Saturday, January 29, 2022

Love that Abides Forever: A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 13, for the 4th Sunday of Epiphany


Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity,

I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

 And though I have the gift of prophecy,

and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge;

and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,

 and have not charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,

and though I give my body to be burned,

and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

 

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not;

charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own,

is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

Beareth all things, believeth all things,

hopeth all things, endureth all things.

 

 Charity never faileth:

 but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;

whether there be tongues, they shall cease;

whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

 But when that which is perfect is come,

then that which is in part shall be done away.

 

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child,

I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:

 now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;

but the greatest of these is charity.

 

There is much in our readings for this Sunday worthy of deep meditation, perhaps all the more so for the confusion modern culture has created around the themes of these readings.  There is the opening chapter of Jeremiah where God reveals that He has known Jeremiah and marked him for his prophetic ministry from the womb to the nation of Israel preceding the Babylonian captivity; there is Christ casting out demons in Capernaum, healing the sick, and preaching the Gospel to the poor even after He himself was cast out of His own home town of Nazareth; there are St. Paul’s echoing words to the church at Corinth about the superiority of love over all other divine gifts, enduring forever with faith and hope.  While the Jeremiah text is often used to bolster the pro-life movement (which is a valid application), or to suggest that anyone and everyone is intended to have a ministry like Jeremiah’s (which is not a valid application), these are not the primary context of this passage.  Likewise, the miraculous works of Jesus as He preached throughout Galilee are not to focus on the itinerancy of His ministry nor attempt psychoanalysis of what a demoniac may have been understood as then versus today.  And St. Paul’s words on love are not primarily intended for wedding ceremonies, and certainly not as an excuse for modern people to bless or condone evil.  What all these texts do reveal, however, is the love of God for us—a love fulfilled in the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The kind of love that St. Paul refers to is not what most Western people think of as love.  In Greek, there are words for love that refer to friendship, to the love between family members, to the romantic love between couples, or perhaps the love of a well toasted bagel—but there is a kind of love that transcends all of these, which is divine love.  Sometimes transliterated into English as “agape,” it is a love which often feels alien to mankind, because mankind is fallen in their nature.  Paul uses this term for divine love when he is preaching to the church in Corinth, and he knows that he must elucidate the concept, because Corinth was full of all kinds of love that were anything but divine.  Fallen man often sees love as an economic exchange, of satisfying one’s own desires or ambitions or tastes, in exchange for doing the same for someone else.  When love is centered on satisfaction of the self, it becomes a dark and corrupted thing, no matter what flattery we adorn it with through prose or poetry or cinema.  Selfish love reflects a fundamental love of self, which again reflects our violation of the first commandment as we make ourselves—through out own appetites and pride—our own gods.  Regardless of what we might want to believe, selfish love is not what abides forever because it is not real love, anymore than a contract with a prostitute or loose agreements with serial paramours is authentic marriage.  Real love is selfless.

 

This should give us pause as we reflect on Paul’s inspired teaching about love, and look to see it as God moved through the raising up of the Old Testament Prophets, and ultimately displayed it in the person of His only begotten Son.  When we look at Jesus, we see a love that was long suffering, had no envy, and did not puff itself up in pride; it did not act in unseemly ways, nor was easily provoked, nor thought evil; it did not rejoice or condone lies, but abided joyously in the truth; it believed every Word of the Father, endured all things, and never failed, even through betrayal and death on a Roman cross.  Jesus is the love of God made manifest to us, so that we might know what selfless, authentic love really is.  This is the love which moved God to create the world, even as He knew it would fall by the hands of men and demons into sin and destruction; the love that would endure all the rising and falling of history to bring forth His Messiah for the redemption of the world, even as the world He came to save would crucify Him; the love that would descend to the dead, and rise again victorious over every enemy of mankind, though He Himself needed no salvation; the love that would give all the good gifts of heaven to man by grace through faith in Jesus alone, because man could gain salvation no other way; the love that promises to abide with us to the end of the age, to hold us even as we pass from death to eternal life; the love that has promised to raise us all up at the Last Day, to restore the Creation, and preserve all His people from ever again being tormented by evil.  This is the love we see in Jesus, and the love which He has poured out on us.

 

If we are looking for a fulfilment of the Law, this is the love which does it.  This sacrificial, selfless love is alone what rescues us from the sin which corrupts us from the inside out, from the twisted caricature of love with which we so often abuse ourselves and others.  This is the love which finally polishes the mirror of the Law into its perfect brightness, that we might see Jesus alone as both the perfection of the Law and the Savior of all those who turn from their evil and trust in Him.  And not only does God display this love for us to behold in our Savior, that we might understand what true love is—He pours it out lavashly into you and me, so that we begin to love as we are loved, and to grow into the fullness of His love as the Holy Spirit continues to conform us, day by day, into the image of Jesus.  This is the love of God which gives rise to faith and hope, and flowers into all the other gifts of God bestowed upon the world, be they prophesy, or teaching, or healing, or any other good thing among us.

