Sermon Genesis 11:1-9:
Is God mean? Is he hiding from us? Why did he scatter the people? Why is this text in the Bible? These are four main questions that occurred to me as I pondered this text. The first question I need to answer before answering these four questions would be “Are these the questions in which this passage is answering?” or am I asking the wrong questions?
Is God mean? Is God hiding from us?
It sure seems like it in this passage. These people go through all the trouble of building a city and a tower with in the city in which to use to climb up to God and say “hi” and he comes down and prevents them from communicating with each other and then scatters them throughout the earth.
One the most important things to notice in this text is that God comes down. It appears that the people of Babel have it all wrong. God doesn’t want us to climb up to him but instead he comes down to us.
This idea of climbing up to God has plagued society for centuries. Aristotle thought that we needed to turn ourselves from vice to virtue and in the process make ourselves virtuous or earn our way to a higher existence, perhaps reach God... Today we are still trying to climb that ladder to God by saying the right things, owning the right house, driving a hybrid, tithing the right amount, attending enough services, praying the right way, etc.. I think, like the people in Babel, we have missed the point; God comes down to us, we don’t climb up or earn our way up to him.
God comes down to us in two ways: hidden and revealed. When we seek God where he doesn’t want to be found in things like 401ks, stocks, homeownership, sharing the wealth, and in the government then he hides from us and all we end up finding is his wrath. The people in today’s story were trying to build a tower up to God to “make a name for themselves,” much like a person today going on T.V. to tell the world how God changed them from sinner to saint and if you only send their ministry $X then you to can have prosperity. Obviously this is not where God wants to be found and what these poor people of Babel experienced was the wrath of God.
The first commandment states, “You shall have no other gods.” The people Of Babel, much like the people in today’s society, are turned in upon themselves and are looking for their own glory thus, like Adam and Eve, are trying to become like God. Our God is a jealous God and he will have none of that. He is to be our only God and we are not to seek him in ways in which he does not wish to be found or else we will find the wrath of God. To answer the questions, “Is God mean, and is God hiding from us?” then would be to say, “Yes, God is mean when you seek him where he doesn’t want to be found and yes, in these places he hides.”
Why did God scatter the people?
God has a plan. That sounds so cliché I know, but it’s true. To attempt to peer in to the mind of God would be pure speculation so it doesn’t behoove us to look for the answer to this question in this text as it doesn’t seem to be answering this question. However there are some things that we can know about God from other passages. For instance Acts 1:8 reads “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth." and Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Our God is a God of mission and he has chosen us to be his missionaries. He won’t let a little thing like “what we want” stand in his way. God overcomes all obstacles to accomplish his plan.
In the Gospel According to St. Matthew 16:13-20 we hear about Jesus questioning his disciples. He is inquiring into the peoples’ idea of who they believe him to be. Then Jesus questions the disciples directly, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God.” Jesus acknowledges that Peter didn’t come up with this confession on his own, Peter very rarely got anything right, but that this confession came through the power of the Holy Spirit working upon his heart. Peter’s confession, according to Jesus, is the “petros” or rock upon which he will build his church. Unknowingly Peter preached a gospel sermon. Jesus then promises to give to Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and then states, “whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven." Jesus gave Peter the power to forgive sins. “Romans 10:14-15&17 says, “14 How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news."15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news?” 17Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.” This is how faith happens, God sends a preacher, like Peter and the scattered people in our text, to proclaim Christ through his Word in a way in which the Holy Spirit grabs hold of their heart and changes them forever. Usually this is done in the form of an absolution. If I were to speculate about God’s plan based on these other verses I would say that God scattered the people so that the message of what he had done in their lives would be spread to the ends of the earth.
Why is this text in the Bible?
From a faith stand point I would say that I have already answered this question. This is a story of God coming down to his disobedient people to overcome all the obstacles that they have created there by accomplishing his desire, his plan to send preachers to proclaim his Word in a way in which faith happens. I have also said that there are some places in which God doesn’t want to be found and if we seek him there we will only find his wrath. I have in addition stated that God promises to be our only God and he won’t stand for us turning in upon ourselves making ourselves, or our possessions, god by seeking him in places in which he doesn’t want to be found. This seems to be the points that this text communicates. This story tells us what happens when we try to impose our will over God’s.
But from an academic stand point this text is to communicating a story about our ancestors and an explanation of how there came to be so many different languages all over the world. Considering the authorship of this text, and the text by itself, this would be my conclusion.
Sending:
But here, from the pulpit, I am proclaiming to you a Word from God that you will hear in a way in which the Holy Spirit grabs hold of your heart and changes you forever. So, I stand before you today as a true preacher sent by God and I claim you for the Kingdom of Heaven by declaring to you the entire forgiveness of your sins both conscious and unconscious in the name of the Father , the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now go into the world and stop seeking God in areas in which he doesn’t want to be found. Stop putting your faith and trust in your investments, in your possessions, and your government and put your faith and trust in the preached Word of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Go in peace to love and serve your neighbor. Amen
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Galatians Paper
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians is one of his best works and reminds modern day Christians of the freedom that is found in Christ Jesus. Over time many theologians have written commentaries to expound upon the good news of the gospel in this work but no two men have ever grasped the concepts in St. Paul’s Epistle better than St. Augustine and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther. The timeless works of these men are still teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, believers in the twenty-first century. There are differences and similarities in how each man approaches their interpretation. For instance St. Augustine interprets the work, as he did with his book “Confessions,” through Plotinus’ Neo-Platonic view and Luther interprets the work through his doctrine of Law and Gospel. Differences aside, both men agree that the core of the message St. Paul conveys is the echo of Christ’s teaching in John 8:36, Jesus sets you free.
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians serves both as a rebuke and a reminder to the churches he started in Asia Minor. The people of Galatia were young in their Christian walk and had not yet gained the gift of discernment that comes through experience. Paul had delivered the good news of the gospel of Christ to them, but his message was now being perverted by the Jewish Christian converts from Jerusalem. The free gift of salvation that Christ Jesus gives to God’s elect was intended for both Gentile and Jew. The Jewish converts didn’t yet grasp the freedom of a Christian. They felt that they were still bound to the law and were convinced that the Gentiles must therefore be bound to it as well. They took this belief to the churches of Galatia and were teaching circumcision to the Gentiles.
Paul was astonished that the people of Galatia had so quickly abandoned his teaching of freedom in Christ Jesus and proceeded to rebuke them. To prevent any future perversions Paul states, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed.” (Gal 1:8) He continued to explain to them that if they partake in circumcision, they are then bound to obey the whole law and that Christ is of no use to them. For if they could gain their righteousness through the law then Christ died for nothing. Furthermore, the law came to Moses 430 years after God had reckoned onto Abraham righteousness for his faith. Therefore the righteous live by faith not by the law.
After the rebuke section of his Epistle, Paul begins to remind them that they had received faith through the power of the Holy Spirit when he preached and reiterated the importance of Christ’s sacrifice. He continued to assure them that anyone who belongs to Christ must have their flesh crucified and now live life by the Spirit because life by the flesh is subject to the law and can only bring death and despair. But life by the Spirit sets you free from the law. Paul then encourages them to live like good Christians. According to the Apostle, a good Christian lives in joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
In the preface of his work “Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians,” St. Augustine observers:
“The reason the Apostle writes to the Galatians is so they may understand what it is that God’s grace accomplishes for them: they are no longer under the law.” (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.125)
He further explains that the grace of the gospel that was preached to them by the Apostle had been abandoned. They had returned to the burdens of the law. Augustine recognizes that this line of thinking came from an influence outside their church.
The people of Jewish influence were claiming that, to be a Christian, you must both receive grace and be subject to the law. They were creating doubt in the minds of the church of Galicia in regard to the authority of St. Paul. Because of this, St. Paul reaffirms his authority.
“For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:11-12)
By stating that his gospel had a divine, not a human, origin St. Paul claims that the authority of his gospel is infallible, in contrast to a human origin which is corrupt and self seeking.
In addition Augustine recognizes a theme of Christian correction in St. Paul’s Epistle: the correction of the Galatians, the correction of St. Peter, and the “how to” example explained in Gal. 6:1. The entire letter serves as a correction of the Galatians.
St. Paul observes St. Peter eating apart from the gentiles when a group of Jewish converts come to visit:
“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.” (Gal. 2:11-13)
Previously St. Peter had lived like a gentile but now out of the fear of these men he returns to observing the law. St. Paul didn’t let this hypocrisy go uncorrected. In his letter to the Galatians Paul details his rebuke and correction of Peter which in Augustine’s view is being used as an example of how Christians should correct each other.
In the final chapter of Galatians St. Paul explains that the rebuking of a fellow Christian should be done out of love.
“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:1-2)
He didn’t want them to neglect “fraternal correction,” however he didn’t want them fighting each other so he stresses that we should correct each other gently and in a spirit of love.
Augustine was influenced by Plotinus’ doctrine of neo-Platonism. Plotinus’ main concern was to detail the path of the human soul as it pursued union with God. In doing so he gave rise to his theories on the One, the mind, the World-Soul, and the place of humans in the scheme of things.
The One is the Light-Source out of which the world comes into existence. Although the One is the source of being, it does not posses being, as it is beyond being. The nature of the One is to create, thus becoming the Godhead. Its emanation is overflowing and leads to his next concept the Mind.
The Mind is the same as Plato’s concept of real ideas as it is a collection of infinite ideas and it gives the forms or templates for everything that actually exists in the world. The Divine Mind is the source of all other minds. To think rationally is to think the thoughts of God’s. The Mind feels both the urge to return to the Godhead and to create and its creation gives rise to Plotinus’ next concept the World-Soul.
The World-Soul is the agent of creation because the Mind is passive. Human souls are the highest level of creation. The World-Mind is composed of the same substance of the human soul and is eternal and immortal. The World-Soul feels a relentless urge to return home to the One. It also functions to create the material world as it is the energy and force that generates matter. Therefore Nature and all things in nature are the result of the overflowing World-Mind. Nature then becomes the furthest thing from the Godhead and therefore is evil. An enlightened soul views all made things as unworthy and shuns them.
A human’s place in this world is to nurse the soul as it journeys back to the Godhead. James L. Christian states in “The Wisdom Seekers”
We must disconnect from the world of trivial preoccupation; we must withdraw from the seductive environment of the senses that would detour our mind and body from the constant cultivation of our spiritual life. Our every effort is to become uncontaminated by flesh and body.” p.275
The soul’s job then is to, through its own free will, deny the material world thus purifying itself in the process of seeking the return to the Godhead.
Plotinus’ influence on St. Augustine is significant to the way he views freedom as presented in St. Paul’s Epistle, specifically the denial of the flesh and the journey of the soul back to God. According to St. Augustine the law is of the flesh as it came to humans through a human, Moses. Although God wrote the law he did so to serve as a disciplinarian for human life. Augustine believes that over time humans have added to it their own traditions making it worldlier. The law was never meant to impart righteousness onto the human soul but to humble it.
The law was ordained, therefore for a proud people so that they might be humbled by their transgression (since they could not receive the grace of love unless they were humbled, and without this grace they could not fulfill the precepts of the law at all), so that they might seek grace and not assume they could be saved by their own merits (which is pride), and so that they might be righteous not by their own power and strength, but by the hand of a mediator who justifies the impious. (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.167)
For Augustine, St. Paul’s concept of freedom from the law and its oppression is denial of the flesh and the material world. For Augustine the freedom that Christ brings the human soul is grace giving a person the ability to deny the material world and return to God.
