A couple Sundays ago we attended the opening worship service for my daughter’s high school. As it turned out, one of my life-long friends was there to witness his cousin’s installation as a teacher at the school. He reminded me that 25 years ago we were starting our senior year at Fremont Senior High—Go Tigers! Anyway, that (and Facebook) brought back a lot of old memories of what life was like back in “’85, ’85, eighty, eighty, ’85.” One of the favorite movies of that day was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in which the principal’s secretary, while listing all the different cliques in the school, proclaims that they all think Ferris is a “Righteous Dude.” In the eyes of his peers he could do no wrong.
This morning I picked up a book I had started reading a while back and then put down due to various distractions in my life and ministry. The book is “The Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer; in particular, I was reading chapter 8, The Righteousness of Christ which describes the relationship of the Law to Christians and unbelievers based upon their relationship to Christ. How I wish every Christian could read this book, and especially, this chapter.
We Lutherans are so often accused (wrongly) of being antinomian, that is, unconcerned about the Law because of the grace of Christ which forgives all sin. Moreover, because that grace comes only through Christ (Eph. 2:8-9) we tend to shy away from Good Works which might give the appearance that we are trying to effect our own salvation (forgetting about Eph. 2:10) Though I know this is not what I was taught and not what we believe, I understand how we collectively have become phobic of “works righteousness” and its place on the slippery slope to perceived antinomianism.
What Bonhoeffer does in his book is show, through the Sermon on the Mount, that the Law does not cease to be God’s plan for us as his creatures, but rather, through Christ, our relationship to it does. Before we believed, the Law was a roadblock between us and God, a real burden to us and the source of the schism between God and people. After we believe, the law is still God’s plan. He still wants us to follow it. We don’t just get a free pass (in respect to the Law) because God still has the same expectations of us before and after we receive faith. The difference is in the calling.
When the Holy Spirit brought us to faith we were called by Christ to walk with him (as the blessed in the beatitudes). And since no-one can come to the father accept through Christ, we are totally dependent up on him for life and salvation (by the gospel). By our attachment to Him we are of course credited with his righteousness and therefore the law is no longer held between us and God, because the law has been kept by Christ. Because of Christ the relationship is restored in perfect holiness and obedience. Christ calls us to faith, we cling to Christ in faith, by faith we inherit his righteousness and are saved.
But to prevent this grace from becoming cheap Bonhoeffer demonstrates how the call to follow Christ is inherently tied to our response which is demonstrated by our actions. Christ affirmed the Law as God’s rule and plan when he said to love God and love one another. If we are trusting in and following our Lord in the calling he has extended to us, then we will do what he says. The closer we follow Him, the better we will keep the law. Our righteousness still does not come from ourselves, it comes from Christ, for without our following his call and living out our calling in Christ, the Law is once again placed between us and God, instead of upon Christ’s shoulders. Whenever we place the burden of keeping the law ahead of the gospel of Christ, we take the Law from Christ's shoulders and place it between us and God.
Clearly, Mr. Bueller’s antics were anything but righteous as he broke nearly every school rule there was and yet, the other students thought he was a “good kid.” Their judgments of him seem to be based on something other than the rules they were all to follow. Perhaps because of his ability to talk or sneak his way out of any and all trouble; maybe because he was so smart and used that intellect to help others skirt around getting in trouble, they deemed him as righteous? Of course his sister and his principle knew the real Ferris Bueller and tried to catch him as he played hooky for a day.
I see parallels in real life. We look up to people who seem to be able to skirt around the tax code and "stick it to the man". We let the behavior of those around us determine what is acceptable. We like to romanticize the renegade or maverick who breaks the rules to help out his friends. And we do the same with our own behaviors.
We rationalize the things we do which we know are wrong. We make excuses for not doing what we know to be right. We distance ourselves from getting too wrapped up at church or bible study because that’s what the bible thumpers do. That’s what the hypocrites do. And so we keep on living our lives like we always have; maybe we are a little better than the next guy, but not too good. We keep Jesus at a safe distance so that we can keep a balance in life and not go off the "deep end." If this is a good descriptor of how we are living, perhaps it’s time to examine ourselves.
