, and even in anger God did not cast them away.
Here is the promise:we’re still here.God has not cast us away, though we deserved it many times over.When manna came from God’s hand, to sustain us in the wilderness, we rejected it: but God did not reject us.When others who were not of our fellowship did deeds of power in God’s name, we questioned their place instead of praising their faith, but God did not reject us.We stumble; we complain; we miss the point; we hitched a ride with God’s chosen people through a gift given to us in baptism, but we're still here.We are part of the stumbling rabble, lurching heavenward, and it is God who keeps us on the march, regardless of our mistakes.The promise comes out of heaven: we stumbling rabble belong to God, and even in anger God will not forsake any of us who stumble together here.
So here we are, stumbling toward heaven.Martin Bell wrote a story about us once:it’s called Rag-Tag Army:
If God were more sensible he would take his little army and shape them up.Why, whoever heard of a soldier stopping to romp in a field?It’s ridiculous.But even more absurd is a general who will stop the march of eternity to go and bring him back.But that’s God for you.His is no endless, empty marching.He’s going somewhere.His steps are deliberate and purposive.He may be old, and tired.But he knows where he’s going.And he means to take every last one of his tiny soldiers with him.Only there aren’t going to be any forced marches…And even though our foreheads have been signed with the sign of the cross, we are only human.And most of us are afraid and lonely and would like to hold hands or cry or run away.And we don’t know where we are going, and we can’t seem to trust God – especially when it’s dark out and we can’t see him!And he won’t go on without us.And that’s why it’s taking so long.[1]
Stumbling rabble or rag-tag army, we are part of a great cloud of witnesses to God’s patience, God’s determination, God’s creative and redeeming work in us, deserved or not.The question that was unasked before?Who am I?Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a poem with the same title.He said:
Who I really am, you know me, I am yours, oh God![2]
And that’s all that really matters.Christ told His disciples to remove all the things that made themstumble, to cut away everything that caused sin, so that they would gain the kingdom of God.But the greatest thing that causes any of us to stumble is a lack of trust in God’s mercy.So Jesus cut himself off from God to give us the kingdom.He gave himself up as a willing sacrifice so that we might see the depth and reach of God’s forgiveness.Even killing the very Son of God was not enough to cause God to reject the stumbling rabble and cast them away.
The word of promise remains:God loves the stumbling rabble, in spite of our many mistakes and our costly blunders and our insistence on following the wrong people and believing the wrong things.You are loved by a God whose love is reckless and passionate – trust in that love,to pick you up when you stumble and to hold on to you when your sins make you fall away from the family.And may God’s peace, which passes all understanding, keep your mind and your heart and your life in Christ Jesus our Savior and Lord.Amen.
Have I mentioned that I love my work? Here's my Wednesday as proof of why I resemble Porky here most days.
Wake up at 6:00ish and spend a little time in prayer and reading before getting the girls up.
8:30 - Drop the kids off at pre-school/day care.
9:00 - stop back at home for coffee and a few things I forgot.
10:00 - hit the office with a travel mug of hot coffee. Spend an hour playing with new email format, which works like a charm on my first attempt.
11:00 - read through my blogroll and spend some time pondering the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (post coming next week).
12:00 - lunch, then I read the daily newspaper, my #1 sermon help.
1:00 - Spend an hour or so working on Sunday worship and the sermon.
2:00 - Spend an hour prepping for the Bible study on Ruth 3 for later that evening, and 30 minutes getting last details nailed down for Evening Prayer.
3:00 - go to the music store for new guitar strings for Ruby and Susannah, then to pre-school to pick up Ainsley.
3:45 - go to our church to pick up Jack, drop off my Bible and study materials for later that night. Pick up Alanna from day care and go home. Change Ruby's strings while the girls watch Sesame Street, then play with them for a while.
5:30 - head to St. Andrew's for Church On Wednesday (C.O.W.), where the evening meal is, surprise, pizza! Yay!
6:15 - play guitar for a short devotional/worship time.
6:30 - lead the Ruth study for which I prepared earlier in the day.
7:30 - take the girls home and wait for Steph the babysitter to arrive.
