A doorkeeper in the house of our God: Meditations on Psalm 84

The desire of the psalmist, and his passion for the house of God, is a desire to be where God is, and to be in close fellowship with Him.  For the ancient Hebrew people, this place took different forms—from the various altars established by the Patriarchs, to the Tabernacle built under Moses, to the Temple built under Solomon.  In each of these places, God heard the prayers of His people, and encountered them with His presence.  He came to them on mountains like Sinai, and His glory rested upon cities like Jerusalem.  But even with these particular places, it has always been that all of creation belongs to God, and there is no place beyond His presence.  Ultimately, to dwell in the house of the Lord, is to be in fellowship with God by faith in Him and His covenant, which is a fellowship with God that endures for eternity.

I find it strange that people—all of us, in some way or another—tend to resist this notion nearly all our lives.  Even for the regular Sunday morning church attendee, we find ourselves put out if the sermon runs long, or the liturgy seems boring, or there are songs we don’t like, or there are social events we’d rather be frequenting.  We know the 3^rd Commandment (Thou shalt remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy,) and sometimes we pry ourselves out of bed or away from the TV/computer/video games/cell phones, put our social plans on hold, and begrudgingly go to church.  Somewhere down deep in the recesses of our sinful soul, we think God should be happy with our little one or two hour sacrifice of our time, that He should be satisfied with our worship, and that He couldn’t possibly hold it against us for getting back to our other interests when we’re done.  After all, we’ve satisfied the letter of the law, and we have things to do.  We might even have tossed some money in the offering plate, managed to smile at a few folks, didn’t nod off during the pastor’s sermon, and came up for Communion.  But whatever you do, don’t get in our way as we’re heading for the door…

Of course, when we think about it in these terms, it sounds as ludicrous as it is.  A heart like this certainly does not satisfy the Law of God.  A heart bent on selfish desires, that somehow thinks giving a small portion of our lives back to the God who gives us all our lives, is not a heart of faith working in love.  This is the heart of one who is hopelessly twisted and evil, fallen from the created image God breathed into us at the beginning, with all our natural powers ultimately perverted to worship ourselves.  This is the heart of a sinner, who regardless of how many times they come to church, make offerings, sing songs, or tolerate sermons, deserves nothing but death and hell. This is the heart of one who is condemned to die, despite all the self justification it can muster.  This is a heart nailed to a cross of its own making, suffering and dying, with no hope of escape, and only the eventuality of that last ragged breath waiting to open the portal to everlasting torment on its horizon.

Perhaps you would ask, if this is the condition of that heart of the regular church going Christian, how does it differ from the heart that wanders about in the world, with scorn and abandon, satisfying its own lusts and perversions without restraint?  If the unbelieving and evil world is on the same justly deserved trajectory of death and hell, what difference can there possibly be?  Why should the Christian try to satisfy a Law that cannot save them, any more than it will save the one who blasphemes it openly?  It is a good question, and it strikes at the foundation of what it means to abide in the house of our God.

No flesh will appease God by works of the Law, for no flesh shall achieve perfection by their works.  Entirely born in sin, we continue to live under the curse of sin, until that sin works itself out in a death we justly deserve:  for the wages of sin is death.  The Law stands before us all, declaring the holiness and righteousness of Almighty God, and the hopeless depravity of mankind.  By the light of the Law of God, all mankind stands condemned; it is only the delay in our final sentence that gives us the time to dream up delusions of self justification.  Regardless of how good or excusable we think we are, we are all nailed to a cross of execution, awaiting the last ragged breath to escape our condemned bodies.  And we hang here justly, for our sins bear witness that the Law is holy, and righteous, and good—as is the God who executes His justice upon us.

But there is hope, even for the one nailed to a cross of slower or faster execution.  Consider the scene at Calvary, nearly 20 centuries ago.  On that hill, were crucified three people, two of whom were thieves, having justly earned their punishment.  The third was the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  Jesus had earned no punishment, but took it upon Himself willingly.  He had not earned death, and the holy Law of God revealed no flaw or wickedness in Him, but He took the place of death and condemnation anyway.  The Son of God became the Lamb of God, the Holy Sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world—and with those sins, takes away the condemnation and hell which they justly deserve.  For as one man, Adam, sinned and cast the whole human race into corruption, so by one Man’s divine Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, are many made alive.

