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.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
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.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Article Written for "The Concord" Luther Seminary's school paper.
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. (Romans 6:4)
This passage is a promise from God given through the pen of Paul the Apostle. It doesn’t sound very cheery to hear that God promises to put us death, although, in reality, that is what we all deserve. In the end, life is finally fair: we all die for our sins but the good news is that on account of Christ we are then resurrected as a new creation.
Luther would say that our old selves, although already put to death, still cling to the new creation like a sack of worms until our eventual physical death. Why has Jesus Christ taken us out of this world only to send us right back into it? We, as new creations, exist for one purpose: to love and work for the sake of others in the offices which God has called each one of us to serve.
What does all this have to do with the preservation of life? Good question! God has put us to death with his left hand and has raised us up to life with his right hand. Nonetheless, we sometimes still cling to the habits of the old self. Why do we worry about money, our reputation, our space, personal time, or the next cup of Starbucks? Does a new creation in God’s kingdom need money and all those things we feel provide happiness and comfort? Regardless of what I am told, we will not cease to exist if we do not have another cup of Starbucks God has created you anew for the sole purpose of serving your neighbor. Academic degrees or any other thing you think you have earned are not for you, but for the sole purpose of making you a better servant to your neighbor.
As I reflected upon my first full semester here at Luther I came to realize that this is the most important thing I have learned. I exist first as a husband and father to serve my wife and children, second as a son and brother to serve my family and third as a preacher called by God to deliver the gospel message to bring comfort to afflicted consciences. I am called to each of these offices to serve wholly in Christian faith and love. I am not called by God to the office of “me” and all of the creature comforts I suppose necessary for daily living. God is the very one who provides for me, giving me all I need from day to day so that I might be sustained for the work of serving others. This is God’s greatest gift to me because there was indeed a time in which I thought I was god and only served myself. I never want to be that miserable again. Yet, I have been raised up from the dead and called from my misery, only to be given a new whole life.
This passage is a promise from God given through the pen of Paul the Apostle. It doesn’t sound very cheery to hear that God promises to put us death, although, in reality, that is what we all deserve. In the end, life is finally fair: we all die for our sins but the good news is that on account of Christ we are then resurrected as a new creation.
Luther would say that our old selves, although already put to death, still cling to the new creation like a sack of worms until our eventual physical death. Why has Jesus Christ taken us out of this world only to send us right back into it? We, as new creations, exist for one purpose: to love and work for the sake of others in the offices which God has called each one of us to serve.
What does all this have to do with the preservation of life? Good question! God has put us to death with his left hand and has raised us up to life with his right hand. Nonetheless, we sometimes still cling to the habits of the old self. Why do we worry about money, our reputation, our space, personal time, or the next cup of Starbucks? Does a new creation in God’s kingdom need money and all those things we feel provide happiness and comfort? Regardless of what I am told, we will not cease to exist if we do not have another cup of Starbucks God has created you anew for the sole purpose of serving your neighbor. Academic degrees or any other thing you think you have earned are not for you, but for the sole purpose of making you a better servant to your neighbor.
As I reflected upon my first full semester here at Luther I came to realize that this is the most important thing I have learned. I exist first as a husband and father to serve my wife and children, second as a son and brother to serve my family and third as a preacher called by God to deliver the gospel message to bring comfort to afflicted consciences. I am called to each of these offices to serve wholly in Christian faith and love. I am not called by God to the office of “me” and all of the creature comforts I suppose necessary for daily living. God is the very one who provides for me, giving me all I need from day to day so that I might be sustained for the work of serving others. This is God’s greatest gift to me because there was indeed a time in which I thought I was god and only served myself. I never want to be that miserable again. Yet, I have been raised up from the dead and called from my misery, only to be given a new whole life.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Sremon on Matthew 16:13-20
Who do you say that I am? Who do I say that I am? I am a son, a husband, a father, a brother, a preacher, and a friend. Is this the kind of question Jesus is asking in this passage? I think so; all the things that I am identified as being are offices that God has called me to fulfill and Peter identifies Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This is the office that Jesus was called to fulfill.
