Let No Man Deceive You With Vain Words: A Lenten Meditation on Ephesians 5

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and

hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God

for a sweetsmelling savour.

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness,

let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient:

but rather giving of thanks.  For this ye know, that no

whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who

is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no man deceive you with vain words:

for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon

the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore

partakers with them. For ye were sometimes

darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)

Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship

with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.  

For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light:

For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith,

Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,

and Christ shall give thee light.

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

St. Paul strikes a somber chord in the fifth chapter of his letter to the church at Ephesus, but it is one worth listening too, especially in Lent.  He begins the chapter by imploring the Ephesian Christians to respond to the love of Christ poured out for them, by living lives conforming to Christ and His Word.  This sacrificial, selfless, divine love is the beginning of the Christian’s faith and new life in Jesus, and also the pattern into which the Christian is called to be conformed through constant faith and repentance.  This new life which the Christian receives from Jesus, continues to flow from Jesus as He works through His Word and Spirit to sanctify every believer grafted into Him by grace through faith.  This life of faith given freely to the Christian by grace, continues to work itself out in love of God and neighbor, turning from the ways of darkness and back to the ways of Jesus.

Against this backdrop, Paul makes a clear distinction about the world which does not live by grace through faith in Christ alone—a world which does not hear or live by His Word.  It is a world marked by fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness, of filthiness, foolishness, whoremongering, and idolatry.  The world marked by these things is consumed by evil, deaf and blind to all that God speaks and shows forth through His Word and Spirit.  Such evil and corruption has but one end, which is the eternal judgment of hell.  It is a world enslaved willfully to the evil one, delighting in the works of violence and abuse, of corruption and hypocrisy.  Such a world persecutes the saints of God because it hates Him and His Word, refuses the grace He offers through His Son, and clings to its own hapless idolatry even as it decays into ever lower levels of debauchery and ruin.  Death, destruction, and insanity are the currency of this fallen realm, and it will end in the fires of divine judgment on the Last Day.

Keeping these two realities clearly in focus—the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of Darkness—Paul makes a very pointed warning:  don’t be deceived back into the Kingdom of Darkness, lest you become a partaker of its eternal judgment.  There is no halfway between the path which leads to life and the one which leads to death, no middle ground upon which to stand and be a neutral observer.  The path of life is marked by the Light of Christ and His Word, calling all people to repent, believe, and live forever in His grace by faith in Him; the path of death is marked by the darkness of the evil one, calling all people into the brutal slavery of self-idolatry, and eternal separation from the God of love, sacrifice, compassion, and mercy.  As Christ teaches, where a person’s heart is, there is his treasure:  either set by faith upon Christ and His eternal life, or set by unbelief upon the empty promises of the evil one unto death and eternal despair.  This is the judgment spoken of by Jesus when He says that He has come into the world that those who think they see by fallen human reason may be shown how blind they really are, and that those who are blind might be made to see eternal Truth as He opens their eyes by faith in His Word.

Let no one deceive you with vain words about the reality in which you live.  If you give yourself to the ways of darkness, you will die under the same judgment as the evil one.  If you give yourself to Christ, you will live forever in Him, because He has already taken your judgment upon Himself and given to you His forgiveness, life, and salvation as His free gift of grace.  No matter the trappings of the pompous liar who speaks vainly against these realities—the fancy clothes, the prestigious degrees, the positions of honor, the baubles of popularity and wealth—there is no empty speech or self-congratulating book which can change it.  What is real and what is true is inseparable and inescapable, rooted in the very reality and truth of God.

But what is the remedy for the one who finds himself on the path of death and darkness, leading to eternal perdition?  What hope is there for the fornicator, the covetous, the idolater, the whore and the whoremonger, the violent, the abuser, the foolish, the adulterer, the hypocrite, or whatever other sin has overtaken the sons of men?  For the non-Christian, the call is clear from Christ through His Apostles:  repent, believe, and be baptized everyone one of you for the forgiveness of your sins.  For the Christian who has wandered back into the ways of darkness, Christ and His Apostles call you back through the same faith and repentance, offering the Absolution which refreshes the grace given to you in your Baptism.  And to everyone the warning goes forth that there is no safety or comfort in sin, no peace or protection in the ways of darkness which lead to hell.  To all, the call to faith and repentance is brought forth with the passionate urgency of divine love which desires no one to be lost, but that all people might come to a saving knowledge of the Truth. 