The two thieves are an image of mankind, nailed there with Jesus.  Both will die for their sins, and justly so.  One will scorn Jesus, rejecting the salvation He offers.  The other, in faith and repentance, accepting his own guilt and begging for mercy, will ask Jesus, “Remember me, when you come into Your Kingdom.”  That dying thief, soaked in his own misery and blood, sentenced to die, who by faith clings to Jesus with hands riveted to wooden beams, receives mercy, grace, and salvation.  He does not dodge his cross, and he does not dodge temporal death—both the faithful and the faithless thief die upon their cross, and both breathe one last, rugged breath.  But the eyes of the faithful and repentant thief that close in death, open to a new life forever in the house of his God.  For to the dying and believing thief, Jesus’ words come, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise.”   The disbelieving thief dies, and goes to his just condemnation, but the believing thief by grace through faith, lives forever with Jesus in His Kingdom.

This is how sinful and condemned people, abide in the house of the Lord forever.  Not by works, for our works are what have nailed us to our justly deserved cross; not by vain philosophy and self justification, for they will not pry us off that cross to which we are fixed; not by any other name given under heaven, for no one other than Jesus has died for the sins of the world.  Only by a faith which can do nothing other than gasp out to Jesus, “Remember me… forgive me… have mercy on me a sinner,” comes the free gift of grace which promises, “You will be with Me in paradise.”

So why do we come to church, or do the things that faith in Christ inspire us to do?  Not for the sake of the Law, but in loving response to the Love of Christ first poured out upon us.  We come to the sanctuary of our God, because it is there that His Eternal Word breathes out the promise of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation we sinners who so desperately need.  It is there we return to Calvary, remembering that we are but a justly dying thief, but that the Lamb of God has taken His place with us, that through His life, death, and resurrection, we too shall have everlasting life in His Name.  Here we encounter our Savior, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and who by grace through faith takes ours away as well.  It is here we remember the promise, that though we draw our last ragged breath in this world, our eyes shall open to the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, even as our faith is made sight.

Here we remember, that it is better beyond measure, to be a door keeper in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, than to be lost in the perdition of the wicked who spurn Him.  For in Jesus, all dying robbers and thieves are made alive forevermore, by grace through faith in Him.  Have courage, my fellow condemned sinner—it is His good pleasure to give you His Kingdom.  Not by what you have done, but by what He has done.  All glory and honor be to Him forever.  Amen.

Being of one mind: Meditations on 1st Corinthians 1

A divided church is a dangerous thing, and the Apostles knew this from Christ’s own teaching, that a house divided against itself cannot stand.  Such was the concern among the Apostles for the churches they planted, that many were their calls to unity and solidarity.  But what does it mean to be of one mind, speaking and doing the same things, as St. Paul opens his admonitions to the church at Corinth?

An example is provided in Paul’s introduction:  the Christians naming themselves after particular Apostles and teachers.  Some claimed to be “of Paul,” others “of Apollos,” others “of Cephas,” and others “of Christ.”  This is not so different from today’s churches.  Some claim to be more in line with a particular teacher or center of authority, or with one tradition over another.  And some claim to be simply “Christian,” without realizing the sources of their teachings at all.  St. Paul’s stinging rebuke should sound just as sharply in our ears today, as it did to those who read them in the church of Corinth.

Did Paul, or Peter, or Apollos die for you?  Did Augustine, or Chrysostom, or Jerome die you?  Did Luther, or Calvin, or Zwingli die for you?  Did any contemporary church teacher or preacher die for you?  Of course not.  Every teacher in the church, from the Apostles down to our very day, at their best, pointed back to Jesus—and at their worst, pointed to something or someone else.  Paul was far from perfect, calling himself a chief of sinners.  Peter was not flawless, having denied the Savior three times on the day of His Passion, and needed rebuke from Paul later on for hypocrisy between Jews and Gentiles.  Augustine was not perfect, with his early life lived in debauchery, and his later life lived as a radical penance against sexual vice.  The list goes on.  Luther had many warts, not least of which being his fiery tongue and brutal temper; Calvin was run out of Geneva for running the city into the ground; Zwingli was killed in battle as a revolutionary and rebel.