Romans 10:9-10 states: 9”That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” This is what is occurring here with Peter’s confession. Is Peter now saved because he has confessed with his mouth that Jesus is Lord? Are we today saved because we attend church every Sunday? No, he is saved because of the belief in his heart. Jesus states, “Blessed are you Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but the Father in the Heavens.” It wasn’t Peter’s confession at all but the faith given to him by the Holy Spirit that caused his mouth to speak this truth therefore his salvation, and ours, has come through the faith that he and we have in his and our hearts and not the act of confession or attendance.. And what is faith but the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has set up this dialogue with Peter to separate those who understand and those who don’t understand, those who have faith and those who do not yet have faith. Those who confess that Jesus is Jeremiah, Elijah, John the Baptist, or any other person are missing faith; thus are void of the Spirit working in their hearts. These people are in need of a true preacher.
Jesus then proceeds to tell Peter, “I say to you that you are stone and on this very rock I will build up my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Is Jesus talking about Peter as the stone or is he talking about his confession through the power of the Holy Spirit? Honestly the Greek is not clear as “stone” was never used as a name in Greek. Either Jesus is naming Peter as the first to have received the salvation by faith, given through the Holy Spirit, or Jesus is talking about those mirroring of Peter’s confession through the power of the Holy Spirit. What’s important here is Peter’s preaching and proclamation! After all what is Peter really doing? Is he answering Jesus’ question or is he preaching one of the first gospel sermons? As my Greek professor Dr. Jim Boyce would say, “Yeeeeessss.” I have already said that Peter was surrounded by people who didn’t understand and were in need of a true preacher not unlike our situation today. True preaching gives Jesus to those who have been afflicted, or crushed, by the demands of the law; it rescues them from their despair. Peter is one of the first preachers that God has sent to deliver the gospel in a way that saves. Preaching is the rock, the stone upon which Christ will build his church. Not some dunderhead that happened to get one answer right.
Jesus then proceeds to declare, “And the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” What are these gates of Hades but death itself? Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing will stand between God and His chosen elect.
Jesus then delivers his directive, “I will give to you the keys to the Kingdom of the Heavens and what you bind on Earth you bind in the Heavens and what you loose on the Earth you loose in the Heavens.” It’s clear that Jesus is saying as a result of your faith I give to you the keys to the Kingdom of Heavens; in other words the power to preach and forgive sins. He has just assigned the office of preaching to Peter and to the reader of this gospel; not to gain their salvation but as a result of it.
So, I stand before you today as a true preacher sent by God with a word that saves. On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, both conscious and unconscious, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You, like Peter, have heard the gospel and are chosen, you are the elect, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, you now will confess Christ with your mouth and with your actions. Your old self will cling to you like a bag of worms until your physical death but it is in fact dead. Your old self can no longer serve you in any way but instead stays here on this earth to serve your neighbor. Take the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and loose away serving your neighbor, not to gain salvation but because of it. Amen.
Romans 10:9-10 states: 9”That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” This is what is occurring here with Peter’s confession. Is Peter now saved because he has confessed with his mouth that Jesus is Lord? Are we today saved because we attend church every Sunday? No, he is saved because of the belief in his heart. Jesus states, “Blessed are you Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but the Father in the Heavens.” It wasn’t Peter’s confession at all but the faith given to him by the Holy Spirit that caused his mouth to speak this truth therefore his salvation, and ours, has come through the faith that he and we have in his and our hearts and not the act of confession or attendance.. And what is faith but the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has set up this dialogue with Peter to separate those who understand and those who don’t understand, those who have faith and those who do not yet have faith. Those who confess that Jesus is Jeremiah, Elijah, John the Baptist, or any other person are missing faith; thus are void of the Spirit working in their hearts. These people are in need of a true preacher.