And so the Word of Christ calls to you with the greatest of urgency even today, that wherever you find yourself and in whatever troubles you have become ensnared, there is forgiveness, life, and salvation in Him… and in Him alone.  Hear Him as He calls to you.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

If the Lord Marked Sins: A Lenten Meditation on Psalm 130

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: 

I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Let Israel hope in the LORD: 

for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

The Psalmist strikes a theme that runs throughout our readings for today, from Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well in John chapter 4, to Paul's exposition of justification by grace in Romans chapter 5.  For all the complicated contortions of modern psychology, science, and philosophy, all the twists and turns of semi-messianic or utopian politics, all the apostasies and vanities of contemporary theologians, humanity has at root only one fundamental, unavoidable problem:  we are dying sinners before a holy God.

These are the depths the Psalmist cries out from, because he knows his condition.  He knows that he is a corrupted man from his mother's womb, and that in sin did his parents conceive him.  He knows he has no right to call upon his holy God based upon who he is, but only on the basis of God's promise to hear him.  The Psalmist's prayer of faith to God begins with a repentant and contrite heart-- not with pride, avarice, or a sense of entitlement.  He is not interested in justifying himself before God, but rather that God might have mercy upon him.  It is in this faith which clings to God's mercy and grace, that the Psalmist begs the Lord to hear his prayer and supplications.

But more than a personal observation, the Psalmist writes that none may stand before God according to their good works, or be justified before Him on their merits.  The truth that none could stand before God should He decide to judge them for their sins, is an indication that every soul is corrupt in this world, and every soul deserves condemnation.  No one may say of himself that he deserves God's mercy, grace, and salvation, or that what he has done has bound God to give him whatever rewards he pleases.  Sinful man has no standing before God on the legal basis of divine justice, and neither is he strong enough to withstand or resist the judgment of God.  Death and suffering in this world remind us that we are not our own creators nor are we capable of saving ourselves from the death and hell which await us on account of our sins.  If we are to live and endure, it is by God's grace alone.  This eternal reality points us always to revere God over all things, because only He is the author of salvation.

And where is such saving grace to be found?  The Psalmist points us back to the foundation of his own hope:  the very Word of God.  The Father was at work through His Word and Spirit when He called the universe into existence; when He made mankind in His own divine image, creating them male and female; when He declared upon mankind the deadly curse of their rebellion and fall into the slavery of sin; when He promised to send His only begotten Son, born in the proper time of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to save all mankind from their deadly curse by taking their sins upon Himself through His death on a cross, and rising the third day to declare His victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil; to send forth His disciples in His Name with His call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, according to His Law and Gospel; to work by His Spirit through His Means of Grace (His Word preached, and applied individually through Baptism, the Supper, and Absolution) to forgive sins, raise up dead sinners to new and eternal life, and seal them forever in Jesus; to come again at the end of time, judge the living and the dead, gather His own to Himself forever, and cast the unrepentant evil into eternal fire; to consummate the eternal Kingdom of His Son with His Bride the Church, in the resurrection and restoration of all things.  Throughout all time, God has been at work in His Word, calling and saving those who would put their trust in Him.  So also today does the Lord call everyone to turn from the deadly course of their sin, and in humility seek His forgiveness, life, and salvation... not on the basis of a person's merits, but solely for the sake of His Son's sacrifice on their behalf.  This is the Word of Gospel grace which seeks and saves all who will hear and believe, and the only basis upon which the Psalmist's prayer can be faithfully uttered.

Hoping in this saving Word of God, the Psalmist calls everyone to hear, believe, and live-- reminding all that God will save His people.  There is no pit so deep into which anyone may fall that this saving word might not reach them, and no cultural decline or degeneration which is beyond the power of His Word to save.  Indeed, if God were to mark the sins of us as individuals, as families, as communities, as nations, and as the whole world, not one of us could withstand the judgment we so rightly deserve.  But with God there is forgiveness that He might be revered by everyone, of every tribe, every tongue, and every nation.  With God, there is grace in Jesus Christ, poured out through His Cross to everyone who will turn from their evil and trust in Him.  With God, there is salvation and life forevermore, which He works through His Word and Spirit to every person who will turn to Him.  Hear His Word reach into the darkness of your pit today, coming to shatter your despair, and to give you the gift which His love has always intended for you from before the world began.  Hear Him.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

Imputed Righteousness: A Meditation on Romans 4, for the 2nd Sunday in Lent

What shall we say then that Abraham our father,

As pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

For if Abraham were justified by works,

he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.

