There once was a small town in Iowa which was being inflicted by a drought. The crops were drying up fast and they need rain in the worst way. So the local pastor decided to call for a prayer meeting on a Wednesday night. The whole congregation showed plus some others from the town. The pastor took the pulpit and said, “Every one of you go home and sit in judgment upon yourselves and when you really believe come back.” An elderly woman in the front row stood up and said, “But pastor we have filled the church to pray for rain, why are you sending us home?” The Pastor answered, “Because not one of you brought an umbrella.”
Zechariah in today’s reading is a lot like these people in the Iowa small town. Zechariah had prayed and prayed for a son and when an angel of the Lord appears and tells him his prayer has been answered he questions the angel and demands proof.
Zechariah was a temple priest. Luke calls he and his wife Elizabeth “righteous and blameless in all the commandments and status of the Lord.” Luke was a physician and an educated man. We can tell by the style of Greek that he used. Luke was also a companion of St. Paul on some of his missionary journeys and he collected the information for his gospel from several sources. This is the only use of this particular form of righteousness in Greek in Luke’s gospel. This would lead me to believe that Luke didn’t take this description of them as a Godly declaration about them rather the idea that they were righteous and blameless must have been what those who knew them thought of them. So they were well thought of in the community.
It is interesting that Zechariah and Elizabeth are described as righteous and blameless and yet in the nest verse we find out that they are barren which was considered a curse from God. This contrast reminds me that while we are servants of the Lord here on earth we are all both saint and sinner.
What seemed to be a curse for this couple in the end would be a blessing. Their advanced age and Elizabeth’s barrenness was the perfect setting to get the attention of God’s people whom he was about to call unto Himself. You see there hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for at least 500 years. And God was about to come to His creation incarnate in the man Jesus Christ. The scriptures had promised a fore runner, and Elijah if you will that will announce the arrival of the Messiah. John’s birth to a barren woman of advanced age was his first sermon to a people hungry for guidance and looking for a Savior.
At any given time, historians tell us, there were 20,000 temple priests and only 56 of them were selected by the casting of lots to officiate in the temple. So for Zechariah to be chosen to offer the incense sacrifice was a great honor. Especially if he was of advanced age his chances were running out.
So Zechariah enters the temple and the Holy of Holies alone. You might remember from the days of Moses when a Levite entered the temple they tied a rope around his foot so if he messed up the sacrifice and God struck him dead they could pull him out without any further loss of life. I bring this up to give you the idea of fear and trembling that Zechariah must have been feeling as he entered the space where only few in history were allowed by God to go.
Gabriel appears to Zechariah and tells him that his prayers have been answered, his barren wife is about to give birth to a son who will be great before the Lord and he will turn many of his people to the Lord and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit and the power of Elijah he will prepare a people for the Lord. Not to shabby of a commission for an only child.
Zechariah answers in with questions. He did a little better then Abraham who fell to the ground laughing that God told him that a 99 year old woman would give birth. You see a short 1500-2000 years ago God had made this same promise to Abraham and it came true. But just like we are today Zechariah was human and he couldn’t see any rational way that this could happen. But God doesn’t always operate in the rational, he is God he can do whatever he pleases. Just by speaking he created the universe is helping and elderly couple conceive a child really that much of a stretch?
An angel of the Lord appears to Zechariah and delivers a promise from the Creator of the Universe that his prayers are to be answered and he will have a son and a miraculous one at that; a son that will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. And Zechariah demands proof, Luke 1:18, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
As the reader of the story don’t you just want to say, “Hey Zach, my man, there is an angel of the Lord in front of you; does this happen every day? Come on dude something fantastic and beyond all human reason is happening here. Do a little more listening and a lot less talking.”
But Zechariah being a stubborn human not carrying an umbrella while he prays for rain, messes with the bull and gets the horns. Zechariah gets what he is looking for a sing as proof he is struck mute until the naming of the child. Mute until he fulfills the angel’s commission of him to name the child John; which in Hebrew is pronounced Yochanan and means “The Lord has shown favor.”
So Elizabeth becomes pregnant and she recognizes right away that this is a gift from God. However she does a curious thing she hides her pregnancy for five months. Perhaps she is afraid that her neighbors down at the local Templeabiou Coffee would gossip as to the Father of the child. “Zechariah hasn’t been able to perform in this way in the past maybe she took things into her own hands,” they might spew their poison. Or perhaps it is just too good to be true for her. After all it wasn’t like she was the one in the presence of an angel of the Lord.
I don’t think the reality of the child and his importance hit Elizabeth until Mary’s visit and her child leaped in her womb and she was filled with the Spirit. It wasn’t her human reason that brought this miracle to reality for her it was the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Possessing the Holy Spirit must a contagious thing because then Mary becomes filled and sings praises to God.
When John is born there is no more doubt and no more fear there, as the angel has promised joy; joy for this elderly couple and joy for their neighbors. Everyone realizes that the birth of this child was truly an act of God.
Jewish boys were circumcised on the eighth day after their birth. This is also the day that they name the child and everyone thought that this child would be named after his father. But Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, and Zechariah, still mute from his doubt, refused to question God again and the boy was named John. And Zechariah was cured.
Three things that we can learn from the account of the birth of John the Baptist; first when God makes you a promise it will be fulfilled regardless of what your human reason and experience tells you. And second, when you pray for something, pray expecting that it will be done for you. Our God is a God that chooses to work through every day people like Zechariah and Elizabeth and you and me to accomplish His will on earth. The Creator of the universe seeks to have a relationship with His creation in which they will trust and work with Him for the well being of our neighbor.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Sermon delievered to Waldorf College Football Team 08/23
I once knew of a little boy growing up in Iowa. He had a wild spirit and a loving heart; a heart so big that he needed a big body to contain it. Yep he was the fat kid and he was bullied and beaten mercilessly by his peers. Why did they hate him so much? He had such a loving heart and just wanted to be accepted; he just wanted to live up to whatever standard that his peers were holding him up too. But he didn’t know the standards nor could he find it within himself to live up to them.
As this boy approached high school he discovered that under the layers of fat laid a strong foundation for weight lifting. He out bench pressed everyone in his freshman class. As a freshman he was bench pressing 265 lbs. This gained him some attention and notoriety. For the first time in his life he thought he had found the standard that his peers wanted him to live up to; the more weights he lifted the angrier he got at himself for not being perfect and this sent him on a quest for physical perfection. He then discovered that he had a talent for wrestling. Every time he walked on the wrestling mat he envisioned one of his childhood bullies as his opponent. His many victories gained him more acceptances from his peers and the ones that didn’t accept him he either physically intimidated or wrote them off as losers and destroyed them verbally.
There isn’t anything that he would not do to win a wrestling match. He gouged eyes; he twisted parts of boys that shouldn’t be twisted, one of his opponents was carried off the mat on a stretcher with broken ribs. What happened to that big heart? Had it turned black in the face of competition and an attempt to live up to a standard that is understood in our society today but is never spoken of or written down anywhere?
His senior year he stood 5’ 9” and weighed 195lbs and boasted an 8% body fat. He squatted well over 600lbs and bench pressed 475lbs. He visited Veterans’ Auditorium in Des Moines twice in a quest for the title of Iowa State Wrestling Champion. But he was never satisfied. He could never live up to the goals he set and he could never fulfill the standards that he felt society wanted him to fulfill. He got angrier and angrier and his heart got blacker and blacker. He would physically assault boys in school for simply wearing white shoes. He wasn’t really angry after all; he was actually scared! He was scared that if he lost too many matches that people would see the he really was still the loser of his youth and everything he worked for would count as nothing. You see anger is never an emotion by itself; it is always covering up an inferior emotion.
His senior year he got hurt in practice of all places and placed 6th in the state tournament. 6th place behind 5 guys he had beaten earlier in the year. How could this happen? How could he let his loser self fail in front of thousands of people? He never stepped on a mat again and as far as I know has never returned to watch or take part in the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament after that 6th place finish.
He graduated from high school and his wrestling career was over. How can he be justified now? What can take the place of wrestling and weightlifting to gain the respect and acceptance of his peers? I will give you a hint she was 5’ 1, blond and weighted 105 lbs. Sure, this was it. Growing up his uncles, his brother, and his friends all bragged about the babes they seduced. He would gain a reputation as a ladies’ man with this new girlfriend and then he would be good enough.
But this boy wasn’t the only one who thought that this girl hung the moon. She liked attention from men all men and she found another lover and left him rejected and empty. He was crushed and he went off to college a train wreck waiting to happen.
College offers many things to a broken hearted boy looking to escape from reality. But the most important thing it offered was beer! This young man found out that if he could stay drunk then he could numb the pain and drown out the feelings of insecurity. He lived on the 12th floor of a dormitory. Now I am not saying that his living arrangements were the cause of his problem, however no one on that floor made the honor roll if you know what I mean. The inevitable happened he left school and married the next girl he met.
She was a pretty gal and came from a good family. But he was way too focused upon himself and his own misery to pay any attention to her needs. He got a job as a loan office for a finance company and wasn’t making very much money but he liked the power it gave him. His thirst for money and power increased as these seemed to be the things that gained him acceptance now. With his experience in finance he took a job as a finance manager in a car dealership. At 23 years of age he was making over $100k a year. His financial success allowed him to be drunk on the best beers and wines the world had to offer. He had not yet gotten over the defeat of his past and he found a few other damaged souls in the world who made a lot of money and drank enough beer to fill a swimming pool to share in his misery.
Well his wife got into the party lifestyle and in his constant absence she fell for another man and divorced him. Their divorce was final on the day of their three year anniversary. Again he was crushed, rejected and defeat and no amount of money could make him whole again; his depression persisted and his drinking increased.
There was a hot young gal whose father was a salesman at the dealership where he worked. He started to pursue her with a vengeance. This girl is the hottest thing that ever walked the face of the earth. I have seen pictures boys this chick is smoking. With his new found negotiating skills he convinced her to lower her standards and marry him. They lived the party life together. If they wanted to fly to Jamaica for the weekend they would, regardless of the cost, money was not an obstacle. But then their lifestyle started to outspend their income. They were making over $100k/year but living like they made over $200k. Debt started to pile up as the pressure to perform to make the commission to cover the payments increased. As the pressure built the drinking increased and I think you know where this is leading.
The 911 attacks were a sad and shocking time for all Americans but it killed the car business. This boy moved his wife and 2 small children to a bigger city with a bigger dealership in hopes of outrunning the debt of their current life style. But after the 911 attacks he ended up taking a $100K/year pay cut and they lost everything. They lost their house, their cars, and their credit rating, everything except each other. Again trying to live up to impossible standards had taken their toll on this boy.
One day driving home from a party this young man heard God say to him that he could no longer live this way. He took that message seriously and left the car business to start over. But something was different he could not get this God’s message out of his head. He spent the next nine months reading every Christian book he could get his hands on. He consumed about 2-4 books a week. And read the Bible in three months. But his thirst for learning was never quenched. His pastor friends started to send men to him that had addictions and financial difficulties just like he had had. He felt a great kinship with these men and took a great joy in understanding their problems and giving them hope. He confessed all the sins of his past to his wife and she forgave him as she saw that something was different about him. He decided that he was being called to be a pastor in Christ’s church so he applied for school and his wife went to work full time.
Grand View College admitted him on a probationary period. You see he had completed his AA degree but he completed it with a 1.97 GPA. At Grand View if you come in with an AA degree your GPA starts over and all the core classes are not required. He spent the next two years studying Religion and Philosophy and worked as a chaplain part time at a homeless shelter in Des Moines.
He came to realize that only one thing kept him from ending up like these men at the shelter was that his wife took him back and forgave him. She became the example of Christ’s unconditional love in his life.
After two short years this boy graduated magna-cum-laude from Grand View College, now Grand View University, with a BA in Religion and Philosophy. With his graduation status and being inducted into three national honor societies he earned a full academic scholarship to Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN.
The boy who once tried to gain his own righteousness under his own power is now dead. If you haven’t figured it out yet that boy was me and he died; but he has now been resurrected as the man you see before you today. You see that is our baptismal vows Romans 6:4 says:
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Your “self life” must be put to death and a new creation must be resurrected if you are to be counted as righteous before God.
What does it mean to be righteous? Webster’s Dictionary defines it two ways:
1. acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin
2. : morally right or justifiable b : arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality
Webster’s definition makes it sound like there two different kinds of righteousness; 1 right before God according to His law and 2 right in human society or social morality. I would agree with Webster’s on this, I believe that there are two kinds of righteousness. However I name them by how we receive them. There is passive righteousness and active righteousness.
Passive righteousness is what we receive from God due to Christ’s finished work on the cross. This type of righteousness is like Webster’s first definition. We are right before God not because of how we lived our lives or how well we lived up to God’s divine law but because Jesus did it for us. No person can live up to God’s law to the extent that it will gain them salvation before God. Romans 3:20 says:
Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Romans 5:20 says:
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
God’s divine law doesn’t exist as a path to earn your way into heaven. It is not some ladder upon which you climb your way up to God under your own strength and your own ability. As a matter of fact as Romans 3:20 says it doesn’t justify you it makes you aware that you are unjustifiable. The only way to earn this kind of righteousness is to be completely passive in your actions and have faith in Jesus and his finished work FOR YOU on the cross. Faith not works saves a person. Faith not works is what makes you righteous in God’s sight. It is not based upon how many games you win, it is not how many beers you can drink and still walk back to the dorm, it is not based upon how many A’s you get school, it’s not based on how many chicks that you talk into sleeping with you! It is a supernatural righteousness that is given to you as a free gift if you only believe and trust that in God's one and only Son sent to die for your sins. This I submit to you is the most important righteousness a person can posses. For this righteousness is eternal and can never be taken away from God’s chosen believers.
If I am counted righteous before God by being completely passive and cannot earn anything by being moral then why should I be moral? Why shouldn’t I just believe in Jesus and do whatever I want? The more I sin the more he forgives me right? And isn’t more grace better?
These are good questions. Why behave yourself if God will forgive you for being naughty? The book of James 2:26 says:
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Out of passive righteous comes active righteousness. A person that has been given the faith in Jesus that saves them for eternity cannot help but desire to perform this kind of righteousness. Active righteousness is like Webster’s second definition. It is the righteousness of your life while you exist on earth. This righteousness is important because it fulfills what Jesus commanded. Jesus said love you neighbor as you love yourself. This active righteousness exists not to gain your way in to heaven rather it exists for the service of and the fulfillment of your neighbors needs. After you have received passive righteousness your only purpose on this earth is for active righteousness. Have you ever wondered why when someone is given faith in Jesus that saves them for eternity they don’t just disappear into heaven? Well here is why, they stay here to live out their life in service to their neighbor. This can take on many forms. Working as a grocery store carry out boy is serving your neighbor. Changing your child’s diaper is serving your neighbor. Ethically selling your friend a car at a fair price is serving your neighbor. Drawing the plans for a building that will house people is serving your neighbor. Walking a girl safely back to her dorm from a party when she has had too much to drink is serving your neighbor. You see there are activities that are God’s work that we perform each day for His people and don’t even realize it. I would even go as far as to say that playing football is God’s work. It provides entertainment for the crowd. It gives the linemen a chance to block for the back field. It gives the defense the chance to keep the other team from scoring so that the offense can get the ball back and so on and so on. Active righteousness does not save you but those who are saved act righteously. God will complete His work for His people through you whether you believe it or not. And in life there are consequences for not acting righteously.
For instance: let’s say that a salesman overcharges a customer for a good or service. This is not acting in a righteous way and can result in a law suit or the customer may never buy from them again. One time non-repeat customers does keep you in business very long. Let’s say that your friend ticks you off and so you go and spew evil words about him to those around you. This is not only breaking the 8th commandment it also may get back to your friend and affect your friendship. Let’s say that in a fit of hormones you cave casual sex with a girl drunk at a party. That girl could get pregnant and you have not only affected one life but three. Or else you could get some disease and things will start falling off you. Well that is what my mother told me anyway.
How does one obtain this passive righteousness that leads to active righteousness one may ask? We look again to the Bible for the answer, Romans 10:17 says:
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Faith that gives passive righteousness comes from the hearing of the Word of Christ preached to you by a true preacher, one who is sent by God and one who speaks with authority. Before you today stands a true preacher that is speaking to you with this authority. Not an authority of my own, you have been told of my past transgressions, rather an authority that is given by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. In the Words I have spoken to you today concerning righteousness the Holy Spirit has been delivered to you and is at work within you as we speak putting to death your flesh and creating a new creature.