“Now a kind of death is brought about through the disciplinarian, with the intended result that the disciplinarian is not necessary, just as an infant is breast-fed with the result that it’s mother’s milk is no longer necessary, and one arrives at one’s homeland by ship with the result that the ship is no longer necessary. Another explanation is that through the law understood spiritually he died to the law, in order that he might not live under it carnally.” (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.149)
St. Augustine also demonstrates his Neo-Platonic influence in book VIII of his “Confessions,” in which he is struggling with his conversion to Christianity.
“So let us hear no more of their assertion, when they observe two wills in conflict in one man, that there are two opposing minds in him, one good and the other bad, and that-they are in conflict because they spring from two opposing substances and two opposing principles.” (Confessions p.174)
Clearly in this passage Augustine is referring to the desire of the World-Soul to return to the One and the desire to create things in the material world. In a very Neo-Platonic way he calls the desire to return to the divine good and the desire for the world bad. In addition, the completion of his conversion demonstrates the purification of the soul on its journey to return to the One.
Through a Neo-Platonic lens Augustine interprets Paul’s message as one of freedom though denial of worldly things and desires so that a soul may be purified and focus solely on God. Augustine sets an example for his future parishioners in his “Confessions.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther often referred to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians as “my Katie von Bora.” This Epistle captivated Luther’s heart and he preached from it habitually.
“But it is because, as I often warn you, there is a clear and present danger that the devil may take away from us the pure doctrine of faith and may substitute for it the doctrine of works and human of human traditions. It is very necessary, therefore, that this doctrine of faith be continually read and heard in public.” (Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.3)
According to Luther’s commentary, St. Paul’s Epistle is an argument establishing the doctrine of faith, grace, and the forgiveness of sins. It teaches Christians to distinguish between Christian righteousness and all other kinds of righteousness so that in the midst of despair through the temptation of the devil, a Christian may gain freedom by shifting their focus to this passive righteousness and cling to the promise of the gospel.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore.” (Gal. 5:1)
In his commentary, Luther explains that the freedom that Paul is referring to in the above passage isn’t a political freedom, but the freedom of the spirit from the conscience.
“For Christ has set us free, not for a political freedom or a freedom of the flesh but for a theological or spiritual freedom, that is, to make our conscience free and joyful, unafraid of the wrath of God.” (Luther’s Works vol. 27 p.5)
Luther believes that the spirit must be trained so that it can recognize an accusation from the law and abandon the despair it causes for the freedom of Christ. His doctrine of law and gospel comes from this idea of oppression and freedom.
For Luther, the law is the law that Moses delivered to the Israelites in the Old Testament or anything else that puts a burden upon the human conscience and causes them to seek active righteousness, active in the sense that a person tries to obtain righteousness through their own works. The law serves as the “Hammer of God” hammering away at the flesh with its demands until it brings about a level of despair that crushes a person’s pride. Its purpose is not to bring about righteousness but to create in the human soul the need for the gospel.
What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. (Gal. 3:19)
The gospel is the promise that God gave through faith in his son Jesus Christ.
Faith in the gospel comes from the hearing of the word of God from a elected preacher causing faith to spring to life in the soul of the elect believer through the power of the Holy Spirit. This faith sets you free from the supervision and demands of the law obtaining righteousness passively not by your own merits.
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” ( Gal. 3:26-27)
The gospel is God’s free gift of reconciliation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Through law and gospel Luther is able to comprehend Paul’s theology and detect God’s work in the lives of his parishioners through the example set forth in the Galatians Epistle. God comes down to us and uses the law to show humans that they are sinful, causing despair.
When a man’s sin has been disclosed by the law that the law shines into his heart, he finds nothing more odious and intolerable than the law.”(Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.320)
After being convicted by the law, a person is comforted by the mediator Jesus Christ.
That mediator is Jesus Christ. He does not change the sound of the law, as Moses did; nor does he cover it with a veil or lead me away from view of the law. But he sets himself against the wrath of the law and abolishes it; in his own body and by himself he satisfies the law. Afterwards he says to me through the gospel: “Of course, the law is horrible and wrathful. Do not be afraid , however, or run away; but stand fast. I take your place and make satisfaction to the law for you.” (Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.325)
For example, the Galatians were being told that they must become circumcised to be Christians. This is the law in action. But St. Paul delivers the promise of the gospel reminding them that righteousness is passive, not active there, by abolishing their obligation to the law.
Of the two commentaries discussed, I would choose Luther’s view to adopt into my own personal theology. Luther puts the obligation of salvation on God not humans; where as St. Augustine puts the burden on the human to nurse and purify the soul as it travels back to God. Being a human I would rather have the omnipotent being God in charge instead of a depraved, fallen being such as myself. Luther’s theology also unyokes a person from the law in a sense that it gives relief from the pressures of society. For instance, according to Luther, the gospel is there to give serenity and comfort to a soul. In contrast, St. Augustine’s commentary views the gospel as a guide on a tiresome journey.
I believe the freedom that is given through Christ is a better understood by Luther and is a better model for pastors to use with their parishioners. It sets them free from the standards of society, the law, and allows them to enjoy the things God has given us, as opposed to Augustine’s view of everything of the world being evil and should be shunned. Augustine’s view stresses a person out, as they are constantly worrying abou t being too worldly. Luther gives God’s grace and freedom to enjoy life and do what makes you happy as long as it doesn’t conflict with Christ’s new commandment of love God and neighbor.
Bibliography:
Augustine, St. Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians Oxford Early Christian Studies
Translated by Eric Plumer
Luther, Martin Luther’s Works Vol. 26&27 Concordia Publishing House
Translated by Jaroslaw Pelkian
Augustine, St. Confessions Penguin Classics
Translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin
Christian, James L. The Wisdom Seekers Vol. 1 Thompson Learning Inc.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible New Revised Standard Version
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians serves both as a rebuke and a reminder to the churches he started in Asia Minor. The people of Galatia were young in their Christian walk and had not yet gained the gift of discernment that comes through experience. Paul had delivered the good news of the gospel of Christ to them, but his message was now being perverted by the Jewish Christian converts from Jerusalem. The free gift of salvation that Christ Jesus gives to God’s elect was intended for both Gentile and Jew. The Jewish converts didn’t yet grasp the freedom of a Christian. They felt that they were still bound to the law and were convinced that the Gentiles must therefore be bound to it as well. They took this belief to the churches of Galatia and were teaching circumcision to the Gentiles.
Paul was astonished that the people of Galatia had so quickly abandoned his teaching of freedom in Christ Jesus and proceeded to rebuke them. To prevent any future perversions Paul states, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed.” (Gal 1:8) He continued to explain to them that if they partake in circumcision, they are then bound to obey the whole law and that Christ is of no use to them. For if they could gain their righteousness through the law then Christ died for nothing. Furthermore, the law came to Moses 430 years after God had reckoned onto Abraham righteousness for his faith. Therefore the righteous live by faith not by the law.
After the rebuke section of his Epistle, Paul begins to remind them that they had received faith through the power of the Holy Spirit when he preached and reiterated the importance of Christ’s sacrifice. He continued to assure them that anyone who belongs to Christ must have their flesh crucified and now live life by the Spirit because life by the flesh is subject to the law and can only bring death and despair. But life by the Spirit sets you free from the law. Paul then encourages them to live like good Christians. According to the Apostle, a good Christian lives in joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
In the preface of his work “Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians,” St. Augustine observers:
“The reason the Apostle writes to the Galatians is so they may understand what it is that God’s grace accomplishes for them: they are no longer under the law.” (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.125)
He further explains that the grace of the gospel that was preached to them by the Apostle had been abandoned. They had returned to the burdens of the law. Augustine recognizes that this line of thinking came from an influence outside their church.
The people of Jewish influence were claiming that, to be a Christian, you must both receive grace and be subject to the law. They were creating doubt in the minds of the church of Galicia in regard to the authority of St. Paul. Because of this, St. Paul reaffirms his authority.
“For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:11-12)
By stating that his gospel had a divine, not a human, origin St. Paul claims that the authority of his gospel is infallible, in contrast to a human origin which is corrupt and self seeking.
In addition Augustine recognizes a theme of Christian correction in St. Paul’s Epistle: the correction of the Galatians, the correction of St. Peter, and the “how to” example explained in Gal. 6:1. The entire letter serves as a correction of the Galatians.
St. Paul observes St. Peter eating apart from the gentiles when a group of Jewish converts come to visit:
“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.” (Gal. 2:11-13)
Previously St. Peter had lived like a gentile but now out of the fear of these men he returns to observing the law. St. Paul didn’t let this hypocrisy go uncorrected. In his letter to the Galatians Paul details his rebuke and correction of Peter which in Augustine’s view is being used as an example of how Christians should correct each other.
In the final chapter of Galatians St. Paul explains that the rebuking of a fellow Christian should be done out of love.
“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:1-2)
He didn’t want them to neglect “fraternal correction,” however he didn’t want them fighting each other so he stresses that we should correct each other gently and in a spirit of love.
Augustine was influenced by Plotinus’ doctrine of neo-Platonism. Plotinus’ main concern was to detail the path of the human soul as it pursued union with God. In doing so he gave rise to his theories on the One, the mind, the World-Soul, and the place of humans in the scheme of things.
The One is the Light-Source out of which the world comes into existence. Although the One is the source of being, it does not posses being, as it is beyond being. The nature of the One is to create, thus becoming the Godhead. Its emanation is overflowing and leads to his next concept the Mind.
The Mind is the same as Plato’s concept of real ideas as it is a collection of infinite ideas and it gives the forms or templates for everything that actually exists in the world. The Divine Mind is the source of all other minds. To think rationally is to think the thoughts of God’s. The Mind feels both the urge to return to the Godhead and to create and its creation gives rise to Plotinus’ next concept the World-Soul.
The World-Soul is the agent of creation because the Mind is passive. Human souls are the highest level of creation. The World-Mind is composed of the same substance of the human soul and is eternal and immortal. The World-Soul feels a relentless urge to return home to the One. It also functions to create the material world as it is the energy and force that generates matter. Therefore Nature and all things in nature are the result of the overflowing World-Mind. Nature then becomes the furthest thing from the Godhead and therefore is evil. An enlightened soul views all made things as unworthy and shuns them.
A human’s place in this world is to nurse the soul as it journeys back to the Godhead. James L. Christian states in “The Wisdom Seekers”
We must disconnect from the world of trivial preoccupation; we must withdraw from the seductive environment of the senses that would detour our mind and body from the constant cultivation of our spiritual life. Our every effort is to become uncontaminated by flesh and body.” p.275
The soul’s job then is to, through its own free will, deny the material world thus purifying itself in the process of seeking the return to the Godhead.
Plotinus’ influence on St. Augustine is significant to the way he views freedom as presented in St. Paul’s Epistle, specifically the denial of the flesh and the journey of the soul back to God. According to St. Augustine the law is of the flesh as it came to humans through a human, Moses. Although God wrote the law he did so to serve as a disciplinarian for human life. Augustine believes that over time humans have added to it their own traditions making it worldlier. The law was never meant to impart righteousness onto the human soul but to humble it.
The law was ordained, therefore for a proud people so that they might be humbled by their transgression (since they could not receive the grace of love unless they were humbled, and without this grace they could not fulfill the precepts of the law at all), so that they might seek grace and not assume they could be saved by their own merits (which is pride), and so that they might be righteous not by their own power and strength, but by the hand of a mediator who justifies the impious. (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.167)
For Augustine, St. Paul’s concept of freedom from the law and its oppression is denial of the flesh and the material world. For Augustine the freedom that Christ brings the human soul is grace giving a person the ability to deny the material world and return to God.
“Now a kind of death is brought about through the disciplinarian, with the intended result that the disciplinarian is not necessary, just as an infant is breast-fed with the result that it’s mother’s milk is no longer necessary, and one arrives at one’s homeland by ship with the result that the ship is no longer necessary. Another explanation is that through the law understood spiritually he died to the law, in order that he might not live under it carnally.” (Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians p.149)
St. Augustine also demonstrates his Neo-Platonic influence in book VIII of his “Confessions,” in which he is struggling with his conversion to Christianity.