For what saith the scripture?

Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him

that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man,

Unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying,

Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,

and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom

the Lord will not impute sin.

Few topics caused such uproar during the 16^th century Reformation as the debate around how a sinner could be justified before God.  Not least among these disputes were the definitions of the terms “sinner,” “righteousness,” and “impute.”  Naturally, such debates were not new to the Reformation era; saints and heretics as great as Augustine and Pelagius did verbal battle on this field a thousand years before Luther and his Pope, and it should not surprise us that this debate rages on still today.  In every age before us, and every age to come, the settlement of such debates is found where the people of God have always found it:  in His Word, breathed out by His Holy Spirit through His Prophets and Apostles, and incarnate in the person of His Son.

The Epistle of St. Paul to the church at Rome is the Apostle’s magnum opus, and it is to this letter that the church fathers (including Luther) often returned to understand the foundations of what we may call the Doctrine of Justification.  In the opening chapters of this letter, St. Paul defines everyone as a sinner, having fallen in Adam’s Fall, twisted and corrupted in our own evil desires and actions from the moment of our conception by our likewise fallen parents, utterly unable by our own power to save ourselves.  St. Paul describes every human being as a sinner, deserving of death and hell, so that every braggart’s mouth might be stopped before both God and their fellow men.  Such sinners are born with an inclination toward selfishness and pride, bent away from God in their own evil desires, and under the oppression of the devil who plays their fallen intellect like a fiddle.

Juxtaposed to the hopeless wickedness of man’s fallen state and willful or unwitting slavery to the evil one, God is revealed as the ultimate source of goodness, beauty, life, justice, power, love, compassion, mercy, and truth.  The collective term for all these attributes of divine goodness is righteousness, which is the collective quality sinful man lacks in every regard.  Rather than man reflecting his Creator’s righteousness, his fallen nature more reflects the evil one to whom he made himself a slave; whatever is left of man’s divine image when he was made has become twisted and marred in every attribute, so that no power of man is trustworthy to produce righteousness.  The sinful flesh of man is addicted to the passions and lusts which lead him away from God, just as his mind and intellect are addicted to self-love, self-service, and self-worship.  The soul of fallen man is a dark and dying thing, corrupting the whole of a human being until everything it touches withers and dies.  Where God brings forth life, man fixates on death; where God establishes justice, man works corruption; where God designs beauty, man produces distortion; where God breathes out love and compassion, man breaths out threats and murders.  Thus we learn from St. Paul that God is the definition of righteousness, and the revelation of His righteousness to men is the Word of His Law.

For man to be justified before his holy and righteous God, man would need to be in harmony with God, reflecting the perfection of His righteousness.  To be justified is to be declared just—it is an act of truth in acknowledging someone as righteous.  When we say that God is righteous, we declare in harmony with unalterable truth that He is Just and Good.  When we measure man as God measures man according to His holy and unbreakable Law, we must acknowledge the inescapable truth that man is not righteous, and worthy of his judgment under that holy Law.  Thus St. Paul rightly concludes that no man is justified by his works according to the Law of God, because no man by the use of his own corrupted nature, can heal the corruption which so completely infects him.  God is holy and righteous.  Man is unholy and unrighteous.  This is the base root of all of man’s problems, the reason why he is afflicted with death and despair, and why his separation from God can only lead to an eternity in hell.  Man’s problem is that the truth of his self-wrought condition declares him condemned before his righteous God, with no ability in himself to undo his own corruption.

Into this stark reality of man’s condemnation before God according to His Holy Law, St. Paul preaches the pure wonder of God’s Holy Gospel:  God saves fallen man through the Vicarious Atonement of His Only Begotten Son in their stead.  Knowing that man could not save himself, nor pay for his sins except by an eternity in hell, the Father sent His Son in the power of His Holy Spirit to suffer the condemnation of every man, woman, and child who would ever walk this fallen earth.  From Adam to the last person born in this world, Christ Jesus became the sacrifice which paid for the sin and corruption of everyone, that everyone who would believe in Him might receive His forgiveness, life, and salvation.  This faith which clings to Jesus as Savior from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil is itself a divine gift, coming to fallen man through God’s Word and Spirit—for St. Paul tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  Rather than the wages earned for our corrupted works which could never achieve righteousness nor escape hell, a person who falls down in faith and repentance before Jesus receives the free gift of the mercy and grace Jesus earned for us all upon His Cross.  This great exchange between the sinner and Jesus, where Jesus takes on Himself the sins of the world and gives to the world His divine righteousness and grace, is what imputation is all about.  Man is not saved by his works, as if God should owe him a debt for his paltry efforts, but rather he is saved because God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to those who repent and believe in Him, through the power of His Holy Spirit bearing witness to this Everlasting Gospel of reconciliation between man and God.