Now I know that all this seems like a tall order. You might be asking yourself, “How can I ensure that I will act righteous for the rest of my life? How will become this person of integrity that God is calling me to be?” Relax; you can’t perfectly adhere to righteous action under your own power. If you could then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come, Galatians 2:21 says:
"I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."
Let me get you started on the road to being a person of integrity who posses passive righteousness and acts righteously. First it doesn’t start with comparing yourself to anyone else in the world. It starts with you believing God’s promise that your sins are forgiven on account of His son Jesus Christ. Then it’s simply doing the next right thing. Whatever situation crosses your paths after you leave here today, do the right thing. How will I know what is the right thing you might ask? God’s law is written on your heart, you know what is right and wrong. If you don’t ask one of your coaches I am sure they would be glad to guide you. So let me give you a for instance: you leave here today and you are tempted to turn to your team mate and say, “What was that dude talking about man, or who is he to tell me how to live my life, or That guy is full of what I shoveled in the horse barn, or my grandfather’s favorite, That guy was as worthless as tits on a boar man!” Doing any of these would not only be breaking the eighth commandment it would be proving that you do not have ears to hear what God is saying to you. Besides it would terribly detrimental to my fragile ego.
What I am saying guys is that you were all called here to Waldorf to compete together as a team. That is not an easy task and you may not want to love and serve your teammates and coaches all the time. But God has called you here for His purpose not yours. And all that He asks is that you believe His promise to you of forgiveness of your sins on account of His Son Jesus Christ and then go and do the next right thing; and then the next, and then the next. And when you realize that you do not have the power to do any of this under your own power, pray and ask Him to give it to you.
You see I spent the first 30 years of my life trying to make it count for something through active righteousness. I wasted the first 30 years of my life trying to make it count for something through active righteousness. And it wasn’t until I failed at every attempt and had every material thing stripped from me that I believed in God’s promise and then my life and my active righteousness counted because it made a difference in the lives of my neighbors.
May the peace of the risen Christ be with you all and thank you for giving me this chance to tell my story.
As this boy approached high school he discovered that under the layers of fat laid a strong foundation for weight lifting. He out bench pressed everyone in his freshman class. As a freshman he was bench pressing 265 lbs. This gained him some attention and notoriety. For the first time in his life he thought he had found the standard that his peers wanted him to live up to; the more weights he lifted the angrier he got at himself for not being perfect and this sent him on a quest for physical perfection. He then discovered that he had a talent for wrestling. Every time he walked on the wrestling mat he envisioned one of his childhood bullies as his opponent. His many victories gained him more acceptances from his peers and the ones that didn’t accept him he either physically intimidated or wrote them off as losers and destroyed them verbally.
There isn’t anything that he would not do to win a wrestling match. He gouged eyes; he twisted parts of boys that shouldn’t be twisted, one of his opponents was carried off the mat on a stretcher with broken ribs. What happened to that big heart? Had it turned black in the face of competition and an attempt to live up to a standard that is understood in our society today but is never spoken of or written down anywhere?
His senior year he stood 5’ 9” and weighed 195lbs and boasted an 8% body fat. He squatted well over 600lbs and bench pressed 475lbs. He visited Veterans’ Auditorium in Des Moines twice in a quest for the title of Iowa State Wrestling Champion. But he was never satisfied. He could never live up to the goals he set and he could never fulfill the standards that he felt society wanted him to fulfill. He got angrier and angrier and his heart got blacker and blacker. He would physically assault boys in school for simply wearing white shoes. He wasn’t really angry after all; he was actually scared! He was scared that if he lost too many matches that people would see the he really was still the loser of his youth and everything he worked for would count as nothing. You see anger is never an emotion by itself; it is always covering up an inferior emotion.
His senior year he got hurt in practice of all places and placed 6th in the state tournament. 6th place behind 5 guys he had beaten earlier in the year. How could this happen? How could he let his loser self fail in front of thousands of people? He never stepped on a mat again and as far as I know has never returned to watch or take part in the Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament after that 6th place finish.
He graduated from high school and his wrestling career was over. How can he be justified now? What can take the place of wrestling and weightlifting to gain the respect and acceptance of his peers? I will give you a hint she was 5’ 1, blond and weighted 105 lbs. Sure, this was it. Growing up his uncles, his brother, and his friends all bragged about the babes they seduced. He would gain a reputation as a ladies’ man with this new girlfriend and then he would be good enough.
But this boy wasn’t the only one who thought that this girl hung the moon. She liked attention from men all men and she found another lover and left him rejected and empty. He was crushed and he went off to college a train wreck waiting to happen.
College offers many things to a broken hearted boy looking to escape from reality. But the most important thing it offered was beer! This young man found out that if he could stay drunk then he could numb the pain and drown out the feelings of insecurity. He lived on the 12th floor of a dormitory. Now I am not saying that his living arrangements were the cause of his problem, however no one on that floor made the honor roll if you know what I mean. The inevitable happened he left school and married the next girl he met.
She was a pretty gal and came from a good family. But he was way too focused upon himself and his own misery to pay any attention to her needs. He got a job as a loan office for a finance company and wasn’t making very much money but he liked the power it gave him. His thirst for money and power increased as these seemed to be the things that gained him acceptance now. With his experience in finance he took a job as a finance manager in a car dealership. At 23 years of age he was making over $100k a year. His financial success allowed him to be drunk on the best beers and wines the world had to offer. He had not yet gotten over the defeat of his past and he found a few other damaged souls in the world who made a lot of money and drank enough beer to fill a swimming pool to share in his misery.
Well his wife got into the party lifestyle and in his constant absence she fell for another man and divorced him. Their divorce was final on the day of their three year anniversary. Again he was crushed, rejected and defeat and no amount of money could make him whole again; his depression persisted and his drinking increased.
There was a hot young gal whose father was a salesman at the dealership where he worked. He started to pursue her with a vengeance. This girl is the hottest thing that ever walked the face of the earth. I have seen pictures boys this chick is smoking. With his new found negotiating skills he convinced her to lower her standards and marry him. They lived the party life together. If they wanted to fly to Jamaica for the weekend they would, regardless of the cost, money was not an obstacle. But then their lifestyle started to outspend their income. They were making over $100k/year but living like they made over $200k. Debt started to pile up as the pressure to perform to make the commission to cover the payments increased. As the pressure built the drinking increased and I think you know where this is leading.
The 911 attacks were a sad and shocking time for all Americans but it killed the car business. This boy moved his wife and 2 small children to a bigger city with a bigger dealership in hopes of outrunning the debt of their current life style. But after the 911 attacks he ended up taking a $100K/year pay cut and they lost everything. They lost their house, their cars, and their credit rating, everything except each other. Again trying to live up to impossible standards had taken their toll on this boy.
One day driving home from a party this young man heard God say to him that he could no longer live this way. He took that message seriously and left the car business to start over. But something was different he could not get this God’s message out of his head. He spent the next nine months reading every Christian book he could get his hands on. He consumed about 2-4 books a week. And read the Bible in three months. But his thirst for learning was never quenched. His pastor friends started to send men to him that had addictions and financial difficulties just like he had had. He felt a great kinship with these men and took a great joy in understanding their problems and giving them hope. He confessed all the sins of his past to his wife and she forgave him as she saw that something was different about him. He decided that he was being called to be a pastor in Christ’s church so he applied for school and his wife went to work full time.
Grand View College admitted him on a probationary period. You see he had completed his AA degree but he completed it with a 1.97 GPA. At Grand View if you come in with an AA degree your GPA starts over and all the core classes are not required. He spent the next two years studying Religion and Philosophy and worked as a chaplain part time at a homeless shelter in Des Moines.
He came to realize that only one thing kept him from ending up like these men at the shelter was that his wife took him back and forgave him. She became the example of Christ’s unconditional love in his life.
After two short years this boy graduated magna-cum-laude from Grand View College, now Grand View University, with a BA in Religion and Philosophy. With his graduation status and being inducted into three national honor societies he earned a full academic scholarship to Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN.
The boy who once tried to gain his own righteousness under his own power is now dead. If you haven’t figured it out yet that boy was me and he died; but he has now been resurrected as the man you see before you today. You see that is our baptismal vows Romans 6:4 says:
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Your “self life” must be put to death and a new creation must be resurrected if you are to be counted as righteous before God.
What does it mean to be righteous? Webster’s Dictionary defines it two ways:
1. acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin
2. : morally right or justifiable b : arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality
Webster’s definition makes it sound like there two different kinds of righteousness; 1 right before God according to His law and 2 right in human society or social morality. I would agree with Webster’s on this, I believe that there are two kinds of righteousness. However I name them by how we receive them. There is passive righteousness and active righteousness.
Passive righteousness is what we receive from God due to Christ’s finished work on the cross. This type of righteousness is like Webster’s first definition. We are right before God not because of how we lived our lives or how well we lived up to God’s divine law but because Jesus did it for us. No person can live up to God’s law to the extent that it will gain them salvation before God. Romans 3:20 says:
Because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Romans 5:20 says:
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
God’s divine law doesn’t exist as a path to earn your way into heaven. It is not some ladder upon which you climb your way up to God under your own strength and your own ability. As a matter of fact as Romans 3:20 says it doesn’t justify you it makes you aware that you are unjustifiable. The only way to earn this kind of righteousness is to be completely passive in your actions and have faith in Jesus and his finished work FOR YOU on the cross. Faith not works saves a person. Faith not works is what makes you righteous in God’s sight. It is not based upon how many games you win, it is not how many beers you can drink and still walk back to the dorm, it is not based upon how many A’s you get school, it’s not based on how many chicks that you talk into sleeping with you! It is a supernatural righteousness that is given to you as a free gift if you only believe and trust that in God's one and only Son sent to die for your sins. This I submit to you is the most important righteousness a person can posses. For this righteousness is eternal and can never be taken away from God’s chosen believers.
If I am counted righteous before God by being completely passive and cannot earn anything by being moral then why should I be moral? Why shouldn’t I just believe in Jesus and do whatever I want? The more I sin the more he forgives me right? And isn’t more grace better?
These are good questions. Why behave yourself if God will forgive you for being naughty? The book of James 2:26 says:
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Out of passive righteous comes active righteousness. A person that has been given the faith in Jesus that saves them for eternity cannot help but desire to perform this kind of righteousness. Active righteousness is like Webster’s second definition. It is the righteousness of your life while you exist on earth. This righteousness is important because it fulfills what Jesus commanded. Jesus said love you neighbor as you love yourself. This active righteousness exists not to gain your way in to heaven rather it exists for the service of and the fulfillment of your neighbors needs. After you have received passive righteousness your only purpose on this earth is for active righteousness. Have you ever wondered why when someone is given faith in Jesus that saves them for eternity they don’t just disappear into heaven? Well here is why, they stay here to live out their life in service to their neighbor. This can take on many forms. Working as a grocery store carry out boy is serving your neighbor. Changing your child’s diaper is serving your neighbor. Ethically selling your friend a car at a fair price is serving your neighbor. Drawing the plans for a building that will house people is serving your neighbor. Walking a girl safely back to her dorm from a party when she has had too much to drink is serving your neighbor. You see there are activities that are God’s work that we perform each day for His people and don’t even realize it. I would even go as far as to say that playing football is God’s work. It provides entertainment for the crowd. It gives the linemen a chance to block for the back field. It gives the defense the chance to keep the other team from scoring so that the offense can get the ball back and so on and so on. Active righteousness does not save you but those who are saved act righteously. God will complete His work for His people through you whether you believe it or not. And in life there are consequences for not acting righteously.
For instance: let’s say that a salesman overcharges a customer for a good or service. This is not acting in a righteous way and can result in a law suit or the customer may never buy from them again. One time non-repeat customers does keep you in business very long. Let’s say that your friend ticks you off and so you go and spew evil words about him to those around you. This is not only breaking the 8th commandment it also may get back to your friend and affect your friendship. Let’s say that in a fit of hormones you cave casual sex with a girl drunk at a party. That girl could get pregnant and you have not only affected one life but three. Or else you could get some disease and things will start falling off you. Well that is what my mother told me anyway.
How does one obtain this passive righteousness that leads to active righteousness one may ask? We look again to the Bible for the answer, Romans 10:17 says:
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Faith that gives passive righteousness comes from the hearing of the Word of Christ preached to you by a true preacher, one who is sent by God and one who speaks with authority. Before you today stands a true preacher that is speaking to you with this authority. Not an authority of my own, you have been told of my past transgressions, rather an authority that is given by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. In the Words I have spoken to you today concerning righteousness the Holy Spirit has been delivered to you and is at work within you as we speak putting to death your flesh and creating a new creature.
Now I know that all this seems like a tall order. You might be asking yourself, “How can I ensure that I will act righteous for the rest of my life? How will become this person of integrity that God is calling me to be?” Relax; you can’t perfectly adhere to righteous action under your own power. If you could then Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come, Galatians 2:21 says:
"I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."
Let me get you started on the road to being a person of integrity who posses passive righteousness and acts righteously. First it doesn’t start with comparing yourself to anyone else in the world. It starts with you believing God’s promise that your sins are forgiven on account of His son Jesus Christ. Then it’s simply doing the next right thing. Whatever situation crosses your paths after you leave here today, do the right thing. How will I know what is the right thing you might ask? God’s law is written on your heart, you know what is right and wrong. If you don’t ask one of your coaches I am sure they would be glad to guide you. So let me give you a for instance: you leave here today and you are tempted to turn to your team mate and say, “What was that dude talking about man, or who is he to tell me how to live my life, or That guy is full of what I shoveled in the horse barn, or my grandfather’s favorite, That guy was as worthless as tits on a boar man!” Doing any of these would not only be breaking the eighth commandment it would be proving that you do not have ears to hear what God is saying to you. Besides it would terribly detrimental to my fragile ego.
What I am saying guys is that you were all called here to Waldorf to compete together as a team. That is not an easy task and you may not want to love and serve your teammates and coaches all the time. But God has called you here for His purpose not yours. And all that He asks is that you believe His promise to you of forgiveness of your sins on account of His Son Jesus Christ and then go and do the next right thing; and then the next, and then the next. And when you realize that you do not have the power to do any of this under your own power, pray and ask Him to give it to you.
You see I spent the first 30 years of my life trying to make it count for something through active righteousness. I wasted the first 30 years of my life trying to make it count for something through active righteousness. And it wasn’t until I failed at every attempt and had every material thing stripped from me that I believed in God’s promise and then my life and my active righteousness counted because it made a difference in the lives of my neighbors.
May the peace of the risen Christ be with you all and thank you for giving me this chance to tell my story.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Mission II final paper reflecting upon a visit to an Islamic Mosque in Minnesota.
Jamie Strickler
Mission of the Triune God II
Summer 2009
Final Paper
Visit to Islamic mosque
July 18, 2009
I love Jesus! There is no doubt that I could not have repented of my past sinful ways unless a power greater than myself had taken over and lead me out of the darkness. That is not to say that I don’t still sin. I still sin but I desire not to; as St. Paul what I will to do I do not do but what I will not to do I do. Before the Holy Spirit came to me, through God’s ordained preachers of the gospel of Christ, I had an uncontrollable desire for alcohol, parties, depravity, and an unhealthy lust for money, material things, and the world. Now I only desire Jesus and to be like Him in every way. Even though I know that it is an impossible task to adhere to God’s holy law and be exactly like Jesus, I ask God everyday to make me less like me and more like Jesus.
Growing up in Iowa may sound like heaven as per the Kevin Costner movie, “Field of Dreams.” However it isn’t any different than growing up in any other part of America when it comes to the binding of the human will to the endless tread mill of compete and perform, compete and perform. I must say that any success that I had ever achieved was limited and never lasted. In the end I failed miserably at everything I tried to use to justify myself outside of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My loving Father in heaven knew this about me. He knew my pain and He wanted to deliver me from it so He sent His only son to die on the cross to atone for all my sins. When I say all sins I mean all sins past, present, and future. Christ’s dying on the cross and rising from the dead for me meant that I may eventually be free from God’s good and precious law. And although I am now free from God’s holy law, which only brings about sin and death, I may now follow God’s holy law with the confidence, love and freedom that exist only through faith in the saving bold of Jesus Christ given to a believer through the preached word of Jesus Christ by a true preacher. This preached word of Jesus Christ delivers the Holy Spirit that indwells me, God’s baptized and chosen disciple, creates faith where there was no faith before putting to death the desires of the flesh and rising to new life a new creation for the purpose of love and service to the neighbor. I, and anyone who has had a preacher and believes, now exist with Christ in the conscience and the law in our appendages for our neighbor. To Jesus Christ be all the glory and honor forever and ever!