“So let us hear no more of their assertion, when they observe two wills in conflict in one man, that there are two opposing minds in him, one good and the other bad, and that-they are in conflict because they spring from two opposing substances and two opposing principles.” (Confessions p.174)
Clearly in this passage Augustine is referring to the desire of the World-Soul to return to the One and the desire to create things in the material world. In a very Neo-Platonic way he calls the desire to return to the divine good and the desire for the world bad. In addition, the completion of his conversion demonstrates the purification of the soul on its journey to return to the One.
Through a Neo-Platonic lens Augustine interprets Paul’s message as one of freedom though denial of worldly things and desires so that a soul may be purified and focus solely on God. Augustine sets an example for his future parishioners in his “Confessions.”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther often referred to St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians as “my Katie von Bora.” This Epistle captivated Luther’s heart and he preached from it habitually.
“But it is because, as I often warn you, there is a clear and present danger that the devil may take away from us the pure doctrine of faith and may substitute for it the doctrine of works and human of human traditions. It is very necessary, therefore, that this doctrine of faith be continually read and heard in public.” (Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.3)
According to Luther’s commentary, St. Paul’s Epistle is an argument establishing the doctrine of faith, grace, and the forgiveness of sins. It teaches Christians to distinguish between Christian righteousness and all other kinds of righteousness so that in the midst of despair through the temptation of the devil, a Christian may gain freedom by shifting their focus to this passive righteousness and cling to the promise of the gospel.
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore.” (Gal. 5:1)
In his commentary, Luther explains that the freedom that Paul is referring to in the above passage isn’t a political freedom, but the freedom of the spirit from the conscience.
“For Christ has set us free, not for a political freedom or a freedom of the flesh but for a theological or spiritual freedom, that is, to make our conscience free and joyful, unafraid of the wrath of God.” (Luther’s Works vol. 27 p.5)
Luther believes that the spirit must be trained so that it can recognize an accusation from the law and abandon the despair it causes for the freedom of Christ. His doctrine of law and gospel comes from this idea of oppression and freedom.
For Luther, the law is the law that Moses delivered to the Israelites in the Old Testament or anything else that puts a burden upon the human conscience and causes them to seek active righteousness, active in the sense that a person tries to obtain righteousness through their own works. The law serves as the “Hammer of God” hammering away at the flesh with its demands until it brings about a level of despair that crushes a person’s pride. Its purpose is not to bring about righteousness but to create in the human soul the need for the gospel.
What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. (Gal. 3:19)
The gospel is the promise that God gave through faith in his son Jesus Christ.
Faith in the gospel comes from the hearing of the word of God from a elected preacher causing faith to spring to life in the soul of the elect believer through the power of the Holy Spirit. This faith sets you free from the supervision and demands of the law obtaining righteousness passively not by your own merits.
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” ( Gal. 3:26-27)
The gospel is God’s free gift of reconciliation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Through law and gospel Luther is able to comprehend Paul’s theology and detect God’s work in the lives of his parishioners through the example set forth in the Galatians Epistle. God comes down to us and uses the law to show humans that they are sinful, causing despair.
When a man’s sin has been disclosed by the law that the law shines into his heart, he finds nothing more odious and intolerable than the law.”(Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.320)
After being convicted by the law, a person is comforted by the mediator Jesus Christ.
That mediator is Jesus Christ. He does not change the sound of the law, as Moses did; nor does he cover it with a veil or lead me away from view of the law. But he sets himself against the wrath of the law and abolishes it; in his own body and by himself he satisfies the law. Afterwards he says to me through the gospel: “Of course, the law is horrible and wrathful. Do not be afraid , however, or run away; but stand fast. I take your place and make satisfaction to the law for you.” (Luther’s Works vol. 26 p.325)
For example, the Galatians were being told that they must become circumcised to be Christians. This is the law in action. But St. Paul delivers the promise of the gospel reminding them that righteousness is passive, not active there, by abolishing their obligation to the law.
Of the two commentaries discussed, I would choose Luther’s view to adopt into my own personal theology. Luther puts the obligation of salvation on God not humans; where as St. Augustine puts the burden on the human to nurse and purify the soul as it travels back to God. Being a human I would rather have the omnipotent being God in charge instead of a depraved, fallen being such as myself. Luther’s theology also unyokes a person from the law in a sense that it gives relief from the pressures of society. For instance, according to Luther, the gospel is there to give serenity and comfort to a soul. In contrast, St. Augustine’s commentary views the gospel as a guide on a tiresome journey.
I believe the freedom that is given through Christ is a better understood by Luther and is a better model for pastors to use with their parishioners. It sets them free from the standards of society, the law, and allows them to enjoy the things God has given us, as opposed to Augustine’s view of everything of the world being evil and should be shunned. Augustine’s view stresses a person out, as they are constantly worrying abou t being too worldly. Luther gives God’s grace and freedom to enjoy life and do what makes you happy as long as it doesn’t conflict with Christ’s new commandment of love God and neighbor.
Bibliography:
Augustine, St. Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians Oxford Early Christian Studies
Translated by Eric Plumer
Luther, Martin Luther’s Works Vol. 26&27 Concordia Publishing House
Translated by Jaroslaw Pelkian
Augustine, St. Confessions Penguin Classics
Translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin
Christian, James L. The Wisdom Seekers Vol. 1 Thompson Learning Inc.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible New Revised Standard Version
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Luther Seminary Entrance Essay!
Jamie Strickler
Law and Gospel Study
Autobiography
December 10, 2007
Since my baptism the Lord has been using the Law, through events in my life, to hammer my flesh into submission and sending preachers to deliver His promises to strengthen my faith and preserve my hope. The most significant events that come to mind are: being bullied as a child, a career as a high school wrestler, a failed relationship, a failed marriage, and a failure to succeed financially.
As a third grader it became evident that I was the fat kid, I was tormented mercilessly. There were a number of bullies and at thirty-three years old I can still remember their names and still feel the humiliation and pain they inflicted. Each crushing blow to the gut or pop to the nose reminded me that I wasn’t good enough and obviously wasn’t living up to the standards or law of the world. These crushing blows inflicted by the agents of evil sent me on a journey to find out how, in this world, I could obtain righteousness. Believing that the world couldn’t accept me for who I am, I believed that a perfect being like God to love me? There must be some way in which I could perform to earn God and the world’s acceptance.
First I tried to build my body. As a freshman in high school I discovered that I was stronger that everyone else and that gained me some notoriety. I spent the next four years of my life working out and seeking out more mature lifters to learn new techniques to become bigger and stronger. As a senior in high school I weighed one hundred ninety-five pounds and had obtained a low six percent body fat. To my delight I was feared and caught the attention of a couple of young girls. At the time I mistook fear as respect and sexual conquest as love.
I also discovered that I had a talent in the sport of wrestling and punished each opponent as if they were one of my childhood bullies. In competition I broke opponent’s ribs, fingers, and did my share of eye gouging. Anything to win! Acquiring the rank of captain of the team I won more and more matches and became more feared. But it seemed with each victory I became angrier, in hind sight I see that my anger wasn’t the real emotion I was experiencing. Anger never presents itself alone, it is always covering up some more vulnerable emotion and for me that emotion was fear of losing. In my subconscious mind I couldn’t lose a match or else everyone would see me for who I really was a weak fat kid in an athlete’s body. But in my conscious mind I no longer needed God because I had become God. But the Law was about to strike again. Just before the State Tournament my senior year I received a crushing blow that I would never be able to overcome. I had justified myself physically in the flesh and my merciful Savior knew that is was causing me pain and one day in practice my right knee got caught in the mat and was super flexed ruining my chances of a State Championship. Wrestling at fifty percent I placed sixth to opponents I had beaten earlier in the year. As I stood and received my reward, a bronze medal, I knew that I would never wrestle again, I had failed, and once more I wasn’t good enough.
Not being in the spot light was more than I could bear and I turned to the only one, at the time, who could make me feel like a man, my high school girlfriend. She was a college student standing five foot one and blonde, every young boy’s dream. She introduced me to the party life and I found that by drinking alcohol I could somehow forget, for a short time, all my failures. She was, I thought at the time, my dream girl until she entered someone else’s dream and became my nightmare. I was attending college now and I couldn’t handle the loss of the one thing that made me somewhat whole. I quit school and entered a deep depression. The Law had struck again.
I then turned to my faith. I had been baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church and I knew of no other place to look for meaning except mass. I attended church regularly and had enrolled in community college, I was back on track. I met a nice high school girl whose mother was a born again Christian. She introduced me to a non-denominational church which lead me to start reading Christian literature. I found, in their church a loving, forgiving God, not the condemning, vengeful God of my past. Marrying that girl and finding success in the auto business I believed I was on my way.
At twenty-two I was making six figures and had found yet another way to gain my own righteousness or so I thought. Torn between the party life, work, family and church on Sunday I failed to notice that my new bride had become lonely. When she turned to drugs and an older man I felt the Law once again knock me on my kester. She filed for divorce and we celebrated our three year anniversary with the dissolution of the marriage. I was crushed and felt more rejected that I ever had in my life. Then my loving and rescuing Savior came to me through a man He had called to the office of Pastor, Kerry Jecht. Kerry was the pastor of my ex-wife’s church and we had met to try to save my marriage. Becoming friends I found my faith strengthening as he delivered the promises of the Gospel, planting the Jesus seed if you will, but I still couldn’t leave the security of an intoxicated weekend to drown my pain. As St. Augustine said, “Lord make me chaste, but not yet!”
A salesman at the dealership in which I was working introduced me to his oldest daughter Zanny. We fell immediately in love and were married, by Kerry, in less that a year. Through out our seven plus years of marriage God has used Zanny to demonstrate to me what unconditional love and forgiveness truly looks like, she is a living breathing example of what God can do in a marriage. After the birth of our son, Joseph Michael, we decided that we better find our place in a church and since we were both raised Catholic, it was time to return there. I went through the process of having my first marriage annulled and then we had our marriage blessed and our son baptized. By the time our daughter, Ally Rae, was born we were good “Sunday” Catholics. But there was something missing, we kept drifting deeper in to debt as we were making over one hundred thousand dollars a year but living like we made two hundred thousand. I had abandoned God again for my new Gods power, things, and money and again the Law had its way with me.
911 was a horrible time for a lot of people and it killed the car business. We left the comfort of our small town so that I could take a job with a larger dealership in hopes that our new income could out run our current lifestyle. It didn’t. We were bankrupt, spiritually and financially. It was on Memorial Day 2003 that the Holy Spirit seed planted inside me became a fruit bearing tree. I had had enough, the Hammer of God had taken its toll on my flesh; I had been yoked to the Law too long.
I didn’t know what to do but I knew I had to leave the car business. It was amazing, I no longer bound to the bondage of guilt for having to manipulate people and that alone set me free from the abuse of alcohol. I spent the next nine months working as a loan officer in a mortgage company helping people, like me, fresh out of bankruptcy save their houses and my spare time searching for Christ. That was it, this was my calling, I was called to help people in trouble.
I ran into an old friend from the car business, Bob Eckhart, who invited me to his non-denominational mega church and I again discovered the forgiving merciful God. I started training with them part-time to become an associate Pastor with their upcoming satellite branch. For nine months I mentored with two pastors, Jason Stark and Tom Clegg. I had a hunger for the Word of God and devoured three to four Christian books a week. On Jason’s recommendation I started mentoring and counseling men from our church, but now matter how hard I tried it was never enough to satisfy my hunger to do the work of God; I was never quit good enough.