If we are afraid of being “too good” or not concerned with how “bad” we are, are we taking seriously our calling as a child of God? If we are not seeking to do the will of God and asking for his strength to do so are we hearing the voice of Christ who says, “ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened to you.?” In Christ we have strength and comfort to do all things and those things are what he has called us to do—without fear, embarrassment or regret.
You and I may never have the panache or charisma of Ferris Bueller, but in Christ, each one of us is certainly a Righteous Dude. To quote another iconic 80’s movie, “Party On Dude!”
In Christ,
RevnPadre
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Every Day a Sabbath
Every Day a Sabbath
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” The Third Commandment
Wouldn’t it be great if every day were Sunday? What if every day we could sing our favorite hymns, and hear God’s word spoken and proclaimed; to hear of the forgiveness of Jesus extended to us each and every day? Not only that, but what if each and every day could be a laid-back day of rest and holiness as our God showed us by example by his rest after creation? What if each day was a day in which we simply could reflect on our Lord, his gifts and our response?
What’s holding us back from that dream? Well, certainly our sinful condition, inherited from Adam and Eve dictates that each of us must work for our living, or go to school so that we can prepare for that eventual life of work. Most of us simply cannot spend every day in God’s house giving him worship and praise. God knows that and that is why he sets aside one day of the week for focusing on him.
But this commandment is not just about showing up on Sundays, it’s a commandment teaching us also to “remember” the Sabbath, in addition to keeping it holy (set-apart from the rest of our days). By now, school has started for most, if not all of our families, and you might be feeling the time crunch as you juggle schedules, and perhaps you haven’t gotten back into the Sunday worship routine, let alone home devotions or personal Bible study. But this is precisely the time when this commandment is helpful to us. Luther’s comments on this commandment are very helpful for us in this regard.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
In this short instruction Luther is encouraging each of us to go beyond being in the presence of the word (Sunday attendance in church), and instead hold it up as something special. God’s Word is not just words. It is the very lifeblood which gives us eternal life and when we have that perspective we cannot help but seek it out and desire to learn more about it.
Now you might be saying to yourself, “But Pastor, reading the Bible is so boring and bible study is so dry and I have so many important things to do.” To which I ask you, “have you really tried to ‘hear and learn it’ as Luther teaches us?” I would guess, (from personal experience) that most of us haven’t. There are lots of things in life we know we should do, but we lack the discipline to do it and Bible study often tops our list of things never followed through on.
We know that losing weight would make us healthier and live longer, yet we don’t do it. We know that going to bed at a regular time and getting a full 7 or 8 hours of sleep will make us a better, more productive employee, but yet studies show the average American is only sleeping 6 hours a night. We know that our kids are very vulnerable to un-godly images and ideals on the television each night, yet we continue to watch shows with them which are not healthy for their spiritual and emotional welfare.
The third commandment is not one of the “Thou shalt not do X” commandments. Rather, it is a command to “do” something which is necessary for our faith. But more than a command, its God’s free gift to us to spend time with him in his word, to learn more about him and grow in our relationship with him.
We no longer live in a society which expects a 6-day, 12 hour/day work week. We live in a time when discretionary time for the worker is at its highest. Yet, we say we have no time for God’s word in our lives. I would like to challenge each of our families and each of our members to discipline ourselves to seek out God’s word as often as possible and to do our best to remove all distractions from that time with our Lord. Whether you decide that your time in the Word is weekly, bi-weekly, daily or twice-daily, make sure your time with God is consistent, free of distraction and that you are open to his calling, because it is only through the Word that the Gospel can change lives; whether that life be yours, mine, or another’s.
My prayer for each of you this month is that we would all make every day a Sabbath day by remembering God’s Word, reading his Word, and applying that Word to our lives for that day.