So if this is a paper about my experience at an Islamic mosque, you may be asking yourself, then why am I reading a testimony, about what Christ has done and can do in the life of a wretched sinner, filled with Lutheran theology? That would be a great question and the answer would not be, just trying to take up space in a ten page paper. The answer would be that Luther’s theology of law and gospel, taught to me by a true preacher in my undergraduate classes, truly unbound me from the endless treadmill of compete and perform, compete and perform. But the real answer would be that my love for Christ and the appreciation of what He has done for me, and for whoever believes in Him and His finished work on the cross, has been deepened by the experience of visiting a Muslim mosque. There I encountered the law of God without the Gospel of Christ. But I am getting ahead of myself; let me start from the beginning.
On Friday July 17th two friends, Matt Magara and Michael Peuse, and I visited Columbia Heights Mosque in Columbia Heights Minnesota. We were hosted by Mr. Owais Bayunus the President of the Islamic Center of Minnesota. I had previously contacted President Bayunus by phone and asked him for his permission for us to attend an event at his mosque. He was very excited to welcome us and eagerly started telling me about all the interfaith work and dialogue that the Islamic Center of Minnesota is involved in. They are a part of the oldest interfaith dialogue group in Minnesota. Their mosque will host this dialogue group the third Sunday of July. He gladly invited us to join them the Sunday after the Friday prayer service appointment we had set. I had to regretfully decline as I have three children and my wife works on Sundays however I will keep it in mind for the future.
We were supposed to arrive shortly before 2:00p.m. for a 2:00p.m. Friday prayer service. However we were running late because Michael Peuse had to primp himself and he drives like an old lady. Matthew and my cars were with our wife’s at their respective work places. So, we arrived at 2:05 p.m.
There were about 50 Middle Eastern looking men visiting with each other outside the building. President Bayunus hurriedly came off the porch, of what looked like an old church, to greet us. Keep in mind I have never met him before but I guess he picked three white guys out of the crowd of Middle Eastern looking folks as the Luther seminarians. After our introductions and my apologies to him for our tardiness he quickly ushered us inside the building to an entry way. Here he instructed us to remove our shoes and place them under a bench which was defiantly a refurbished church pew. Like a moron I tried to put my shoes on the bench which was frowned upon by President Bayunus. I quickly figured out my error and corrected it.
The emum had already started his sermon and as we entered the mosque I noticed that there were about 10 little boys sitting on the floor in the Northeast corner of the building in front of a pulpit from which the emum was delivering his teaching. In the rear of the building in the Southwest corner sat all the women. They were not on the floor however they were sitting in church pews against the back walls. There were women of all ages there in long dresses and head coverings. President Bayunus seated us in church pews set against the South wall of the mosque. He then explained to me that the sermon would last about 30 minutes and then promptly at 2:30 p.m. there would be a prayer service which would be comparable to our worship service.
I noticed that whenever we were being addressed I was the one that was being addressed. Even after the service when Michael asked a question the speaker answered his question looking at me. I believe that I remember hearing that in the Middle Eastern culture elders have respect. I’m only 34 but I am a couple of years older than Michael and quite a few years older than Matthew. I think that it was oblivious to them that I was the oldest and this was the reason that I was the one being addressed.
The emum’s sermon was about the requirements of the law concerning accusations of adultery and he was attempting to discredit any teachings about mercy killings. He stated that if there were to be any mercy killings they weren’t carried out in the name of Allah or Islam rather mercy killings were a cultural thing. He claimed that they could be called Egyptian or Pakistani but never Islamic. He went on giving example after example of how people could be falsely accused before a judge and that Islam required four witnesses.
There was once a woman, he said, that had left her caravan to go to the bathroom. When she returned to her caravan she realized that her necklace had fallen off so she went back to the spot where she had been to find it. When she returned to her caravan it had moved on without her so she sat down to wait for someone to come along. A man came down the road and honorably sat her on his camel and took her to catch-up with her people. When her people saw her mounted on a man’s camel, that wasn’t her husband, they began to gossip about her and her previous whereabouts. The gossiping was, he explained, human nature but was forbidden by Islamic law.
The emum told another story of three men who heard some noises coming from a closet. When they opened the closet they found two people fornicating. They then proceeded to go out to find a fourth to be a witness against these two people. When the judge asked the fourth what he saw he answered that he saw two people in a closet, a woman trying to cover herself and a man crying. The judge continued to ask the fourth man if he actually saw the sexual act and the fourth man said no so the judge ordered 80 lashes be given to all four men as they did not have four witnesses; kind of harsh if I do say so myself.
As the emum’s sermon progressed the mosque slowly filled up with men who prostrated themselves three times before sitting on the floor to listen to the rest of the teaching. I was somewhat relieved because by their standards we were way early.
There were all kinds of men, older, younger, children and teenagers. They were primarily Middle Eastern or Egyptian but there were some African Americans and one Caucasian man that I guessed to be in his twenties. The women were all Middle Eastern or Egyptian except for one girl who looked Caucasian and didn’t quit fit in with the rest. We later found out that she was a student from Bethel College observing that day like we were. I did observe two young girls about 6 or 7 that went onto the main floor accompanied by their fathers. This I found out of place, Matthew and Michael agreed. Maybe Matthew and I are the orthodox police for the Muslims as well.
The emum repeated at least 15 times that there must be four witnesses before anyone could be convicted before an Islamic judge. He then told the crowd; the three of us included, that there was no such call from the holy Qur’an for the killing of the people convicted rather they received 80 lashes. He had a thick Egyptian accent so I had trouble making out the whole sermon but I wondered how he was applying this passage to life today. Was he saying that people should be beaten for breaking the laws today just like in the times of Muhammad? I never got the answer to that question but I will return to Friday July 24th with Phil Roushey and I will ask him then. Some of the sermon was in Arabic. The Arabic parts were when the emum was quoting the Qur’an. I had never heard Arabic spoken so fluently by anyone; it was almost hypnotic.
The inside of the mosque had Arabic writing all over it. The writing was painted in gold on white walls. There were only two pictures hanging in the building, one of Mecca, the other of an extravagant mosque somewhere in the Middle East. The floor was bare and carpeted. There were church pews lining the inside walls of the building. No one seemed to use the pews except for the women and the visitors. There was a smell of a type of incense that I had never smelled before but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from and I didn’t want to ask about the smell for fear that there wasn’t any incense and I would then have offended our gracious hosts. In the pew on the Eastside of the mosque were all kinds of Islamic literature and Qur’ans which were offered to us after the service.
When the prayer service started the men were all instructed to stand toe to toe shoulder to shoulder no gaps. This was to insure that the devil would not sneak through, we were told later. The emum, as well as all the men and women, faced northeast and began to pray. The emum would chant and the rest would repeat after him. Now some of the women were off the benches and were prostrating themselves toward the northeast. It is significant that the men had their backs to the women as it was explained to us that the reason for the separation of men and women was for the reason of decency. The women were seated behind the men because they were stronger than the men when it came to sexual temptation. A woman prostrating herself in front of a man might lead his mind to wander away from God and render his prayers unheard. I being a man of sane mind can understand their point.
After the service the emum and some of his flock came over to us to visit. They were very adamant to explain that women in Islam were to be considered equal with men. They went into detail to explain that men and women were separated for the reason of decency not because they were unequal. I am suspicious of this idea. This may be the case in their mosque however traditionally Islam women have been considered property and below men. Every piece of literature I picked up referred to the Islamic man and uses gender specific langue. I appreciate the profession of these Islamic people but the evidenced does not add up and there was a lot of emotional voltage behind their explanation. As a matter of fact the hour that we visited with them after the service was spent proving that Jesus was not God and defending preconceived misconceptions that they believed we had about Islam. I noted that they spent very little time telling us what they stood for and a whole lot of time telling what they stood against and what others falsely believed about their religion. Please don’t misunderstand they were cordial and welcoming; I just believe that they have some emotional voltage about the way they have been received, or lack thereof, in America. They were all 1st generation immigrants and I believe that they feel that they have not been treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve. I am in no place and in no way would minimize their feelings. I believe if that is how they feel then that is their reality and therefore valid.
I also noted that they hated Fox News as they pointed out that you wouldn’t hear the good things about Islam on that network. The emum also told us about an Islamic woman who was stabbed to death in a court of law in Germany by a man who wasn’t Islamic. He said that we heard nothing about this in American and that this wasn’t the type of thing that Fox News is interested in reporting. However if the man had been Islamic and the woman a Christian it would be breaking news on Fox News. This may be true but again there is emotional voltage in this communication. I personally am a Fox News fan but I was not insulted because this seemed to be an outlet for their pain. However I find it hard to believe that one news network is responsible for all the misconceptions about Islam.
When I visited this mosque I saw over 100 good God loving people trying their best to live up to God’s law. These people were more pious and upright in their behavior then I have seen in almost any Christian church; however they did not seem to me to be free and happy. I recognized in them that same desire that I had in the past, the desire to live up to the law under my own power. They were on a treadmill; the endless treadmill of religious piety, the endless tread mill of competes and perform. It broke my heart when I heard the emum tell us that there was no original sin only our personal sin and on the Day of Judgment every one of our appendages will testify against us before God. Our tongues will say they made me lie, our hands will say they made me steal, and our feet will say they made me walk in unclean places. I wanted to jump up and say, “Yes, yes, that is true, that is all true but then when my God looks at me He will only see His Son Jesus Christ and I will be righteous in His sight.” I wanted to give them that same freedom.
Don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. I love these Muslim people and I have an appreciation for the beauty that is their prayer service and their devotion to God and the piety that Islam tries to instill in its members. I picked up a brochure that was entitled, “The Man Islam Builds.” This brochure talked about da‘wah, mission, which is the mission of Islam to work its “brainstorming” in its men to make them “supermen.” The da‘wah, “becomes an extensive course of action through which one’s personality develops day by day, until one reaches the highest level of intellectual and spiritual development.” I witnessed and read about the law without the gospel.
I had extreme compassion for them as their burden seemed heavy and almost unbearable. Perhaps I was projecting my personal feelings upon them but this was my observation and my reality. I wanted to deliver the Word of Christ to them and set free from the burden of the law and the treadmill of compete and perform. But this wasn’t the time or the place. I believe that conversations like that come after a relationship has been established. This was their mosque, their holy place of worship. We were invited to it as their guests and a trusting relationship had not yet been established. These was a time for them, for the venting of their pain and as called Disciples of Christ it was our duty to listen and to and hear their confession; although this was not easy at times especially when they quoted the Bible out of context as if we would not know the difference.
Easy isn’t our calling as Disciples of Christ. Easy is saying live and let live or to profess to each their own as communicated in Diana Eck’s book, “Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras.” But live and let live or to each their own is not what we are called as Disciples of Christ to do; we are not called to always be popular. We are to profess Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the sinner even when it is not a popular message. But we must be smart about how we go about this. We must not run into a situation and ram our faith down someone’s throat in hopes of a conversion no matter what the consequences. We must pick our time and first be the gospel to them, showing them how much we love and care for them before we can share the gospel with them. We must be patient and listen to their concerns and identify the source or sources of their pain and then speak healing into their pain once we have established their trust. And we must pray for each and every one of those people that God has called us to be preachers to with the hope that God is at work around them before our preaching arrives; that way their hearts are prepared to hear Christ’s message of salvation. However true this approach may be we are also not called as Disciples of Christ to go along quietly when a spirit is present that is in opposition to God’s law and the gospel and is forcing its self upon us. But no one was forcing anything on us in this situation so it was a time not for preaching rather it was a time for us to listen and build a relationship.
I have now seen what it looks like to have law without gospel. It is not a sight that I admired but was one that I had compassion for. I know that in Galatians 1:8 St. Paul warned of an angel form heaven coming and preaching a gospel contrary to the one in which he preached. He said that this angel was to be accursed. This warning came almost 700 years before Muhammad received his teaching from an angel. Muhammad’s teaching communicated many things; the most blasphemous being that Jesus was not God incarnate. 1 John 2:23 professes, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” Are the Islamic people being deceived by the enemy of God? Are the Islamic people condemned to hell for their unbelief in Jesus? These are questions that I have asked myself over and over for years and years. These are questions that seem obvious however I have a hard time looking at these God fearing pious people as condemned to hell. Luther was and single predestinationist; he believed that some are chosen and that is where he left it. I take Luther’s perspective. Who is condemned or who is saved is God’s prerogative and I trust that whatever He decides is fair. After all He is God all powerful, all knowing, and creator of all. I do know this; no one comes to the Father unless drawn through Jesus Christ. The rest is not my concern. I am to preach to those that I have called to preach to and let God be god in all matters of salvation.
Today I am a thankful and grateful Disciple of Jesus Christ. I am in no way perfect in my faith or in my actions. The reality of the power of God’s forgiveness through the gospel of Jesus Christ has taken upon a new depth for me and for that I give thanks and glory to God.
Mission of the Triune God II
Summer 2009
Final Paper
Visit to Islamic mosque
July 18, 2009
I love Jesus! There is no doubt that I could not have repented of my past sinful ways unless a power greater than myself had taken over and lead me out of the darkness. That is not to say that I don’t still sin. I still sin but I desire not to; as St. Paul what I will to do I do not do but what I will not to do I do. Before the Holy Spirit came to me, through God’s ordained preachers of the gospel of Christ, I had an uncontrollable desire for alcohol, parties, depravity, and an unhealthy lust for money, material things, and the world. Now I only desire Jesus and to be like Him in every way. Even though I know that it is an impossible task to adhere to God’s holy law and be exactly like Jesus, I ask God everyday to make me less like me and more like Jesus.
Growing up in Iowa may sound like heaven as per the Kevin Costner movie, “Field of Dreams.” However it isn’t any different than growing up in any other part of America when it comes to the binding of the human will to the endless tread mill of compete and perform, compete and perform. I must say that any success that I had ever achieved was limited and never lasted. In the end I failed miserably at everything I tried to use to justify myself outside of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. My loving Father in heaven knew this about me. He knew my pain and He wanted to deliver me from it so He sent His only son to die on the cross to atone for all my sins. When I say all sins I mean all sins past, present, and future. Christ’s dying on the cross and rising from the dead for me meant that I may eventually be free from God’s good and precious law. And although I am now free from God’s holy law, which only brings about sin and death, I may now follow God’s holy law with the confidence, love and freedom that exist only through faith in the saving bold of Jesus Christ given to a believer through the preached word of Jesus Christ by a true preacher. This preached word of Jesus Christ delivers the Holy Spirit that indwells me, God’s baptized and chosen disciple, creates faith where there was no faith before putting to death the desires of the flesh and rising to new life a new creation for the purpose of love and service to the neighbor. I, and anyone who has had a preacher and believes, now exist with Christ in the conscience and the law in our appendages for our neighbor. To Jesus Christ be all the glory and honor forever and ever!
So if this is a paper about my experience at an Islamic mosque, you may be asking yourself, then why am I reading a testimony, about what Christ has done and can do in the life of a wretched sinner, filled with Lutheran theology? That would be a great question and the answer would not be, just trying to take up space in a ten page paper. The answer would be that Luther’s theology of law and gospel, taught to me by a true preacher in my undergraduate classes, truly unbound me from the endless treadmill of compete and perform, compete and perform. But the real answer would be that my love for Christ and the appreciation of what He has done for me, and for whoever believes in Him and His finished work on the cross, has been deepened by the experience of visiting a Muslim mosque. There I encountered the law of God without the Gospel of Christ. But I am getting ahead of myself; let me start from the beginning.
On Friday July 17th two friends, Matt Magara and Michael Peuse, and I visited Columbia Heights Mosque in Columbia Heights Minnesota. We were hosted by Mr. Owais Bayunus the President of the Islamic Center of Minnesota. I had previously contacted President Bayunus by phone and asked him for his permission for us to attend an event at his mosque. He was very excited to welcome us and eagerly started telling me about all the interfaith work and dialogue that the Islamic Center of Minnesota is involved in. They are a part of the oldest interfaith dialogue group in Minnesota. Their mosque will host this dialogue group the third Sunday of July. He gladly invited us to join them the Sunday after the Friday prayer service appointment we had set. I had to regretfully decline as I have three children and my wife works on Sundays however I will keep it in mind for the future.
We were supposed to arrive shortly before 2:00p.m. for a 2:00p.m. Friday prayer service. However we were running late because Michael Peuse had to primp himself and he drives like an old lady. Matthew and my cars were with our wife’s at their respective work places. So, we arrived at 2:05 p.m.
