This morning in worship we prayed for the many victims of the shooting that took place in Tucson, Arizona yesterday. We asked that God would have compassion on those who lost beloved family members and friends. We prayed that God's healing power would be extended to those who had been wounded. We asked that God would guard our own lips from saying things that might encourage people to do violent things, or speak of people in such a way that violence might be directed at them. We also prayed for the perpetrator of the violence. We didn't ask that he escaoe responsibility, but we asked for healing. Indeed, as more news comes out, the young man who committed this terrible act seems to be mentally ill in addition to being saddled with the diseases of racism and hatred.
Driving to Connecticut to celebrate the Christmas season with our family we noticed a highway sign on route 495 giving directions to the funeral of a police officer. It turned out that the officer was a member of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Woburn, MA. He was killed while trying to apprehend a robbery suspect. Violence is too much with us.
Sadly, in recent years praying prayers for the victims of violence has become much to commonplace. It was only a few years ago, after the violent shootings at Virginia Tech that our leaders promised to take action so that such a thing could never happen again. The rhetoric seemed appropriate at the time, but our leaders don't make such promises anymore. The epidemic of violence seems to have overwhelmed them, and to our shame, we have come to accept it as part of life. Perhaps our leaders have come to realize that as long as we continue to confuse the priority of the right to own a gun with our sacred right to life, such promises are empty.
In one sense, such promises don't even matter. We will never be able to legislate the demise of violence until we change the hearts of a good many of our fellow citizens. We need to change the way we speak to one another,and we need to move beyond the rhetoric of confrontation to a place where we celebrate our common humanity and truly begin to see in one another the face of Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 5:44, Jesus teaches us that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. We need this kind of radical shift in the way we think and in the way we relate to one another. Instead of using our talents to demonize and denigrate one another, we should look harder into the faces of those with whom we disagree. Is it possible that in the faces of these "enemies" there is the faintest trace of our Lord's face? Faith demands of us that we at least try. Then, by constant practice we will begin to see some of the other common features with which God has graced each one of us, and that in itself would have a salutary effect.
Yet, I know this; that if we do not try, we are the wielders of the hammer, that even now, pierces the flesh of Jesus,to nail him to the cross.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Baptism of Jesus
Now that we have celebrated the incarnation of our Lord and are on the cusp of celebrating his baptism by John the Baptizer, it might be wise to take a few moments to look a little more deeply into the reason for both the incarnation and the baptism of Jesus.
When Jesus came to John, he had to insist that John perform the baptism. John recognized the simple reality that as a human being he stood in need of Jesus' baptism. John knew that he as sinner had no business baptizing Jesus. Yet, Jesus insisted that it was necessary for the purpose of fulfilling all righteouness.
I believe that the fulfilling of all righteousness means two important things for those who are concerned with sin. First is that in insisting upon being baptized by John, Jesus declares his solidarity with all of humanity. His submission to a "baptism for repentance for the forgiveness of sins" means that he accepts into himself our human nature in completeness; and that means taking upon himself the fulness of our sin.
Therein lies the problem. God cannot respond to human sin in any other way than with enimity and wrath. (Theodosius Harnack, Luthers Theologie (LT 1) Because sin is an assault on God's majesty and glory, as well as an assault upon God's own righteousness, every sin is an insult and injury to God. Luther was a believer that all of the commandments could be seen in the First, and the breaking of any commandment does, in fact, elevate other lords above the one Lord of Heaven and Earth. In the Old Testament, God describes himself as a jealous God, and with holy jealousy God is determined to protect his righteousness and glory from sinful attacks. Therefore God meets sin with wrath. In our urgency to preach grace, we cheapen it, often forgetting that God has both the will and power to punish sin. Wrath, however, is something that you and I cannot bear; ultimately it means our death. Our only hope lies in the incarnation and Jesus own proclamation of solidarity with humanity.
Second, Jesus the man is also fully Divine. God declares, "This is my Son, the beloved..." Were Jesus as man to take on our sin as an end in itself, we would be lost. Instead, Jesus takes on our sin as the Divine Son of God, who will "take on our lot" yet remain absolutely obedient to the will of the Father. When he spoke to John of fulfilling all righteosness, he meant this as well. As if to stress the point for us, in the gospel of Matthew, following his baptism Jesus is immediately driven into the wilderness, where starved and thirsty, he is tempted by Satan. In the wilderness, Satan, the personfication of sin, confronts Jesus trying desperately to force Jesus to submit. Such submission would be Jesus' damnation and ours. In Jesus Christ however, sin confronted what it had never met before; in the form of a human being, with all human weakness, a man nevertheless of "eternal and unchangeable righteousness." (Luther) Satan and sin are conquered by unconquerable obedience. Satan will try once again, at Golgotha, but Jesus will again do the will of his Father. (More on obedience another day.)
I love Luther's description: sin "did indeed attack him but he was too powerful for it; he swallowed it and it was extinguished in him like a spark of fire which falls into the great ocean, for he was nothing but righteousness."