Justified by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, the sinner is raised up to live in God’s grace through faith and repentance all the days of his life, having been born again from above by Water and Spirit.  His new nature given to him by Jesus continues yearning to be conformed to the image of his Savior, while constantly working to drown his old sinful nature in the waters of his baptism.  The sinner who has imputed to him the righteousness of his Savior and is given the Holy Spirit unto eternal life, no longer stands in fear or despair before his Holy God and His Law.  Rather, the justified sinner stands also as a saint before the same God who has become his justification, life, hope, and salvation.  Having received the life-giving love and grace of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ, the sinner rises up each day to reflect his Savior’s love and grace to everyone around him, until that last day when the sinful nature is finally laid in the dust, and the new nature in Christ’s image shines forth forevermore, brighter than any star in the heavens.

This Doctrine of Justification, which the Reformers observed is the doctrine upon which the Church stands or falls, is the beating heart of our Lenten reflections.  Herein we know ourselves and our fallen state, the love of God which seeks and saves all who will trust in Him, and His Gospel means by which we arise unto newness of life.  Dear sinner, hear the Word of Christ’s Law and Gospel speak to you this day, that you may repent of your selfishness and pride, believe in Jesus as your reconciliation with God through His Cross, and have imputed to you the righteousness which raises you up, justifies you, and saves you forever.  Amen.

Every Word: A Meditation on Matthew 4, for the first Sunday in Lent

And when the tempter came to him, he said,

If thou be the Son of God, 

command that these stones be made bread.

But he answered and said, 

It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, 

but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

It's no accident that the Church begins her Lenten walk toward Easter by meditating on the temptation of Jesus.  While it's easy to tie one's self up in theological knots regarding how exactly the Son of God incarnate could be tempted by a creature whom He had made in the beginning by His own breath (hint:  it has to do with His full humanity and full divinity inseparably united in His one Person) the more significant consideration might be how Jesus faced such temptation.  First, the Holy Spirit led Him out into the wilderness for the purpose of being tempted by no less than the chief of all demons, Satan himself.  In preparation for that encounter with the devil, Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights, submitting His fleshly human nature fully to His divine will.  Though Jesus was already conceived without sin by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the blessed Virgin Mary, He showed us a pattern of denying our fleshly passions and hungers, so that the spirit might reign over the flesh.  When the devil approached Jesus, he would find no disordered fleshly lust or passion to leverage over His relationship with His Father.

Of course, that didn't stop the devil from trying.  Focusing on Jesus' hunger after fasting, he tempted Jesus to wield His divine power selfishly and capriciously for the satisfaction of His desires and escape from His pain.  In response, Jesus set the terms upon which all His answers would rest:  every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  There was no philosophical debate, no equivocation of the circumstances, nor appeal to rights and entitlements; rather, Jesus presented Himself in His humanity as perfectly bound to the Word of God, which is in fact the distinctive of His own divine nature.  Jesus as the eternally begotten Son of God is also the Word of God made flesh, and He showed everyone who would enter temptation after Him that true life is to be bound to Him.  No one lives forever on earthly bread or the satisfaction of any fleshly desire, but everyone who is bound to Jesus as the entire Word which proceeds from the mouth of God the Father, and the entire Word to whom the Spirit eternally bears witness, will in fact live forever in Him.  Jesus the Word of God is also the only way, truth, and life-- the only One through whom a person may be united to the Father and the Spirit.  As we enter temptation, Jesus reminds us that to be united to Him and His Word is the means by which we live-- not surrender to the passions, weakness, desires, pride, and lusts of our fallen flesh.

