_

I am currently commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. These remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

____________

From the long view of history, the assault on Christian civilization has been largely successful. Serious people know that the arenas that really matter in life are science, business, politics, family, shopping and entertainment.The process of secularization has seen faith become a private matter, estranged from the mainstream of modern life. The struggle to reaffirm “The Church” in the midst of this onslaught goes on but in a ramshackle fashion. Traditionalists long for filled churches within the old structures of ministry. Others have abandoned the historic traditions and ventured out into new territory creating new structures. In one sense it is a chaotic time for the Church. And that is just the point. How is it that local congregations that number in the tens of thousands world-wide, and represent often vastly different self-understandings, can all call themselves the Church? What is the Church anyway?

In my Lutheran tradition the definition of Church can be found in our confessional documents; “The Church is where the Word is rightly preached and the Sacraments properly administered.” But where exactly is this happening? What is the Gospel, anyway? And how many churchgoing people would be able to tell if their own pastors are preaching it rightly, let alone those in other churches? Furthermore there are Lutheran Church bodies that have little do with one another and even now Lutherans are splitting into groups, once again, over differences. And that is just one tradition among many that are embroiled in nasty church fights.

In one sense to say “The Lutherans believe…” or “The Catholics believe…” or “The Baptists believe…”is practically meaningless. Some have taken to using the term “non-denominational” in an effort to sidestep all this denominational division. But they, too, have varying points of view, so their term is dishonest, misleading and contributes nothing. In every case I cannot help but hear the admonition of St. Paul to the Corinthians, writing of the Church, the body of Christ;

“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”

Really, Paul? It appears to me that “I don’t need you”, is among the most well-rehearsed phrases in all corners of “The Church”.

This is not the place to address the many questions such observations raise. And even if it were I’m not smart enough to do the job. But a clear-headed view of they way things actually are should, at the very least, open our eyes to the fact that millions of people look at “The Church” and find our witness trivial and unconvincing. This should call forth some measure of humility among those of us who so glibly toss the word Church around like we hold exclusive title to it.

As we Christians stumble along in our pride and confusion, the Creed reminds us that this side of heaven “The Church” will always be an article of faith, resisting our sight. Therefore, as I survey the mess that is the Church, and of which I am a part, it is readily apparent, at least to me, that the best I can do is dare to trust that it is this feeble, struggling communion of saints that God in His grace has chosen and through which He offers Himself for the sake of the world.

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Tomorrow: “The Forgiveness of Sins”

_

_

I am currently commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. These remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

__________ 

For centuries all kinds of efforts have been made to intellectually storm the castle of the Holy Spirit. What happens? We run up against the limits of logic, fall into the dreams and speculations of Gnosticism or throw up our hands in derision and mockery. But to confess faith in the Holy Spirit, as the Bible bears witness, does not bring us into the vague realm of the ‘spiritual’ but to the mystery of the revealed trinitarian God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To put a finer point on it, to confess the trinitarian God is to confess that this God is for me and with me. This would seem indulgent and prideful were not for the fact that Holy Scriptures really allow us no other principle of understanding. 

Christians speak of the gift of the Holy Spirit. We believe the Spirit is given in baptism. The Holy Spirit is not God in a different appearance, a different aspect of God, an alternate mode of appearing. What we are really saying is that the indivisible God is within us, is given to us.

Two points here are worth exploring. First, since the Holy Spirit is within us it is difficult to distinguish the presence of the Spirit from ourselves. I still experience myself as the principal subject. From here it is an easy step to interpret my thoughts, words and actions as those of the Holy Spirit. It is what lead Martin Luther to say of the radical reformers of the 16th century, “They have swallowed the Holy Spirit feathers and all!” The radicals believed that the Spirit was in them but they could not experience God as Someone apart from them.

This brings me to my second point. Does God want us to experience Him or encounter Him? It may seem like an odd question but bear with me. The experience of the inner life and its’ emotions may be interpreted wildly and often are. If I equate the Holy Spirit with these feelings, emotions, etc. I collapse God utterly into myself and anything goes.

But when I encounter the Spirit through Christ I am drawn outward to the Word and the sacraments and to the neighbor as events, promises of God outside myself that I may rely upon and live for. Then the presence of the Spirit, which the Word and the sacraments guarantee and bring on God’s terms, become indistinguishable from faith’s power. And that power, which is really just another way saying God’s power, turns us back into life so that we encounter the ordinary business of living for its’ own sake and not as the occasion for experiencing the God who, for now, is hidden from us.

“May the peace of Christ that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Tomorrow: “The holy catholic (christian) church, The communion of saints…”

_

_

I am currently commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. These remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

 ___________

Today I want to quote at length from an article written by German theologian Hans Conzleman in which he describes a narrowing of the Christian message that has become normative for many. Then, a few comments on the article of the creed for today. Conzleman’s observations, written in the 1960’s, could have just as easily been written yesterday:

 “In public opinion the Christian message has been largely narrowed down to three points:

First of all, there is a God, a higher being. This is not an exclusive or original Christian idea, and it is doubtful whether it is worth offering one’s head for it.

Secondly, man possesses an immortal soul. We may consider this to be a beautiful, uplifting, and profound thought, in any case, it is surely not Christian. There is not even a hint of it in the Bible or in the Creed; in fact it is excluded by faith in the resurrection of the dead. The Christian profession of faith says that man is wholly subject to death because he has fallen into sin, and that he gains eternal salvation by being declared innocent in the judgment of God.