8:15 - head to University Lutheran Center for a brief sing-through of the choir piece for Sunday, and put the sanctuary in order for Evening Prayer.
9:00 - Evening Prayer, with session #2 of our worship series as the message.
9:45 - Almost-Free Pizza (which I denied myself, since I'd already had pizza for supper) and a great conversation with students.
10:30ish - home for the night. A beer, the evening paper, and the first few pages of Trinity by Leon Uris to finish off the night. Life is good.
It could all change in a second - I'm aware of that. But, for tonight, I am truly happy as a pig in...
It's a rainy, grey day here in Ames. As I drove the girls to their day care this morning, I thought more than once that it felt as though I were in Ireland again (luckily, I kept my American head enough to stay on the right side of the road).
The thing I love about Ireland - indeed, most of Europe that I've seen - is the way the density of the population leads to a near-bewildering web of roads. Beloved and I discovered this on our Germany honeymoon. Landing in Frankfurt, we set off for Bamberg, thinking it would be an easy two-hour drive on the Autobahn. Unfortunately, our directions were American-style: " take A3-A4-A7, etc." Works great in the American midwest, where you can travel for hours on one road and never vary more than a point or two off the compass direction along which you started. But an hour after leaving Frankfurt, we were lost. Hopelessly lost. Off the map, no idea where we are lost. Looking back, it's hilarious, but at the moment it was more than a little stressful. We learned that planning car trips in Europe means going to towns, not along routes, as in "Rothenburg to Oberdachstetten to Hainklingen to Ammerndorf to Oberasbach to Nurnberg." More or less. Of course, in some cases, the freeways are faster, and you can somewhat direct yourself via routes if you like. But we found that finding our way around Germany by map and town was far simpler AND far, far more scenic and rewarding. Winding your Peugot around those little roads, driving through towns where every house has windowboxes full of flowers in bloom - these are the off-the-track joys of travel in unfamiliar places.
So, consider this post a chance to check out some unfamiliar territory, courtesy of your friendly travel guide. Here are some links worthy of your attention.
Jan takes on an issue that has long been a concern for me - church loneliness.
Megan was not so incapacitated by the H1N1 virus that she couldn't offer a post about all of the cool stuff she's been doing lately. Including preaching, in her first year of her first call, to what must have seemed the whole Lutheran fam-damily at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
I think that'll do for today. Hoping to have an original post worth contemplating tomorrow. For now, you've got your directions - enjoy the open road.
When I started college at the University of Nebraska I majored in music education. I was going to the U to practice, work hard, and possibly earn a spot with a major symphony in their trombone section. But if my dream of the Chicago Symphony didn’t pan out, I figured I would enjoy being a band director. Heck, everyone thought I should do it – I was the music guy in my high school and in my conference. I was first chair in the All-State Band as a senior, and St. Olaf had accepted me into their music program, so why wouldn’t I succeed?
Three years later, things had changed. I discovered that though I loved music, I did NOT love music education. What I did love, however, was God. Most importantly, I loved the idea of serving God professionally, so I dropped the music major for work in religion and philosophy, and I began preparing for seminary. But I stayed active in the music programs at the University, because I did love making music with my friends.
In the fall of my fourth year in Lincoln, I was preparing to become the principal euphonium player for the Wind Ensemble, the premier performance group, with whom I had been playing for two years. The previous year I had been second chair euphonium, but Pete, the principal, had graduated and so I assumed that the chair was mine. To be honest, I was looking forward to taking over the principal chair; I thought my time had come.
As I entered the audition room, the director greeted me warmly, heard my audition, nodded, and asked a question I hadn’t expected: “Why didn’t you prepare a trombone audition?” I told him that I had assumed I would be playing euphonium again that year, that he and the other directors knew my skills as a trombonist, and that one audition, I thought, would suffice. He nodded again, listened to the remainder of my audition, thanked me for my time, and I left.
The roster was posted the following day. You can imagine my shock when I discovered that I was not the principal euphonium player. I had been replaced by two freshmen, both of whom were under my leadership as a baritone section leader in the marching band. I was going to play bass trombone.
