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It was up, then down, and now back again. This site is hilarious.
I am doing a series of meditations on the Passion According to St. Luke. Schmemann inspired me today so I thought I would put this online as it has some of his language.
Jesus has set His face toward Jerusalem and the shame of the cross. Last week, Jesus entered Gethsamane, where sweat like drops of blood pours from His face as He pleads for the help of the Father. Then, strengthened by the Father and His heavenly aid, Jesus was prepared for His ordeal. Rising up, Jesus exhorted the disciples to prepare themselves as well. He told the disciples, “Pray you do not come into temptation.” He was trying to ready them for the trauma of the crucifixion. And as Jesus was speaking to them about these things, St. Luke tells us that a crowd came to the garden.
Judas, one of the twelve, was with the crowd. They are looking for Jesus. They want to shackle and chain Him. Judas has been hired to help these officials make their arrest. His heart has been filled with evil and his pathetic desire for money has caused him to betray Jesus. They make the offer and Judas makes the plan. Judas knew Jesus’ custom of prayer. Therefore, he knew he could lead the authorities to Jesus and the others. Judas also knew it would be dark and there might be confusion. To make certain that the authorities would apprehend their man, Judas told them he would kiss Jesus. A kiss, a concrete expression of human love, marks Jesus. In this way, Judas transforms the kiss into a concrete expression of human evil. There is great horror in this act of betrayal. Judas had been with Jesus for over three years. Judas had witnessed Jesus’ miracles. Judas had heard the depth of Jesus’ teachings. Judas was one of the twelve. Now Judas makes certain that the authorities get their man by identifying Jesus with a kiss. There will be no mistakes with the arrest of Jesus. So Judas leans to kiss Jesus.
I have spent the morning reading Alexander Schmemann’s book of that title. There are many jewels in the book, but I was struck by his discussion of how we forget, betray and abandon the “new life” of Easter that we received by the gift of faith.He continues:”All this because of our weakness, because of the impossibility for us to live constantly by ‘faith, hope, and love’ on that level to which Christ raised us when he said: ‘Seek ye, first of all, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.’ We simply forget all this-so busy are we, so immersed in our daily preoccupations-and because we forget, we fail. And through this forgetfulness, failure, and sin our life becomes ‘old’ again-petty, dark, and ultimately meaningless-a meaningless journey toward a meaningless end. We manage to forget even death and then, all of a sudden, in the midst of our ‘enjoying life’ it comes to us: horrible, inescapable, senseless. We may from time to time acknowledge and confess our various ’sins,’ yet we cease to refer our life to that new life which Christ revealed and gave to us. Indeed, we live as if He never came. This is the only real sin, the sin of all sins, the bottomless sadness and tragedy of our nominal Christianity.” A good reason for our Christian piety to be established on the daily rhythms of Luther’s Small Catechism, which immerses us in the Baptismal reality of our new life in Christ and directs us constantly to our Lord and His grace.
Special thanks to Historic Lectionary for pointing me to Lindemann for the introduction. I tend not to use Lindemann much as I find he took his best stuff from Parsch. Anyway, I would recommend the blog Historic Lectionary. It is a great resource for those who preach or hear sermons based on the church’s historic reading cycle.
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Dante, in his tremendous picture of hell, assigns certain souls not to hell itself but to its lobby. They are the souls who never chose God nor the devil, good or bad, who simply let things float along and never came to a decision. They go round and round, following a moving flag, now here and now there, but never in any one place. According to Dante, they reel forever in a whirl of sandy dust, bitten by wasps and hornets. They are not allowed to enter the light of heaven nor permitted to descend into hell. Heaven won’t have them, for they never chose heavenly things. Hell will not receive them. Why not? Think of it! hell will not have these people of no decision because if they came into hell, the damned would have the happiness of looking down on something lower than themselves (Lindemann, Sermon and Propers, II:73). For Dante, these people were so contemptible because they would not decide. These people condemned to the lobby of hell attempted to be neutral in matters of faith. The Gospel Lesson this morning is clear: there is no riding the fence when it comes to Jesus and God’s Kingdom.
Jesus healed the mute man, casting out a demon that had control of his tongue. Jesus opened the man’s mouth and the crowd was both amazed and skeptical. They knew something supernatural had taken place, but the source of the miracle was debatable. Some attributed the miracle to Satanic power. They didn’t think that this earthy, fleshy, common Jesus could be from God, which meant that He must do the work of Satan. It was the only other explanation. Others demanded a great sign from heaven. If Jesus was truly from God, then He should be able to do something to prove it. You can only imagine what type of miracle these people might require. Perhaps they would have been convinced if Jesus brought lightning from heaven or performed some other great trick? Probably not. Maybe they would have been convinced if Jesus healed a paralytic or gave sight to the blind? No, these miracles did not convince. Maybe they would have believed if Jesus rose from the dead? No, not even Jesus’ resurrection was sufficient. The sad reality was their hearts were hard like Pharaoh so no miracle would convince them. The evidence before their eyes that Jesus was from God was more than sufficient. They only made excuses, raised objections, and contrived alternatives. So Jesus presses them, knowing their opposition.
I had the opportunity to attend a Robbie Fulks concert this evening. He is a fine musician, if you enjoy alternative country/americana. Here is something I found on YouTube.
I heard that the LCMS is looking for “soul winners.” Perhaps they could learn something from one of my favorite evangelists.
Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
Tomorrow, February 18, is the day the church commemorates the life of Martin Luther. 462 years ago, on February 18, 1546, Luther died in Eisleben, the same town of his birth and baptism. The day before Luther had received the Lord’s Supper. After dinner, he retired to his bedroom, as was his customary practice, for prayer. A couple hours later he began to suffer chest pains. At about 1:00 am, Luther awoke with an attack of great pain. He commended his “little soul” to the Lord Christ and expressed his confidence that death would not be able to snatch him from God’s hand. This confidence was established on Holy Scripture, specifically John 3:16: Anyone who believes in the Son, whom God gave in love, will not perish, but have eternal life. Luther repeated the words of Psalm 68:20, “Our God is a God of salvation; and to God, the Lord, belongs escape from death.” Then he echoed the words of the aged Simeon, “Lord, now lettest thought thy servant depart in peace. Amen.” Finally, he repeated Psalm 31:5 three times, “Into Thy hand I commit my spirit; Thou has ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth.” Then Luther was silent. After 62 years of a most extraordinary life, Luther fell asleep in Christ.
The last writing we have from Luther is a scrap of paper that came from his coatpocket. Luther had jotted notes concerning the difficulty of understanding the Holy Scripture. He reflected that the Word of God transcends human capabilities and understanding it “therefore is a mighty wonder.” The last thing he ever wrote, and he wrote prolifically in his life, was this statement: “This is true. We are all beggars.” “This is true. We are all beggars.” This statement was not a resignation about his life’s work. Nor was this final confession born from a troubled heart before God. Rather, this profound statement acknowledged that everything in his life was a gift of grace. In all things, the Christian is humbly, reverently, and prayerfully dependent upon the miraculous help of God. Through his life’s work of studying the scriptures and praying them with the church, Luther knew well that we are reliant on God’s grace and mercy for our faith, life and salvation.
I cannot imagine a more apt illustration of Luther’s understanding of faith than the appointed Gospel lesson for today. A Canaanite woman approaches Jesus. This is a surprise. Behold, a Canaanite woman! It is remarkable that Canaanites still existed, considering Israel’s war against them. They were the original enemies of Israel, doomed for expulsion and destruction. The Lord had little patience for their false worship and idolatry. Joshua had entered into the promised land and fought against them with extreme prejudice on the Lord’s behalf. Many of them were wiped out. Yet here is this pagan enemy of God and Israel, coming to Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.
I have returned from the grave. The flu struck on Ash Wednesday and I am just now beginning to resemble a human being again. I will be first in line for a flu shot next year. Anyway, I still preached on Sunday, although it was more painful than usual….
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
Luther knew well what it meant to suffer temptation. He was afflicted by them throughout his life and ministry. He once reflected, “I have suffered very great temptations. They exhausted my whole body. I could hardly draw my breath. And no man could console me.” Luther’s experience with temptation and spiritual affliction provided the creative impetus for his great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress.” The military imagery in the hymn is purposeful. The Christian life is warfare. It is combat. Temptation attacks the Christian. Thus, the Christian needs protection. For Luther, Jesus Christ, the valiant one, is both the fortress and the fighter. He is the fortress that protects from the siege of Satan, sin and death. Moreover, Jesus Christ fights them and wins the day.
It would be a mistake for us to reduce “A Mighty Fortress” to a piece of Lutheran nostalgia like some mawkish pop song from our youth. The hymn testifies to the Christian claim that we are engaged in a significant battle in this life. Enemies assail us from every side. These enemies would destroy faith and defeat us. They would wrest the Kingdom of Christ from our hearts. Traditionally, the Church has identified our enemies as the sinful flesh, the world, and the devil. Luther, a good catholic, retained these biblical categories in his Catechism. These three enemies work against faith in Christ. And they do not remain idle in this life. They rage against us.
You cannot escape death. The ashes on your forehead testify to this reality. From dust you are and to dust you shall return. You can try to ignore death. You can try to push it away. You can try to manipulate it or sanitize it. None of your efforts will work. Whether young or old, you cannot escape death. Whether you are rich or poor, you cannot escape death. You cannot escape death because you cannot escape your sin. Sin brought death to Adam and Eve and sin brings death to you. The apostle Paul is clear: “The wages of sin is death.” Your sin will return you to the dust of death, just as it did for our first ancestors.
The reality of death is the cause of great terror and despair for many. Death brings sorrow and mourning. Death brings uncertainty and doubt. And death raises questions about the next life. After all, death seems so unnatural and yet it is the regular order of things in this fallen world. But something deep within us suspects there is more than our fleeting time on this earth. Eternity resides in our hearts and leads us to ask questions about our ultimate destiny. In this way, death makes us religious. Unfortunately, our religious efforts will not provide an escape for us. No matter how good or how evil we have been in this life, we will die. Our only hope for deliverance from death comes from the One who has made us and holds the power of all Creation in His hand. The Lord alone can provide life in the midst of death.
For this reason, the Word of the Lord from the prophet Joel calls out, “Rend your hearts!” Open up your heart and examine the treasures you have stored there. If you take account of yourself according to God’s Law, then you must confess that you have not always loved God with your whole heart and you do not love your neighbor. When your heart is exposed before God, sin is there. Rend your heart and confess that you rely on the treasures of this earth for your comfort and security. Acknowledge the ways you have acted with deception, anger, hatred, envy and jealousy toward others. Do not be reluctant to recognize how your lusts and desires have brought you low. Open your hearts and confess your sin. This sin has separated you from God. Just as the sin of Adam and Eve cast them out of God’s presence and under His judgment, so does your sin. Your sin produced by the evil desires of your hearts brings death and condemnation. If you are able to rend your heart and make confession, then you will know what God knows: you cannot escape death.
Hutchins has an engaging post on the state of worship in contemporary North American Christianity. It is engaging, of course, because I largely agree. For those who disagree, it will be horribly offensive. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