Jesus then proceeds to tell Peter, “I say to you that you are stone and on this very rock I will build up my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Is Jesus talking about Peter as the stone or is he talking about his confession through the power of the Holy Spirit? Honestly the Greek is not clear as “stone” was never used as a name in Greek. Either Jesus is naming Peter as the first to have received the salvation by faith, given through the Holy Spirit, or Jesus is talking about those mirroring of Peter’s confession through the power of the Holy Spirit. What’s important here is Peter’s preaching and proclamation! After all what is Peter really doing? Is he answering Jesus’ question or is he preaching one of the first gospel sermons? As my Greek professor Dr. Jim Boyce would say, “Yeeeeessss.” I have already said that Peter was surrounded by people who didn’t understand and were in need of a true preacher not unlike our situation today. True preaching gives Jesus to those who have been afflicted, or crushed, by the demands of the law; it rescues them from their despair. Peter is one of the first preachers that God has sent to deliver the gospel in a way that saves. Preaching is the rock, the stone upon which Christ will build his church. Not some dunderhead that happened to get one answer right.
Jesus then proceeds to declare, “And the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” What are these gates of Hades but death itself? Romans 8:38-39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing will stand between God and His chosen elect.
Jesus then delivers his directive, “I will give to you the keys to the Kingdom of the Heavens and what you bind on Earth you bind in the Heavens and what you loose on the Earth you loose in the Heavens.” It’s clear that Jesus is saying as a result of your faith I give to you the keys to the Kingdom of Heavens; in other words the power to preach and forgive sins. He has just assigned the office of preaching to Peter and to the reader of this gospel; not to gain their salvation but as a result of it.
So, I stand before you today as a true preacher sent by God with a word that saves. On account of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ I declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, both conscious and unconscious, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You, like Peter, have heard the gospel and are chosen, you are the elect, whether you like it or not, whether you know it or not, you now will confess Christ with your mouth and with your actions. Your old self will cling to you like a bag of worms until your physical death but it is in fact dead. Your old self can no longer serve you in any way but instead stays here on this earth to serve your neighbor. Take the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and loose away serving your neighbor, not to gain salvation but because of it. Amen.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Sermon Genesis 11:1-9:
Sermon Genesis 11:1-9:
Is God mean? Is he hiding from us? Why did he scatter the people? Why is this text in the Bible? These are four main questions that occurred to me as I pondered this text. The first question I need to answer before answering these four questions would be “Are these the questions in which this passage is answering?” or am I asking the wrong questions?
Is God mean? Is God hiding from us?
It sure seems like it in this passage. These people go through all the trouble of building a city and a tower with in the city in which to use to climb up to God and say “hi” and he comes down and prevents them from communicating with each other and then scatters them throughout the earth.
One the most important things to notice in this text is that God comes down. It appears that the people of Babel have it all wrong. God doesn’t want us to climb up to him but instead he comes down to us.
This idea of climbing up to God has plagued society for centuries. Aristotle thought that we needed to turn ourselves from vice to virtue and in the process make ourselves virtuous or earn our way to a higher existence, perhaps reach God... Today we are still trying to climb that ladder to God by saying the right things, owning the right house, driving a hybrid, tithing the right amount, attending enough services, praying the right way, etc.. I think, like the people in Babel, we have missed the point; God comes down to us, we don’t climb up or earn our way up to him.
God comes down to us in two ways: hidden and revealed. When we seek God where he doesn’t want to be found in things like 401ks, stocks, homeownership, sharing the wealth, and in the government then he hides from us and all we end up finding is his wrath. The people in today’s story were trying to build a tower up to God to “make a name for themselves,” much like a person today going on T.V. to tell the world how God changed them from sinner to saint and if you only send their ministry $X then you to can have prosperity. Obviously this is not where God wants to be found and what these poor people of Babel experienced was the wrath of God.
The first commandment states, “You shall have no other gods.” The people Of Babel, much like the people in today’s society, are turned in upon themselves and are looking for their own glory thus, like Adam and Eve, are trying to become like God. Our God is a jealous God and he will have none of that. He is to be our only God and we are not to seek him in ways in which he does not wish to be found or else we will find the wrath of God. To answer the questions, “Is God mean, and is God hiding from us?” then would be to say, “Yes, God is mean when you seek him where he doesn’t want to be found and yes, in these places he hides.”