Tom asked me what it was I wanted to do with my life and I told him I wanted to return to school and become a Pastor. He referred me to Grandview College. Then the Law struck again, when the new satellite church opened I was passed up for the associate pastor position. My heart was broken, and we left the church.
In the mean time I had registered for school full time and Zanny excitedly reentered the work force managing a retail store. We had lost our house but we were able to secure a small two bedroom town home. We were dirt poor but extremely happy and free. To add to our joy Zanny unexpectedly became pregnant.
At Grand View College I met Doctors Ken Jones and Mark Mattes and they became my new delivers of the Gospel promise. Through my spiritual father, Dr. Ken Jones, I leaned of Luther and his theology of Law and Gospel. Finally it was all clear, all this really wasn’t up to me, my will was bound to God by God. Everything I thought I understood about God was turned upside down and inside out. Hidden in all the trials I had experienced God was drawing me to himself, hammering away at my flesh with Law and building my faith with the promise delivered by his elected preachers. I was finally free from the obligation to gain my own righteousness; Jesus had done it for me. We joined Faith Lutheran Church in Clive Iowa where I serve as a care minister and we had our third child, Gabriella Suzanne, baptized.
Through the tutelage of Dr Jones I have been unyoked of the burden on the Law by embracing the theology of justification by faith alone explained through Luther, St. Augustine, and St. Paul. I once asked Dr. Jones, “Now that I am free from the Law, what do I do now?” He answered, “What do you want to do?”
Well I’m doing it, for the past year and a half I have served as a chaplain with Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission not because I have some debt of service to pay God, but because I am completely happy being called to take up the mission of John the Baptist pointing my bony finger to the cross of Christ for the broken to see.
I want to attend Seminary because I feel an internal call to be an ELCA pastor and want to explore it further. The fruit that is associated with Luther Seminary entices me, for instance, Ken Jones, Steve Paulson, Gerhard Forde, David Nerdig, Jack Mithelman, and Mark Mattes.
I am Lutheran through and through. I am convinced that God elects people to eternal salvation and draws them to himself through a bound will. No more searching for righteousness through works. I see Luther’s theology of Law and Gospel lived out each day in lives of the men I encounter at the shelter and using Luther’s theology am able to explain to them the freedom I have been freely given. The Sacraments of baptism and communion have become very dear to me, baptism being the bestowing of Christ’s promise upon God’s elect and in communion experiencing Christ’s presence. I am in complete agreement with the Nicene Creed, and the Apostles Creed. I see that as Christians we are just sinners now justified by and set free to follow Jesus and obey his Laws of loving God and neighbor. Through the gift of Christ crucified I am free from relying on my emotions, feelings, or understanding and in times of trial can cling to God’s Gospel promises. I no longer dread the Law I embrace the Gospel
Law and Gospel Study
Autobiography
December 10, 2007
Since my baptism the Lord has been using the Law, through events in my life, to hammer my flesh into submission and sending preachers to deliver His promises to strengthen my faith and preserve my hope. The most significant events that come to mind are: being bullied as a child, a career as a high school wrestler, a failed relationship, a failed marriage, and a failure to succeed financially.
As a third grader it became evident that I was the fat kid, I was tormented mercilessly. There were a number of bullies and at thirty-three years old I can still remember their names and still feel the humiliation and pain they inflicted. Each crushing blow to the gut or pop to the nose reminded me that I wasn’t good enough and obviously wasn’t living up to the standards or law of the world. These crushing blows inflicted by the agents of evil sent me on a journey to find out how, in this world, I could obtain righteousness. Believing that the world couldn’t accept me for who I am, I believed that a perfect being like God to love me? There must be some way in which I could perform to earn God and the world’s acceptance.
First I tried to build my body. As a freshman in high school I discovered that I was stronger that everyone else and that gained me some notoriety. I spent the next four years of my life working out and seeking out more mature lifters to learn new techniques to become bigger and stronger. As a senior in high school I weighed one hundred ninety-five pounds and had obtained a low six percent body fat. To my delight I was feared and caught the attention of a couple of young girls. At the time I mistook fear as respect and sexual conquest as love.
I also discovered that I had a talent in the sport of wrestling and punished each opponent as if they were one of my childhood bullies. In competition I broke opponent’s ribs, fingers, and did my share of eye gouging. Anything to win! Acquiring the rank of captain of the team I won more and more matches and became more feared. But it seemed with each victory I became angrier, in hind sight I see that my anger wasn’t the real emotion I was experiencing. Anger never presents itself alone, it is always covering up some more vulnerable emotion and for me that emotion was fear of losing. In my subconscious mind I couldn’t lose a match or else everyone would see me for who I really was a weak fat kid in an athlete’s body. But in my conscious mind I no longer needed God because I had become God. But the Law was about to strike again. Just before the State Tournament my senior year I received a crushing blow that I would never be able to overcome. I had justified myself physically in the flesh and my merciful Savior knew that is was causing me pain and one day in practice my right knee got caught in the mat and was super flexed ruining my chances of a State Championship. Wrestling at fifty percent I placed sixth to opponents I had beaten earlier in the year. As I stood and received my reward, a bronze medal, I knew that I would never wrestle again, I had failed, and once more I wasn’t good enough.
Not being in the spot light was more than I could bear and I turned to the only one, at the time, who could make me feel like a man, my high school girlfriend. She was a college student standing five foot one and blonde, every young boy’s dream. She introduced me to the party life and I found that by drinking alcohol I could somehow forget, for a short time, all my failures. She was, I thought at the time, my dream girl until she entered someone else’s dream and became my nightmare. I was attending college now and I couldn’t handle the loss of the one thing that made me somewhat whole. I quit school and entered a deep depression. The Law had struck again.
I then turned to my faith. I had been baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church and I knew of no other place to look for meaning except mass. I attended church regularly and had enrolled in community college, I was back on track. I met a nice high school girl whose mother was a born again Christian. She introduced me to a non-denominational church which lead me to start reading Christian literature. I found, in their church a loving, forgiving God, not the condemning, vengeful God of my past. Marrying that girl and finding success in the auto business I believed I was on my way.
At twenty-two I was making six figures and had found yet another way to gain my own righteousness or so I thought. Torn between the party life, work, family and church on Sunday I failed to notice that my new bride had become lonely. When she turned to drugs and an older man I felt the Law once again knock me on my kester. She filed for divorce and we celebrated our three year anniversary with the dissolution of the marriage. I was crushed and felt more rejected that I ever had in my life. Then my loving and rescuing Savior came to me through a man He had called to the office of Pastor, Kerry Jecht. Kerry was the pastor of my ex-wife’s church and we had met to try to save my marriage. Becoming friends I found my faith strengthening as he delivered the promises of the Gospel, planting the Jesus seed if you will, but I still couldn’t leave the security of an intoxicated weekend to drown my pain. As St. Augustine said, “Lord make me chaste, but not yet!”
A salesman at the dealership in which I was working introduced me to his oldest daughter Zanny. We fell immediately in love and were married, by Kerry, in less that a year. Through out our seven plus years of marriage God has used Zanny to demonstrate to me what unconditional love and forgiveness truly looks like, she is a living breathing example of what God can do in a marriage. After the birth of our son, Joseph Michael, we decided that we better find our place in a church and since we were both raised Catholic, it was time to return there. I went through the process of having my first marriage annulled and then we had our marriage blessed and our son baptized. By the time our daughter, Ally Rae, was born we were good “Sunday” Catholics. But there was something missing, we kept drifting deeper in to debt as we were making over one hundred thousand dollars a year but living like we made two hundred thousand. I had abandoned God again for my new Gods power, things, and money and again the Law had its way with me.
911 was a horrible time for a lot of people and it killed the car business. We left the comfort of our small town so that I could take a job with a larger dealership in hopes that our new income could out run our current lifestyle. It didn’t. We were bankrupt, spiritually and financially. It was on Memorial Day 2003 that the Holy Spirit seed planted inside me became a fruit bearing tree. I had had enough, the Hammer of God had taken its toll on my flesh; I had been yoked to the Law too long.
I didn’t know what to do but I knew I had to leave the car business. It was amazing, I no longer bound to the bondage of guilt for having to manipulate people and that alone set me free from the abuse of alcohol. I spent the next nine months working as a loan officer in a mortgage company helping people, like me, fresh out of bankruptcy save their houses and my spare time searching for Christ. That was it, this was my calling, I was called to help people in trouble.
I ran into an old friend from the car business, Bob Eckhart, who invited me to his non-denominational mega church and I again discovered the forgiving merciful God. I started training with them part-time to become an associate Pastor with their upcoming satellite branch. For nine months I mentored with two pastors, Jason Stark and Tom Clegg. I had a hunger for the Word of God and devoured three to four Christian books a week. On Jason’s recommendation I started mentoring and counseling men from our church, but now matter how hard I tried it was never enough to satisfy my hunger to do the work of God; I was never quit good enough.
Tom asked me what it was I wanted to do with my life and I told him I wanted to return to school and become a Pastor. He referred me to Grandview College. Then the Law struck again, when the new satellite church opened I was passed up for the associate pastor position. My heart was broken, and we left the church.
In the mean time I had registered for school full time and Zanny excitedly reentered the work force managing a retail store. We had lost our house but we were able to secure a small two bedroom town home. We were dirt poor but extremely happy and free. To add to our joy Zanny unexpectedly became pregnant.
At Grand View College I met Doctors Ken Jones and Mark Mattes and they became my new delivers of the Gospel promise. Through my spiritual father, Dr. Ken Jones, I leaned of Luther and his theology of Law and Gospel. Finally it was all clear, all this really wasn’t up to me, my will was bound to God by God. Everything I thought I understood about God was turned upside down and inside out. Hidden in all the trials I had experienced God was drawing me to himself, hammering away at my flesh with Law and building my faith with the promise delivered by his elected preachers. I was finally free from the obligation to gain my own righteousness; Jesus had done it for me. We joined Faith Lutheran Church in Clive Iowa where I serve as a care minister and we had our third child, Gabriella Suzanne, baptized.
Through the tutelage of Dr Jones I have been unyoked of the burden on the Law by embracing the theology of justification by faith alone explained through Luther, St. Augustine, and St. Paul. I once asked Dr. Jones, “Now that I am free from the Law, what do I do now?” He answered, “What do you want to do?”
Well I’m doing it, for the past year and a half I have served as a chaplain with Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission not because I have some debt of service to pay God, but because I am completely happy being called to take up the mission of John the Baptist pointing my bony finger to the cross of Christ for the broken to see.
I want to attend Seminary because I feel an internal call to be an ELCA pastor and want to explore it further. The fruit that is associated with Luther Seminary entices me, for instance, Ken Jones, Steve Paulson, Gerhard Forde, David Nerdig, Jack Mithelman, and Mark Mattes.
I am Lutheran through and through. I am convinced that God elects people to eternal salvation and draws them to himself through a bound will. No more searching for righteousness through works. I see Luther’s theology of Law and Gospel lived out each day in lives of the men I encounter at the shelter and using Luther’s theology am able to explain to them the freedom I have been freely given. The Sacraments of baptism and communion have become very dear to me, baptism being the bestowing of Christ’s promise upon God’s elect and in communion experiencing Christ’s presence. I am in complete agreement with the Nicene Creed, and the Apostles Creed. I see that as Christians we are just sinners now justified by and set free to follow Jesus and obey his Laws of loving God and neighbor. Through the gift of Christ crucified I am free from relying on my emotions, feelings, or understanding and in times of trial can cling to God’s Gospel promises. I no longer dread the Law I embrace the Gospel
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Pregame Sermon to Waldorf College Football Team
There once was a powerful army who seemed unstoppable. The general of this army had set his sites upon a small kingdom that he believed he could conquer very easily. He sent a messenger ahead of his army to the king of the village to offer them the chance to surrender as their army would be greatly out numbered. After the messenger delivered the terms of the general’s offer the king called his best solider into the court room. He looked at his finest example of a military leader and said to him, “Fall on your sword,” the man instantly and without hesitation did as his king commanded. Then the king called his second best solider and commanded the same, again without hesitation the solider fulfilled the command of his king. The king then looked at the messenger and said, “I may only have a few but every man I have is willing to give all he has for me.” The messenger returned to the general and said, “Sir we can not defeat these men because they are already dead.”