 

Ah, what grace upon grace is the love of God to us!  A fountain which flows without ever being diminished, a foundation so firm that it will endure though heaven and earth pass away, and a summit so high that we might spend eternity exploring its verdant ascents.  This is the love from which all our blessings flow, all our gifts, all our vocations, all our hopes, and all our life.  This is the love which covers a multitude of sins, that offers forgiveness and salvation and life in exchange for our all our self-made faults and destruction and misery.  This is the love that calls us into community with the gracious King of the Universe, who is Himself the source and summit of all our faith, hope, and love.  Gory be to Him forever and ever, unto ages without end, for the love He has poured out upon us in Jesus Christ!  Amen.

 

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Do Whatever He Tells You: A Meditation on John 2 for the 2nd Sunday of Epiphany

 

And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee;

and the mother of Jesus was there:

 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.

And when they wanted wine,

the mother of Jesus saith unto him,

They have no wine.

Jesus saith unto her,

Woman, what have I to do with thee?

 mine hour is not yet come.

His mother saith unto the servants,

Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

 

And there were set there six waterpots of stone,

after the manner of the purifying of the Jews,

 containing two or three firkins apiece.

 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water.

And they filled them up to the brim.

And he saith unto them,

Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.

And they bare it.

 

 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine,

and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;)

the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine;

and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse:

but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee,

and manifested forth his glory;

and his disciples believed on him.

 

There is much to be learned from this inaugural sign John records of Jesus at the wedding in Cana, but I think John helps us understand that the most important aspect of the story is the faith it generated in Jesus’ disciples.  Faith is a central intention of John’s whole Gospel, and the end of this passage points out again that even as this was the beginning of miracles Jesus performed in Galilee, the result was that it manifested forth His glory and His disciples believed on Him. What I think might be easily lost in quick readings or dramatizations of this passage, is the way faith is exhibited by both Mary and the servants at the beginning.  For one, Mary, Jesus, and the disciples are merely guests at this wedding feast, and the text does not infer why they were invited, nor that they were particularly honored guests (Jesus’ family is of humble means, and the setting is one with a big house and numerous servants.)  Secondly, when Jesus seems to dismiss the problem with the wine running out and the disgrace which might be faced by the wealthy family throwing the party, Mary’s response of do whatever He tells you does not infer that Jesus will fix the situation, but that He will do what is right.  Third might be the faith of the servants, who after doing all the labor of hauling water by hand to fill the large ceremonial pots (roughly 150 to 200 gallons worth) are called to follow Jesus’ word and take what they knew was previously only water and now appeared to be wine, to the wealthy lord of the manner.

 

Without faith, none of this would have been done.  Perhaps Mary, Jesus, and the disciples were there because someone in the wealthy family knew them, or maybe they were there because the wealthy family just let everyone in the area in to celebrate the wedding.  Regardless, it is the faith of Mary and her compassion for the wedding family that inspires her to approach Jesus with the wine problem, even though she most certainly knew that wine and revelry were not the reason her Son was born into the world.  And it was Mary’s faith in her Son which guided her response to Jesus’ mild correction (what have I to do with thee?, or perhaps otherwise rendered, what does this request have to do with my mission?) by accepting whatever Jesus would decide to do about the situation, then guiding everyone else to do the same.  It was Mary’s faith in Jesus which inspired the servants to do whatever Jesus told them to do, which included a great deal of physical labor without any clarity of what would be the outcome.  Mary, as she so often is portrayed in the Scriptures and remembered down through the ages, is a model of faith working in love, trusting in Jesus her Savior, abiding in His Word, and encouraging others to do the same.  What the disciplines learned of Jesus’ majesty and glory which was building in them a living faith in the Messiah, was facilitated by the faith of the Blessed Virgin Mary as they learned also from her what it was to be a disciple of Jesus.

 

While Jesus is always the pivotal center and focus of the Scriptures, it worth taking a moment to reflect on the faith and love of Mary toward her Son.  In the modern world, faith is so often taken to be anything but what Mary showed it forth to be.  How often have Christians sought their own material benefit when approaching their Savior in prayer, rather than the benefit of others who may not even know Jesus?  How often have we demanded of God an answer to our prayers which fits our intended outcome, be it health, wealth, providence, protection, knowledge, or any host of other things, rather than being content with whatever answer the Lord might provide?  How often have we leaned on our own understanding and experience when counseling others in their problems, or silently wagged our heads at others in their self-imposed misery, rather than gently calling others to follow the path of humble faith in Jesus?  Mary, for all her blessings and honor as the Mother of God, is not the object of our faith, but like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Ruth, David, Elijah, John, Paul, Peter, and others in the biblical witness, her model of faith is worth considering.  And since Mary’s faith is one that grew in the presence of her Savior in a way unique to all other people in the history of the world, it is worth pondering the faith that Jesus gave her as we also reflect on the weakness and challenges of our own faith.

