Thoughts on Marriage

Thoughts on Marriage:  Scripture and Natural Law

A Primer as SCOTUS Prepares to Rule

The Supreme Court of the United States is set to hear two important cases in the ongoing litigation regarding Marriage in our nation.  The first is relative to Proposition 8 in California, the second is relative to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA.)  While the press, politicians, and various action groups are jousting in the public square, it is important that Christians take some time to reflect on this issue, regardless of how the culture or the Court conclude their thinking.  The two primary categories summarized below belong to the classical categories of Special Revelation (Holy Scripture) and General Revelation (Laws of Nature.)

Summary of Biblical Witness to Marriage

            Genesis 1-2.  The creation of the world by God, with design and intent, undergirds the whole of Christian understanding of the coherence of reality.  God, who is a God of order, imposed order upon the creation, so that it would no longer be formless and void.  This order includes the way in which God created man and woman in His own image, and created them to live complimentarily while bringing forth and shaping the next generation of people.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. ²⁸ Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”Gen. 1:26-28, NKJV

            Matthew 19.  Lest we miss the centrality of the doctrine of creation given in Genesis, and of the order instituted by God for the relationship of men and women, Christ comments on this text while answering a question of the Pharisees:

⁴ And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”NKJV

            Man and woman are created particularly for each other, and complete each other in the order of creation.  As they are joined together, they become one flesh, such that no one should attempt to separate them—for what God accomplishes by joining them, ought not be undone by the will of man.

            Ephesians 5.  The Apostles continued to reflect Christ’s understanding of marriage in the order of creation, as they reflected that image forward into the Church.  Christ referred to Himself as the Bridegroom, and His Bride as the Church.  St. Paul makes this point clear, when discussing marriage with the Church at Ephesus, when he writes:

³¹ “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. ³³ Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. NKJV

Some Biblical Conclusions Regarding Marriage

Marriage is established by God at the creation

Order of Creation includes the order of Man and Woman

People recognize God’s order—they are not free to change it

Marriage is ordered toward the intention of procreation

The blessing God gives to Marriage is related to the order and purpose of Marriage

The union of one flesh, is related to the created order and purpose of Marriage

The order and purpose of Marriage, foreshadows Christ and the Church

Christian Marriage is a sacred mystery, reflecting Christ and the Church

Christ (Bridegroom) is head of the Church (Bride)

Christ sacrifices Himself to save and sanctify His Church

The Church submits to her Bridegroom in all things (hears His Word, and keeps it)

The order and purpose of Marriage is given to the Church by Christ

The Church is not free to change what Christ has created and ordered

The Church is not free to bless what Christ has not blessed

Summary of Natural Law Related to Marriage (General Revelation)
            Natural Law, or the observable laws of nature, bear witness to the fundamental nature of human marriage as distinct from all other relationships between people.  While friendship and camaraderie can be shared by people of all cultural and genetic distinctives, the procreation of children and the furthering of the human race are only accomplished by the union of a man and woman.  There is no other mechanism given in nature for the continuation of the species, though laboratory experimentation with the genetic material of human beings may attempt to prove otherwise.  Every person alive today, and alive since the dawn of our race, has come into being through the agency of a father and a mother.
            Natural Law also shows that while any combination of men and women may result in the procreation of children (cf. polyamory and polygamy, serial monogamy, and even rape, incest, and pedophilia) the observation of cultures east and west over millennia have found that the most healthy environment for the care and maturation of children, is by a single father and mother devoted to this cause.  Thus, cultures have attached their children to their parents through law, and encouraged the most natural and healthy environment for the formation of the next generation, knowing that the continuation of the culture and the society depends on the link between generations.  Poorly or insufficiently formed children become destructive to the cultural order (crime, disturbance, ignorance, low productivity, etc.,) and make for poor citizens.  Insufficiently formed citizens undermine the society, and eventually cause it to fall under either its own weight (society no longer able to support itself) or under the weight of a stronger foreign culture (society no longer able to defend itself against attack and domination.)
            Further, a society that desires to continue from one generation to the next, must curb the desires of the current generation, in order to protect the formation of the next.  Thus sexual ethics in many world cultures restrain the passions of adults, in order to preserve the best possible environment for the formation of youth into fully developed adult citizens.  This is recognized by many great thinkers of human history, but is well summarized by the ethical maxims of the 18^th century philosophical giant, Immanuel Kant, when he articulates his Categorical Imperative in the Foundation of the Metaphysics of Morals:

Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.