My name is Jamie Strickler and I am here tonight to talk to you about being part of a team. I understand that your football team comes fourth; faith is first then your family then your education then football. But none the less in any of these priorities you are functioning as a part of a team. And as a part of these teams you are expected to do your part with intensity, respect, commitment, and trustworthiness. It doesn’t matter if you are complying with the wishes of your heavenly Father, your earthly father, your professors, or your coach. It is all team work.
In the story I told you of the small kingdom did you find it surprising that men would take their own life with out question? You see when each man joined the king’s army they gave their up their former lives to server a higher righteous calling. I hope that none of you will ever have to face that dilemma. I know that most likely coach Youngblood will never as you to fall on your sword for the team, although after three a day practices if may have felt like it. But none the less you are asked to do your part on this team without question or complaint and to the best of you ability. The quarter back isn’t to be worrying about the linemen and the linebackers are not to be worrying about the safety. Each man should be focused on his job and trust that everyone else is doing the same. This selflessness my friends is what makes a team champions.
Waldorf College is a school of the church. It is expected that Jesus the Word of God will be part of your team. There is no greater power. The power of Christ is what I am willing to die for without question. You see we are all apart of the body of Christ in which Christ is the head.
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (1 COR 12:12)
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 COR 12:27)
We are all members of His team. And as part of His team we are all expected to do our duty without question or complaint. Whether you believe it or not and whether you know it or not, you have been called here by God to be student athletes. God is using this period in your life to shape each of you into the man He is calling you to be. In Matthew chapter 25:31-46 Jesus tells of the separating of the sheep from the goats. The sheep are the ones who believed in Jesus and did his work feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty and so on. The goats are the ones who may have professed belief but then didn’t do the work of Christ. Low and behold it was the doers that were saved and not the professors. Believe me as a student there are some professors that I would like to condemn to hell but I don’t think that is the kind of professor Jesus meant. You are the doers. God has called you here to play football for His glory. This is a school of the church! And He is not asking you to hand out Bible tracts or give some over emotional prayer in public. He is calling you to perform with the gifts he has given you, your talents as a student and as an athlete. He is calling you to serve His team without question or complaint. I know that each of you is up for the challenge because you wouldn’t be here if that weren’t the case.
Don’t mistake what I am saying. I am not talking about winning every game. Although that is obtainable sometimes it isn’t the way in which we learn the most. We can learn something from every defeat in our lives. Mostly I have learned that if God isn’t in it I will loose in the end. What I am talking about is playing your guts out for the glory of God and your team. Giving everything you have focusing on your duty alone for the good of the team. If you win you win as a team and praise God, if you loose you loose as a team and praise God. Either way there better not be anything left in you gas tank when you walk off the field.
When I was young I was the fat kid and was bullied mercilessly. I know you can’t tell it by my masculine physique toady. Every punch to the gut and every bloody nose was a reminder to me that I didn’t live up to some standard. I spent most of my life trying to live up to the standards of this world. My senior year of high school I was 5’ 9” and weighed 195lbs with 8% body fat. I was a two time all state wrestler and I was terrified to loose. My fear expressed itself as anger and I broke fingers, cracked ribs, and gouged eyes, anything to win. I competed with a hate and a rage that became way out of control. You see if I lost then I would confirm the fact that I was a looser but if I won then I confirmed that I was a winner. Not for my team not for God, I was god. God had called me to be a wrestler for His glory to teach and shape me but I used His calling for self glorification and revenge. In pursuit of my own glory the inevitable happened I got hurt and place sixth in the state tournament behind 5 guys I had beaten earlier in the year. I had lost. It sent me into a drunken spiral that I didn’t soon recover from. I found new gods power and money. At the age of 22 I was making over 150k a year. I was working 70 hours a week performing for the love of power and money. When I wasn’t working I was drunk because of the pressure, guilt, shame, and fear that I would someday not perform well. Well it happened. I was working as a business manager with a car dealership working on commission. When the 911 attacks took place the car business died. 70% of my income came from the finance charge of the loans I was putting together. Anyone care to guess how much commission is paid to the business manager on a 0% loan? I took a $30,000 pay cut the first year. And eventually took a $100,000 a year pay cut. My wife and I lost everything: our house, our cars, everything. One night I was driving home from a party so drunk that I could only focus with one eye. God came to me that night and told me that I could no longer live the way I had been living. My life was never the same after that. I returned to school, finished my BA in Religion graduating magna cum laude and as part of three national honor societies. I now attend Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN. on a full academic scholarship. Not for me but for God. You see sometimes you don’t know Jesus is all you need until He is all you have left. I encourage you to learn from my mistakes. Fear of failure and being filled with hate and revenge is no way to live your life and it most certainly is not how you serve God or your team.
God will use your academic ability as well as your athletic ability mold and shape you. Your God given talents will take you places in this world. Tomorrow is your first chance to give your abilities to God. When you step on that field be apart of God’s team. Over all God’s team is a small one but each member of His team is willing to give their life for Him and their team mates. Sounds like a championship team to me. Tomorrow learn from my mistakes, put yourself aside for the glory and love of God and your team.
(Ephesians 4:22-24) You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Play tomorrow like you are new men and apart of an eternal team. Play your guts out and may Almighty God bless you and keep you safe. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!
My name is Jamie Strickler and I am here tonight to talk to you about being part of a team. I understand that your football team comes fourth; faith is first then your family then your education then football. But none the less in any of these priorities you are functioning as a part of a team. And as a part of these teams you are expected to do your part with intensity, respect, commitment, and trustworthiness. It doesn’t matter if you are complying with the wishes of your heavenly Father, your earthly father, your professors, or your coach. It is all team work.
In the story I told you of the small kingdom did you find it surprising that men would take their own life with out question? You see when each man joined the king’s army they gave their up their former lives to server a higher righteous calling. I hope that none of you will ever have to face that dilemma. I know that most likely coach Youngblood will never as you to fall on your sword for the team, although after three a day practices if may have felt like it. But none the less you are asked to do your part on this team without question or complaint and to the best of you ability. The quarter back isn’t to be worrying about the linemen and the linebackers are not to be worrying about the safety. Each man should be focused on his job and trust that everyone else is doing the same. This selflessness my friends is what makes a team champions.
Waldorf College is a school of the church. It is expected that Jesus the Word of God will be part of your team. There is no greater power. The power of Christ is what I am willing to die for without question. You see we are all apart of the body of Christ in which Christ is the head.
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (1 COR 12:12)
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 COR 12:27)
We are all members of His team. And as part of His team we are all expected to do our duty without question or complaint. Whether you believe it or not and whether you know it or not, you have been called here by God to be student athletes. God is using this period in your life to shape each of you into the man He is calling you to be. In Matthew chapter 25:31-46 Jesus tells of the separating of the sheep from the goats. The sheep are the ones who believed in Jesus and did his work feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty and so on. The goats are the ones who may have professed belief but then didn’t do the work of Christ. Low and behold it was the doers that were saved and not the professors. Believe me as a student there are some professors that I would like to condemn to hell but I don’t think that is the kind of professor Jesus meant. You are the doers. God has called you here to play football for His glory. This is a school of the church! And He is not asking you to hand out Bible tracts or give some over emotional prayer in public. He is calling you to perform with the gifts he has given you, your talents as a student and as an athlete. He is calling you to serve His team without question or complaint. I know that each of you is up for the challenge because you wouldn’t be here if that weren’t the case.
Don’t mistake what I am saying. I am not talking about winning every game. Although that is obtainable sometimes it isn’t the way in which we learn the most. We can learn something from every defeat in our lives. Mostly I have learned that if God isn’t in it I will loose in the end. What I am talking about is playing your guts out for the glory of God and your team. Giving everything you have focusing on your duty alone for the good of the team. If you win you win as a team and praise God, if you loose you loose as a team and praise God. Either way there better not be anything left in you gas tank when you walk off the field.
When I was young I was the fat kid and was bullied mercilessly. I know you can’t tell it by my masculine physique toady. Every punch to the gut and every bloody nose was a reminder to me that I didn’t live up to some standard. I spent most of my life trying to live up to the standards of this world. My senior year of high school I was 5’ 9” and weighed 195lbs with 8% body fat. I was a two time all state wrestler and I was terrified to loose. My fear expressed itself as anger and I broke fingers, cracked ribs, and gouged eyes, anything to win. I competed with a hate and a rage that became way out of control. You see if I lost then I would confirm the fact that I was a looser but if I won then I confirmed that I was a winner. Not for my team not for God, I was god. God had called me to be a wrestler for His glory to teach and shape me but I used His calling for self glorification and revenge. In pursuit of my own glory the inevitable happened I got hurt and place sixth in the state tournament behind 5 guys I had beaten earlier in the year. I had lost. It sent me into a drunken spiral that I didn’t soon recover from. I found new gods power and money. At the age of 22 I was making over 150k a year. I was working 70 hours a week performing for the love of power and money. When I wasn’t working I was drunk because of the pressure, guilt, shame, and fear that I would someday not perform well. Well it happened. I was working as a business manager with a car dealership working on commission. When the 911 attacks took place the car business died. 70% of my income came from the finance charge of the loans I was putting together. Anyone care to guess how much commission is paid to the business manager on a 0% loan? I took a $30,000 pay cut the first year. And eventually took a $100,000 a year pay cut. My wife and I lost everything: our house, our cars, everything. One night I was driving home from a party so drunk that I could only focus with one eye. God came to me that night and told me that I could no longer live the way I had been living. My life was never the same after that. I returned to school, finished my BA in Religion graduating magna cum laude and as part of three national honor societies. I now attend Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN. on a full academic scholarship. Not for me but for God. You see sometimes you don’t know Jesus is all you need until He is all you have left. I encourage you to learn from my mistakes. Fear of failure and being filled with hate and revenge is no way to live your life and it most certainly is not how you serve God or your team.
God will use your academic ability as well as your athletic ability mold and shape you. Your God given talents will take you places in this world. Tomorrow is your first chance to give your abilities to God. When you step on that field be apart of God’s team. Over all God’s team is a small one but each member of His team is willing to give their life for Him and their team mates. Sounds like a championship team to me. Tomorrow learn from my mistakes, put yourself aside for the glory and love of God and your team.
(Ephesians 4:22-24) You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Play tomorrow like you are new men and apart of an eternal team. Play your guts out and may Almighty God bless you and keep you safe. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Justifying Grace
Below is a speech I made during a Walk to Emmaus Weekend. For more info on Walk to Emmaus go to http://www.gracehouse.org/
Justifying Grace Talk:
In the nineteen-fifties a cake mix company came up with a new mix that only required the addition of one cup of water. The cake mix was a complete failure. Although in blind taste tests it always surpassed its competitors the company could not get people to buy the product. The company’s marketing department decided to ask shoppers in the cake mix isle of a grocery store why they chose other mixes over theirs. The result was shocking. The only reason that people refused to purchase the mix was that they believed that if it only required one cup of water that it must not be any good. The company immediately changed the recipe and the mix sold like the proverbial hot cakes. What did they do to the recipe? The mix now required one cup of water and one egg.
My name is Jamie Strickler and this talk is entitled “Justifying Grace.”