What is the common thread of these teachers?  They are sinners, every one.  For since the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, there has not been one soul who was saved by grace through faith in Christ, who was not a sinner.  Or, in other words, the Church of Christ is a place populated entirely by sinners, from the laity to the pastors and leaders—for all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.  Every Christian is a sinner, who must beg for mercy before God in faith and repentance, and by grace alone be sanctified in the Blood of Christ, being made a saint through the Cross of Jesus.

This means that every human teacher we’ve ever had, is a sinner.  At their best, they point to something beyond themselves, and encourage their students not to cling to them.  The best of our teachers know who and what they are, and who it is that saves both them and us.  They know the means of grace, by which God reached down and saved them, and which are given for the life of the whole world.  They know they live by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and the love of God in Jesus Christ pours out through them, to guide others into that same saving relationship with Jesus.  In so far as these teachers agree in Christ and His Word, they are united, and should be lauded.  When they fail, however, and their sinful nature corrupts their speech and teaching, we pray for mercy upon them, setting aside their error, and seeking again for Christ.

This is why St. Paul is aghast that the Christians in Corinth would take the mantle of his sinful name, or any other sinful name of human teachers.  He knows that he, like all pastors, are sinners to the core, unable to save anyone, including themselves.  He knows that the pastor’s mission is more akin to that of the angels, taking no credit or honor to themselves, but continually serving and pointing others to the God who saves them.  Every faithful teacher in the church, from the Apostles down to our day has perceived this, from the words of St. Paul, and numerous others throughout the Holy Scriptures. There is only One God, and His Word alone is to be the measure of the Christian teacher, and the Christian faith.  We are not free to set aside a single syllable what God has said.  And we are not free to add a single syllable to what He has said.  Everything beyond Holy Scripture is at best a pious opinion, and at worst, a sinful corruption.

Which brings us back to the original question:  What is it to be of one mind in the Christian Church?  It is to have the mind of Christ.  Christ is not divided, and He alone, the sinless Lamb of God, has died for the sins of the world.  He alone has conquered sin, death, the devil and hell, and gives life to His people by grace through faith in Him.  He alone is the Savior of the world, and He alone is the Word of God made flesh.  It is His image into which the Holy Spirit is constantly conforming the humble and repentant sinner, so that Christ might be formed in them.  What does a perfectly united and undivided church look like?  It looks like Jesus.

So why are there divisions in the church, both in our day, as at the time of the Apostles?  Because of sin and unbelief—pride and presumption—ignorance and malice.  We know what Christ has said, because He gave us His Word through His holy Prophets and Apostles, which the Church gathered together into the canon of Holy Scripture.  Everything necessary for the Christian and the Church, from the beginning to the end, is there.  All the disputes we have about authority in the church, the role of faith and repentance in the Christian life, grace and works of love, and a thousand other things, are settled in the Holy Scriptures.  God’s Law is clear, as is His Gospel of salvation.  Where we find divisions in the Church, is in greater or lesser acceptance of those Holy Scriptures—a greater or lesser conformance to the mind of Christ.

What are we to do, then, with St. Paul’s urgent call to the Corinthian church, and by extension, to our churches today?  Repent.  Believe.  Hear the Word of the Lord, and keep it, in all its parts and pieces.  Hear the Law in all its severity, condemning every sin of pride and hatred, avarice and contempt.  Hear the Gospel proclamation that Jesus has given His life for the sins of the world, that His grace may be poured out freely upon those who could not pay for it.  Hear the call to Christian holiness, to be conformed ever more by the power of His Holy Spirit working through His Word and Sacraments, into the image and mind of Christ.  Hear the call to repent of selfishness, and embrace the sweet fellowship of the Communion of the Saints, who all live by grace through faith in Christ alone.  See the blessed unity Christ creates through His Word and Spirit, into which you are grafted by grace through faith in Him.  See the Vine and all His branches, alive in Him, together forever.