            Like many other observers of Natural Law, Kant perceived that we do not act as a society based on the limited morality of personal observation and opportunity, but on the moral deliberation that extends that personal action out into community.  If a society embraced a sexual and marital ethic contrary to natural marriage, in which the best potential environment for developing the citizens of the next generation is abandoned for something else, this new universal law would weaken the society and eventually bring about its fall.

 Natural Law Conclusions Regarding Marriage

n     World cultures, across time and place, recognize the utility of natural marriage

n     Modern sociological studies recognize the utility of natural marriage

n     Only a union of man and woman, can produce new human beings

n     Only a single father and mother household, is best for the healthy formation of children

n     If the replacement population of a society is insufficient, it will collapse

n     If the formation of children into sound citizens is insufficient, the society will collapse

n     The society has a vested interest in the multigenerational continuity of the society

n     The society ought to bound the freedoms of the adult citizens, to protect the formation of the youth into the next generation of fully developed citizens.

Concluding Thoughts

            While society in our time and place may have little regard for Holy Scripture, the Holy Scriptures form the source and norm of Christian society and culture.  The Church exists through the Word Made Flesh who saves her, and gives to her His Word Written that she may continue in communion with Him forever.  Inside the Church, the debate about Marriage is settled doctrine, because it is clearly taught in the Holy Scriptures, with a distinct order, purpose, and sacramental mystery.  The Church stands alone on the Holy Scriptures, because they alone are breathed out by God, and useful for teaching the faith.  This is the Special Revelation of God to man through Jesus Christ, which is received by faith, and lived by grace.

            If the world will not hear the voice of God in His Special Revelation of Holy Scripture, the Church may also bear witness to the world from General Revelation.  That which God has crafted into the very fabric of His creation, is manifest for all to see, whether they are of the household of faith, or not.  Any rational person may observe the Natural Law, and in so far as General Revelation reveals the Law of God, they may heed or discard it at their own peril.  To ignore the Laws of gravity is a fine academic experiment, until one steps off a cliff, where the Law shows its supremacy over individual delusion.  The same can be said of Marriage and the procreation of society—Natural Law makes clear what is both necessary and best for the multigenerational continuance of a society.  The society may heed or discard Natural Law at its own peril, but the Laws of Nature will continue to exert their dominance over individual delusion, if the society decides to step off the cliff into oblivion.

            The Church must make her witness (a martyrdom, of both General and Special Revelation,) in our time and place.  If our society is to survive, the Church must speak truth into the darkness of error, in every possible way.  For if we, who have the clear Word of God, in both Scripture and Nature, do not speak and warn the erring to turn from their error, they will indeed perish according to the Law, but God shall hold us accountable for their fall.  If we speak truth to them, and they turn from their folly, then let God be praised that our society has been spared a plunge off the cliffs of insanity.  If the world refuses to hear our witness and plunges into darkness, then their fall is on their own hands—though we shall all share in our society’s collective suffering.

            Let the Church pray for the nation, and intercede for her to God.  And let the Church bear witness to the truth God has given us, that our nation may yet turn, and live.  Amen.

The simplicity of faith: Meditations on Luke 22:14-20

            Faith is a word that is often used, and rarely defined.  In Lutheran circles, it usually is understood as “trust” “belief,” and “confidence,” particularly in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners.  It also holds the connotation of a living thing, that works and breathes and acts, like a vine that is grafted into the source of life—Jesus Himself.  St. Paul describes faith as a divine gift, something that comes not from one’s self, but rather is a gift of God, so that no one may boast even of their faith.  St. Jude describes faith as something given and defended, pointing to the content of faith once for all delivered to the saints.  With so many dynamics of the word itself used in the Scriptures, it should not be surprising that people find it confusing.

            For example, if faith means trust, how do I measure trust?  How do I measure belief or confidence?  How do I measure the working strength of faith?  And if these sound like ethereal subjects to measure, you’d be right.  No one can really measure trust, or belief, or confidence, or strength of working conviction directly—but it is a common error of Christians to attempt to measure them indirectly, by looking at their works.  When faith itself cannot be measured, the temptation is to measure something faith produces, and equate the work to the source.  The Scriptures do not draw this direct correlation, though they make the simple statements that living faith produces the fruits of good works, and a lack of faith produces the fruit of evil works.  There is no measurement, but a recognition of a simple reality:  Faith works in love.