There were about 50 Middle Eastern looking men visiting with each other outside the building. President Bayunus hurriedly came off the porch, of what looked like an old church, to greet us. Keep in mind I have never met him before but I guess he picked three white guys out of the crowd of Middle Eastern looking folks as the Luther seminarians. After our introductions and my apologies to him for our tardiness he quickly ushered us inside the building to an entry way. Here he instructed us to remove our shoes and place them under a bench which was defiantly a refurbished church pew. Like a moron I tried to put my shoes on the bench which was frowned upon by President Bayunus. I quickly figured out my error and corrected it.
The emum had already started his sermon and as we entered the mosque I noticed that there were about 10 little boys sitting on the floor in the Northeast corner of the building in front of a pulpit from which the emum was delivering his teaching. In the rear of the building in the Southwest corner sat all the women. They were not on the floor however they were sitting in church pews against the back walls. There were women of all ages there in long dresses and head coverings. President Bayunus seated us in church pews set against the South wall of the mosque. He then explained to me that the sermon would last about 30 minutes and then promptly at 2:30 p.m. there would be a prayer service which would be comparable to our worship service.
I noticed that whenever we were being addressed I was the one that was being addressed. Even after the service when Michael asked a question the speaker answered his question looking at me. I believe that I remember hearing that in the Middle Eastern culture elders have respect. I’m only 34 but I am a couple of years older than Michael and quite a few years older than Matthew. I think that it was oblivious to them that I was the oldest and this was the reason that I was the one being addressed.
The emum’s sermon was about the requirements of the law concerning accusations of adultery and he was attempting to discredit any teachings about mercy killings. He stated that if there were to be any mercy killings they weren’t carried out in the name of Allah or Islam rather mercy killings were a cultural thing. He claimed that they could be called Egyptian or Pakistani but never Islamic. He went on giving example after example of how people could be falsely accused before a judge and that Islam required four witnesses.
There was once a woman, he said, that had left her caravan to go to the bathroom. When she returned to her caravan she realized that her necklace had fallen off so she went back to the spot where she had been to find it. When she returned to her caravan it had moved on without her so she sat down to wait for someone to come along. A man came down the road and honorably sat her on his camel and took her to catch-up with her people. When her people saw her mounted on a man’s camel, that wasn’t her husband, they began to gossip about her and her previous whereabouts. The gossiping was, he explained, human nature but was forbidden by Islamic law.
The emum told another story of three men who heard some noises coming from a closet. When they opened the closet they found two people fornicating. They then proceeded to go out to find a fourth to be a witness against these two people. When the judge asked the fourth what he saw he answered that he saw two people in a closet, a woman trying to cover herself and a man crying. The judge continued to ask the fourth man if he actually saw the sexual act and the fourth man said no so the judge ordered 80 lashes be given to all four men as they did not have four witnesses; kind of harsh if I do say so myself.
As the emum’s sermon progressed the mosque slowly filled up with men who prostrated themselves three times before sitting on the floor to listen to the rest of the teaching. I was somewhat relieved because by their standards we were way early.
There were all kinds of men, older, younger, children and teenagers. They were primarily Middle Eastern or Egyptian but there were some African Americans and one Caucasian man that I guessed to be in his twenties. The women were all Middle Eastern or Egyptian except for one girl who looked Caucasian and didn’t quit fit in with the rest. We later found out that she was a student from Bethel College observing that day like we were. I did observe two young girls about 6 or 7 that went onto the main floor accompanied by their fathers. This I found out of place, Matthew and Michael agreed. Maybe Matthew and I are the orthodox police for the Muslims as well.
The emum repeated at least 15 times that there must be four witnesses before anyone could be convicted before an Islamic judge. He then told the crowd; the three of us included, that there was no such call from the holy Qur’an for the killing of the people convicted rather they received 80 lashes. He had a thick Egyptian accent so I had trouble making out the whole sermon but I wondered how he was applying this passage to life today. Was he saying that people should be beaten for breaking the laws today just like in the times of Muhammad? I never got the answer to that question but I will return to Friday July 24th with Phil Roushey and I will ask him then. Some of the sermon was in Arabic. The Arabic parts were when the emum was quoting the Qur’an. I had never heard Arabic spoken so fluently by anyone; it was almost hypnotic.
The inside of the mosque had Arabic writing all over it. The writing was painted in gold on white walls. There were only two pictures hanging in the building, one of Mecca, the other of an extravagant mosque somewhere in the Middle East. The floor was bare and carpeted. There were church pews lining the inside walls of the building. No one seemed to use the pews except for the women and the visitors. There was a smell of a type of incense that I had never smelled before but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from and I didn’t want to ask about the smell for fear that there wasn’t any incense and I would then have offended our gracious hosts. In the pew on the Eastside of the mosque were all kinds of Islamic literature and Qur’ans which were offered to us after the service.
When the prayer service started the men were all instructed to stand toe to toe shoulder to shoulder no gaps. This was to insure that the devil would not sneak through, we were told later. The emum, as well as all the men and women, faced northeast and began to pray. The emum would chant and the rest would repeat after him. Now some of the women were off the benches and were prostrating themselves toward the northeast. It is significant that the men had their backs to the women as it was explained to us that the reason for the separation of men and women was for the reason of decency. The women were seated behind the men because they were stronger than the men when it came to sexual temptation. A woman prostrating herself in front of a man might lead his mind to wander away from God and render his prayers unheard. I being a man of sane mind can understand their point.
After the service the emum and some of his flock came over to us to visit. They were very adamant to explain that women in Islam were to be considered equal with men. They went into detail to explain that men and women were separated for the reason of decency not because they were unequal. I am suspicious of this idea. This may be the case in their mosque however traditionally Islam women have been considered property and below men. Every piece of literature I picked up referred to the Islamic man and uses gender specific langue. I appreciate the profession of these Islamic people but the evidenced does not add up and there was a lot of emotional voltage behind their explanation. As a matter of fact the hour that we visited with them after the service was spent proving that Jesus was not God and defending preconceived misconceptions that they believed we had about Islam. I noted that they spent very little time telling us what they stood for and a whole lot of time telling what they stood against and what others falsely believed about their religion. Please don’t misunderstand they were cordial and welcoming; I just believe that they have some emotional voltage about the way they have been received, or lack thereof, in America. They were all 1st generation immigrants and I believe that they feel that they have not been treated with the respect and dignity that they deserve. I am in no place and in no way would minimize their feelings. I believe if that is how they feel then that is their reality and therefore valid.
I also noted that they hated Fox News as they pointed out that you wouldn’t hear the good things about Islam on that network. The emum also told us about an Islamic woman who was stabbed to death in a court of law in Germany by a man who wasn’t Islamic. He said that we heard nothing about this in American and that this wasn’t the type of thing that Fox News is interested in reporting. However if the man had been Islamic and the woman a Christian it would be breaking news on Fox News. This may be true but again there is emotional voltage in this communication. I personally am a Fox News fan but I was not insulted because this seemed to be an outlet for their pain. However I find it hard to believe that one news network is responsible for all the misconceptions about Islam.
When I visited this mosque I saw over 100 good God loving people trying their best to live up to God’s law. These people were more pious and upright in their behavior then I have seen in almost any Christian church; however they did not seem to me to be free and happy. I recognized in them that same desire that I had in the past, the desire to live up to the law under my own power. They were on a treadmill; the endless treadmill of religious piety, the endless tread mill of competes and perform. It broke my heart when I heard the emum tell us that there was no original sin only our personal sin and on the Day of Judgment every one of our appendages will testify against us before God. Our tongues will say they made me lie, our hands will say they made me steal, and our feet will say they made me walk in unclean places. I wanted to jump up and say, “Yes, yes, that is true, that is all true but then when my God looks at me He will only see His Son Jesus Christ and I will be righteous in His sight.” I wanted to give them that same freedom.
Don’t misunderstand what I am saying here. I love these Muslim people and I have an appreciation for the beauty that is their prayer service and their devotion to God and the piety that Islam tries to instill in its members. I picked up a brochure that was entitled, “The Man Islam Builds.” This brochure talked about da‘wah, mission, which is the mission of Islam to work its “brainstorming” in its men to make them “supermen.” The da‘wah, “becomes an extensive course of action through which one’s personality develops day by day, until one reaches the highest level of intellectual and spiritual development.” I witnessed and read about the law without the gospel.
I had extreme compassion for them as their burden seemed heavy and almost unbearable. Perhaps I was projecting my personal feelings upon them but this was my observation and my reality. I wanted to deliver the Word of Christ to them and set free from the burden of the law and the treadmill of compete and perform. But this wasn’t the time or the place. I believe that conversations like that come after a relationship has been established. This was their mosque, their holy place of worship. We were invited to it as their guests and a trusting relationship had not yet been established. These was a time for them, for the venting of their pain and as called Disciples of Christ it was our duty to listen and to and hear their confession; although this was not easy at times especially when they quoted the Bible out of context as if we would not know the difference.
Easy isn’t our calling as Disciples of Christ. Easy is saying live and let live or to profess to each their own as communicated in Diana Eck’s book, “Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras.” But live and let live or to each their own is not what we are called as Disciples of Christ to do; we are not called to always be popular. We are to profess Jesus Christ and Him crucified for the sinner even when it is not a popular message. But we must be smart about how we go about this. We must not run into a situation and ram our faith down someone’s throat in hopes of a conversion no matter what the consequences. We must pick our time and first be the gospel to them, showing them how much we love and care for them before we can share the gospel with them. We must be patient and listen to their concerns and identify the source or sources of their pain and then speak healing into their pain once we have established their trust. And we must pray for each and every one of those people that God has called us to be preachers to with the hope that God is at work around them before our preaching arrives; that way their hearts are prepared to hear Christ’s message of salvation. However true this approach may be we are also not called as Disciples of Christ to go along quietly when a spirit is present that is in opposition to God’s law and the gospel and is forcing its self upon us. But no one was forcing anything on us in this situation so it was a time not for preaching rather it was a time for us to listen and build a relationship.
I have now seen what it looks like to have law without gospel. It is not a sight that I admired but was one that I had compassion for. I know that in Galatians 1:8 St. Paul warned of an angel form heaven coming and preaching a gospel contrary to the one in which he preached. He said that this angel was to be accursed. This warning came almost 700 years before Muhammad received his teaching from an angel. Muhammad’s teaching communicated many things; the most blasphemous being that Jesus was not God incarnate. 1 John 2:23 professes, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” Are the Islamic people being deceived by the enemy of God? Are the Islamic people condemned to hell for their unbelief in Jesus? These are questions that I have asked myself over and over for years and years. These are questions that seem obvious however I have a hard time looking at these God fearing pious people as condemned to hell. Luther was and single predestinationist; he believed that some are chosen and that is where he left it. I take Luther’s perspective. Who is condemned or who is saved is God’s prerogative and I trust that whatever He decides is fair. After all He is God all powerful, all knowing, and creator of all. I do know this; no one comes to the Father unless drawn through Jesus Christ. The rest is not my concern. I am to preach to those that I have called to preach to and let God be god in all matters of salvation.
Today I am a thankful and grateful Disciple of Jesus Christ. I am in no way perfect in my faith or in my actions. The reality of the power of God’s forgiveness through the gospel of Jesus Christ has taken upon a new depth for me and for that I give thanks and glory to God.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sermon on Ephesians 1:3-14 delievered to St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church 07/12
John was a man I met while serving as a chaplain at a homeless shelter. It seems like all my sermons start that way but believe me serving there had a profound effect on my life. John was a huge man standing 6 foot six and weighing about 250 lbs. His hands were bigger then my whole head and I have a big head. John was a black man from the streets of Chicago. Now it didn’t matter to me if John was black, white, green, purple, or even poke-a-dotted but to him I was a white man and therefore could not be trusted. He wore a jacket with the words, “Gangster for Life” embroidered on the back. He put up this persona of a very angry man who demanded respect and demanded to be feared.
John came to Des Moines in an unusual and scary way. He was involved in drugs and gang violence in Chicago and a rival gang had committed an act of aggression against his group. The rival members, who had committed this act of aggression, fled to hide in Des Moines and John was set to Des Moines to take them out. John was a hit man. When he shared this with me I wasn’t excited about making him angry.
However John is a child of God and had been redeemed through the blood of Christ as verse 7 in our reading in Ephesians tells us today. The idea of being claimed by Christ for the Kingdom of Heaven came to John as he was traveling to Des Moines and he had a change of heart; he decided to give his intended victims a pass and he was now hiding in the mission from his own people.
John was assigned to my case load and I trusted that God wasn’t looking for me to leave this earth just yet, so I engaged him in a conversation about his faith. He knew a great deal about the Bible and the finished work of Christ on the cross. He knew of the inheritance that he had received in Christ that Ephesians 1:11 speaks of. I couldn’t understand how he had fallen into a life of drugs, crime, and gangsters and I certainly couldn’t see how this gangster could change his devotion from his gang to his God so quickly. But as our Ephesians text for today says in verse 4-5, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” John wasn’t going to stay a “Gangster for Life” as his jacket professed for God and chosen John, in Christ, before the creation of the world to be Holy and blameless in His sight.
In the Old testament God chose Abraham to be the Father of the coming nation of Israel Genesis 12:1-3
1 The LORD had said to Abram,
"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
God also chose Jacob over Esau when they were in the womb, Genesis 25:23
The LORD said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger."
He chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Exodus 3:10
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
God chose King Saul and King David by having Samuel anoint them, 1 Samuel 1:19
When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people."
1 Samuel 16:1
The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
1 Samuel 16:12-13
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
He chose Jeremiah as prophet, Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Jesus, God in the flesh, chose twelve disciples and later St. Paul who was known as Saul at the time.
Our God is a God who chooses His people. Now this can be a scary thought. Martin Luther devoted an entire work to this subject entitled “The Bondage of the Will.” How does one know if they are one of God’s elect or chosen? How does one become elected or chosen? In Romans St. Paul address these questions, Romans 10:14-15
14How, 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!"
Further in Romans 10:17 he says
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
How does God choose? Well, God sends a preacher with the Word of Christ on their lips and in their hearts. A Word meant just for you. How does one know if they are chosen? Why you have heard God’s preacher concerning the Word of Christ and you have received the Holy Spirit through this Word. The Spirit then created faith within you and you believed in Christ the one sent by God. Those who believe are chosen.
John had received his preacher long before I knew him. He was raised in a Christian home and his mother had taken him to church often. The Holy Spirit was at work inside of John almost his whole life. Why then did he turn to drugs, crime, and gang violence? Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, now the rest of the story.
John and I became friends. He reminded me daily that he could not believe that a short, fat, balding, white guy would be one with which he could talk about faith and share his deepest pain. I asked John if he would enter the S.T.E.P. program at the shelter. S.T.E.P. stands for Spiritual Training and Evaluation Program. This is a 30 day program where participants are given Biblical lessons to read and learn. They are breathalyzed every time they enter the building and they stay in a separate 20 bed dorm away from the other 100 beds. After 30 days they are drug tested and transferred to Hope Ministries’ other men’s shelter outside of town, called The Door of Faith where they spend the next 18 -24 months in a recovery program. The night John was to be drug tested he showed up in my office, high, begging me to look the other way while poured clean urine that he had purchased in to the test receptacle. He claimed to have been clean all thirty days and had only fallen into temptation that day. I tried to convince him to talk to the pastor in charge of the S.T.E.P. program and tell him the truth and ask for mercy and grace. But it was to no avail. John then disappeared. Before he left that night I gave him a rock with the inscription of a cross on it and told him to stand firm on his faith. I didn’t see John for almost 6 months.