Jesus' answer to the following temptations are explicitly taken from that same Word of God; specifically, not putting God to the test, and not worshipping anyone other than Him.  The foundation Jesus laid for engaging the devil's snares was submission of His human nature to the Eternal Word of God (a discipline exercised through fasting and self denial), faith in and proclamation of God's Word as the only true basis of eternal life, then confession and presentation of that Word against every twisted temptation of the devil.  Whatever the pain and suffering of Jesus' righteous soul at the lying lips of the prince of darkness, He gave to His disciples a pattern of victory over our evil foe.

Lent is a good time for reflection on how we meet temptation, particularly in light of how Jesus did so.  It is an unfortunate reality that as fallen sinners, we have a terrible track record of failing to submit the desires of our flesh to the Word and Spirit of God.  Rather, fallen humanity is usually marked by the infinite variety of lusts which dominate our minds, giving the devil numerous leverage points upon which to draw us ever so willingly away from God, and away from life.  Our own flesh and fallen nature working against God's Word, our faith often waivers as does our trust in that Word as our only source of life.  Our sinful nature undisciplined and running amok, our faith and trust in the Word of God weak and frail, we have little success in proclaiming that Word in confident confession against all the attacks of the devil, and he slays us time after time after time.  We might wonder why we continue to fall into sin over and over again, but the same root cause infects us all:  our fallen human nature doesn't really believe and trust in the Word of Christ, and the devil uses that weakness against us to chillingly predictable ends.  Every good pattern Jesus sets forward for us, we fail to live up to.

Thanks be to God that Jesus doesn't just come to show us how to defeat sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, but He actually accomplishes that victory for us in our stead.  He alone as the Word Made Flesh took our sins upon Himself, suffered and died in our place, that He might give to us by His grace the victory we could not win on our own.  Where our fasting is weak, He is our fasting; where our faith is weak, He is our faith; where our confession and proclamation is weak, He is our confession and proclamation.  Where we earn only death, He is our life.

Raised up in this good news of Jesus' Gospel victory over every demon and every temptation, He also gives us His Holy Spirit to do the works we are unable to accomplish.  By grace through faith in Jesus, His Spirit will lead us to repent and submit our fleshly passions to the holiness of His saving Word.  By grace through faith in Jesus, His Spirit will give us strength to trust in His Word as the only true source of our eternal life.  By grace through faith in Jesus, His Spirit will lead us to proclaim the good confession of His Word against every lie of the evil one.  By grace through faith in Jesus, His Spirit will give us victory over the devil and every temptation he brings our way.

By grace through faith in Jesus, we have life, forever bound to Him who is the Author of Life.  Hear Him call to you today.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.

Hear Him: A Meditation on Matthew 17 for Transfiguration Sunday

And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, 

and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 

and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, 

and his raiment was white as the light.  

And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, 

Lord, it is good for us to be here: 

if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; 

one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: 

and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, 

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.  

And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.  

And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.  

And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, 

Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

There are many winsome voices in the world, and many wondrous sights to behold, as countless wanderers and travelers have testified.  Within our nation alone there are majestic peaks and grand canyons, paradise like beaches and painted deserts, rich fields filled with diverse crops and mighty rivers filled with commerce.  We have some of the most innovative and driven scientists and technologists, engineers and architects, professors and researchers.  Our military is among the noblest and most respected of associations on earth, our space and exploration programs as eager fonts of human knowledge, our industrial and economic base of legendary proportions.  We have writers and speakers, thespians and poets, artists and musicians, philosophers and theologians.  In our nation, like in much of the world, there are tremendous wonders to meet every eye and engaging words to meet every ear.

While it may be tempting to believe that our time and place is unique in this regard, it is worth remembering that as long as people have been walking this earth, they have put their hands to building wonders and their minds to building ideas.  As far back into recorded history as we can peer there have been majestic empires, with their giants of industry, philosophy, art, and war.  We read of great walls, great cities, and great adventures, the remnants and echoes of some still with us today even thousands of years since their people brought them forth.  This world has always been full of the thoughts and works of people, because God made His people to be like Him as He planted us here to tend His good creation.  We are a peculiar species whose lives are marked by thought and action, and of reflection upon the meaning of our lives both individually and communally.  We are a people made to sing in harmony with God and His creation, our individuality to be woven perfectly into the infinite complexity of the fabric of existence.