            Likewise, if faith means a body of doctrine delivered once to the saints, how do we measure that?  Is it the doctrine delivered by St. Paul to the Church at Ephesus, or perhaps to the Church at Rome?  Is it the doctrine delivered by St. John to the Seven Churches in his Apocalypse, or perhaps the doctrine written down in St. Luke’s Gospel and Acts?  Drifting down through history in the Church, is it the full canon of Holy Scripture, or just some subset of those Prophetic and Apostolic documents?  Is it a particular set of Hebrew texts, or does it also include Greek and Aramaic texts, and if so, which ones?  Is it found also in the Creeds, and which creeds, specifically?  Is it found in the rulings and canons of the first three Ecumenical Councils, or the first five, or all seven?  Is it found in the Reformation Confessions of the 16^th century, and is it alone in Augsburg, or is it also in Heidelberg and Canterbury and Geneva?   Looking back on over 1900 years of Christians contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, how do we measure the fullness of that revelation, when even the Holy Scriptures themselves bear witness to things hard to understand (cf. St. Peter writing of St. Paul) ?  Again, Holy Scripture itself points to a recognized reality, rather than a measurement—Christ Himself is the beginning, the fullness, and the completion of the faith He has worked in us by the power of His Holy Spirit.  The Word Written, is a reflection of the Word Himself, who is eternally begotten of the Father.

            Can we find a measure of works that will fully define faith?  No, we cannot.  We can point to works of love done in faith which fulfill the Law for Christ’s sake, and we can point to the stark judgment of the Law that condemns the sin of the faithless apart from Christ.  But we can never write enough Law to capture all the requirements of faith working through love toward God and neighbor, anymore than we can write enough Law to capture all the permutations of human depravity toward God and neighbor.  This working faith remains a mystery that is simple in its revelation, and eternally deep in its application.  Such working faith leaves mortal man grappling with the pure simplicity of the Gospel, while struggling to comprehend the immeasurability of divine Love.  To drift beyond the simplicity of faith working in love, is to drift into an ocean unnavigable and unbounded, where the limits of human reason fail like a wisp of smoke in a hurricane.

            Can we craft a doctrinal statement or creed that fully articulates the fullness of the faith, once for all delivered to the saints?  No, we cannot.  We can recognize where Creeds and Councils and Confessions have adequately represented what Christ has delivered through His Prophets and Apostles, and we can recognized the Holy Scriptures which God has breathed out through them.  But we cannot form a statement of human language that captures all the nuances of the Holy Trinity, who Himself is infinite and boundless, known only in so far as He offers Himself to finite man through His revelation.  And we cannot hope to create any statement of human language, that bounds all the sinful and perverted whims of man’s fallen reason, and guards against all heresy and corruption.  We can recognize the simple fellowship of the Christian with the Apostles, whose fellowship is with Christ, and through Christ with the Holy Trinity.  And we can recognize the broken communion of those who do not hear Christ’s Word, and do not keep it.  To drift beyond the Word of Christ as the content of faith, is to drift into that same unnavigable and unbounded ocean, where the limits of human reason and thought fail to find the edges of infinity, and dissipate once again like smoke in a gale.

            So where do we find hope, as the people of God in Christ Jesus?  In the simplicity of faith which He gives, and He sustains.  There is no comfort in the works righteousness of those who think they can find rest by measuring faith through deeds.  There is no comfort in the scholasticism of the rationalists, who think they can bound the infinite God in human language.  There is only the simplicity of what God has spoken, and what God has done:  His Word, which becomes flesh for us, that we might be reconciled to the Father through His life, death, and resurrection.  Here the simplicity of faith surpasses all the Law and the Confessions—here the Christian lives by the mystery of a faith given to them as a gift, and faith lived out in communion with the Holy Trinity forever.  Here the Christian finds peace and solace and hope—not by their works nor by their reason, but by the work of Christ accomplished for and in us.  Here the simplicity of faith gives us new birth from above by Water and Spirit, that we may perceive these words anew every day (Luke 22:14-20):

When the hour had come, He sat down, and the twelve apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;  for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”

 Given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins, and the restored communion of God with man.  This is the simplicity of faith that overcomes the world, the schemes of the devil and wicked men, and all the torments of hell.  This is the faith which gathers together all the heights of theology from Creation, to Redemption, to the Final Judgment, and makes the whole of the eternal and infinite God present in the heart of the Christian.  This is the simple faith that transcends death into life everlasting, bringing eternity into the present moment forever.  This is our life, our sweetness, and our hope.  This is Emmanuel:  God With Us.  Amen.

A Lenten Meditation: Deuteronomy 26

You shall rejoice in every good thing the Lord has given you

In our Old Testament text for this week, we hear not only a promise, but a command.  The people of Israel are commanded to give thanks, and bring their first fruits to God for the wonderful deliverance He has provided for them.  A people of slaves, now free and planted in their own land where prosperity flows abundantly, are commanded to give thanks for their blessings, to the God who has delivered them from the hands of their enemies.