Your fellow bond-servant for Christ, the Word made flesh,
“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” The Third Commandment
Wouldn’t it be great if every day were Sunday? What if every day we could sing our favorite hymns, and hear God’s word spoken and proclaimed; to hear of the forgiveness of Jesus extended to us each and every day? Not only that, but what if each and every day could be a laid-back day of rest and holiness as our God showed us by example by his rest after creation? What if each day was a day in which we simply could reflect on our Lord, his gifts and our response?
What’s holding us back from that dream? Well, certainly our sinful condition, inherited from Adam and Eve dictates that each of us must work for our living, or go to school so that we can prepare for that eventual life of work. Most of us simply cannot spend every day in God’s house giving him worship and praise. God knows that and that is why he sets aside one day of the week for focusing on him.
But this commandment is not just about showing up on Sundays, it’s a commandment teaching us also to “remember” the Sabbath, in addition to keeping it holy (set-apart from the rest of our days). By now, school has started for most, if not all of our families, and you might be feeling the time crunch as you juggle schedules, and perhaps you haven’t gotten back into the Sunday worship routine, let alone home devotions or personal Bible study. But this is precisely the time when this commandment is helpful to us. Luther’s comments on this commandment are very helpful for us in this regard.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
In this short instruction Luther is encouraging each of us to go beyond being in the presence of the word (Sunday attendance in church), and instead hold it up as something special. God’s Word is not just words. It is the very lifeblood which gives us eternal life and when we have that perspective we cannot help but seek it out and desire to learn more about it.
Now you might be saying to yourself, “But Pastor, reading the Bible is so boring and bible study is so dry and I have so many important things to do.” To which I ask you, “have you really tried to ‘hear and learn it’ as Luther teaches us?” I would guess, (from personal experience) that most of us haven’t. There are lots of things in life we know we should do, but we lack the discipline to do it and Bible study often tops our list of things never followed through on.
We know that losing weight would make us healthier and live longer, yet we don’t do it. We know that going to bed at a regular time and getting a full 7 or 8 hours of sleep will make us a better, more productive employee, but yet studies show the average American is only sleeping 6 hours a night. We know that our kids are very vulnerable to un-godly images and ideals on the television each night, yet we continue to watch shows with them which are not healthy for their spiritual and emotional welfare.
The third commandment is not one of the “Thou shalt not do X” commandments. Rather, it is a command to “do” something which is necessary for our faith. But more than a command, its God’s free gift to us to spend time with him in his word, to learn more about him and grow in our relationship with him.
We no longer live in a society which expects a 6-day, 12 hour/day work week. We live in a time when discretionary time for the worker is at its highest. Yet, we say we have no time for God’s word in our lives. I would like to challenge each of our families and each of our members to discipline ourselves to seek out God’s word as often as possible and to do our best to remove all distractions from that time with our Lord. Whether you decide that your time in the Word is weekly, bi-weekly, daily or twice-daily, make sure your time with God is consistent, free of distraction and that you are open to his calling, because it is only through the Word that the Gospel can change lives; whether that life be yours, mine, or another’s.
My prayer for each of you this month is that we would all make every day a Sabbath day by remembering God’s Word, reading his Word, and applying that Word to our lives for that day.
Your fellow bond-servant for Christ, the Word made flesh,
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Finding God
"Finding God" was the theme of our Bible study at camp last week. Basically, we took a crash course through a portion Luther's Small Catechism (CPH edition). Specifically, we looked at the Apostles Creed. The approach of "Finding God" was couched in the initial question, "Where is God in this broken world?" We looked at such topics as "God is not lost," "God has not lost us," and "God charts a path as we looked at the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The week culminated in having the attendees see that God is now at work through them as part of the Communion of Saints as we had a talent show in place of devotions on our last night in camp.