Why did God scatter the people?
God has a plan. That sounds so cliché I know, but it’s true. To attempt to peer in to the mind of God would be pure speculation so it doesn’t behoove us to look for the answer to this question in this text as it doesn’t seem to be answering this question. However there are some things that we can know about God from other passages. For instance Acts 1:8 reads “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth." and Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Our God is a God of mission and he has chosen us to be his missionaries. He won’t let a little thing like “what we want” stand in his way. God overcomes all obstacles to accomplish his plan.
In the Gospel According to St. Matthew 16:13-20 we hear about Jesus questioning his disciples. He is inquiring into the peoples’ idea of who they believe him to be. Then Jesus questions the disciples directly, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God.” Jesus acknowledges that Peter didn’t come up with this confession on his own, Peter very rarely got anything right, but that this confession came through the power of the Holy Spirit working upon his heart. Peter’s confession, according to Jesus, is the “petros” or rock upon which he will build his church. Unknowingly Peter preached a gospel sermon. Jesus then promises to give to Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and then states, “whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven." Jesus gave Peter the power to forgive sins. “Romans 10:14-15&17 says, “14 How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news."15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news?” 17Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.” This is how faith happens, God sends a preacher, like Peter and the scattered people in our text, to proclaim Christ through his Word in a way in which the Holy Spirit grabs hold of their heart and changes them forever. Usually this is done in the form of an absolution. If I were to speculate about God’s plan based on these other verses I would say that God scattered the people so that the message of what he had done in their lives would be spread to the ends of the earth.
Why is this text in the Bible?
From a faith stand point I would say that I have already answered this question. This is a story of God coming down to his disobedient people to overcome all the obstacles that they have created there by accomplishing his desire, his plan to send preachers to proclaim his Word in a way in which faith happens. I have also said that there are some places in which God doesn’t want to be found and if we seek him there we will only find his wrath. I have in addition stated that God promises to be our only God and he won’t stand for us turning in upon ourselves making ourselves, or our possessions, god by seeking him in places in which he doesn’t want to be found. This seems to be the points that this text communicates. This story tells us what happens when we try to impose our will over God’s.
But from an academic stand point this text is to communicating a story about our ancestors and an explanation of how there came to be so many different languages all over the world. Considering the authorship of this text, and the text by itself, this would be my conclusion.
Sending:
But here, from the pulpit, I am proclaiming to you a Word from God that you will hear in a way in which the Holy Spirit grabs hold of your heart and changes you forever. So, I stand before you today as a true preacher sent by God and I claim you for the Kingdom of Heaven by declaring to you the entire forgiveness of your sins both conscious and unconscious in the name of the Father , the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now go into the world and stop seeking God in areas in which he doesn’t want to be found. Stop putting your faith and trust in your investments, in your possessions, and your government and put your faith and trust in the preached Word of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Go in peace to love and serve your neighbor. Amen
Is God mean? Is he hiding from us? Why did he scatter the people? Why is this text in the Bible? These are four main questions that occurred to me as I pondered this text. The first question I need to answer before answering these four questions would be “Are these the questions in which this passage is answering?” or am I asking the wrong questions?
Is God mean? Is God hiding from us?
It sure seems like it in this passage. These people go through all the trouble of building a city and a tower with in the city in which to use to climb up to God and say “hi” and he comes down and prevents them from communicating with each other and then scatters them throughout the earth.
One the most important things to notice in this text is that God comes down. It appears that the people of Babel have it all wrong. God doesn’t want us to climb up to him but instead he comes down to us.
This idea of climbing up to God has plagued society for centuries. Aristotle thought that we needed to turn ourselves from vice to virtue and in the process make ourselves virtuous or earn our way to a higher existence, perhaps reach God... Today we are still trying to climb that ladder to God by saying the right things, owning the right house, driving a hybrid, tithing the right amount, attending enough services, praying the right way, etc.. I think, like the people in Babel, we have missed the point; God comes down to us, we don’t climb up or earn our way up to him.