I had just arrived at the shelter for the evening shift to a ringing phone in my office. The desk man said that John was at the door asking to see me. I told the desk man to send him in. John came into my office closed the door and sat in a chair between me and the door. He stared at the floor in what seemed like an hour of silence but was most likely only a moment. I have to admit I was scared for my life and I had not escape from this monstrous sized man. After a few silent prayers for my life I asked John where he had been. Still staring at the floor he recounted the last 6 months of his life. “Well,” he started, “I went back to Chicago to face the music with my gang and I was jumpted out.” Jumpted out is the term used for getting the crap kicked out of you by the whole gang as a way of getting from your obligation to the gang. He continued, “I then found my old girlfriend and stayed with her. She is a drug user and the temptation was too much so I got back into drugs. I went from pot to crack to heroin.” He confessed. “My girlfriend kicked me out and the rest is a blur. But two days ago I woke up in an alley, beat up, tired, and a needle still stuck in my arm. There was a trail of blood from the needle down to a puddle in my hand and in my hand was this.” He held up the rock that I had given him. “And in my other hand was a bus ticket to Des Moines. I’m here now and I want you to do something for me.” I must admit after his last request of me I feared the worst. But this man was one of God’s chosen and the Holy Spirit had been at work inside him and was now taking over his flesh and its desires. He looked me in the eye for the first time since he had been in my office, “Tell me how to completely surrender to Christ,” he pleaded. Then the water works started. I don’t know who was crying more him or me. I was sure that Christ was now present in that office. I was also now sure that this wasn’t the day I was going to die. John entered the S.T.E.P. program and was moved to the Door of Faith. He didn’t stay at the Door however but went to another treatment facility.
Through the grape vine of the homeless John got word back to me that he was one year clean and sober is now working in a large metropolitan area with homeless teens. Why if John was chosen by God before he was born did he have to go through hell to find his calling? Well, like me, it’s his past that gives him the right, the desire and the ability to reach out to those who are still in hell and be their preacher; to be Christ’s vessel to guide the hurting to their inheritance in Christ.
Now as for you all, you are here, most of you every week, listening to the Word of Christ being preached. You all have pasts and you all have stories. Not to mention that you all are chosen in Christ and have a calling to love God and love and serve your neighbor. If you still are in doubt let me clear it up for you; you are all God’s chosen. Is there a John in your life? For your sakes I hope your John isn’t an hit man for a street gang however you all know of someone in need of a preacher. That person lonely and forgotten in a nursing home, the folks who join us here on Thursday night’s coffee house, that neighbor in the hospital, that couple next door who work long hours and have trouble making ends meet with child care, that son, daughter, niece or nephew that you talked to for a while, that homeless person begging for money on the interstate, You fellow office worker who is overwhelmed with life’s demands, that lawyer who helped you write you will or plan your estate, the check out person in the grocery store of gas station; these people are all in need of a preacher and you are all called to preach to them and pray for them. Oh yeah and don’t forget to pray for that seminarian who preaches from time to time at your parish and proclaims the wildest ideas. Believe me I know him and his family and they need your prayers. You have been given the greatest inheritance ever, the righteousness of Christ. And it is yours to give to those you chose. And it should and out of pure joy and gratitude, not out of a sense of duty that you want to give it freely. Leave here today with joy and peace in your hearts knowing that you are God’s chosen and you have the power to choose others. May the peace of Christ be with you all. Amen
John came to Des Moines in an unusual and scary way. He was involved in drugs and gang violence in Chicago and a rival gang had committed an act of aggression against his group. The rival members, who had committed this act of aggression, fled to hide in Des Moines and John was set to Des Moines to take them out. John was a hit man. When he shared this with me I wasn’t excited about making him angry.
However John is a child of God and had been redeemed through the blood of Christ as verse 7 in our reading in Ephesians tells us today. The idea of being claimed by Christ for the Kingdom of Heaven came to John as he was traveling to Des Moines and he had a change of heart; he decided to give his intended victims a pass and he was now hiding in the mission from his own people.
John was assigned to my case load and I trusted that God wasn’t looking for me to leave this earth just yet, so I engaged him in a conversation about his faith. He knew a great deal about the Bible and the finished work of Christ on the cross. He knew of the inheritance that he had received in Christ that Ephesians 1:11 speaks of. I couldn’t understand how he had fallen into a life of drugs, crime, and gangsters and I certainly couldn’t see how this gangster could change his devotion from his gang to his God so quickly. But as our Ephesians text for today says in verse 4-5, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” John wasn’t going to stay a “Gangster for Life” as his jacket professed for God and chosen John, in Christ, before the creation of the world to be Holy and blameless in His sight.
In the Old testament God chose Abraham to be the Father of the coming nation of Israel Genesis 12:1-3
1 The LORD had said to Abram,
"Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you."
God also chose Jacob over Esau when they were in the womb, Genesis 25:23
The LORD said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger."
He chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Exodus 3:10
“So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
God chose King Saul and King David by having Samuel anoint them, 1 Samuel 1:19
When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the LORD said to him, "This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people."
1 Samuel 16:1
The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
1 Samuel 16:12-13
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power. Samuel then went to Ramah.
He chose Jeremiah as prophet, Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Jesus, God in the flesh, chose twelve disciples and later St. Paul who was known as Saul at the time.
Our God is a God who chooses His people. Now this can be a scary thought. Martin Luther devoted an entire work to this subject entitled “The Bondage of the Will.” How does one know if they are one of God’s elect or chosen? How does one become elected or chosen? In Romans St. Paul address these questions, Romans 10:14-15
14How, 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!"
Further in Romans 10:17 he says
17Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
How does God choose? Well, God sends a preacher with the Word of Christ on their lips and in their hearts. A Word meant just for you. How does one know if they are chosen? Why you have heard God’s preacher concerning the Word of Christ and you have received the Holy Spirit through this Word. The Spirit then created faith within you and you believed in Christ the one sent by God. Those who believe are chosen.
John had received his preacher long before I knew him. He was raised in a Christian home and his mother had taken him to church often. The Holy Spirit was at work inside of John almost his whole life. Why then did he turn to drugs, crime, and gang violence? Well, as Paul Harvey used to say, now the rest of the story.
John and I became friends. He reminded me daily that he could not believe that a short, fat, balding, white guy would be one with which he could talk about faith and share his deepest pain. I asked John if he would enter the S.T.E.P. program at the shelter. S.T.E.P. stands for Spiritual Training and Evaluation Program. This is a 30 day program where participants are given Biblical lessons to read and learn. They are breathalyzed every time they enter the building and they stay in a separate 20 bed dorm away from the other 100 beds. After 30 days they are drug tested and transferred to Hope Ministries’ other men’s shelter outside of town, called The Door of Faith where they spend the next 18 -24 months in a recovery program. The night John was to be drug tested he showed up in my office, high, begging me to look the other way while poured clean urine that he had purchased in to the test receptacle. He claimed to have been clean all thirty days and had only fallen into temptation that day. I tried to convince him to talk to the pastor in charge of the S.T.E.P. program and tell him the truth and ask for mercy and grace. But it was to no avail. John then disappeared. Before he left that night I gave him a rock with the inscription of a cross on it and told him to stand firm on his faith. I didn’t see John for almost 6 months.
I had just arrived at the shelter for the evening shift to a ringing phone in my office. The desk man said that John was at the door asking to see me. I told the desk man to send him in. John came into my office closed the door and sat in a chair between me and the door. He stared at the floor in what seemed like an hour of silence but was most likely only a moment. I have to admit I was scared for my life and I had not escape from this monstrous sized man. After a few silent prayers for my life I asked John where he had been. Still staring at the floor he recounted the last 6 months of his life. “Well,” he started, “I went back to Chicago to face the music with my gang and I was jumpted out.” Jumpted out is the term used for getting the crap kicked out of you by the whole gang as a way of getting from your obligation to the gang. He continued, “I then found my old girlfriend and stayed with her. She is a drug user and the temptation was too much so I got back into drugs. I went from pot to crack to heroin.” He confessed. “My girlfriend kicked me out and the rest is a blur. But two days ago I woke up in an alley, beat up, tired, and a needle still stuck in my arm. There was a trail of blood from the needle down to a puddle in my hand and in my hand was this.” He held up the rock that I had given him. “And in my other hand was a bus ticket to Des Moines. I’m here now and I want you to do something for me.” I must admit after his last request of me I feared the worst. But this man was one of God’s chosen and the Holy Spirit had been at work inside him and was now taking over his flesh and its desires. He looked me in the eye for the first time since he had been in my office, “Tell me how to completely surrender to Christ,” he pleaded. Then the water works started. I don’t know who was crying more him or me. I was sure that Christ was now present in that office. I was also now sure that this wasn’t the day I was going to die. John entered the S.T.E.P. program and was moved to the Door of Faith. He didn’t stay at the Door however but went to another treatment facility.
Through the grape vine of the homeless John got word back to me that he was one year clean and sober is now working in a large metropolitan area with homeless teens. Why if John was chosen by God before he was born did he have to go through hell to find his calling? Well, like me, it’s his past that gives him the right, the desire and the ability to reach out to those who are still in hell and be their preacher; to be Christ’s vessel to guide the hurting to their inheritance in Christ.
Now as for you all, you are here, most of you every week, listening to the Word of Christ being preached. You all have pasts and you all have stories. Not to mention that you all are chosen in Christ and have a calling to love God and love and serve your neighbor. If you still are in doubt let me clear it up for you; you are all God’s chosen. Is there a John in your life? For your sakes I hope your John isn’t an hit man for a street gang however you all know of someone in need of a preacher. That person lonely and forgotten in a nursing home, the folks who join us here on Thursday night’s coffee house, that neighbor in the hospital, that couple next door who work long hours and have trouble making ends meet with child care, that son, daughter, niece or nephew that you talked to for a while, that homeless person begging for money on the interstate, You fellow office worker who is overwhelmed with life’s demands, that lawyer who helped you write you will or plan your estate, the check out person in the grocery store of gas station; these people are all in need of a preacher and you are all called to preach to them and pray for them. Oh yeah and don’t forget to pray for that seminarian who preaches from time to time at your parish and proclaims the wildest ideas. Believe me I know him and his family and they need your prayers. You have been given the greatest inheritance ever, the righteousness of Christ. And it is yours to give to those you chose. And it should and out of pure joy and gratitude, not out of a sense of duty that you want to give it freely. Leave here today with joy and peace in your hearts knowing that you are God’s chosen and you have the power to choose others. May the peace of Christ be with you all. Amen
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Romans 6:1-11 Exegeticial Paper
Introduction:
Of all the books of the Christian New Testament, St. Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome is one of the most inspirational and life giving texts that exists. Romans is Paul’s letter seeking the support of the Church of Rome for his future missions therefore he uses this letter to explain his theology and mission to its congregants so that when he arrives they are already informed of his theological stance and his intentions. This God inspired work of scripture is packed full of passages that set the bound conscience free from the demands of the law while still maintaining that Christians are not given a license to sin so that grace may abound. Romans 6:1-11 is one of these passages. It not only explains the death of the sinner’s flesh but also the freedom and the mission of the new creation. This death of the flesh and resurrection of the new life of a Christian is the chief thought behind the sacrament of baptism. While exegeting any New Testament text one must first translate the Greek to English and consider any textual variants contained in this translation.
Translation & Explanation of Textual Variants Romans 6:1-11:
What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it not be! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the power of the Father, so we too may walk in the newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also of his resection. 6 Knowing this that our old self has been crucified with him in order that the body of sin would be done away with, with the purpose that we would no longer be serve sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been made free from sin.) 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 Knowing that since Christ, having been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So also you consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:1-11 is a straight forward passage. There are no major controversies in translation between the NRSV, NET, NASB, etc…. The differences are all minor.
The only major textual variance comes in verse 11 when the term “to kurio amon” (our Lord) was left out of some of the manuscripts. In his textual commentary of the New Testament Bruce Mertzger is quoted as saying, “The words appear to be a liturgical expansion, derived perhaps from v. 23. If they were original, no good reason can be found why they should have been deleted from such weighty witnesses as p46, A B D G etc…” While interesting this variance isn’t enough to change any meaning in this passage.
Purpose for Romans 6:1-11:
Chapter 5 of Paul’s Letter to the Church in Roman concludes the apostle’s discussion of sin, the law, faith, righteousness, and reconciliation in answer to his critics. Stuhlmacher states, “ Paul’s remarks concerning justification and reconciliation in chapter 5 again immediately engaged those critics in battle who are attacking his proclamation of Christian freedom (Gal. 5:1) by accusing the apostle, all the way to Rome, of preaching cheap grace to the Gentiles (Gal. 3:8). These objections are of such significance to the apostle that he now takes them up directly in 6:1 and 15 and refutes them in detail.” Chapter 6 then expresses his views concerning the fundamental questions of the new life which the Christians are to lead under the reign of righteousness. Verses 6:1-23 is the discussion of the freedom from the power of sin and service to righteousness; the area of concentration thus far has been Romans 6:1-11 which addresses the change of Lordship in baptism. I will continue with this section.
Stuhlmacher states, “With 6:1 Paul begins a new discourse. The catchwords “sin,” “Christ,” “Jesus,” “righteousness,” “rule,” and so on show, of course, that the apostle is arguing on the foundation of his statements in 5:12-21.” Paul is stating the position of his critics that we heard in 3:8. Verse 2 is his answer to this accusation and then he goes on to explain his position in verses 3-10 and then sums up his position in verse11.
The remembrance of their baptism becomes Paul’s reminder to them of their confession in Christ. His assertions of Christ’s death on the cross was a once and for all death to sin and that they have been buried with Christ in this death and are now raised with him in his resurrection to new life through their belief in Jesus’ finished work on the cross servers to invoke the law within them putting to death their old self and yet giving them the gospel promise of resurrection to raise them up to new life.
The controversy between adult, “believer’s baptism,” and infant baptism was not yet an issue. Both adults and infants were baptized when the head of the household became a believer. The person being baptized was immersed entirely in flowing or still water. Baptism was viewed as a complete transformation of the self and was viewed as washing away sins. This bestowed to the person being baptized both sanctification and justification through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God. Instead of being slaves to and lorded over by sin they are now servants to and Lorded over by Christ.
The purpose for Romans 6:1-11 is to reiterate the false claim of Paul’s critics as a discussion ender form chapter 5, to answer to this claim, and to state the proof for and explain his answer.
Application of this passage to life today:
Doug was a man I met while serving as a chaplain at Hope ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission. He was a kind and loving man who cared very deeply for his wife and daughter whom recently had asked him to leave home. He wasn’t a scholarly man nor was he completely uneducated rather he was an average American trying to make his way in the world. He knew about God and worshiped Jesus in a rather surface kind of relationship at a Pentecostal church on the south side of Des Moines. He knew of Jesus but I would suspect that when I met him he didn’t really know Jesus or the implications that Christ’s death on the cross meant for his life.
For years Doug worked the night shift, enriching Sam Walton’s pockets, at a Wal-mart in Des Moines. This night shift was responsible for stocking the shelves with the affordable and practical merchandise that Wal-Mart sells to those who are lured in by the store’s slogan promise of “Save money, Feel Better.”
Doug was in his mid forties when I met him but he looked like man well beyond that age. You see while lifting boxes of bicycles onto a shelf Doug strained his back terribly. So bad in fact that it would take surgery to fix it; however Wal-mart’s health insurance refused to cover this surgery so Doug was given a variety of pain pills to keep him comfortable until he could either come up with the money for the surgery or litigate the insurance company into covering the procedure. Doug started on Vicodin covered by insurance but when he was unable to return to work he was relieved of his job and insurance and had to go to Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines who deals with those who do not have insurance. He was switched to the generic form of Vicodin called Hydrocodone. Both pills sell for about $25 a pill on the street behind the mission. But Doug wasn’t selling his medication; he had become addicted to it.
He spent most of his days asleep or in a daze. When he was awake he would talk to you but wouldn’t be looking at you but it seemed like he was looking through you. Looking into his eyes it was obvious that nobody was home. Fearing for the well being of their teenage daughter his wife asked him to leave. With no money and no prospect of being physically able to work he came to the mission.
When I met Doug he still had moments of clarity in which he would come into my office and cry uncontrollably about the state of affairs that his life had fallen into. We would devise a plan to wean him off the pain pills but he would inevitable stop cold turkey and his pain would become unbearable and he would then take way too many pills and return to his daze. Several times when he passed out at or near the mission he would have his medication stolen from him however when he entrusted his pills to the secure area behind the desk he couldn’t take them as he desired so that plan ended quickly. To have a pharmacy refill a narcotic due to theft there must be a police report filled out. After the third report the police told him they would not fill out a fourth so he better get his life straight.
Doug was baptized in a Lutheran Church as a child, so I knew that inevitably his soul belonged to Jesus. Doug would ask me to assign him parts of the Bible to read and he read them diligently; when he was coherent. I knew what I was witnessing in Doug was the death of his body and the salvation of his soul.