In speaking with some of my wife's family who were there, I found their comments afterwords quite interesting. It seems that many of the attendees, most of them Lutheran, had never spoken of God as we did last week. While there were many challenging questions from the group, and many long conversations over the nature of God, there was no angst or drama, even when we didn't all agree. One comment I heard second hand was, "That was hard. We don't talk about that stuff at church or in our other bible studies."
Now I would never consider to say that any of the campers had bad pastors or that they were in the dark about the creed. But the comments I received and the positive reaction to the topic really opened my mind on the idea of finding new formats for discussing the catechism. Unfortunately, we only had 6 hours to discuss what I usually take a whole semester to teach my eighth graders in confirmation. Naturally I skipped most of the questions, and that may have added to the difficulty. But I think the difficulty was not a bad thing. It made us really think about things. We got to contextualize the creed into our every day lives and that's what makes the lightbulbs click in people's hearts.
Its also not very often that any group of beleivers gets the opportunity to meet together each morning for an hour over coffee, the scriptures, and the creed, all whilst looking out on the Blue Ridge Mountains. But that's what bible camp affords and we were blessed for it. Although I probably spent more time preparing the study than we spent "doing" it, I learned far more interacting with my "students" than I ever imagined.
Later this weekend I'll try to post the study in its entirety in case others would like to use it. Its not perfect and its not complete, but it's one way to use the creed to touch a life for Jesus.
In speaking with some of my wife's family who were there, I found their comments afterwords quite interesting. It seems that many of the attendees, most of them Lutheran, had never spoken of God as we did last week. While there were many challenging questions from the group, and many long conversations over the nature of God, there was no angst or drama, even when we didn't all agree. One comment I heard second hand was, "That was hard. We don't talk about that stuff at church or in our other bible studies."
Now I would never consider to say that any of the campers had bad pastors or that they were in the dark about the creed. But the comments I received and the positive reaction to the topic really opened my mind on the idea of finding new formats for discussing the catechism. Unfortunately, we only had 6 hours to discuss what I usually take a whole semester to teach my eighth graders in confirmation. Naturally I skipped most of the questions, and that may have added to the difficulty. But I think the difficulty was not a bad thing. It made us really think about things. We got to contextualize the creed into our every day lives and that's what makes the lightbulbs click in people's hearts.
Its also not very often that any group of beleivers gets the opportunity to meet together each morning for an hour over coffee, the scriptures, and the creed, all whilst looking out on the Blue Ridge Mountains. But that's what bible camp affords and we were blessed for it. Although I probably spent more time preparing the study than we spent "doing" it, I learned far more interacting with my "students" than I ever imagined.
Later this weekend I'll try to post the study in its entirety in case others would like to use it. Its not perfect and its not complete, but it's one way to use the creed to touch a life for Jesus.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Back to work--back to no work.
Ok. So I've been gone from the office for 10 days (not the office of the public ministry, just the room where my desk sits with a phone on it). When I return I find out we have no internet or e-mail. AT&T hasn't a clue and we have to make an appointment to get it fixed. Sr. Pastor is on the phone with them all afternoon and they say they will have to call again tomorrow AM. Very frustrating.
However, I did get the opportunity to visit one of the saints in the Hospital on what might be his final trip there. I felt quite useless until he asked for prayer. We prayed for peace for him as well as the family who are caring for him. God works in mysterious ways and at times when we least expect. The Spirit did all the heavy lifting today. It is God's work, after all. Why we should expect our efforts to matter is really quite silly. Today was God's turn. Maybe tomorrow he'll pass the ball to me. I hope I'm ready if he does.
However, I did get the opportunity to visit one of the saints in the Hospital on what might be his final trip there. I felt quite useless until he asked for prayer. We prayed for peace for him as well as the family who are caring for him. God works in mysterious ways and at times when we least expect. The Spirit did all the heavy lifting today. It is God's work, after all. Why we should expect our efforts to matter is really quite silly. Today was God's turn. Maybe tomorrow he'll pass the ball to me. I hope I'm ready if he does.
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