And yet, the cacophony of our voices and actions bear witness to a world that is more often confused, deluded, and suffering.  With all our wonders and works, thoughts and rhetoric, we are like every generation before us plagued by the blights of evil, manipulation, dishonesty, abuse, tyranny, corruption, and death.  To reflect upon ourselves and our world is to see both the beautiful heights for which we were created, and the tragic depths to which we have fallen.  Our race has turned its minds and hands to bring forth the darkness and despair of confusion, oppression, avarice, and pride.  Even our greatest works of civilization are tainted with the wicked ambitions of those who would exploit them, and so distrust and skepticism permeates our view of history, community, and even ourselves.  We are left disoriented by the constantly contradictory voices filling our ears, the discord between beauty and perversity which fills our eyes, and know that even within ourselves the corruption of our fallen divine image leaves us tragically unable to find our way out of the morass we have made.

Into this chaotic darkness, our Lord Jesus Christ brings His Light.  Our Gospel lesson recounts the vision Peter, James, and John saw when Jesus was transfigured before them high upon that mountain, when they could finally see a shrouded glimpse of the glory which the Son has shared with the Father and the Spirit since before the world was brought forth.  Jesus is shown to be the source, the continuity, and the completion of all that God had revealed through Moses and Elijah, all that He had spoken through His Law and the Prophets.  Since the fall of mankind to Satan's temptation in the Garden, God had been at work to pierce the darkness of man's folly and bring us all back into living fellowship with Himself.  While the vision of Jesus' transfiguration was magnificent to behold, it would not be complete until He ascended Mount Calvary and gave Himself as the only redeeming sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  Thus He commanded His disciples to keep the vision to themselves until He was risen again, the darkness forever pierced, and the devil forever overcome.  Jesus had come to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, rescuing us from our sin, death, hell, and tyranny under the evil one by His atonement for us upon His Cross.  As He fulfilled His Father's loving will to reconcile the world to Himself through His life, death, and resurrection, His Holy Spirit would then go out into that same world bearing witness to the saving Word and Work of Jesus.  His Apostles would take His great commission to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Triune God, and teaching those new disciples everything Jesus had taught them, so that they all may live forever by the same grace through the same faith in the same Jesus Christ alone.

This is the Light which pierces the darkness of ages past, just as it will pierce the darkness of every age to come.  It is the Light which comes to pierce your darkness, rescue you from confusion and despair, and lead you into the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.  It is the Light of the only Son of God, the Eternal Word of the Father, who moves you by His Spirit to faith and repentance that you might be lost and chained no more.  Lift up your eyes to see Him, and open your ears to hear Him, that you might be transformed by His love, mercy, grace, and peace.  Let the empty vanities of our day recede from your sight, that you may see and hear your Savior who calls you to repent, believe, and live forever.  Amen.

Of Builders and Fire: A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 3

For we are labourers together with God: 

ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, 

I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. 

But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now if any man build upon this foundation 

gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

Every man's work shall be made manifest: 

for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; 

and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: 

but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, 

and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; 

for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

St. Paul's letter to the church at Corinth is full of instructions and insights that make any reader uncomfortable, and the selection for this week is no exception.  As with all Scripture, the first thing the reader must do is seek the plain meaning of the words (a process formally called exegesis) rather than trying to pour meanings into the words the reader thinks should be there (a theological process called eisegesis which has long been fodder for turning many private opinions into heresies).  St. Paul was trying to communicate with the church at Corinth when he wrote these words, and when they were gathered into the canon of Prophetic and Apostolic Scripture, the Church throughout the world was pretty convinced that what St. Paul was saying to Corinth needed to be said to everyone.  Let us begin by assuming that St. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, was able to do just that, so that we might listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to the churches.

First off, it is important to identify who the "we" and "ye/you" are in the passage.  Paul is continuing a teaching on the relative value of preachers and teachers in the Church of Christ, and so the "we" they are referring to is themselves (Apostles, preachers, teachers, pastors, and so forth) who are, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through Jesus' Word of Law and Gospel,  laborers with Christ in building His Church.  The "ye/you" are the building, the believers, the house of living stones, who stand by grace through faith on the foundation of Jesus Christ alone.  At this point, Paul begins to mix his metaphor a bit (while grammatically unsettling to modern readers, not uncommon in the ancient world) and note that the builders cannot lay any other foundation than the doctrine of Jesus Christ, but they can build upon that foundation doctrines of greater and lesser worth (the gold, silver, hay, stubble, etc.,) all of which will be tried by fire on the Last Day.  Without the foundational doctrine of Jesus Christ (all of what the Scriptures teach about Him, who He is, what He has commanded, what He has done to save mankind from sin, death, and hell, what He will do when He comes again, etc.,) there is no Church at all, since the only Christian Church that can exist is the one founded by and upon Jesus Christ.  The first and most reliable testimony to this sure foundation, is the Word Jesus gave to His Prophets and Apostles, which is why the Word of God is the first and highest rule of faith (the old word is canon, as in the canon of Scripture) and the infallible source of truth that we have from God Himself.  Beyond this, we have thousands of years of commentary and teaching on those Scriptures which are built up like theological edifices across history-- from the Rabbinical traditions of the Talmud written during the Babylonian captivity hundreds of years before Jesus, to the writings of the Church Fathers for a thousand years after Him, to the Scholastics and Reformation theologians of the 16th century, to the teachers and preachers of our own day.  Much of the argument which emerges between Christian fellowships is related to how they have judged the variety of traditions and teachings received across our long history.