Rather than trying to reconcile Paul and Calvin, or Augustine and Luther, or Chrysostom and Zwingli, the call of Christ is to be reconciled to God through His Cross.  Let the world’s eyes turn to Jesus, and their ears be opened to His Word, where all the human teachers are lost in the brilliance of His Eternal Light.  There we will find the unity of the Church, where Christ alone is the center and the circumference, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  Amen.

Behold the Lamb of God: Meditations on John 1

 

This Sunday has been dubbed, in the modern era, Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, and many churches across the west will be emphasizing some aspect of this in their homilies this week.  From war, to euthanasia, to infanticide and abortion, many will discuss the blights of our evil age, and what some 20^th century theologians have identified as a “culture of death.”  These sins, grievous as they are, are condemned by the Law of God, earning for those who commit them eternal and temporal punishment.  As with all evil, the end of those who practice such things, is hell and eternal torment—first for the wounds done to the neighbor created in God’s image, but primarily for the wounds done to God and His Holy Word.  Ultimately, every sin and evil is an assault and rebellion against God, though it often finds its way to wound His creation, also.

It is important, though, that we do not lose sight of the individuality of this evil, which is summed up in the commandment, “Thou shalt not murder.”  Much hay is made over political parties and policies, but these are macrocosms built upon the individual realities:  all societies are simply the aggregate of their individual people, no matter how large and gaudy their governments appear.  Here in our country, we have a government that is elected by the citizens, to do the work of the people, under the Constitution and its derived laws.  Individual people manage their own lives, have families, gather in churches, build cities, establish states, pay taxes, and support a federal government.  For all the pomp and power of our nation, it is nothing more than the extension of each of our 300+ million people, using our resources, and acting out our lives in local, national, and international contexts.  We are a nation of individual people, as much as we are families of individual people, knit together in our social construct, and living together in our time and place.

I make this point, because it is easy for the Church of Christ, and her people, to chase shadows rather than realities.  If governments and their policies are the shadows cast by a nation of individual people, the Church must be careful not to waste efforts against governments and policies.  Every time the people of the Church enter such battles, they swipe through smoke and cinders, never reaching the source of the fire.  If we have a government or a policy that needs to be corrected, the target is not so much the government or the policy, but the people who bring them into being.

This makes sense also, when one considers that Christ did not send out His Apostles to convert governments or change social policies in the ancient Roman world (a world still far more problematic for Christians than the one in which we live today in the west,) but rather to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you…” (Cf. Matthew 28, Mark 16, John 20, and the Acts of the Apostles.)  Jesus did not send His Apostles to convert governments, but people—individual people.  Jesus knew better than anyone, that all the societies and gatherings of men were nothing more than the people who built them.  As any historian will tell you, cultures, nations, laws and policies come and go across time and space.  But what is consistent, is the people who gather together and compose them; the same being true even of churchly societies and gatherings, however nobly they were fashioned.

So what realities are in the world today?  There are people.  And these people boil down into two fundamental categories:  those who hear the Word of the Lord and keep it, and those who do not.  That’s it.  There are only two kinds of people in the world, and those two kinds of people do very different things, based upon who they are at their core.  If they have been born from above by Water and Spirit through the power of God’s Word, giving them a new life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, they live unto God in faith and repentance—turning from their evil, by faith clinging to the Gospel of salvation.  In such people the Spirit of God dwells, bringing out of them the fruits of faith, which are love and compassion which fulfill the Law of God.  If the people are not enlivened by God, they are dead in their trespasses and sins, following the inclinations of the devil, and bringing about the wicked fruit of unfaithful evil.  Faithful people will gather together to do the works of love which God inspires them to do, and faithless people will gather together to do the works of evil which Lucifer inspires them to do.  Here is the underlying machinery of human government, society, and culture, and here it is that Christ directs His Church.