Don’t miss understand me Romans 6:1-2 reads, “What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom 6:1 NET) Doug didn’t have a license to sin so that he could have more grace but as Luther explains it in his “Lectures on Romans,” quoting Augustine, “Beginning with this passage, the apostle describes exclusively a man who has been placed under grace, where in his mind he already serves the law of God even though in the flesh he may still serve the law of sin.” Doug was baptized as a child therefore his mind and soul belonged to Jesus as Christ’s promises had been bestowed upon him. But his body, the body of death as the apostle puts it in Romans 7:24, was a still serving sin. Luther goes on to say in his “Lectures on Romans,” “But we should note that it is not necessary that all be found in this stage of perfection as soon as they are baptized into this kind of death. For they are baptized “into death,”..ie, toward death; in other words: they have taken only the first steps toward the attainment of this death as their goal. In fact though they are baptized to eternal life and the Kingdom of God, they do not right away possess its fullness, but they have taken only the first steps toward it---for baptism was ordained that it prepare us for this death and through it give us life –therefore it is necessary that we comply with what has been ordained for us.” Doug, like most of you, desired to follow the law in his heart but he did what he desired not to do in his body. Baptism doesn’t immediately transform behavior however it does transform the eternal resting place of your soul. Again this doesn’t give you the right to keep sinning, quite the contrary; you should make a conscious effort to follow the law of God; not to gain your salvation but because of it.
Doug was baptized therefore he was buried with Christ in his death so that he could be raised with him into new life through the glory of the Father. “Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.” (Rom 6:4 NET) Doug was struggling every day with the dying of his flesh so that he could become a new creation. Luther states, “To destroy the body of sin means, therefore, to break the desires of the flesh and of our old man by exertions of penitence and the cross, and so to decrease them from day to day and out them to death.” Life after baptism is a day to day struggle with sin; to each day die a little more to the old sinful self. This process is not some ladder that you climb and based upon on how high you get determines you worthiness before God. You salvation is secure after baptism based on the promise giver not the promise receiver.
Doug continued to slip further and further into his drug educed state. In the end he was on ten different medications by seven different doctors at Broadlawns. Not only pain pills now he was also on Lithium a lethal combination. He was so drugged out in the end that he had mixed all his pills together in a sack and took handfuls of them at a time. I took him to the hospital one night and explained to them that he was on several medications from several doctors and that I was not a doctor but this guy was going to die. That is exactly what happened one week later. Doug died in the hospital of an overdose. I was furious and felt helpless. All I could say to his wife and daughter, when they came to the mission to collect his car and things, was that Doug was a child of God and even though his body is gone his soul is eternally with Jesus.
When Doug died he completed the process that was started at his baptism. He is now completely a new creation. Romans 6:11 tells us, “So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6:11 NET) I encourage each of you to become what you are, dead to sin and alive to Christ.
Bibliography:
1. Bornkamm, Gunther. “Paul.” Minneapolis, Fortress Press
2. Cousar, Charles B. “The Letters of Paul.” Nashville, Abingdon Press
3. Hultgren, Arland J. “Paul’s Gospel and Mission.” Philadelphia, Fortress Press
4. Metzger, Bruce M. “A Textual Commentary on the New Testament.” London, New York. United Bible Societies
5. Pauck, Wilhelm editor. “Luther Lectures on Romans.” Philadelphia. The Westminster Press.
6. Stuhlmacher, Peter. “Paul’s Letter to the Romans A Commentary.” Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press.
Of all the books of the Christian New Testament, St. Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome is one of the most inspirational and life giving texts that exists. Romans is Paul’s letter seeking the support of the Church of Rome for his future missions therefore he uses this letter to explain his theology and mission to its congregants so that when he arrives they are already informed of his theological stance and his intentions. This God inspired work of scripture is packed full of passages that set the bound conscience free from the demands of the law while still maintaining that Christians are not given a license to sin so that grace may abound. Romans 6:1-11 is one of these passages. It not only explains the death of the sinner’s flesh but also the freedom and the mission of the new creation. This death of the flesh and resurrection of the new life of a Christian is the chief thought behind the sacrament of baptism. While exegeting any New Testament text one must first translate the Greek to English and consider any textual variants contained in this translation.
Translation & Explanation of Textual Variants Romans 6:1-11:
What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it not be! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the power of the Father, so we too may walk in the newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also of his resection. 6 Knowing this that our old self has been crucified with him in order that the body of sin would be done away with, with the purpose that we would no longer be serve sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been made free from sin.) 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 Knowing that since Christ, having been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So also you consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:1-11 is a straight forward passage. There are no major controversies in translation between the NRSV, NET, NASB, etc…. The differences are all minor.
The only major textual variance comes in verse 11 when the term “to kurio amon” (our Lord) was left out of some of the manuscripts. In his textual commentary of the New Testament Bruce Mertzger is quoted as saying, “The words appear to be a liturgical expansion, derived perhaps from v. 23. If they were original, no good reason can be found why they should have been deleted from such weighty witnesses as p46, A B D G etc…” While interesting this variance isn’t enough to change any meaning in this passage.
Purpose for Romans 6:1-11:
Chapter 5 of Paul’s Letter to the Church in Roman concludes the apostle’s discussion of sin, the law, faith, righteousness, and reconciliation in answer to his critics. Stuhlmacher states, “ Paul’s remarks concerning justification and reconciliation in chapter 5 again immediately engaged those critics in battle who are attacking his proclamation of Christian freedom (Gal. 5:1) by accusing the apostle, all the way to Rome, of preaching cheap grace to the Gentiles (Gal. 3:8). These objections are of such significance to the apostle that he now takes them up directly in 6:1 and 15 and refutes them in detail.” Chapter 6 then expresses his views concerning the fundamental questions of the new life which the Christians are to lead under the reign of righteousness. Verses 6:1-23 is the discussion of the freedom from the power of sin and service to righteousness; the area of concentration thus far has been Romans 6:1-11 which addresses the change of Lordship in baptism. I will continue with this section.
Stuhlmacher states, “With 6:1 Paul begins a new discourse. The catchwords “sin,” “Christ,” “Jesus,” “righteousness,” “rule,” and so on show, of course, that the apostle is arguing on the foundation of his statements in 5:12-21.” Paul is stating the position of his critics that we heard in 3:8. Verse 2 is his answer to this accusation and then he goes on to explain his position in verses 3-10 and then sums up his position in verse11.
The remembrance of their baptism becomes Paul’s reminder to them of their confession in Christ. His assertions of Christ’s death on the cross was a once and for all death to sin and that they have been buried with Christ in this death and are now raised with him in his resurrection to new life through their belief in Jesus’ finished work on the cross servers to invoke the law within them putting to death their old self and yet giving them the gospel promise of resurrection to raise them up to new life.
The controversy between adult, “believer’s baptism,” and infant baptism was not yet an issue. Both adults and infants were baptized when the head of the household became a believer. The person being baptized was immersed entirely in flowing or still water. Baptism was viewed as a complete transformation of the self and was viewed as washing away sins. This bestowed to the person being baptized both sanctification and justification through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God. Instead of being slaves to and lorded over by sin they are now servants to and Lorded over by Christ.
The purpose for Romans 6:1-11 is to reiterate the false claim of Paul’s critics as a discussion ender form chapter 5, to answer to this claim, and to state the proof for and explain his answer.
Application of this passage to life today:
Doug was a man I met while serving as a chaplain at Hope ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission. He was a kind and loving man who cared very deeply for his wife and daughter whom recently had asked him to leave home. He wasn’t a scholarly man nor was he completely uneducated rather he was an average American trying to make his way in the world. He knew about God and worshiped Jesus in a rather surface kind of relationship at a Pentecostal church on the south side of Des Moines. He knew of Jesus but I would suspect that when I met him he didn’t really know Jesus or the implications that Christ’s death on the cross meant for his life.
For years Doug worked the night shift, enriching Sam Walton’s pockets, at a Wal-mart in Des Moines. This night shift was responsible for stocking the shelves with the affordable and practical merchandise that Wal-Mart sells to those who are lured in by the store’s slogan promise of “Save money, Feel Better.”
Doug was in his mid forties when I met him but he looked like man well beyond that age. You see while lifting boxes of bicycles onto a shelf Doug strained his back terribly. So bad in fact that it would take surgery to fix it; however Wal-mart’s health insurance refused to cover this surgery so Doug was given a variety of pain pills to keep him comfortable until he could either come up with the money for the surgery or litigate the insurance company into covering the procedure. Doug started on Vicodin covered by insurance but when he was unable to return to work he was relieved of his job and insurance and had to go to Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines who deals with those who do not have insurance. He was switched to the generic form of Vicodin called Hydrocodone. Both pills sell for about $25 a pill on the street behind the mission. But Doug wasn’t selling his medication; he had become addicted to it.
He spent most of his days asleep or in a daze. When he was awake he would talk to you but wouldn’t be looking at you but it seemed like he was looking through you. Looking into his eyes it was obvious that nobody was home. Fearing for the well being of their teenage daughter his wife asked him to leave. With no money and no prospect of being physically able to work he came to the mission.
When I met Doug he still had moments of clarity in which he would come into my office and cry uncontrollably about the state of affairs that his life had fallen into. We would devise a plan to wean him off the pain pills but he would inevitable stop cold turkey and his pain would become unbearable and he would then take way too many pills and return to his daze. Several times when he passed out at or near the mission he would have his medication stolen from him however when he entrusted his pills to the secure area behind the desk he couldn’t take them as he desired so that plan ended quickly. To have a pharmacy refill a narcotic due to theft there must be a police report filled out. After the third report the police told him they would not fill out a fourth so he better get his life straight.
Doug was baptized in a Lutheran Church as a child, so I knew that inevitably his soul belonged to Jesus. Doug would ask me to assign him parts of the Bible to read and he read them diligently; when he was coherent. I knew what I was witnessing in Doug was the death of his body and the salvation of his soul.
Don’t miss understand me Romans 6:1-2 reads, “What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom 6:1 NET) Doug didn’t have a license to sin so that he could have more grace but as Luther explains it in his “Lectures on Romans,” quoting Augustine, “Beginning with this passage, the apostle describes exclusively a man who has been placed under grace, where in his mind he already serves the law of God even though in the flesh he may still serve the law of sin.” Doug was baptized as a child therefore his mind and soul belonged to Jesus as Christ’s promises had been bestowed upon him. But his body, the body of death as the apostle puts it in Romans 7:24, was a still serving sin. Luther goes on to say in his “Lectures on Romans,” “But we should note that it is not necessary that all be found in this stage of perfection as soon as they are baptized into this kind of death. For they are baptized “into death,”..ie, toward death; in other words: they have taken only the first steps toward the attainment of this death as their goal. In fact though they are baptized to eternal life and the Kingdom of God, they do not right away possess its fullness, but they have taken only the first steps toward it---for baptism was ordained that it prepare us for this death and through it give us life –therefore it is necessary that we comply with what has been ordained for us.” Doug, like most of you, desired to follow the law in his heart but he did what he desired not to do in his body. Baptism doesn’t immediately transform behavior however it does transform the eternal resting place of your soul. Again this doesn’t give you the right to keep sinning, quite the contrary; you should make a conscious effort to follow the law of God; not to gain your salvation but because of it.
Doug was baptized therefore he was buried with Christ in his death so that he could be raised with him into new life through the glory of the Father. “Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.” (Rom 6:4 NET) Doug was struggling every day with the dying of his flesh so that he could become a new creation. Luther states, “To destroy the body of sin means, therefore, to break the desires of the flesh and of our old man by exertions of penitence and the cross, and so to decrease them from day to day and out them to death.” Life after baptism is a day to day struggle with sin; to each day die a little more to the old sinful self. This process is not some ladder that you climb and based upon on how high you get determines you worthiness before God. You salvation is secure after baptism based on the promise giver not the promise receiver.
Doug continued to slip further and further into his drug educed state. In the end he was on ten different medications by seven different doctors at Broadlawns. Not only pain pills now he was also on Lithium a lethal combination. He was so drugged out in the end that he had mixed all his pills together in a sack and took handfuls of them at a time. I took him to the hospital one night and explained to them that he was on several medications from several doctors and that I was not a doctor but this guy was going to die. That is exactly what happened one week later. Doug died in the hospital of an overdose. I was furious and felt helpless. All I could say to his wife and daughter, when they came to the mission to collect his car and things, was that Doug was a child of God and even though his body is gone his soul is eternally with Jesus.
When Doug died he completed the process that was started at his baptism. He is now completely a new creation. Romans 6:11 tells us, “So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6:11 NET) I encourage each of you to become what you are, dead to sin and alive to Christ.
Bibliography:
1. Bornkamm, Gunther. “Paul.” Minneapolis, Fortress Press
2. Cousar, Charles B. “The Letters of Paul.” Nashville, Abingdon Press
3. Hultgren, Arland J. “Paul’s Gospel and Mission.” Philadelphia, Fortress Press
4. Metzger, Bruce M. “A Textual Commentary on the New Testament.” London, New York. United Bible Societies
5. Pauck, Wilhelm editor. “Luther Lectures on Romans.” Philadelphia. The Westminster Press.
6. Stuhlmacher, Peter. “Paul’s Letter to the Romans A Commentary.” Louisville, Kentucky. Westminster/John Knox Press.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Sermon on 2 Kings 5:1-15
In today’s reading we hear the story of Naaman, a great man in high favor with his master, a mighty man of valor. But that isn’t Naaman’s whole story is it? Naaman was also a leaper.
The term Leaper takes on all kinds of meanings in the OT. We would imagine that this meant that Naaman had some type of skin condition, most likely brought about by his sin or so the people of the time would have thought. But if Naaman was such a great man how could he be a sinner cursed with this kind of obvious imperfection? Was leprosy really Naaman’s problem?
The Bible never discusses how or why Naaman was or had become leprous so any discussion of this matter would be pure speculation and irrelevant to what the story of Naaman is communicating to us.
When I was serving as a chaplain at Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission I encountered a man that we will call Ricky. Ricky came to the mission directly from living under a bridge in downtown Des Moines. He was a hopeless alcoholic and at 50 years of age had abandoned his wife and two sons. Ricky was tired of living this way and wanted to change but didn’t know how.
Upon further conversation with Ricky I found out that his father had sexually abused him from the age or 5 years old until the age of 12 at which time he had ran away from home. Ricky’s father was a wretched man, an alcoholic who had convinced Ricky that the reason that God had put Ricky on this earth was to sexually gratify his father. Not knowing the difference this was the only idea of God that Ricky had.
I mention Ricky not because he was a great man like Naaman rather because they seem to have the same problem, leprosy. Naaman’s leprosy was external while Ricky’s was internal. I asked myself these questions, “If Naaman’s leprosy had been removed from him by any means other than visiting Elisha, would he have been changed to the degree that we see in the story; if Ricky simply had not been abused, although that is a horrific thing that no one should be subject to, would he truly be free from the alcohol and his anger and hatred for his dad?” My guess is that if Naaman had been healed by some other means then he would still consider himself a slave to his master and if Ricky hadn’t been abused he would still have followed his father’s example of self destructive behaviors. Leprosy was not the problem for these men it was a symptom of a deeper problem that these men shared and that problem was unbelief. Both of these men were sinners condemned to hell because neither had a “true preacher.”
In the Book of Romans St. Paul asks the questions, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14) Both these men were elected by God for salvation but their preacher had not arrived yet. Enter Elisha and well, me. When God is ready to elect a sinner for salvation he sends a preacher with a word for that sinner; a word so powerful that when preached the word itself delivers Jesus himself to the hearer and creates within that sinner a faith that saves. Naaman and Ricky’s problem wasn’t leprosy rather it was sin itself, the sin of not having a preacher.
Elisha’s sermon to Naaman was simple, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” (2 Kings 5:10) It wasn’t the washing that made Naaman clean but the faith in the promise made to him by Elisha that caused him to be clean. How can we tell if this was a successful conversion? By Naaman’s confession of faith after his healing, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” (2 Kings 5:15) A confession of faith is a sure sign that a conversion has taken place. Naaman was now free from the burden of his leprosy and his deepest problem of unbelief was now healed thanks to the arrival of a preacher.
What about Ricky? I spent the next two months explaining to Ricky that he had not chosen to come to the mission instead he had been drawn there by God himself because God had a message for him and that message was, “On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins both past and present, both conscious and unconscious.” This message of forgiveness, this promise from God himself, set Ricky free. He began to forgive himself and see that God had bigger plans for his life than what his father had told him. Ricky became a model student in the recovery class and was filled with a joy that can only come from the freedom that Christ gives to his chosen. Ricky let go of the hatred for his father and was able to forgive him for his sickening actions. When he had forgiven himself and his father, through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he then found his wife and reconciled with her and his sons. Ricky lives with his wife and his teenage sons somewhere in Missouri to this day. His purpose in life is no longer to drink away the problems of the past rather he spends his time loving and serving his wife, his sons, and any other alcoholic that will listen to his story. He truly exists to love and serve God and neighbor.