I was mortified. I had told those freshmen how much I was looking forward to playing with them in the Wind Ensemble… someday. I was trying to be the magnanimous upperclassman, but instead I looked like a pompous blowhard. Bass trombone? Why not just make me go play piccolo or something.
In truth, they were better than I was. For the good of the ensemble, my role changed. To make better music, I took on a different role and followed the direction of my leader. But the embarrassment of discovering how poorly I had judged the situation has remained with me to this day. It was a question of ways: the way of my glory, or the way of the director’s will. I had to choose which way to follow.
Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, You take us along the Way of the Cross as the way of discipleship. You lead us down roads of sacrifice and service, where our desires and our needs are replaced with Your will and Your mercy. But all along the Way, we misunderstand You. We seek greatness where You desire humility. We seek power where You desire mercy. We seek individual glory where You desire the glory of Your body, the church. Forgive our arrogance and our ambition. Help us welcome each other as fellow children in Your family, and forgive us as we struggle to follow You. In Your name we pray: Amen.
It’s never an easy thing, getting your ego deflated. It’s an even harder experience to endure when your desires for individual glory are in service to a greater good. Or so you think.
It’s easy to demonize the disciples in today’s reading from Mark. Who would be stupid enough to argue about being numero uno when Jesus was around? But take yourself out of our modern church for a minute and think about life from the disciples’ perspective. Tiberius has been emperor of Rome for a few years. Your people have been captives to Rome for almost 100 years, prisoners in your own homeland. The Messiah, you believe, will deliver you from your bondage, and now that Jesus is here, now that you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, you think it’s about time for the deliverance to get going. When Jesus delivers Israel, he’s going to need helpers to make sure all the work gets done properly. According to Dr. Don Juel, “as [Jesus’] followers, they will undoubtedly be assigned places in His cabinet.”[1] If you’re going to be in the cabinet, who wouldn’t want to be prime minister? Secretary of Agriculture? The disciples were a diverse group; is it possible that they were thinking of their own individual gifts and talents and how Jesus might best use them in his ‘inside’ group?
The disciples would have had no problems reading our text from Jeremiah today, with all its talk of retribution and destruction of enemies and evil deeds. They were, after all, faithfully serving God by following Jesus of Nazareth, God’s anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ. The coming of the kingdom was at hand! God was finally going to put things right, and the faithful would be sorted in the order of their deeds and their faithfulness to God’s commandments. Finally, Israel would receive her reward and receive her proper place as the people of God on earth. The way to Capernaum was the first step in the way to Jerusalem and the new kingdom of God!
After listening to this all afternoon, Jesus asked them at the evening meal: “What were you arguing about on the way?” Can you see the sheepish looks on the disciples’ faces when they realized Jesus had heard them planning His kingdom for Him? Jesus took that opportunity to teach them what it means to follow Him. The disciples believed that they were on the way to Capernaum. They believed that this was just another day along the path to the deliverance of Israel from her bondage. They were right; Israel was to be delivered, but the way was not through Capernaum: the way Israel would be delivered would be the Way of the Cross.
The Gospel tells us that before any of this happened, Jesus tried again to explain to His followers that He was going to be betrayed, handed over to be tortured, killed by His own people, and rise again. This was the second time in a week that Jesus told His followers about His death and resurrection, and also the second time they didn’t understand it. Worse, they were afraid and didn’t ask Jesus to explain further. Peter tried to tell Jesus that his ideas about death and resurrection were nonsense, and got a good rebuking for his trouble; why would any of them question Him again? So we see that the disciples weren’t just missing the point; they were trying to avoid the point altogether. The cross was the 800 pound gorilla in their lives, and they were very busy arguing about their greatness so they wouldn’t have to talk about it.
So, at the supper table, in Capernaum, with their ignorance and arrogance exposed, Jesus began to teach. He taught that the Way of the Cross reverses the order of things: the first become last, the greatest are servants, and the least are served. Then Jesus further deflated their hopes and dreams by showing them the most honored guest in the kingdom of God: a child. In Jesus’ time, a child was without worth or stature. Until a child reached adulthood, they were cherished for their potential but not nearly the people of power they are in the 21st century. A child in Jesus’ time would have lived out the old adage, “Children are to be seen and not heard,” but Jesus welcomed the child as a monarch or a head of state. Jesus tied the whole of his power and prestige and glory as Messiah to a nameless child, and so, Jesus said, should those who would follow Him. This is the Way of the Cross.