Do you look out into the world, and see it awash in evil?  I do.  I see a world that promotes war for the purposes of money, pride and resources, trading the lives of men, women, and children for political and material gain.  I see economic structures and policies designed to guard oppressors while stealing from the poor and powerless, and for the sake of profit leave the souls of many to suffer and die of starvation and disease.  I see a world where pleasure and convenience is valued more greatly than the lives of children, and the law of the land provides infanticide as a solution to the consequences of irresponsible, unnatural, and illicit sexual conduct.  I see a world where children are exploited for the gratification of hedonistic adults, and sex slavery leads to the wounding and death of countless millions.  I see a world where Lucifer gathers his witting and unwitting worshippers, corrupting everything he touches, and drawing the world into the flames of hell which are prepared for him and his wickedness.

But I also see another world.  There is another world breaking into this one, by the power of God and His Word.  Through the dark and the gloom, He sends His Light and His Life to all who hear Him, turn, believe, and live.  This world gathers around its Savior and God, Jesus Christ, who in Himself has taken all the wickedness and sin of all humanity upon Himself, dying and rising again, that all who trust in Him will likewise live forever.  In this world, the Word of Christ reigns supreme, where the Law convicts of sin, and the Gospel forgives the repentant sinner.  In this world, the Kingdom of God is manifested, where the Word and gifts of Christ call and gather His people of every tribe and tongue, nation and race, enlightening them and enlivening them.  In this world, the people gather together to work the works of Jesus, knowing that for them is laid up the Eternal City through the merits won by Jesus on His Cross.  In this world, the Light of Christ overcomes the darkness of the devil, and faith, hope, and love abide forever.

I look out from this vista, and I see two worlds at war with each other over the individual souls of every man, woman, and child:  The Kingdom of Lucifer, which leads to perdition, and the Kingdom of Christ, which leads to paradise.  It is not necessary that we swipe at the devil’s shadows and vagaries, but rather that we see each soul for who it is:  a child of God, or a captive of the devil.  As we do this, we may look first upon our own soul, so that we may return in faith and repentance to the God who seeks and saves us through His Son.  Having removed the log from our own eye, we may see clearly to call our neighbor to the same repentance, faith, and life that we have found in Jesus Christ.  In so doing, we join in the Apostolic work given by Christ, making disciples—citizens of the Kingdom of God—who in turn will gather around His Word, to do in faith the works of love He has given to us.

Do you want to change the culture of death?  You cannot—but God can.  Be converted by His Word and His Spirit.  Hear and believe Him.  Turn from your sin and wickedness.  Leave your evil taskmaster behind, and embrace the Christ who has given everything to save you from his fiery grip.  As His child, alive by grace through faith in Jesus, call others into this same sweet fellowship.  Show them that there is another world, another Kingdom, another way.  Bring them to where Christ is the center and the circumference, and where life flows abundantly through His Word.

If you would see the culture of death changed, begin by leaving it yourself, and returning to Christ and His Word.  In faith and repentance, you will find life in His grace.  And here, in His Kingdom, His Word will work through you, to call other souls to faith, repentance, grace and life.  May the Spirit so move us all, to hear the Word as it calls through St. John the Baptist:  Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  Amen.

To whom do you yield yourself? A Meditation on Romans 6

As an American, and a veteran, I take a great deal of pride in the freedom of our people, and of our Republic.  As a nation, we were formed in the crucible of war against tyranny, and framed our government with a Constitution that preserved this land as the home of the free and the brave.  We are a people who prize our freedom, enshrine it in our laws, emblazon it on our public buildings, and sing it in our anthems.  We salute our soldiers, those past and present, fallen and survived, for guarding and preserving our freedom.  It is certainly true that we, both as individuals and as a people, have used our freedom in better and worse ways over these centuries we’ve had it, but in our genius and our stupidity, freedom has been a constant and cherished virtue.  Even when we abuse our liberty, we still hold it in high regard, as something worth the price of occasional error.

Our text in Romans for this week, forces us to look a bit deeper than our political and national patriotism is accustomed to peer.  Here we find a universal truth about mankind:  no one is actually free.