Both Naaman and Ricky had a true transformation through the hearing of the preached word of God. And now I stand before you today with the same word for you, “On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins both past and present, both conscious and unconscious; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Go in peace now to love and serve God and neighbor not to gain God’s favor but because you already have his favor.
The term Leaper takes on all kinds of meanings in the OT. We would imagine that this meant that Naaman had some type of skin condition, most likely brought about by his sin or so the people of the time would have thought. But if Naaman was such a great man how could he be a sinner cursed with this kind of obvious imperfection? Was leprosy really Naaman’s problem?
The Bible never discusses how or why Naaman was or had become leprous so any discussion of this matter would be pure speculation and irrelevant to what the story of Naaman is communicating to us.
When I was serving as a chaplain at Hope Ministries’ Bethel Rescue Mission I encountered a man that we will call Ricky. Ricky came to the mission directly from living under a bridge in downtown Des Moines. He was a hopeless alcoholic and at 50 years of age had abandoned his wife and two sons. Ricky was tired of living this way and wanted to change but didn’t know how.
Upon further conversation with Ricky I found out that his father had sexually abused him from the age or 5 years old until the age of 12 at which time he had ran away from home. Ricky’s father was a wretched man, an alcoholic who had convinced Ricky that the reason that God had put Ricky on this earth was to sexually gratify his father. Not knowing the difference this was the only idea of God that Ricky had.
I mention Ricky not because he was a great man like Naaman rather because they seem to have the same problem, leprosy. Naaman’s leprosy was external while Ricky’s was internal. I asked myself these questions, “If Naaman’s leprosy had been removed from him by any means other than visiting Elisha, would he have been changed to the degree that we see in the story; if Ricky simply had not been abused, although that is a horrific thing that no one should be subject to, would he truly be free from the alcohol and his anger and hatred for his dad?” My guess is that if Naaman had been healed by some other means then he would still consider himself a slave to his master and if Ricky hadn’t been abused he would still have followed his father’s example of self destructive behaviors. Leprosy was not the problem for these men it was a symptom of a deeper problem that these men shared and that problem was unbelief. Both of these men were sinners condemned to hell because neither had a “true preacher.”
In the Book of Romans St. Paul asks the questions, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14) Both these men were elected by God for salvation but their preacher had not arrived yet. Enter Elisha and well, me. When God is ready to elect a sinner for salvation he sends a preacher with a word for that sinner; a word so powerful that when preached the word itself delivers Jesus himself to the hearer and creates within that sinner a faith that saves. Naaman and Ricky’s problem wasn’t leprosy rather it was sin itself, the sin of not having a preacher.
Elisha’s sermon to Naaman was simple, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” (2 Kings 5:10) It wasn’t the washing that made Naaman clean but the faith in the promise made to him by Elisha that caused him to be clean. How can we tell if this was a successful conversion? By Naaman’s confession of faith after his healing, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel.” (2 Kings 5:15) A confession of faith is a sure sign that a conversion has taken place. Naaman was now free from the burden of his leprosy and his deepest problem of unbelief was now healed thanks to the arrival of a preacher.
What about Ricky? I spent the next two months explaining to Ricky that he had not chosen to come to the mission instead he had been drawn there by God himself because God had a message for him and that message was, “On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins both past and present, both conscious and unconscious.” This message of forgiveness, this promise from God himself, set Ricky free. He began to forgive himself and see that God had bigger plans for his life than what his father had told him. Ricky became a model student in the recovery class and was filled with a joy that can only come from the freedom that Christ gives to his chosen. Ricky let go of the hatred for his father and was able to forgive him for his sickening actions. When he had forgiven himself and his father, through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, he then found his wife and reconciled with her and his sons. Ricky lives with his wife and his teenage sons somewhere in Missouri to this day. His purpose in life is no longer to drink away the problems of the past rather he spends his time loving and serving his wife, his sons, and any other alcoholic that will listen to his story. He truly exists to love and serve God and neighbor.
Both Naaman and Ricky had a true transformation through the hearing of the preached word of God. And now I stand before you today with the same word for you, “On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins both past and present, both conscious and unconscious; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Go in peace now to love and serve God and neighbor not to gain God’s favor but because you already have his favor.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Wednesday March 25th Lenten Service Sermon to St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Acts 2:14-21
May 14-21, 2008
Lutheran church plans a “mass-baptism”
Eisleben, Germany -- On November 11th, 1483, the great reformer, Martin Luther, was carried up the street from the house where he was born to the church of Saints Peter and Paul. With Martin’s father and godparents standing by, the local priest held the day-old little Luther naked over the baptismal font and dunked him three times into the cold November waters of God’s certain grace. “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” He was named Martin because November 11th is the feast day for Saint Martin of Tours. Certain that Martin was now saved for all eternity, his father brought him home to begin his life as the son of a copper mining prospector.
It is 525 years later in the same city now called Lutherstadt Eisleben. The pastors of that same church where Martin Luther was baptized, along with a couple of neighboring pastors from Eisleben, are planning something big in honor of the 525th anniversary of Martin Luther’s baptismal birthday. Their goal: baptize 525 people in Saints Peter and Paul church on November 11th, 2008. It is a lofty goal to be sure. But will they be able to make it happen? Claudia Bergmann, one of the pastors of the historic church says, “Will we reach 525? I don’t know. But what better way is there to find out then to try?”
There is a lot of excitement surrounding this event. There are already people registered to be baptized or to have their children baptized. Lot’s of people are talking about what baptism means in a town where only 13% of the population is Christian. Some are traveling from all over Germany in order to receive the sacrament of Baptism in this historic place at the remains of the very font in which Martin Luther was baptized.
Hundreds of newspapers throughout Europe picked up the story and have been writing about the “mass-baptism”. The pastors in Eisleben are thrilled about the press, but not about the choice of words. “We aren’t going to baptize 100, 200, or 525 people all at once,” says Pastor Claudia Bergmann. “It won’t be a mass-baptism. No fire hoses or anything unworthy of the sacrament of Baptism. One at a time. If we reach our goal of 525, we will still only be around 18% of the number that were baptized on Pentecost. I think that’s a pretty humble start, don’t you?”
So what does 525 people being baptized on the 525th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Baptism have to do with today’s reading? Other than the fact that the article refers to the reading. Baptism. Yes, both stories contain mass Baptisms and conversion.
Our theme for today is, “The Evangelization of Every People.” Today’s reading from Acts is part of the sequence of events following the Pentecost account of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples, causing them to speak in tongues. Following this event Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, goes out into the crowd and preaches a sermon so profound so convincing that 3000 people were baptized and became believers that very day. Some in the crowed thought that the apostles were drunk. I would say that these people were like the liberal theologians of today who cannot conceive of anything supernatural happening, even if God is involved.
What was it about Peter’s sermon that was so compelling? What purpose does a preacher serve? It’s because Peter preached with authority, filled with the Holy Spirit that the people were “cut to the heart” as verse 37 states. This is how God evangelizes all people he sends a true preacher who preaches the gospel message with the authority and the power that comes from the Holy Spirit. A true preacher delivers the gospel message in a way that causes faith to happen in the hearers of this message. This faith brings forth repentance and baptism is the seal put upon this conversion.
Romans 10:14-17 (ESV)
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Article 5 of the Augsburg Confessions states:
That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel (the office of preaching) and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ's sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ's sake.
They condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Ghost comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works.
Article 5 follows article four, I’m from southern Iowa and even I can do that math, Article 4 states that we are saved by faith alone. And how does this saving faith happen? Article 5 explains through hearing the gospel proclaimed by a true preacher and receiving the sacraments.
The sacrament that today’s message concentrates on is baptism. Baptism is the first time in your lives that you heard a true preacher bestow the promises of Christ upon you and elect you for the kingdom of heaven, even if you do not remember it or did not choose it, God’s work was done within you. Baptism is a once and for all thing. I am often asked, “ but can’t we deny our baptism or reject God?” To which I simply answer, with the Dr. Phil response “ how is that working for you?” I believe that the good Lord would get a fine laugh out of one of us mere humans trying to break his all powerful grip upon us. You see we as humans , by nature are forgetful of God’s promises and therefore God doesn’t just send a preacher one time but over and over to remind us of His all powerful, fatherly , divine love, mercy, and grace. This repetition is not for the sake of salvation, as I said Baptism is a once and for all thing, but for the sake of your consciences and the work for your neighbors that comes from you after hearing a true preacher.
The Baptism promise can be found in
Romans 6:4:
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
In your baptism your flesh was put to death and God raised up a new creation. So why, if your flesh is dead, is it still functioning here on earth? Luther believed that you are not called to one time repentance but a life of repentance. Baptism’s claim is a onetime thing but the death that it bestows is a daily dying to self and flesh. The repentance that comes out of this death to self is the result of the new creation’s existence within you. Today’s reading says in verse 21 quoting from the book of Joel 2:32 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ This calling upon the name of the Lord isn’t gaining you New life, and it isn’t you asking to be created a new rather it is the proof or the fruit of the repentance that is being worked within you by the power of the Holy Spirit. You do not call upon the name of the Lord in order to be saved but because he has saved you. In answer to my previous question, “Why is our flesh still here when you are a new creation?” Because God chooses to use you in this world to witness to and serve your neighbors who have not yet been saved or chosen. You are to do God’s electing. You are to live a life of repentance as witness to your neighbors, not to gain your salvation but because of it.
In the newspaper article I read earlier we see that God is still calling people to himself. He is still calling people to be baptized and saved. He is still creating the body of believers just as he was at Pentecost. How magnificent would it be to see 3000 people come forward to be baptized, compelled by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the evangelization of all people. This is your call as the priesthood of all believers.
If you came here tonight wondering if you were one of the elected and are still not for sure, then I am now telling you you are! If you didn’t think that you had yet been elected then I am electing you. I’m sure that all of you have been baptized and if not then call Pastor Wells and be baptized. As for the rest of you go in the peace that salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord brings loving and serving your neighbor. Go live a life worthy of your calling, not to gain salvation or the favor of the Lord but because you have already obtained favor and salvation. Go and give it away.
May 14-21, 2008
Lutheran church plans a “mass-baptism”
Eisleben, Germany -- On November 11th, 1483, the great reformer, Martin Luther, was carried up the street from the house where he was born to the church of Saints Peter and Paul. With Martin’s father and godparents standing by, the local priest held the day-old little Luther naked over the baptismal font and dunked him three times into the cold November waters of God’s certain grace. “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” He was named Martin because November 11th is the feast day for Saint Martin of Tours. Certain that Martin was now saved for all eternity, his father brought him home to begin his life as the son of a copper mining prospector.
It is 525 years later in the same city now called Lutherstadt Eisleben. The pastors of that same church where Martin Luther was baptized, along with a couple of neighboring pastors from Eisleben, are planning something big in honor of the 525th anniversary of Martin Luther’s baptismal birthday. Their goal: baptize 525 people in Saints Peter and Paul church on November 11th, 2008. It is a lofty goal to be sure. But will they be able to make it happen? Claudia Bergmann, one of the pastors of the historic church says, “Will we reach 525? I don’t know. But what better way is there to find out then to try?”
There is a lot of excitement surrounding this event. There are already people registered to be baptized or to have their children baptized. Lot’s of people are talking about what baptism means in a town where only 13% of the population is Christian. Some are traveling from all over Germany in order to receive the sacrament of Baptism in this historic place at the remains of the very font in which Martin Luther was baptized.
Hundreds of newspapers throughout Europe picked up the story and have been writing about the “mass-baptism”. The pastors in Eisleben are thrilled about the press, but not about the choice of words. “We aren’t going to baptize 100, 200, or 525 people all at once,” says Pastor Claudia Bergmann. “It won’t be a mass-baptism. No fire hoses or anything unworthy of the sacrament of Baptism. One at a time. If we reach our goal of 525, we will still only be around 18% of the number that were baptized on Pentecost. I think that’s a pretty humble start, don’t you?”
So what does 525 people being baptized on the 525th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Baptism have to do with today’s reading? Other than the fact that the article refers to the reading. Baptism. Yes, both stories contain mass Baptisms and conversion.
Our theme for today is, “The Evangelization of Every People.” Today’s reading from Acts is part of the sequence of events following the Pentecost account of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples, causing them to speak in tongues. Following this event Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, goes out into the crowd and preaches a sermon so profound so convincing that 3000 people were baptized and became believers that very day. Some in the crowed thought that the apostles were drunk. I would say that these people were like the liberal theologians of today who cannot conceive of anything supernatural happening, even if God is involved.
What was it about Peter’s sermon that was so compelling? What purpose does a preacher serve? It’s because Peter preached with authority, filled with the Holy Spirit that the people were “cut to the heart” as verse 37 states. This is how God evangelizes all people he sends a true preacher who preaches the gospel message with the authority and the power that comes from the Holy Spirit. A true preacher delivers the gospel message in a way that causes faith to happen in the hearers of this message. This faith brings forth repentance and baptism is the seal put upon this conversion.
Romans 10:14-17 (ESV)
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Article 5 of the Augsburg Confessions states:
That we may obtain this faith, the Ministry of Teaching the Gospel (the office of preaching) and administering the Sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who works faith; where and when it pleases God, in them that hear the Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits, but for Christ's sake, justifies those who believe that they are received into grace for Christ's sake.
They condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Ghost comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works.
Article 5 follows article four, I’m from southern Iowa and even I can do that math, Article 4 states that we are saved by faith alone. And how does this saving faith happen? Article 5 explains through hearing the gospel proclaimed by a true preacher and receiving the sacraments.
The sacrament that today’s message concentrates on is baptism. Baptism is the first time in your lives that you heard a true preacher bestow the promises of Christ upon you and elect you for the kingdom of heaven, even if you do not remember it or did not choose it, God’s work was done within you. Baptism is a once and for all thing. I am often asked, “ but can’t we deny our baptism or reject God?” To which I simply answer, with the Dr. Phil response “ how is that working for you?” I believe that the good Lord would get a fine laugh out of one of us mere humans trying to break his all powerful grip upon us. You see we as humans , by nature are forgetful of God’s promises and therefore God doesn’t just send a preacher one time but over and over to remind us of His all powerful, fatherly , divine love, mercy, and grace. This repetition is not for the sake of salvation, as I said Baptism is a once and for all thing, but for the sake of your consciences and the work for your neighbors that comes from you after hearing a true preacher.
The Baptism promise can be found in
Romans 6:4:
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
In your baptism your flesh was put to death and God raised up a new creation. So why, if your flesh is dead, is it still functioning here on earth? Luther believed that you are not called to one time repentance but a life of repentance. Baptism’s claim is a onetime thing but the death that it bestows is a daily dying to self and flesh. The repentance that comes out of this death to self is the result of the new creation’s existence within you. Today’s reading says in verse 21 quoting from the book of Joel 2:32 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ This calling upon the name of the Lord isn’t gaining you New life, and it isn’t you asking to be created a new rather it is the proof or the fruit of the repentance that is being worked within you by the power of the Holy Spirit. You do not call upon the name of the Lord in order to be saved but because he has saved you. In answer to my previous question, “Why is our flesh still here when you are a new creation?” Because God chooses to use you in this world to witness to and serve your neighbors who have not yet been saved or chosen. You are to do God’s electing. You are to live a life of repentance as witness to your neighbors, not to gain your salvation but because of it.
In the newspaper article I read earlier we see that God is still calling people to himself. He is still calling people to be baptized and saved. He is still creating the body of believers just as he was at Pentecost. How magnificent would it be to see 3000 people come forward to be baptized, compelled by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the evangelization of all people. This is your call as the priesthood of all believers.
If you came here tonight wondering if you were one of the elected and are still not for sure, then I am now telling you you are! If you didn’t think that you had yet been elected then I am electing you. I’m sure that all of you have been baptized and if not then call Pastor Wells and be baptized. As for the rest of you go in the peace that salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord brings loving and serving your neighbor. Go live a life worthy of your calling, not to gain salvation or the favor of the Lord but because you have already obtained favor and salvation. Go and give it away.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Ethics final paper
Currently in the ELCA one question threatens to split the church; that question is, “Should the ELCA ordain openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship?” This is an interesting debate; one side believes that the Bible is the final authority for the church, with tradition and the Book of Concorde as a second. Both scripture and tradition condemn homosexuality as sin therefore the ordination of homosexuals is threatening Luther’s stance of (sola scriptura) scripture alone as authority. The other side claims that the Bible is outdated in this circumstance as it could not comprehend a committed homosexual relationship therefore the verses that condemn homosexuality as sexual immorality should be ignored.