Fist a little about myself. I am a forgiven sinner crushed by the law and resurrected by the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have been married to Suzanne, better known as Zanny, for eight years and we have three children: Joey 6, Ally, 5 and Gabby 1. I spent nine years as a finance director at some of the larger car dealerships in Iowa before God called me to be a preacher. In the last two years I have completed my BA in Religion from Grand View College in Des Moines IA, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and now I attend Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN on a full academic scholarship. While completing my undergraduate degree I served at Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission, in downtown Des Moines, as a night chaplain.
Introduction:
Justifying Grace tells the story of how an individual responds to God’s calling of them into a relationship with Him. It is the moment when we realize that we do not merit the relationship; it’s not something we work our way into. We come to this realization when we understand that God accepts you as you are to then make something new out of you. God accepts your unacceptability. Justifying Grace is the Holy Spirit turning us around, it's our awakened awareness, our eyes being opened to the love and companionship of God; the Holy Spirit making God’s claim on you irresistible and changing you from the inside out. In the Old Testament God used the prophets to call His people’s wicked, unfaithful hearts back to a genuine relationship with Him by reminding them of His covenant.
As we have heard, in the Prevenient Grace talk, God is constantly pursuing us, sometimes referred to as the hounds of heaven. Throughout the Bible we hear of God calling His people into a mutual love relationship through a covenant. In the Old Testament times when two parties wanted to make a covenant with each other they chose a covenant representative from either party. Each covenant representative would bring an animal and sacrifice it before the other party. The animals represented each party’s willingness to die to up hold the covenant.
In the New Testament God makes a New Covenant. He sends Jesus, His very Word, as a sacrificial Lamb to die for the forgiveness of sins and as an act of His law convicting sinners in an attempt to call them back to Him. Those who believe in His promise are counted as righteous, or in a right relationship with Him. Through His grace God sends the Holy Spirit to create in you a new heart through faith. And how does this faith happen? This faith happens through the hearing of the Word of God.
Romans 10:17
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
In His mercy God sends a preacher with the Word of God on his tongue to deliver to sinners a message that releases the Holy Spirit and causes faith to come to life inside of the repentant sinner. Our relationship with God happens by faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:14-15
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"[a]
In the first part of my talk I told you of a cake mix company and how they sold their mix by giving the consumer more of a part to play in the creation of the cake. Well God is like the cake mix company. He wants to give you a very tasty cake. But as humans we have a hard time believing that all we have to do is add one cup of water or just believe in Jesus. Men always want to have control in their lives and a relationship with God isn’t any different. But the truth is that the cake company doesn’t need our help to complete the cake. But to sell our rebellious minds on the mix God lets us believe that we have a part to play, saying yes when he calls.
When the Holy Spirit has created enough faith within you to accept the fact that God’s grace is more than you could ever hope for you are said to have had a conversion. St. Paul calls it being crucified with Christ or putting the old self to death.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me
The more you hear the Word of God the more your faith grows. Through faith you gain a better understanding of yourselves and gain the desire to care for the needs of your brothers and sisters. You come into a fuller understanding of God’s purpose for your life. Please understand that from faith comes good works. You don’t do good works then have faith. Your relationship with God isn’t something you merit, remember the cake company.
Romans 3:20-26
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[a] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
No one will be justified by the law in other words by how well you serve or pray. You can no longer lean on your own strength and understanding to follow Jesus. You must pull away from yourselves so that the Holy Spirit can do His work inside of you. If you think you have control over your sinful body, try to invoke that control the next time you have diarrhea or try to stop your heart from beating or hold your breath.
Humans can’t always trust their emotions. I’ll be honest some days I wake up and I don’t feel saved. Those are the days when my faith must cling to the promises of Jesus; “My body broken for you, My blood shed for you.” By remembering Jesus’ finished work on the cross I know that regardless of how I feel, God is at work in my life. God is infinitely patient, even through your days of unfaith, He is there working in your lives putting to death the flesh and raising up the spirit.
Romans 6:4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
God’s grace is the enabling factor for the change in your life. What are some disciplines that you may practice so that God’s graciousness grows in you? We have already discussed the importance of the hearing of the Word of God therefore church attendance is important. Even if the sermon on a particular Sunday isn’t any good, even if the choir is off key and even if your child is disruptive you still hear the Word of God proclaimed and your faith is the better for it. Some other disciplines that involve the Word are prayer, scripture reading, meditation, and doing what you were called to do. By doing what you were called to do I mean loving your neighbor. God doesn’t need your good works, something about Him being all powerful, but your neighbor does. If your neighbor needs help moving then go help them move. Don’t go with some ulterior motive of converting them. That only leads to trying to merit souls for the Lord and that is way beyond your ability. You show them God’s love and grace and let God do the converting. You might be surprised; your neighbor might ask you why you are such a helpful friend. That question is God opening the door for you to discuss you faith. Never try to pry that door open. Hard human hearts won’t allow it. Trust me I’ve tried it.
Let me tell you the story of a homeless man named Al. Al was the third and unwanted child. He was tied to a bed until he was two years old. At the age of six his parent sent him to a mental institution where he was molested. At the age of eight he was sent to reform school where he was molested. At fourteen he ran away and was selling his body on the streets to pedophiles to earn money for food. At sixteen his parents allowed him to come home where he raped his older sister and younger brother. Al has done time in jail for kidnapping a woman during a car jacking. Al is a hopeless alcoholic on the streets of down town Des Moines. Try as I may I just couldn’t convince Al of God’s love. I learned that I didn’t have that power. My job was to love him right where he was and not for what I wanted him to be. I was to love him, answer his questions about God when asked, and pray for him daily. When I say I have tried to break down the door I have. But through that experience it was me that God was changing not Al. I still talk to him on the phone about once a month and pray for him daily. I’m doing what I was called to do.
I have learned a semester of Greek in the last three weeks so let me share a word with you. Agape. It is one of the three Greek words for love. Agape is the love that God has for you. It is a love so deep that the finite human mind can not comprehend it. Agape is what you’re receiving this weekend. The kitchen crew, the agape team and even the people of the Emmaus Community have written you letters to let you know about this agape. Believe me it is a rare occurrence in this world to see it in action.
So when you return to your lives remember this agape, remember that you are called to love your neighbor. That is your calling, your vocation. In his essay “On the Freedom of a Christian” Martin Luther said, “Don’t go looking for crosses to bear, a man who has a family has cross enough.” Our crosses are the people God calls us to care for. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! De colores!
Justifying Grace Talk:
In the nineteen-fifties a cake mix company came up with a new mix that only required the addition of one cup of water. The cake mix was a complete failure. Although in blind taste tests it always surpassed its competitors the company could not get people to buy the product. The company’s marketing department decided to ask shoppers in the cake mix isle of a grocery store why they chose other mixes over theirs. The result was shocking. The only reason that people refused to purchase the mix was that they believed that if it only required one cup of water that it must not be any good. The company immediately changed the recipe and the mix sold like the proverbial hot cakes. What did they do to the recipe? The mix now required one cup of water and one egg.
My name is Jamie Strickler and this talk is entitled “Justifying Grace.”
Fist a little about myself. I am a forgiven sinner crushed by the law and resurrected by the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have been married to Suzanne, better known as Zanny, for eight years and we have three children: Joey 6, Ally, 5 and Gabby 1. I spent nine years as a finance director at some of the larger car dealerships in Iowa before God called me to be a preacher. In the last two years I have completed my BA in Religion from Grand View College in Des Moines IA, graduating Magna Cum Laude, and now I attend Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN on a full academic scholarship. While completing my undergraduate degree I served at Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission, in downtown Des Moines, as a night chaplain.
Introduction:
Justifying Grace tells the story of how an individual responds to God’s calling of them into a relationship with Him. It is the moment when we realize that we do not merit the relationship; it’s not something we work our way into. We come to this realization when we understand that God accepts you as you are to then make something new out of you. God accepts your unacceptability. Justifying Grace is the Holy Spirit turning us around, it's our awakened awareness, our eyes being opened to the love and companionship of God; the Holy Spirit making God’s claim on you irresistible and changing you from the inside out. In the Old Testament God used the prophets to call His people’s wicked, unfaithful hearts back to a genuine relationship with Him by reminding them of His covenant.
As we have heard, in the Prevenient Grace talk, God is constantly pursuing us, sometimes referred to as the hounds of heaven. Throughout the Bible we hear of God calling His people into a mutual love relationship through a covenant. In the Old Testament times when two parties wanted to make a covenant with each other they chose a covenant representative from either party. Each covenant representative would bring an animal and sacrifice it before the other party. The animals represented each party’s willingness to die to up hold the covenant.
In the New Testament God makes a New Covenant. He sends Jesus, His very Word, as a sacrificial Lamb to die for the forgiveness of sins and as an act of His law convicting sinners in an attempt to call them back to Him. Those who believe in His promise are counted as righteous, or in a right relationship with Him. Through His grace God sends the Holy Spirit to create in you a new heart through faith. And how does this faith happen? This faith happens through the hearing of the Word of God.
Romans 10:17
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
In His mercy God sends a preacher with the Word of God on his tongue to deliver to sinners a message that releases the Holy Spirit and causes faith to come to life inside of the repentant sinner. Our relationship with God happens by faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:14-15
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"[a]
In the first part of my talk I told you of a cake mix company and how they sold their mix by giving the consumer more of a part to play in the creation of the cake. Well God is like the cake mix company. He wants to give you a very tasty cake. But as humans we have a hard time believing that all we have to do is add one cup of water or just believe in Jesus. Men always want to have control in their lives and a relationship with God isn’t any different. But the truth is that the cake company doesn’t need our help to complete the cake. But to sell our rebellious minds on the mix God lets us believe that we have a part to play, saying yes when he calls.
When the Holy Spirit has created enough faith within you to accept the fact that God’s grace is more than you could ever hope for you are said to have had a conversion. St. Paul calls it being crucified with Christ or putting the old self to death.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me
The more you hear the Word of God the more your faith grows. Through faith you gain a better understanding of yourselves and gain the desire to care for the needs of your brothers and sisters. You come into a fuller understanding of God’s purpose for your life. Please understand that from faith comes good works. You don’t do good works then have faith. Your relationship with God isn’t something you merit, remember the cake company.
Romans 3:20-26
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. 21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[a] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
No one will be justified by the law in other words by how well you serve or pray. You can no longer lean on your own strength and understanding to follow Jesus. You must pull away from yourselves so that the Holy Spirit can do His work inside of you. If you think you have control over your sinful body, try to invoke that control the next time you have diarrhea or try to stop your heart from beating or hold your breath.
Humans can’t always trust their emotions. I’ll be honest some days I wake up and I don’t feel saved. Those are the days when my faith must cling to the promises of Jesus; “My body broken for you, My blood shed for you.” By remembering Jesus’ finished work on the cross I know that regardless of how I feel, God is at work in my life. God is infinitely patient, even through your days of unfaith, He is there working in your lives putting to death the flesh and raising up the spirit.
Romans 6:4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
God’s grace is the enabling factor for the change in your life. What are some disciplines that you may practice so that God’s graciousness grows in you? We have already discussed the importance of the hearing of the Word of God therefore church attendance is important. Even if the sermon on a particular Sunday isn’t any good, even if the choir is off key and even if your child is disruptive you still hear the Word of God proclaimed and your faith is the better for it. Some other disciplines that involve the Word are prayer, scripture reading, meditation, and doing what you were called to do. By doing what you were called to do I mean loving your neighbor. God doesn’t need your good works, something about Him being all powerful, but your neighbor does. If your neighbor needs help moving then go help them move. Don’t go with some ulterior motive of converting them. That only leads to trying to merit souls for the Lord and that is way beyond your ability. You show them God’s love and grace and let God do the converting. You might be surprised; your neighbor might ask you why you are such a helpful friend. That question is God opening the door for you to discuss you faith. Never try to pry that door open. Hard human hearts won’t allow it. Trust me I’ve tried it.