Not an easy way to follow, the Way of the Cross. On the surface one might imagine that one could follow the Way of the Cross by always going to the back of the line and always being nice to children. But it’s more than simple exterior actions. To follow the Way of the Cross, one is called to completely “abandon one’s authority and status, spending them on those with the least ability to repay.”[2] The Way of the Cross involves a complete devaluation of the self – “I” cease to exist without having “you” to serve. “I” the adult am nothing without the child of God to welcome in the name of Christ. “I” look for ways to lift up Christ through lifting up those around me. Jesus does not ask his followers to target the lowest in society and ignore the greatest: Jesus asks his followers to consider all people, be they lowly or of high stature, as blessed children of God and worthy of honor and respect. This is the Way of the Cross, as Jesus describes it. This is the Way to follow Him.
As we follow Jesus on the Way of the Cross, we remember that Jesus asks us only to receive what He has to give. On the Cross, where Jesus gave His life for you, the greatest became the least and the Living One died for we who were already dead in our sins. When Jesus asks us to follow Him on the Way of the Cross, He asks us to throw out the world’s order of greatest and least and simply serve all people as fellow children of God. When Jesus asks us to welcome one another as children in His name, He asks us to welcome each other as we were welcomed into His family – without thought or consideration of worth, simply as the greatest gift a loving God could give.
The way to follow Jesus is not a line: it is a circle, gathered with Christ at its center, where all serve the Servant of All. Who is the greatest? Jesus is the greatest – and we are His children, children on the Way of the Cross. Thanks be to God. Amen.
6:00 AM: The alarm on my watch goes off, beeping on my dresser. I get up, get dressed, grind the coffee beans and start the first pot of the day, let the dog out, put in my contacts.
I pour the first cup of steaming bitter blessedness and settle down into the recliner in the basement with my latest book, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carre. I'm about 100 pages from the end. I hear Alanna cooing to herself upstairs, and think that I might get twenty pages, maybe thirty, before she insists on getting up and starting her day.
But, wonder of wonders, she goes back to sleep. After about 90 minutes, I have finished the book, including its wonderfully tense final chapters. I check Facebook, make up a few snarky titles for the rumored "Indiana Jones 5," catch up on my Huskers, and read email, which includes the funny poem below, from The Writer's Almanac this morning. Now it's 8:20, I can hear my ladies stirring, and we've missed breakfast at day care - so I'll go upstairs and make scrambled eggs and toast, and we will smile at the luxury of sleeping in and reading good books.
Thus far it's been a nearly perfect morning. Please let's not ruin it, shall we?
Grace & peace,
Scott
A Wife Explains Why She Likes Country
by Barbara Ras
Because those cows in the bottomland are black and white, colors anyone can understand, even against the green of the grass, where they glide like yes and no, nothing in between, because in country, heartache has nowhere to hide, it's the Church of Abundant Life, the Alamo, the hubbub of the hoi polloi, the parallel lines of rail fences, because I like rodeos more than golf, because there's something about the sound of mealworms and leeches and the dream of a double-wide that reminds me this is America, because of the simple pleasure of a last chance, because sometimes whiskey tastes better than wine, because hauling hogs on the road is as good as it gets when the big bodies are layered like pigs in a cake, not one layer but two, because only country has a gun with a full choke and a slide guitar that melts playing it cool into sweaty surrender in one note, because in country you can smoke forever and it'll never kill you, because roadbeds, flatbeds, your bed or mine, because the package store is right across from the chicken plant and it sells boiled peanuts, because I'm fixin' to wear boots to the dance and make my hair bigger, because no smarty-pants, just easy rhymes, perfect love, because I'm lost deep within myself and the sad songs call me out, because even you with your superior aesthetic cried when Tammy Wynette died, because my people come from dirt.