As we ponder this divine message through Moses to the people of God, it is important to distinguish between God’s command, and God’s gift.  His Gift is the deliverance He provides, entirely apart from the work or worthiness of the Hebrews—none of those people deserved to be delivered from the hand of Pharaoh, nor to inherit a land flowing with milk and honey.  The Gift of God came to them out of sheer grace, born from the love of God toward His people.

The Command to rejoice in the blessing, is a reflection of the righteousness of the God who delivers the people.  It is only right to give thanks and praise to our saving Lord, who has done all things well for our deliverance.  Even the young child knows that it is wrong to receive a gift and not thank the giver, since this is written into the Natural Law of the cosmos—a gift of grace presumes the righteousness of the giver, and the indebtedness of the receiver.  It is good, right, and salutary, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks to the Lord our God, for the great gift of deliverance He has accomplished for us.

Knowing the difference between the Gift and the Command, we can remember them without confusion, both for the ancient Hebrews, and for the whole Christian Church on earth to this day.  We who have received freely from the Lord the riches of His grace, in the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation Jesus Christ has won for the world, have received this Gift without any merit or worthiness on our parts.  We have received so great a salvation, entirely based upon the work and merit of Jesus our Savior, and His divine love for us that moved Him to deliver us from sin, death, hell, and the enslaving power of the devil.  This divine Gift we call the Gospel—the Good News of our Salvation.  Such grace can always and only be received and clung to by faith, which believes the promise of God, and trusts in His Word of life and deliverance.

The Command, however, we must also receive.  And under the weight of that divine Command, we find ourselves wanting.  Who among us has thanked God enough for the great salvation He has accomplished for us in His Only Begotten Son?  Who among us has properly given our first fruits back to God, returning our whole life back to Him as a living sacrifice, which is our spiritual duty.  Who among us, rather, has grown slack in our remembrance of our great salvation, taken for granted the Blood of Christ poured out for the sins of the world—for our own sins, which are our own most grievous fault?   Before the righteous demands of the Law of God, we find ourselves falling short—poor miserable sinners, who neither deserve the Gift we have already been given, nor deserve to retain it for even another breath.  The Law condemns us for what we are:  ungrateful, selfish, prideful, and worthy of all temporal and eternal punishment.

So what are we to do?  How are we to respond in the face of so great a Gift, and so terrible a Command?  How does the Christian, saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, live before the witness of God’s divine Law and Gospel?  St. Paul reminds us of the ancient, Old Testament axiom:  The Just Shall Live By Faith—a faith given to us as a divine gift, itself.

Faith hears the Word of God’s promised grace, believes and lives by it.  Faith hears the terrifying Word of God’s Law, and falls down in repentance before it.  Faith believes and clings to God Himself, who in the Person of His Son, has reconciled not only the world to Himself, but even the Word of God’s Gospel and Law in the unity of His own divine Person.  In Christ, the Law is satisfied, by His suffering and death.  In Christ, the Gospel is sure, by His resurrection from the dead.  Faith clings to Jesus in trust and repentance, knowing that our God loves us, now and for eternity.  Faith recognizes our sinful state, and knows our need for a Savior.  Faith hears the gracious promise of our Savior, and clings to Him as our eternal inheritance.  Faith believes that what we deserve from the Law has been poured out upon Christ, even as Faith receives the blessed gifts of forgiveness, life and salvation that flow freely from Christ to us.

Here the people of God stand, in a Faith which transcends all time and space—a Faith which at once places us at the foot of His Cross, the door of the Empty Tomb, and the gates of Heaven.  Here we give thanks to God for the gifts of Salvation in Jesus Christ, even as we repent of our weak and tepid thanksgiving.  And the Savior who has delivered us from the hands of our enemy the devil, shall continue to deliver us by His grace, through faith, forevermore.  Amen.

Meditations on Luke 9: Christ revealed in glory

As we come to the end of the season of Epiphany, it should be no surprise that the greatest manifestation of Christ would be celebrated with The Transfiguration. In Luke’s 9th chapter, we find one of the most peculiar events in all of Holy Scripture, and in the aftermath, we find the disciples appropriately perplexed.