As galling as that may sound to American ears, it is true.  Human beings are never really free.  We enter this world by the choices of our parents and the grace of God, and we leave it when we can no longer fend off death.  Not a single human being has ever given birth to himself, nor defied death to live forever, so that he might say, “I am free!”  We enter this life on the whim of others, and from our first breath to our last, the tyrant Death keeps his shackles tightly about our necks.  His power is greater than any can resist, and at the last, he comes to all, taking from them the breath of life they clutch to with all their might.  What is true of the rich and powerful, is also true of the weak and powerless:  all shall die.  The mirage of freedom that we prop up for ourselves between the moment of our birth and the moment of our death, lasts only until it is broken by words like “cancer,” or the defeated voice of the doctor who says, “I’m sorry… there’s no more I can do.”  Natural man, all alone under the tyranny of Death, has no hope of escape, regardless of how posh his castle, or robust his bank account.  Such is the lot of mankind, to be slaves of Death.

But God has something to say to us, chained under a tyrant far greater than any of us could master.  He speaks of the world as He made it, without Death.  He speaks of a world that existed in perfect unity and harmony with Himself, who is the source of all Life and blessing.  He speaks of a world in which He placed man, where He could live in happiness and peace forever, as sons and daughters of the King of the Universe.  And He speaks of the day in which man chose to leave the King of Glory, and serve a deceitful rebel… one who promised much, but delivered only the shackles of Death.  As man chose to leave the Author of Life, they followed the wicked path of the evil one, who led them inexorably into the clutches of a tyrant implacable and merciless.  Having chosen evil over God, they exchanged their good and rightful King, for the brutality of a slave master.  Once servants of God, heirs of His Kingdom, they became slaves of sin and Death, heirs only to hell.

If this were all there was to the story, it would still be true, and just, and right; even if it were eternally and infinitely tragic.  No one enslaved to Death, doesn’t deserve Death and hell—for all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.  But our Creating and Saving God was not content to leave us in the slavery we had chosen for ourselves, nor to be the prey of Death.  To rescue His people from their fate, and the chains which bound them to their dark master, He sent His Only Begotten Son into our flesh, that He might conquer Death forever.  In the great Mystery of the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, surrenders Himself to the tyrant of our race, and humbles Himself.  He humbly takes the form of a servant, though He is King of Glory; He brings grace and mercy, though He is Judge of All; He is beaten, spat upon, and nailed to a cross, left to die, though He is the Author of Life; He descends to the place of the dead, and preaches liberty to the souls chained in darkness; He rises from the dead on the third day, having bound Death and the Devil, and in His own flesh paid the price of our sin; He speaks even now to the world the Gospel of salvation, that as He lives forever, so shall all who trust in Him.

And to you, to whom this Word has come from the Author of Life, the Savior of the World, Jesus Christ, also comes the power to break the chains which bind you in sin under the tyranny of Death.  His Spirit comes to you through His Word, convicting you of the evil you know you are guilty of, and giving you faith to believe that Jesus has paid for your wickedness, that you may live forgiven in Him forever.  His Word calls to you, giving you a new birth from above, by Water and Spirit, so that in your Baptism, Jesus’ death becomes your death, and His Life becomes your life.  United to Him in a death like His, you become united to Him in a life like His, where Death no longer reigns over you, and hell is no longer your inheritance.  Your life becomes hidden in Christ, and all that He has won for you, is yours.

You have been bought with a price—the precious Blood of the Son of God.  He has broken your chains that bound you in your sins, conquered your tyrannical slave master, and made you an heir of heaven.  He has made you free indeed, to love and serve Him as you were created to be, in perfect harmony with Him, singing forth His praises forever.  And so we are reminded, that man is always and only in one of two states:  a servant of God who lives forever, or a slave of Death who dies forever. 

Remember the God who bought your freedom and restored your place in His Kingdom, that you may always present yourself to Him in living faith, which serves His righteousness forever by His grace.  Do not turn back to the evil tyrant who enslaved you by sin unto Death.  For the one to whom you yield yourself, is your Master indeed:  Jesus Christ unto life, or the devil unto Death.

By the power of His Holy Spirit, working through His Holy Word:  Choose life. Amen.