To consider this question from an ethical stand point is to consider it through the lens of the ethical theory “Divine Command.” In this paper I will: explore Biblical text that proves that it is unethical, from a Divine Command Theory perspective, to ordain openly homosexual persons, explain the Divine Command Theory, present both sides of the current argument, then draw a conclusion based upon the most convincing evidence.
Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV):
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
In the above Genesis passage God is forming creation and then He establishes an order to that creation. He made man and woman in His own image and then gave them domain over the creatures of the earth. So, God established a creation then created man to rule over and care for that creation. It is obvious that God didn’t create the fish in the sea to subdue the earth or the birds in the sky for that matter rather they are to be creatures in creation not rulers of it. The point is that there is a certain order to this creation account.
God created humans male and female; again establishing an order to this creation. Then He blessed them and gave them His first command, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” He commanded man and woman to multiply; this is the first office (or vocation) that God created. Man and woman are to reproduce through sexual intercourse and fill the earth with their offspring. Their second office is to subdue the earth. Webster’s dictionary defines “subdue” as, “to conquer and bring into subjection.” “To bring into subjection” supports the stance that there is an order to God’s plan for creation. He creates offices and set ups the law so that creation will remain in order and will not fall into chaos. Then in verses 29 and 30 God supplies everything that is required for humans to fulfill their calling (vocation). This is creation in the form it was intended and ordered; anything to the contrary would be immoral and contrary God’s command.
The “Divine Command Theory” is the theory that moral values are derived from the commands of God therefore to perform an action contrary to God’s commands would be an immoral action. For instance the seventh commandment states, “You shall not commit adultery;” thus if a person has sexual intercourse with another person other than their spouse they are committing an immoral action.
It is only right and ethical to consider the evidence from both sides of the argument for or against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship before a decision on its morality can be reached. First, I will consider the evidence in favor of the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship.
The argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship is based upon three premises: Jesus’ command to love your neighbor, contextual criticism of particular Biblical passages, and the idea that every person is in a sinful state.
Matthew 22: 34-39 (ESV)
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The lawyer in the above passage was trying to trick Jesus into answering a question in a way in which they could accuse Him of Blasphemy. But Jesus, being the master of debate that He is, didn’t quote any of the commandments instead He went to the book of Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Jesus followed this answer with a summary of all the commandments: 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. It is from this passage that the first argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship comes from. Proponents arguing from this passage are saying that above all the other commandments and laws of the Bible we must first love God and then love our neighbor. Many of these proponents are very devout people as they hold God in the highest regard in their hearts and take their calling to serve their neighbor with the utmost sincerity. By excluding openly homosexual persons from the ordained ministry, in their view, we are not obeying our calling to love and serve our neighbor.
Contextual criticism is defined as: A form of criticism which views the literary text as a self-contained verbal structure. Akin to the New Criticism, contextualism holds that a work of art generates self-referential meanings within its own internal and autonomous context. (Glossary of Literary Theory by Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown) This theory considers Biblical passages in their original context. It asks questions of the text like: What was the author’s original intent? What were the circumstances the author was addressing in this passage? What was the cultural context in which this text was written? These are all valid and helpful questions that help us to form a deeper understanding of the Biblical text. Proponents for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship that are arguing from contextual criticism are saying that Biblical passages like:
1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
And
Romans 1:24-27 (ESV):
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
could not conceive of a committed homosexual relationship therefore the context in which they were written does not apply to today’s understanding of a committed homosexual relationship.
Romans 3:21-24 (ESV):
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
No human on this earth or in the history of this earth has ever transcended their sinful state outside of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Romans 3:21-24 is law and gospel. 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, in this verse we find the result of the law applied to human righteousness; no one lives up, all fall short of the Glory of God, and this is the judgment applied to sinners, Guilty! But then we have the gospel: 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Proponents of the ordination of homosexual persons in a committed relationship view this piece of scripture as saying that we are all sinners, there is no difference, and therefore homosexuality is no greater sin as another.
On the surface these three arguments in favor of the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship seem like pretty compelling evidence but in reality they are twisting scripture to fit a certain world view. These interpretations are made by persons who approach scripture to stand over it and interpret it to fit their position as opposed to one who approaches scripture as the authoritative Word of God, letting scripture interpret them, there by standing under its authority. I cannot, in good conscious, leave these arguments in this paper without pointing out the deceitfulness of their content and make the argument against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship in the process.
Matthew 22: 34-39 (ESV)
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the divine Word of God and it is authoritative! The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and the second is to love your neighbor. But what does loving our neighbor entail? If this were God’s only command then I could see the logic in the idea that by excluding openly homosexual persons from ordained clergy we are not loving our neighbor. However, this is not God’s only Word on this issue and to view it as the only word is to twist scripture. Verses such as:
1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
Or
Romans 1:24-27 (ESV):
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
contradict the idea that we should just accept our neighbor no matter what their sexual orientation. I am the father of three beautiful children. If my son Joey (7) was putting candy from a store in his pocket with the intent to steal it from the store I would not let him do so even if by pointing out his sinful behavior I might offend him. My point is that you would have a hard time finding a neighbor that I loved more than my wife and kids as I am first called to the office of husband and father. However loving Joey does not mean that I should avoid hurting his feelings by not teaching him that stealing is a sin. Loving him means that I should point out when his behavior if sinful and correct his behavior so that he may avoid the sinful behavior in the future.
Galatians 6:1 (ESV):
6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Loving our neighbor means correcting them when they’re behavior is sinful. To allow a neighbor to continue to sin would be contrary to the teaching of scripture even if it brings persecution upon us from “the world,” which leads me to the second false teaching in this argument.
To consider scripture in its original context is a fine way to study the Word. It helps us to understand the author’s original intent which aids us in comprehending what God is requiring of us today. However to say that the teachings of the Bible are not applicable to life today is blasphemy. In the Lutheran church scripture is meant to be the final authority for the church. The Word of God does not have an expired shelf life. The proponents for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship are denying the Word of God by saying that its lessons do not apply to life today in this particular circumstance. The denying of the Word of God as authority leads us into the discussion of the final false argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship.
The desire to hold up the homosexual life style as an example of a proper relationship for a Christian leader is to deny that this lifestyle is sinful as it is considered sexual immorality. As the Bible verses I have pointed out in this paper show, it is clearly sinful and to lift this lifestyle as an example of a proper healthy Christian relationship is to blatantly disobey God’s divine command.
The argument against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship is based upon the belief in sola scriptura, scripture alone as authority. Scripture as authority is a belief that has been held by the Christian church since the first century. Tradition has also been proposed as a source of authority since this time. Neither scripture nor tradition has ever supported the homosexual life style as a God ordained position. To lift up this lifestyle as a proper Christian relationship is to let today’s world view override scripture and tradition as the authority of the church. It scares the life out of me to hand of the authority of Christ’s church to the world view of those who would call our two thousand year belief in scripture and tradition as outdated.
Not only is this lifestyle against the clear commands of God to avoid sexual immorality, it is also contrary to God’s order of creation as stated in Genesis 1:26-31. God created man and woman, not man and man nor woman and woman, for the purpose of multiplying and filling the earth and with the intention of them subduing the earth and ruling over it. There is no physical way that a homosexual relationship could produce offspring because it is not a God ordained office. In fact by partaking in a homosexual relationship a person is denying the very first command of God and is denying the office in which they were called. To deny God’s command and His order of creation is to behave in an unethical way according to the Divine Command Theory.
There are those who the question this argument by asking what about the spiritual gift of celibacy or the elderly or a barren woman who doesn’t poses the ability to multiply? Again this is rhetoric. There is not found in scripture anything that states that celibacy is a sin but is in fact considered a spiritual gift. This is a different office created by God and not one contrary to his commands. As for the barren and the elderly, this is a physical state not a behavior and therefore is a cross that that person if chosen to bear and not a behavior that contradicts the divine commands of God.
I started this paper by looking at Genesis 1:26-31 and stating that the intention of this paper was to show that the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship was unethical when viewing it through the lens of the ethical theory of Divine Command. I have made the arguments for and against his practice and have concluded that not only does scripture condemn this life style as sinful and sexual immorality but it is against the order of creation therefore is an unethical behavior.
To consider this question from an ethical stand point is to consider it through the lens of the ethical theory “Divine Command.” In this paper I will: explore Biblical text that proves that it is unethical, from a Divine Command Theory perspective, to ordain openly homosexual persons, explain the Divine Command Theory, present both sides of the current argument, then draw a conclusion based upon the most convincing evidence.
Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV):
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
In the above Genesis passage God is forming creation and then He establishes an order to that creation. He made man and woman in His own image and then gave them domain over the creatures of the earth. So, God established a creation then created man to rule over and care for that creation. It is obvious that God didn’t create the fish in the sea to subdue the earth or the birds in the sky for that matter rather they are to be creatures in creation not rulers of it. The point is that there is a certain order to this creation account.
God created humans male and female; again establishing an order to this creation. Then He blessed them and gave them His first command, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” He commanded man and woman to multiply; this is the first office (or vocation) that God created. Man and woman are to reproduce through sexual intercourse and fill the earth with their offspring. Their second office is to subdue the earth. Webster’s dictionary defines “subdue” as, “to conquer and bring into subjection.” “To bring into subjection” supports the stance that there is an order to God’s plan for creation. He creates offices and set ups the law so that creation will remain in order and will not fall into chaos. Then in verses 29 and 30 God supplies everything that is required for humans to fulfill their calling (vocation). This is creation in the form it was intended and ordered; anything to the contrary would be immoral and contrary God’s command.
The “Divine Command Theory” is the theory that moral values are derived from the commands of God therefore to perform an action contrary to God’s commands would be an immoral action. For instance the seventh commandment states, “You shall not commit adultery;” thus if a person has sexual intercourse with another person other than their spouse they are committing an immoral action.
It is only right and ethical to consider the evidence from both sides of the argument for or against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship before a decision on its morality can be reached. First, I will consider the evidence in favor of the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship.
The argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship is based upon three premises: Jesus’ command to love your neighbor, contextual criticism of particular Biblical passages, and the idea that every person is in a sinful state.
Matthew 22: 34-39 (ESV)
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The lawyer in the above passage was trying to trick Jesus into answering a question in a way in which they could accuse Him of Blasphemy. But Jesus, being the master of debate that He is, didn’t quote any of the commandments instead He went to the book of Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Jesus followed this answer with a summary of all the commandments: 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. It is from this passage that the first argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship comes from. Proponents arguing from this passage are saying that above all the other commandments and laws of the Bible we must first love God and then love our neighbor. Many of these proponents are very devout people as they hold God in the highest regard in their hearts and take their calling to serve their neighbor with the utmost sincerity. By excluding openly homosexual persons from the ordained ministry, in their view, we are not obeying our calling to love and serve our neighbor.
Contextual criticism is defined as: A form of criticism which views the literary text as a self-contained verbal structure. Akin to the New Criticism, contextualism holds that a work of art generates self-referential meanings within its own internal and autonomous context. (Glossary of Literary Theory by Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown) This theory considers Biblical passages in their original context. It asks questions of the text like: What was the author’s original intent? What were the circumstances the author was addressing in this passage? What was the cultural context in which this text was written? These are all valid and helpful questions that help us to form a deeper understanding of the Biblical text. Proponents for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship that are arguing from contextual criticism are saying that Biblical passages like:
1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
And
Romans 1:24-27 (ESV):
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
could not conceive of a committed homosexual relationship therefore the context in which they were written does not apply to today’s understanding of a committed homosexual relationship.
Romans 3:21-24 (ESV):
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
No human on this earth or in the history of this earth has ever transcended their sinful state outside of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Romans 3:21-24 is law and gospel. 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, in this verse we find the result of the law applied to human righteousness; no one lives up, all fall short of the Glory of God, and this is the judgment applied to sinners, Guilty! But then we have the gospel: 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Proponents of the ordination of homosexual persons in a committed relationship view this piece of scripture as saying that we are all sinners, there is no difference, and therefore homosexuality is no greater sin as another.
On the surface these three arguments in favor of the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship seem like pretty compelling evidence but in reality they are twisting scripture to fit a certain world view. These interpretations are made by persons who approach scripture to stand over it and interpret it to fit their position as opposed to one who approaches scripture as the authoritative Word of God, letting scripture interpret them, there by standing under its authority. I cannot, in good conscious, leave these arguments in this paper without pointing out the deceitfulness of their content and make the argument against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship in the process.
Matthew 22: 34-39 (ESV)
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
This is the divine Word of God and it is authoritative! The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and the second is to love your neighbor. But what does loving our neighbor entail? If this were God’s only command then I could see the logic in the idea that by excluding openly homosexual persons from ordained clergy we are not loving our neighbor. However, this is not God’s only Word on this issue and to view it as the only word is to twist scripture. Verses such as:
1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,
Or
Romans 1:24-27 (ESV):
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
contradict the idea that we should just accept our neighbor no matter what their sexual orientation. I am the father of three beautiful children. If my son Joey (7) was putting candy from a store in his pocket with the intent to steal it from the store I would not let him do so even if by pointing out his sinful behavior I might offend him. My point is that you would have a hard time finding a neighbor that I loved more than my wife and kids as I am first called to the office of husband and father. However loving Joey does not mean that I should avoid hurting his feelings by not teaching him that stealing is a sin. Loving him means that I should point out when his behavior if sinful and correct his behavior so that he may avoid the sinful behavior in the future.
Galatians 6:1 (ESV):
6:1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Loving our neighbor means correcting them when they’re behavior is sinful. To allow a neighbor to continue to sin would be contrary to the teaching of scripture even if it brings persecution upon us from “the world,” which leads me to the second false teaching in this argument.
To consider scripture in its original context is a fine way to study the Word. It helps us to understand the author’s original intent which aids us in comprehending what God is requiring of us today. However to say that the teachings of the Bible are not applicable to life today is blasphemy. In the Lutheran church scripture is meant to be the final authority for the church. The Word of God does not have an expired shelf life. The proponents for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship are denying the Word of God by saying that its lessons do not apply to life today in this particular circumstance. The denying of the Word of God as authority leads us into the discussion of the final false argument for the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship.
The desire to hold up the homosexual life style as an example of a proper relationship for a Christian leader is to deny that this lifestyle is sinful as it is considered sexual immorality. As the Bible verses I have pointed out in this paper show, it is clearly sinful and to lift this lifestyle as an example of a proper healthy Christian relationship is to blatantly disobey God’s divine command.
The argument against the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship is based upon the belief in sola scriptura, scripture alone as authority. Scripture as authority is a belief that has been held by the Christian church since the first century. Tradition has also been proposed as a source of authority since this time. Neither scripture nor tradition has ever supported the homosexual life style as a God ordained position. To lift up this lifestyle as a proper Christian relationship is to let today’s world view override scripture and tradition as the authority of the church. It scares the life out of me to hand of the authority of Christ’s church to the world view of those who would call our two thousand year belief in scripture and tradition as outdated.
Not only is this lifestyle against the clear commands of God to avoid sexual immorality, it is also contrary to God’s order of creation as stated in Genesis 1:26-31. God created man and woman, not man and man nor woman and woman, for the purpose of multiplying and filling the earth and with the intention of them subduing the earth and ruling over it. There is no physical way that a homosexual relationship could produce offspring because it is not a God ordained office. In fact by partaking in a homosexual relationship a person is denying the very first command of God and is denying the office in which they were called. To deny God’s command and His order of creation is to behave in an unethical way according to the Divine Command Theory.
There are those who the question this argument by asking what about the spiritual gift of celibacy or the elderly or a barren woman who doesn’t poses the ability to multiply? Again this is rhetoric. There is not found in scripture anything that states that celibacy is a sin but is in fact considered a spiritual gift. This is a different office created by God and not one contrary to his commands. As for the barren and the elderly, this is a physical state not a behavior and therefore is a cross that that person if chosen to bear and not a behavior that contradicts the divine commands of God.
I started this paper by looking at Genesis 1:26-31 and stating that the intention of this paper was to show that the ordination of openly homosexual persons in a committed relationship was unethical when viewing it through the lens of the ethical theory of Divine Command. I have made the arguments for and against his practice and have concluded that not only does scripture condemn this life style as sinful and sexual immorality but it is against the order of creation therefore is an unethical behavior.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