Let me tell you the story of a homeless man named Al. Al was the third and unwanted child. He was tied to a bed until he was two years old. At the age of six his parent sent him to a mental institution where he was molested. At the age of eight he was sent to reform school where he was molested. At fourteen he ran away and was selling his body on the streets to pedophiles to earn money for food. At sixteen his parents allowed him to come home where he raped his older sister and younger brother. Al has done time in jail for kidnapping a woman during a car jacking. Al is a hopeless alcoholic on the streets of down town Des Moines. Try as I may I just couldn’t convince Al of God’s love. I learned that I didn’t have that power. My job was to love him right where he was and not for what I wanted him to be. I was to love him, answer his questions about God when asked, and pray for him daily. When I say I have tried to break down the door I have. But through that experience it was me that God was changing not Al. I still talk to him on the phone about once a month and pray for him daily. I’m doing what I was called to do.
I have learned a semester of Greek in the last three weeks so let me share a word with you. Agape. It is one of the three Greek words for love. Agape is the love that God has for you. It is a love so deep that the finite human mind can not comprehend it. Agape is what you’re receiving this weekend. The kitchen crew, the agape team and even the people of the Emmaus Community have written you letters to let you know about this agape. Believe me it is a rare occurrence in this world to see it in action.
So when you return to your lives remember this agape, remember that you are called to love your neighbor. That is your calling, your vocation. In his essay “On the Freedom of a Christian” Martin Luther said, “Don’t go looking for crosses to bear, a man who has a family has cross enough.” Our crosses are the people God calls us to care for. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord! De colores!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Lessons learned amoung the homeless!
One of the greatest life shaping experiences I have ever had in my community was serving as a chaplain for Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission. Bethel is a men’s rescue mission in down town Des Moines and is a faith based mission. In other words they do not take any government funding so that they can talk about Jesus. Ninety-five percent of their funding comes in the form of individual donors and five percent in the form of local business support. Not only was I introduced to a whole new cultural, one that is at times ignored by our society, but the experience changed my life forever as it changed the meaning of the phrase “the least of these.” I encountered horrific stories of child abuse, molestation, alcohol and drug abuse, all resonating from broken families. I still have nightmares today about some of the stories I heard. Although horrifying this experience shaped me to have compassion for the truly broken people in our society, as well as tolerance for those who are mentally or intellectually incapable of caring for themselves, let alone the children they have birthed. Five of the most tragic lives that I encountered and had a sever effect on me were the lives of “A,” “B,” “R,” “J,” and “JF.” I use only their first initials for confidentiality reasons.
“A” was one of the first men I encountered at the shelter. He was the third child and was unwanted. When he was two his parents tied him to a bed and fed him only beans, at six they committed him to a mental intuition where he was molested by a staff person. After committing some childhood crimes he was sent to a reform school where he was molested by a staff member. He escaped from this school at fourteen and sold his body on the street to homosexual men for food money. His parents let him move back home at sixteen where he had a sexual affair with his older sister and his little brother. A has been in and out of jail all his life. He is now fifty and cannot stay sober for one minute because he can’t face where he has been or what he has done, and is completely without the skills it takes to live in today’s society. Yesterday he called me and is in jail again for another alcohol related crime.
So, what do I do with this man? Through A God has showed me what it means to be a truly broken person. All that I though I knew about what these men needed went out the window when I heard his story. So, I asked A, “What can I do for you?” He answered, “Give me a hug.” So I held him for about fifteen minutes as he cried like a child. I wish I could say that this cry was cleansing and cured his ails but it didn’t. I learned that God sent me to the mission to change me not for me to change these men, as changing them fell under the category of miracle, a category that belongs to the Almighty. Dealing with A has shaped me to realize that I cannot save the world but I am called to do my part. My part is to see when the law, whether secular or God’s law, is crushing a man and bring him the message of comfort that comes through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Although God didn’t cure A, He was able to give him comfort and a promise to cling to through me. For fifteen minuets that day A was safe and let go of what has been building in him for years. For all I know this may have been the only fifteen minutes in his life where he has ever felt safe and loved. Those fifteen minutes gave A a reference point from which he could draw hope and security. He now knew that someone in the world loved him for who he really was, a broken child in a man’s body. He admitted to me on the phone that when he is in despair he remembers that moment. I do as well. I never really took time to consider the feelings of others; I only wanted them to know how their actions affected me. For the first time in my life I was thinking like a pastor, shepherding and loving my flock regardless of their wandering.
B is a handsome man of Native American descent. Alcohol is B’s poison but it is not his problem. For B alcohol is just a symptom of a deeper issue. B has an older sister who experimented with sex at the tender age of eleven. What good sister wouldn’t show her little brother what she had learned? At the age of seven B was having a full fledge sexual affair with his sister, not to mention interceding on behalf of his mother as his alcoholic father beat her. It’s no wonder that B is now a closet homosexual. He is searching for the loving father he never knew, he feels like his sister has stolen his innocence, and has given up on loving women because he couldn’t take the burden of not being able to protect his mother. He hates himself so he drinks to numb the pain which causing him to loose good jobs and rendering him homeless, broken, and hiding the only part himself that he feels is good. B, like A, is in need of a savior and has adopted alcohol as an escape.
This was my first contact with a closeted homosexual. Nothing I had learned in church about sexual immorality seemed like what he needed to hear. In fact B had heard it all already and it only made him despise himself the more. It is one thing to have a pious opinion on homosexuality and quite another to be responsible for delivering the Gospel promises of Jesus Christ to a person afflicted by this feeling. My experience with B shaped how I feel about gay people. Through B, God shaped me from an attitude of intolerance to an attitude of tolerance. You see this experience sent me to the scriptures where I found that sexual immorality is no greater a sin than drunkenness, adultery, or murder. Society puts sin into a hierarchy but God does not. Again I was reminded that my job wasn’t to tell B how to live his life or that he was a bad person. My job was to love him unconditionally and accept him as a child of God right where he was because being or not being gay wasn’t going to get him into heaven, faith was. I let go of my insecure homophobia and hugged B tight letting him know that Jesus and I loved him just the way he is, he doesn’t have to live up to some standard for God to love him because Jesus lived up to the standard for all of us. B found new comfort in the Bible and I had another part of my ignorant flesh put to death.
R is an interesting story. He has a BA in business from Syracuse University, which he earned while climbing the ranks of the IBM Corporation. The plague of addiction to alcohol, drugs, and homelessness do not discriminate; their victims come from all walks of life. R discovered that cocaine kept him alert longer which gave him more motivation to sell IBM products until his habit out weighed his income. He then tried to rob a liquor store, was caught, and spent seven years in jail for armed robbery. It is amazing to me how much drug use changes people. To meet R today you would never know that he had a violent bone in his body. And he doesn’t apart from the drugs. R is no longer a coke addict but alcohol has become his vice to escape the failure and embarrassment of his past. He has tried many recovery programs but they only help him stop drinking which is the symptom and don’t attack the problem his shame. Or maybe it’s R who can’t face his shame. Either way like the other men R is in need of a Savior.
My experience with R allowed me to see that I could be duped. There were times when I would swear that R believed in the promises of Jesus and wanted to deal with his past but each time I would get to close the next time I would see him he was drunk. I was humiliated several times when I went to bat for R with the staff and he would end up doing what they said he would, get drunk.
It was hard to love R unconditionally but I feel this was the lesson that I was to learn. God showed me that people will fail you constantly and you must love them any way. Jesus loves me every time I fail Him. Unconditional love doesn’t sprout in a person naturally; it is something that is endured and shaped over time. In these situations society has two different effects on people, either they become hardened and pessimistic, or they learn to love the person and not their actions. Through the grace of God I learned compassion and unconditional love.
J is another interesting story fraught with tragedy and joy. J is a U.S. Marine veteran of the Vietnam conflict. He was thrown in to a jungle at the age of eighteen, given a gun and told to kill or be killed. Not only that but that he was doing so, or as he was told, out of the love of his country. Imagine his confusion when he was spit on and called baby killer when he returned home. He had lost his sense of trust in everything he thought was good and right in the world and had gained a server hate for himself. He had met a girl in Phoenix and moved to Grinnell Iowa to live with her. In her home surroundings he found out that she had a multiple personality and was an intravenous drug user. Her dominate personality must not of like him because she kicked him out and he hitch hiked to Des Moines. A truck driver picked him up on I80 and drove him to the mission which he had no previous knowledge of. God must have a lot of angels that are truck drivers as this story is very common. J was sick and I feared he had pneumonia so I took him to the VA Hospital. The good news was that he didn’t have pneumonia; the bad news was that he had contracted the HIV virus from his girlfriend and it had developed into full blown AIDS. The doctors told him to go home and get his affairs in order he was going to die.
What do you tell a man with a death sentence? J was not a drug user or an alcoholic and he sure as hell didn’t deserve this. I love J very much and he became very close to my family and I. I held him as he cried for quit some time, it was all I could do to comfort him, I had no great words of advice. Through his tears he asked me to tell him about Jesus. What he wanted to know was if he was condemned to hell for murdering all those people in the war. He felt like a leper because no one would touch him. So, I showed him the love of Jesus by being sure to hug him each time I saw him and I even brought my then six month old daughter for him to hold.
Previously to meeting J I had thought that AIDS was a disease for gay men and drug users and it scared me. Through my experience with J I learned that in the darkest times of our lives comfort comes through love and God is love. There are no atheists in fox holes; surprisingly this whole world is one big fox hole. My fear of AIDS was gone, now I just hate that wicked disease.
J thought he was the only one of his brothers and sisters still alive, he was wrong. I found his older brother in a suburb of Chicago and when we contacted him he was in Des Moines to see J in less than five hours. He had been searching for J for quite some time. Through a miracle of God J’s body started to kill the HIV virus. His case was featured in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) and they are trying to duplicate his results as I write this paper. Within seven weeks J became well enough to travel to Illinois where he now lives with his brother. We still talk on the phone ever other week.
Jf is another interesting character and maybe the scariest. Jf is one of the biggest men I have ever seen standing six foot seven and weighing about two hundred sixty pounds. Jf is an ex-gang banger from Chicago and came to Des Moines under contracted to kill someone until he had a change of conscious. He came to the mission not knowing what to do with his new found sense of right and wrong which is where I met him. He wasn’t very fond of me, or any other white person for that matter, at first but little by little we found that we both possessed a similar interpretation of the Bible. I know it seems strange to believe that a gangster hit man was schooled in the Bible but the fact is that he was raised in a very Christian home. Jf disappeared for about two months after we started to get to know each other and when he resurfaced he showed up in my office a broken individual. He told me that he had returned to Chicago and had gotten back into drugs. The last two month had seemed like a blur but two days prior he came down from a meth induced high and had nothing in his pocket but a bus ticket to Des Moines and a rock that had “Jesus Rocks” inscribed on it. I had given him that rock months ago. He then shut the door to my office and asked me how to surrender to Jesus. I hooked Jf up with a recovery program and he is now working with at risk kids in Des Moines. Jf, the ever tough guy, never told me that he loved me but he did say that he would “kill a nigger for me,” which I think comes just as close in his heart.
Racial prejudice was a big thing in my up bringing. I was taught to think of black people as a lesser being. Not by my parents but by my peers. My experience with Jf changed all that. I know this unconditional loving and accepting thing seems to be a reoccurring theme here but that is exactly what it was, not just for me but Jf as well.
There were several men and women I had contact with that helped shape my life through my experience at Bethel: Ja, A, C, Ri, C, l, Am, T, J, K, P, E, the list goes on but this is a paper not a book.