Jesus takes just a few of His disciples with Him up the mountain, and while they are up there, Jesus is transformed into a vision of brilliance and glory. Together with Him are the greatest figures of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah (the iconic Lawgiver and Prophet,) and they are discussing with Jesus the path that lay ahead in Jerusalem. In this moment of heaven touching earth, the Eternally Begotten Son of God, conferred with two men He had sent forth in generations long past, about what He was about to accomplish for the salvation of all mankind… including them. For everyone who was going to be saved, from Adam and Eve, to the last person born on earth, their hope of salvation from sin, death, and the devil, was about to make His path to Calvary.

Naturally, the disciples were dumbstruck. Peter, as perhaps the only one who could find the presence of mind to speak at all, thought it would be pious to build three shrines—one for each of them. However, God will not abide this kind of thinking, and immediately clouds from view Moses and Elijah, leaving only Jesus there with them—and the voice from the Father speaks down from heaven: “This is my Beloved Son: hear Him!”

It is tempting for we poor, sinful creatures, to desire a glimpse of heaven. We want to know what’s going on up there, and what God has in store for us. Unfortunately, as this text makes clear, like so many places in Scripture, when sinful people peer into the glories of heaven, we become blithering idiots and fall all over ourselves. We don’t know how to deal with such beauty, holiness and glory—not even the lesser glory of the occupants of heaven, let alone the God of all Creation. When we try to peek into heaven, the sight of God’s glory unhinges our sinful minds, and leaves us wondering what just happened… and often, we want to head off and do something stupid, like worship the angels or the saints, whom God has already made holy through His Son. When we see God’s glory, we are undone, because we are people of unclean lips, in a nation of unclean lips. We are not holy, and cannot abide the glory of God.

And this is why we are always pointed back to Jesus Christ, our Savior. He is indeed fully God, but He cloaks His glory and righteousness in our own human flesh. Jesus, true God and true Man, is revealed to us as the Beloved Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, who is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is through Him that we gain access to that glorious heaven, and liberation from our sins which lead to death. It is Him we hear, as He shows us in His very Person, just how much God loves this world, and all of us in it. It is Jesus who takes the path to the Cross, so that He may die in our place, and give to all who will repent and believe, His own life to live forever—to glorify us, in His unapproachable glory. The eternal glory of the Lord God Almighty is brought low to us, that we may hear Him, believe, and live. Here, in our Lord Jesus Christ, is life everlasting. Amen.

Meditations on Psalm 71

In you, O Lord, I put my trust,

Let me never be put to shame.  Psalm 71:1 NKJV

            There is no one who walks through this world without struggles, only a difference in circumstances.  For some, it is a collapsing family.  For others, a collapsing livelihood.  Still others face challenges of health in body, mind, or spirit.  Some are plagued with loneliness, others with wagging tongues and hurtful lips.  Some struggle to find enough food for the day, or shelter against the cold.  Some have lost loved ones to disease or catastrophe.  Some are hunted by predators, who would enslave them to evil desires.  Everyone in this world suffers, even if only separated by circumstance and degree.

            David, who wrote the words of this ancient Hebrew song 3000 years ago, knew about suffering, too.  He lived through all these things at different times of his life.  How could he sing about having put his trust in a God who let him suffer?  How could he then ask, that he never be put to shame?  When living hungry, alone, persecuted, slandered, attacked, amongst death and disease, touched in our own very bodies by the suffering of the whole world… how can he, or we, pray such a thing?

            It is faith… but not just any faith.  It is a faith which sees beyond the suffering of the moment, and clings to a God who endures suffering with us.  It is a faith which beholds a God who does not abandon us in suffering, but enters into it with us, and carries us through it.  It is a faith that knows our God has conquered the suffering of this world, and all that the evil one would send us.  David knew a God who promised to save him, and all people, through a Messiah who would break the chains of suffering and death, and bring eternal life where the darkness of despair blighted the land.  David looked forward through a thousand years of future history, to the time of the promised Messiah, who in his very body would take the sins, evil, and suffering of the whole world… and nail them to the tree of the Cross.  David’s faith looked forward to the salvation God had promised, knowing that none of his suffering in his time, could compare with the glory of the time to come.

            Do you know this God?  This God who does not flee nor laugh at suffering, but comes to you in the midst of it?  This God who takes your suffering upon Himself, that you might receive His eternal life, and peace, and hope?  His Name is Jesus, and He calls out to you.  He has suffered all things for you, that you might be saved through Him.  Hear and cling to Him, and you, like David, will see beyond the boundaries of time and space, even your own suffering, to a life forever kept in Him.  For you, there shall be no shame, because the enemy can’t really touch you—for in this world we may have suffering, we are of good cheer, for Christ has overcome the world.   

Amen.