 

This I think is key to understanding the wedding feast at Cana.  Mary is not the author nor the object of her own faith.  Her faith is given to her by God, so that her life may abide in God her Savior, even as her Savior is born from her own body by the power of the Holy Spirit, and grew up under her motherly care into the fullness of wisdom, grace, and truth.  Mary’s faith is not of her own works nor made by her own powers, but given to her by grace so that she might live forever in the forgiveness, life, and salvation Jesus would win for us all by His Cross.  Mary’s gift of faith is one that works in love for her God and her neighbors, a compassion which flows from the unwarranted and unending love God first had for her.  Mary’s faith which lived humbly under the Word of the Lord came to her by that same Word, so that in her as in all others, faith would come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.  Mary is and remains a model of faith to all Christians, because what Jesus worked in her, He promises to work in us, as well, that all people might be saved by grace through faith in Him alone.

 

In this time of Epiphany, may the light of Jesus and His Word shine forth in us, and the faith He once formed in the heart of His Blessed Mother be the faith He forms in us, that we might also live and abide in Him forever.  Leave behind the selfishness and pride and fear that would cloud your gift of faith, that like Mary we might be a witness to everyone around us that Jesus Christ alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for all mankind.  Amen.

 

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Baptized in the Holy Ghost: A Meditation on Luke 3 for the 1st Sunday in Epiphany


And as the people were in expectation,

and all men mused in their hearts of John,

whether he were the Christ, or not;

John answered, saying unto them all,

I indeed baptize you with water;

but one mightier than I cometh,

the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose:

he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

Whose fan is in his hand,

and he will thoroughly purge his floor,

and will gather the wheat into his garner;

but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

 

There may be few things that make Lutherans more uncomfortable than a topic framed up as Baptism in the Holy Ghost, but since John the Baptist under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said it about Jesus, we should take some time to understand it.  And like all things regarding Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we should keep our considerations rooted in Scripture rather than our own speculations… pious as they may be.

 

In the context of this passage, St. Luke is reminding us of just who John the Baptist was:  a prophet and forerunner of the Messiah, but not the Messiah himself.  John was clear in his teaching that he was to prepare the way of the Lord, to make His paths straight, as prophesied by Isaiah almost 600 years earlier.  When people asked him if he was the Messiah, he flatly told them no, but pointed them to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  While Jesus would declare that no prophet born of women was greater than John the Baptist, John was clear that the One who should really be the focus of their attention was Jesus.  He was the One who was coming to fulfill all the prophecies, to save Israel and the whole world from their sins, and to baptize the world with the Holy Ghost and with fire.  Jesus’ fan is in His hand (a tool used to separate wheat from chaff on the threshing floor) so that the wheat might be preserved, and the chaff be burned with unquenchable fire.

 

So the first thing we might want to separate is the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire.  While Pentecost is described by Luke later in the Book of Acts as the Holy Spirit descending like tongues of flame upon the Apostles who then spoke with varied tongues to declare the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a multinational crowd, that is not the direct reference made here.  The baptism of the Holy Ghost would appear to correlate with the wheat which are preserved when the Lord returns in judgement, and the fire to correspond with the unquenchable flame which consumes the chaff.  While the first is an image of salvation in heaven and the resurrection to eternal life, the second is an image of condemnation in hell and the resurrection unto eternal perdition.  Jesus is at the center of that judgement as the One who both gives eternal life, and the One who says, depart from Me… I never knew you.  Thus the baptism of the Holy Ghost is to be baptized into Christ, just as He indicated at the end of Luke’s Gospel, and directly commanded at the end of Matthew’s Gospel.  Baptism in the Holy Ghost is the Baptism that Jesus instituted as He told His disciples to make more disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe everything Jesus had taught them, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and promising that He would abide with them unto the end of the age.  This would be water joined to the promise of Jesus’ Word which creates the faith that receives His grace so that, as John would record in His Gospel, Jesus’ disciples would be those who were born again—born from above—by water and Spirit.

 

Without having to wander into any peculiar theological speculations, we can see that Baptism in the Holy Ghost is Christian Baptism, the means established by Jesus for His disciples to be grafted into Him by grace through faith, and through which all His blessings, gifts, and empowerment to live in His grace are found.  It is not our action which does this, but the Holy Spirit working through the Word of Jesus accomplishes what it says, because the Word of the Lord always accomplishes what He sends it out to do.  And yet, not all who hear His Word accept, believe, or trust in it, and so the Word accomplishes its secondary mission, too:  it will harden the hearts of those who refuse to believe so that their judgement and condemnation are clear and just.  The Word of the Lord will always do its work of Law and Gospel as it calls all people to Faith and Repentance.  To those who believe repent, it is a Word of Gospel grace and everlasting life, but on those who reject Him, it is a Word of Law which burns with eternal fire.

 

The Season of Epiphany is a season of light and revelation, most especially the light and revelation of Jesus.  It is Jesus who came to us on that first Christmas morning so that He might come to us now in the fullness of His Word, giving to us life in never-ending abundance.  But neither should we be deceived into thinking that rejecting Him or His Word comes without consequence, for there is no other Name given under heaven whereby we must be saved, and no other Word by which we might be born again.  It is Jesus alone who calls to us that we might be Baptized into His Holy Spirit by grace through faith in Him alone, just as it is His Word which will judge the whole unbelieving world at the end of days.  Hear Him, repent, believe, and live, for:

 

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

Whose fan is in his hand,

and he will thoroughly purge his floor,

and will gather the wheat into his garner;

but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

 

Amen.