As I reflect on the way God used my experience at Bethel to shape me I have identified three major themes; unconditional love, destruction of prejudice, and the unyoking of societal law.
Unconditional love, wow this was a lesson involved in every testimony I have to tell. Jesus loved everyone especially the lepers, the poor and the prostitutes. I encountered all three at the mission and found my heart broken for each of them. To truly ache for the needs of another person, I believe, is one of the most important lessons a Christian must learn.
The destruction of my prejudice against homosexuals and blacks still amazes me. I am surprised at how little I see color as a road block to unity and sexual preference as just another sin, no more, no less. The true spirit of Jesus unites people. I have preached in an entirely black, intercity church and felt more loved and at home than I do, sometimes, in my own congregation.
I am now free to love others as Jesus loves me. When Jesus said, “love others as I have loved you,” he wasn’t commanding anything. That would make Jesus just another law giver like Moses. Jesus didn’t come to make new laws; he came to fulfill the law so that we wouldn’t have to be held accountable for our adherence to the law. The law exists not for our salvation but to make us aware that we are sinners. When Jesus said, “love others as I have loved you,” He was showing as a faction of the freedom that belief in Him gives us. Now that we are saved by faith, we are free to love everyone and are unyoked from the burden of the stereotypes that society dictates. Now that I am not judged by the law I am free to follow it. This is the Gospel message.
“A” was one of the first men I encountered at the shelter. He was the third child and was unwanted. When he was two his parents tied him to a bed and fed him only beans, at six they committed him to a mental intuition where he was molested by a staff person. After committing some childhood crimes he was sent to a reform school where he was molested by a staff member. He escaped from this school at fourteen and sold his body on the street to homosexual men for food money. His parents let him move back home at sixteen where he had a sexual affair with his older sister and his little brother. A has been in and out of jail all his life. He is now fifty and cannot stay sober for one minute because he can’t face where he has been or what he has done, and is completely without the skills it takes to live in today’s society. Yesterday he called me and is in jail again for another alcohol related crime.
So, what do I do with this man? Through A God has showed me what it means to be a truly broken person. All that I though I knew about what these men needed went out the window when I heard his story. So, I asked A, “What can I do for you?” He answered, “Give me a hug.” So I held him for about fifteen minutes as he cried like a child. I wish I could say that this cry was cleansing and cured his ails but it didn’t. I learned that God sent me to the mission to change me not for me to change these men, as changing them fell under the category of miracle, a category that belongs to the Almighty. Dealing with A has shaped me to realize that I cannot save the world but I am called to do my part. My part is to see when the law, whether secular or God’s law, is crushing a man and bring him the message of comfort that comes through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Although God didn’t cure A, He was able to give him comfort and a promise to cling to through me. For fifteen minuets that day A was safe and let go of what has been building in him for years. For all I know this may have been the only fifteen minutes in his life where he has ever felt safe and loved. Those fifteen minutes gave A a reference point from which he could draw hope and security. He now knew that someone in the world loved him for who he really was, a broken child in a man’s body. He admitted to me on the phone that when he is in despair he remembers that moment. I do as well. I never really took time to consider the feelings of others; I only wanted them to know how their actions affected me. For the first time in my life I was thinking like a pastor, shepherding and loving my flock regardless of their wandering.
B is a handsome man of Native American descent. Alcohol is B’s poison but it is not his problem. For B alcohol is just a symptom of a deeper issue. B has an older sister who experimented with sex at the tender age of eleven. What good sister wouldn’t show her little brother what she had learned? At the age of seven B was having a full fledge sexual affair with his sister, not to mention interceding on behalf of his mother as his alcoholic father beat her. It’s no wonder that B is now a closet homosexual. He is searching for the loving father he never knew, he feels like his sister has stolen his innocence, and has given up on loving women because he couldn’t take the burden of not being able to protect his mother. He hates himself so he drinks to numb the pain which causing him to loose good jobs and rendering him homeless, broken, and hiding the only part himself that he feels is good. B, like A, is in need of a savior and has adopted alcohol as an escape.
This was my first contact with a closeted homosexual. Nothing I had learned in church about sexual immorality seemed like what he needed to hear. In fact B had heard it all already and it only made him despise himself the more. It is one thing to have a pious opinion on homosexuality and quite another to be responsible for delivering the Gospel promises of Jesus Christ to a person afflicted by this feeling. My experience with B shaped how I feel about gay people. Through B, God shaped me from an attitude of intolerance to an attitude of tolerance. You see this experience sent me to the scriptures where I found that sexual immorality is no greater a sin than drunkenness, adultery, or murder. Society puts sin into a hierarchy but God does not. Again I was reminded that my job wasn’t to tell B how to live his life or that he was a bad person. My job was to love him unconditionally and accept him as a child of God right where he was because being or not being gay wasn’t going to get him into heaven, faith was. I let go of my insecure homophobia and hugged B tight letting him know that Jesus and I loved him just the way he is, he doesn’t have to live up to some standard for God to love him because Jesus lived up to the standard for all of us. B found new comfort in the Bible and I had another part of my ignorant flesh put to death.
R is an interesting story. He has a BA in business from Syracuse University, which he earned while climbing the ranks of the IBM Corporation. The plague of addiction to alcohol, drugs, and homelessness do not discriminate; their victims come from all walks of life. R discovered that cocaine kept him alert longer which gave him more motivation to sell IBM products until his habit out weighed his income. He then tried to rob a liquor store, was caught, and spent seven years in jail for armed robbery. It is amazing to me how much drug use changes people. To meet R today you would never know that he had a violent bone in his body. And he doesn’t apart from the drugs. R is no longer a coke addict but alcohol has become his vice to escape the failure and embarrassment of his past. He has tried many recovery programs but they only help him stop drinking which is the symptom and don’t attack the problem his shame. Or maybe it’s R who can’t face his shame. Either way like the other men R is in need of a Savior.
My experience with R allowed me to see that I could be duped. There were times when I would swear that R believed in the promises of Jesus and wanted to deal with his past but each time I would get to close the next time I would see him he was drunk. I was humiliated several times when I went to bat for R with the staff and he would end up doing what they said he would, get drunk.
It was hard to love R unconditionally but I feel this was the lesson that I was to learn. God showed me that people will fail you constantly and you must love them any way. Jesus loves me every time I fail Him. Unconditional love doesn’t sprout in a person naturally; it is something that is endured and shaped over time. In these situations society has two different effects on people, either they become hardened and pessimistic, or they learn to love the person and not their actions. Through the grace of God I learned compassion and unconditional love.
J is another interesting story fraught with tragedy and joy. J is a U.S. Marine veteran of the Vietnam conflict. He was thrown in to a jungle at the age of eighteen, given a gun and told to kill or be killed. Not only that but that he was doing so, or as he was told, out of the love of his country. Imagine his confusion when he was spit on and called baby killer when he returned home. He had lost his sense of trust in everything he thought was good and right in the world and had gained a server hate for himself. He had met a girl in Phoenix and moved to Grinnell Iowa to live with her. In her home surroundings he found out that she had a multiple personality and was an intravenous drug user. Her dominate personality must not of like him because she kicked him out and he hitch hiked to Des Moines. A truck driver picked him up on I80 and drove him to the mission which he had no previous knowledge of. God must have a lot of angels that are truck drivers as this story is very common. J was sick and I feared he had pneumonia so I took him to the VA Hospital. The good news was that he didn’t have pneumonia; the bad news was that he had contracted the HIV virus from his girlfriend and it had developed into full blown AIDS. The doctors told him to go home and get his affairs in order he was going to die.
What do you tell a man with a death sentence? J was not a drug user or an alcoholic and he sure as hell didn’t deserve this. I love J very much and he became very close to my family and I. I held him as he cried for quit some time, it was all I could do to comfort him, I had no great words of advice. Through his tears he asked me to tell him about Jesus. What he wanted to know was if he was condemned to hell for murdering all those people in the war. He felt like a leper because no one would touch him. So, I showed him the love of Jesus by being sure to hug him each time I saw him and I even brought my then six month old daughter for him to hold.
Previously to meeting J I had thought that AIDS was a disease for gay men and drug users and it scared me. Through my experience with J I learned that in the darkest times of our lives comfort comes through love and God is love. There are no atheists in fox holes; surprisingly this whole world is one big fox hole. My fear of AIDS was gone, now I just hate that wicked disease.
J thought he was the only one of his brothers and sisters still alive, he was wrong. I found his older brother in a suburb of Chicago and when we contacted him he was in Des Moines to see J in less than five hours. He had been searching for J for quite some time. Through a miracle of God J’s body started to kill the HIV virus. His case was featured in the JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) and they are trying to duplicate his results as I write this paper. Within seven weeks J became well enough to travel to Illinois where he now lives with his brother. We still talk on the phone ever other week.
Jf is another interesting character and maybe the scariest. Jf is one of the biggest men I have ever seen standing six foot seven and weighing about two hundred sixty pounds. Jf is an ex-gang banger from Chicago and came to Des Moines under contracted to kill someone until he had a change of conscious. He came to the mission not knowing what to do with his new found sense of right and wrong which is where I met him. He wasn’t very fond of me, or any other white person for that matter, at first but little by little we found that we both possessed a similar interpretation of the Bible. I know it seems strange to believe that a gangster hit man was schooled in the Bible but the fact is that he was raised in a very Christian home. Jf disappeared for about two months after we started to get to know each other and when he resurfaced he showed up in my office a broken individual. He told me that he had returned to Chicago and had gotten back into drugs. The last two month had seemed like a blur but two days prior he came down from a meth induced high and had nothing in his pocket but a bus ticket to Des Moines and a rock that had “Jesus Rocks” inscribed on it. I had given him that rock months ago. He then shut the door to my office and asked me how to surrender to Jesus. I hooked Jf up with a recovery program and he is now working with at risk kids in Des Moines. Jf, the ever tough guy, never told me that he loved me but he did say that he would “kill a nigger for me,” which I think comes just as close in his heart.
Racial prejudice was a big thing in my up bringing. I was taught to think of black people as a lesser being. Not by my parents but by my peers. My experience with Jf changed all that. I know this unconditional loving and accepting thing seems to be a reoccurring theme here but that is exactly what it was, not just for me but Jf as well.
There were several men and women I had contact with that helped shape my life through my experience at Bethel: Ja, A, C, Ri, C, l, Am, T, J, K, P, E, the list goes on but this is a paper not a book.
As I reflect on the way God used my experience at Bethel to shape me I have identified three major themes; unconditional love, destruction of prejudice, and the unyoking of societal law.
Unconditional love, wow this was a lesson involved in every testimony I have to tell. Jesus loved everyone especially the lepers, the poor and the prostitutes. I encountered all three at the mission and found my heart broken for each of them. To truly ache for the needs of another person, I believe, is one of the most important lessons a Christian must learn.
The destruction of my prejudice against homosexuals and blacks still amazes me. I am surprised at how little I see color as a road block to unity and sexual preference as just another sin, no more, no less. The true spirit of Jesus unites people. I have preached in an entirely black, intercity church and felt more loved and at home than I do, sometimes, in my own congregation.
I am now free to love others as Jesus loves me. When Jesus said, “love others as I have loved you,” he wasn’t commanding anything. That would make Jesus just another law giver like Moses. Jesus didn’t come to make new laws; he came to fulfill the law so that we wouldn’t have to be held accountable for our adherence to the law. The law exists not for our salvation but to make us aware that we are sinners. When Jesus said, “love others as I have loved you,” He was showing as a faction of the freedom that belief in Him gives us. Now that we are saved by faith, we are free to love everyone and are unyoked from the burden of the stereotypes that society dictates. Now that I am not judged by the law I am free to follow it. This is the Gospel message.
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