Given the diversity and sheer quantity of the writings over all these centuries and across various continents, how does one make heads or tails of them?  How does one discern the relative value of the contributions of Chrysostom versus Augustine, Anselm versus Ambrose, Luther versus Calvin?  With St. Paul, we measure them and every teacher in the Church according to how they fit and comport with the Scriptural Word of God which establishes our foundation on Jesus Christ.  Some Church Fathers do a better job than others in keeping with their Scriptural foundations, and within the writings of each we find better and worse examples.  No one should try to live by every word that proceeded from the pen of St. Augustine, anymore than they should from the pen of Luther.  What we humbly receive from them as confessors of Christ in their own time and place, we measure against the sure foundation of Christ's Word in Scripture, treasuring that which is good and faithful, and setting aside that which is not.  Thus we receive the ancient Creeds not because of who wrote them or when, but because what they teach is in conformance with the sure foundation of Scripture.  Likewise we receive the reflections of the early Church Councils, various Doctors, Professors, teachers and proclaimers of Christ, but always in light of the Word of Christ.  This allows us to revere our elders in the faith without idolizing them, just as we would the elders of our family or our community, since they will be judged according to the same standard by which we will be judged.

And what is that judgment?  Fire.  Whatever anyone builds upon the foundation of Christ and His Word, will be judged by the living fire of Christ and His Word.  If such work is found to be in conformance with Him, it will be refined and perfected in that purging fire, leaving that person with the reward of his remaining good works.  If such work is found to be out conformance with Him, it will be burned away entirely, leaving that person to suffered the loss of his works, but himself being saved even through that same fire.  Lastly, if such work is found to be attacking the very foundation of Christ and His Word, defiling the temple of God which is the people for whom Christ suffered and died to save, that person will be destroyed by God as they are cast into the eternal fires of hell.  Whatever works of man they may be, they will eventually meet the fiery judgment of God, either to be refined, purged, or consumed.

This should help us add some humility and perspective to the works and teachings we pursue in our lives.  No one is so perfect that all their thoughts, words, and deeds, all the things they've done and left undone, will encounter that purging fire of God's judgment without the pain of recognizing how far short we have fallen from His goodness, love, justice, and holiness.  If we meet that judgment in the humility of faith and repentance, clinging to our Savior Jesus Christ as our foundation and salvation, we will receive His grace and mercy unto everlasting life, purged of all our sin and selfishness forever.  If we meet that judgment without faith and repentance, His fire will consume us.  Let no one be deceived-- the testimony of Scripture is that our God is a consuming fire.

While we can find nowhere in this passage a complicated system of penalties and merits, indulgences and penances, or some quasi-hellish place of torment where people suffer for thousands of years until their escape price is paid to the Vatican's Treasury, we do see the clear teaching that everyone will meet their Maker and be judged according to His Word.  Regardless of the life you have led and what you have believed, today the Word of Christ calls you to Himself.  His Law calls you to see your sin and error for the horror it is, and to repent by turning back to His path of righteousness and holiness.  His Gospel calls you to seek your salvation from the fires of your just judgment, in the love, compassion, forgiveness, and grace of Jesus Christ alone.  Jesus and His Word alone are the truth which have created, sustained, and will judge all things; just as Jesus and His Word alone are the salvation of all who will repent and put their trust in Him.  Wherever you are in your life today, let your eyes be opened to the imminence of your fiery encounter with God, and to Jesus who has come to save you from that fiery trial.  Hear Him, turn to Him, believe in Him, and live.  Amen.