None of this would matter, except that Jesus' victory over sin is given to us by grace through faith. Luther speaks of this as the "wonderful exchange." "Now the wonderful exchange takes place and Christ gives himself and his benefits to faith and takes upon himself the heart and whatever lies heavy upon it and makes it his own." Everything that stands in the way of life is taken away by Jesus, and everything that stands for life is given to us as free gift.
When Christians speak of being baptized into Christ, we speak of being baptized into his life death and resurrection. We are baptized into his obedience, we are baptized into his suffering and death, and we are baptized into his eternal and righteous life.
One additional note for now. There is a constant effort minimize sin. When we yield to this temptation as a church, we lose our way, we lose our mission. I think we often minimize sin so that we do not have to join in the struggle of discerning and doing God's will. So we admit little discrepancies, small moral failings, minor omissions and commissions. Yet, to recieve the gift of Jesus Christ in fulness, we must, it is inescapable for the life of faith, admit that we live in the full rebellion of sin. Then, experiencing the spiritual pain of God's wrath, whose sole purpose is to redeem us, we are driven to Christ.
If sin were no big deal, Jesus needn't be bothered, but it is a matter of life and death. Jesus came to the Jordan for a reason; for you, for me.
When Jesus came to John, he had to insist that John perform the baptism. John recognized the simple reality that as a human being he stood in need of Jesus' baptism. John knew that he as sinner had no business baptizing Jesus. Yet, Jesus insisted that it was necessary for the purpose of fulfilling all righteouness.
I believe that the fulfilling of all righteousness means two important things for those who are concerned with sin. First is that in insisting upon being baptized by John, Jesus declares his solidarity with all of humanity. His submission to a "baptism for repentance for the forgiveness of sins" means that he accepts into himself our human nature in completeness; and that means taking upon himself the fulness of our sin.
Therein lies the problem. God cannot respond to human sin in any other way than with enimity and wrath. (Theodosius Harnack, Luthers Theologie (LT 1) Because sin is an assault on God's majesty and glory, as well as an assault upon God's own righteousness, every sin is an insult and injury to God. Luther was a believer that all of the commandments could be seen in the First, and the breaking of any commandment does, in fact, elevate other lords above the one Lord of Heaven and Earth. In the Old Testament, God describes himself as a jealous God, and with holy jealousy God is determined to protect his righteousness and glory from sinful attacks. Therefore God meets sin with wrath. In our urgency to preach grace, we cheapen it, often forgetting that God has both the will and power to punish sin. Wrath, however, is something that you and I cannot bear; ultimately it means our death. Our only hope lies in the incarnation and Jesus own proclamation of solidarity with humanity.
Second, Jesus the man is also fully Divine. God declares, "This is my Son, the beloved..." Were Jesus as man to take on our sin as an end in itself, we would be lost. Instead, Jesus takes on our sin as the Divine Son of God, who will "take on our lot" yet remain absolutely obedient to the will of the Father. When he spoke to John of fulfilling all righteosness, he meant this as well. As if to stress the point for us, in the gospel of Matthew, following his baptism Jesus is immediately driven into the wilderness, where starved and thirsty, he is tempted by Satan. In the wilderness, Satan, the personfication of sin, confronts Jesus trying desperately to force Jesus to submit. Such submission would be Jesus' damnation and ours. In Jesus Christ however, sin confronted what it had never met before; in the form of a human being, with all human weakness, a man nevertheless of "eternal and unchangeable righteousness." (Luther) Satan and sin are conquered by unconquerable obedience. Satan will try once again, at Golgotha, but Jesus will again do the will of his Father. (More on obedience another day.)
I love Luther's description: sin "did indeed attack him but he was too powerful for it; he swallowed it and it was extinguished in him like a spark of fire which falls into the great ocean, for he was nothing but righteousness."
None of this would matter, except that Jesus' victory over sin is given to us by grace through faith. Luther speaks of this as the "wonderful exchange." "Now the wonderful exchange takes place and Christ gives himself and his benefits to faith and takes upon himself the heart and whatever lies heavy upon it and makes it his own." Everything that stands in the way of life is taken away by Jesus, and everything that stands for life is given to us as free gift.
When Christians speak of being baptized into Christ, we speak of being baptized into his life death and resurrection. We are baptized into his obedience, we are baptized into his suffering and death, and we are baptized into his eternal and righteous life.
One additional note for now. There is a constant effort minimize sin. When we yield to this temptation as a church, we lose our way, we lose our mission. I think we often minimize sin so that we do not have to join in the struggle of discerning and doing God's will. So we admit little discrepancies, small moral failings, minor omissions and commissions. Yet, to recieve the gift of Jesus Christ in fulness, we must, it is inescapable for the life of faith, admit that we live in the full rebellion of sin. Then, experiencing the spiritual pain of God's wrath, whose sole purpose is to redeem us, we are driven to Christ.
If sin were no big deal, Jesus needn't be bothered, but it is a matter of life and death. Jesus came to the Jordan for a reason; for you, for me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