God comes down to us in two ways: hidden and revealed. When we seek God where he doesn’t want to be found in things like 401ks, stocks, homeownership, sharing the wealth, and in the government then he hides from us and all we end up finding is his wrath. The people in today’s story were trying to build a tower up to God to “make a name for themselves,” much like a person today going on T.V. to tell the world how God changed them from sinner to saint and if you only send their ministry $X then you to can have prosperity. Obviously this is not where God wants to be found and what these poor people of Babel experienced was the wrath of God.
The first commandment states, “You shall have no other gods.” The people Of Babel, much like the people in today’s society, are turned in upon themselves and are looking for their own glory thus, like Adam and Eve, are trying to become like God. Our God is a jealous God and he will have none of that. He is to be our only God and we are not to seek him in ways in which he does not wish to be found or else we will find the wrath of God. To answer the questions, “Is God mean, and is God hiding from us?” then would be to say, “Yes, God is mean when you seek him where he doesn’t want to be found and yes, in these places he hides.”
Why did God scatter the people?
God has a plan. That sounds so cliché I know, but it’s true. To attempt to peer in to the mind of God would be pure speculation so it doesn’t behoove us to look for the answer to this question in this text as it doesn’t seem to be answering this question. However there are some things that we can know about God from other passages. For instance Acts 1:8 reads “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth." and Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Our God is a God of mission and he has chosen us to be his missionaries. He won’t let a little thing like “what we want” stand in his way. God overcomes all obstacles to accomplish his plan.
In the Gospel According to St. Matthew 16:13-20 we hear about Jesus questioning his disciples. He is inquiring into the peoples’ idea of who they believe him to be. Then Jesus questions the disciples directly, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “You are the Christ the Son of the Living God.” Jesus acknowledges that Peter didn’t come up with this confession on his own, Peter very rarely got anything right, but that this confession came through the power of the Holy Spirit working upon his heart. Peter’s confession, according to Jesus, is the “petros” or rock upon which he will build his church. Unknowingly Peter preached a gospel sermon. Jesus then promises to give to Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and then states, “whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven." Jesus gave Peter the power to forgive sins. “Romans 10:14-15&17 says, “14 How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news."15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news?” 17Consequently faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ.” This is how faith happens, God sends a preacher, like Peter and the scattered people in our text, to proclaim Christ through his Word in a way in which the Holy Spirit grabs hold of their heart and changes them forever. Usually this is done in the form of an absolution. If I were to speculate about God’s plan based on these other verses I would say that God scattered the people so that the message of what he had done in their lives would be spread to the ends of the earth.
Why is this text in the Bible?
From a faith stand point I would say that I have already answered this question. This is a story of God coming down to his disobedient people to overcome all the obstacles that they have created there by accomplishing his desire, his plan to send preachers to proclaim his Word in a way in which faith happens. I have also said that there are some places in which God doesn’t want to be found and if we seek him there we will only find his wrath. I have in addition stated that God promises to be our only God and he won’t stand for us turning in upon ourselves making ourselves, or our possessions, god by seeking him in places in which he doesn’t want to be found. This seems to be the points that this text communicates. This story tells us what happens when we try to impose our will over God’s.
But from an academic stand point this text is to communicating a story about our ancestors and an explanation of how there came to be so many different languages all over the world. Considering the authorship of this text, and the text by itself, this would be my conclusion.
Sending:
But here, from the pulpit, I am proclaiming to you a Word from God that you will hear in a way in which the Holy Spirit grabs hold of your heart and changes you forever. So, I stand before you today as a true preacher sent by God and I claim you for the Kingdom of Heaven by declaring to you the entire forgiveness of your sins both conscious and unconscious in the name of the Father , the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now go into the world and stop seeking God in areas in which he doesn’t want to be found. Stop putting your faith and trust in your investments, in your possessions, and your government and put your faith and trust in the preached Word of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Go in peace to love and serve your neighbor. Amen
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