Thirdly, another element of average religiosity is the spiritual freedom and moral responsibility of man. This is not a peculiarly Christian notion either. As true as it is that I am responsible for my actions, it is just as clear that Christianity teaches that man has lost his freedom. But as we have said, these uncomfortable aspects of faith are coated in the average Christian consciousness with the conviction that God is a “loving God” and that everything will come out all right after death – provided that one has taken the trouble to end one’s life as a decent person.”

Given this bleached out view of the faith, it’s no wonder the idea of Christ returning to “judge the living and the dead” has lost any real impact for millions of Christians. Oh, I do not doubt for one minute that such a view serves the generosity of our reason quite nicely. But such a view also fails, and fails miserably, to take God, the Scriptures or even ourselves with appropriate seriousness. If your life is not worth being judged, it’s not worth much.

In ancient times, the person who held the position on the right hand side of the throne was what we might call the “action person” who saw to it the commands of the sovereign were carried out. Just so does the Creed confess Jesus. God in Christ Jesus speaks and acts through word and sacrament, bridging past and present, bringing God’s sovereign word of judgment and mercy to bear on every moment. When the New testament speaks of God putting all things under the footstool of Christ, this is what it means.

It also means that the measure of our lives is not taken by the measures of the world. However we have used or abused life’s energies and resources, the assessment of how we have done is not in our hands. By His Cross and Resurrection, Christ Jesus has gained the right to be the measure of our lives. “No one comes to the Father, except by me”, He said. Here is a narrowing that brings the value of our lives and the One who judges into stark relief. 

For faith this is Good news. For if Christ is to judge that means in the final Judgment Jesus will have no second thoughts about forgiveness. The freedom that enables us to stand bare before Him now will be perfected. For that freedom is defined by Him who pleaded for our forgiveness from the Cross and continues to intercede for us. St. Paul said it like this in Romans 8: 

“31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

 37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our lord.”

Tomorrow: “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”

_

 _

I am currently commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. These remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

 _______________

I knew a pastor years ago whose grandfather came from Norway. The elderly fellow had lost a number of family members to illness in the old country, including several of his children. My pastor friend recalled how his grandfather could not understand how the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, which gave him such comfort, was made so little of by Lutherans in America. That old Norwegian knew something in his grief and sorrow about the significance of the Ascension.  He believed the promise that “This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come again in the same way…” (Acts 1).

My suspicion is that the Ascension of Jesus into heaven has lost traction with many in the church today due to the preoccupation with worldliness and this life which has become so widespread. When I was in the seminary over 30 years ago, I recall fellow students mockingly referring to those who emphasized the hope of heaven as being “So heavenly minded they are no earthly good.” I recently commented on this in another blog post to the effect that the Church has gone to the other extreme with a vengeance. Today many in the Church are so worldly minded they are no heavenly good. On any given Sunday, as we drag the sins and griefs we bear into church, we are likely to be greeted with words admonishing our lack of passion for peace and justice.  It’s no longer ‘What a Friend we Have in Jesus, it’s ‘What Friend we Should be to the World’.

For my part, I stand among the heavenly-minded with that old Norwegian. Our eyes filled with longing, looking hopefully to the heavens, we await with joy the Lord, our Friend, our Savior who will return to fulfill the promise He died to keep;.

” In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that where I am you may be also.”

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Tomorrow: “And is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.”

_

_

I am currently commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. These remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

 ___________

Christ is risen.. This confession of Christ’s Resurrection is not one article of faith standing among many. The essence of the faith is proclaimed in the Resurrection. St. Paul stated this with an unsurpassed pointedness when he wrote, “If Christ was not raised, there is nothing in our message; there is nothing in our faith either…” (1 Corinthians 15).  Indeed, if there was no resurrection then the crucifixion was a tragedy, nothing more. Death looms as large as ever and all this talk of Christ alive is so much whistling in the dark.

In the last century or so biblical interpreters of the historical-critical method of studying Scripture have largely concluded that reason applied to the Bible can offer no proof of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Instead, they have tended to rely upon what we might call psychological explanations. Some sort of spiritual Christ consciousness settled upon the disciples after Jesus died. Or, the early Christians projected their vision of hope onto Jesus. But these, it seems to me, are nothing more than tricks to satisfy the skepticism of our reason. For these ‘explanations’ also take us beyond the boundary of historical reason.

The entire witness of the New Testament is predicated upon the events of the cross and resurrection. There is not one line in any of the twenty seven books that even remotely attempts to memorialize a dead Jesus. On the contrary. Every line assumes the event of the Resurrection. As difficult as it may be for reason to come to terms with this, faith can speak of the bodily Resurrection of Jesus only as an act of God

The brutal suffering and death of Jesus left the disciples in despair. They were a broken, defeated remnant of a lost cause. What revived them? Did they simply “look on the bright side” and give themselves a pep talk and say things like’ ‘Let’s carry on for good ol’ Jesus’? On the contrary, their faith was not revived by anything they did. The most obvious explanation for their transformation is the one given by the New Testament witness; the one whom they saw crucified, dead and buried, they also alive and arisen from the grave.

With the appearance of the Risen Lord the disciples were brought face to face with the fact that while Jesus lived, they were the ones who had succumbed to death. Their despair, faithlessness and refusal to believe what he had told them of His death and resurrection simply confirmed their deadness. If Jesus was the dead One who was now living, the disciples were the living dead.

And is this not our position in a blind, fallen world? We wring our hands in despair and anxiety over our lost innocence, broken dreams and the myriad injustices all around us. We stand before the seductions, enchantments, terrors and threats of the world and allow them, rather than “Every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God”, to shape and define our hearts. But this glaring contrast was not the end of the story for the disciples and it is not the end for us. For Jesus, alive and risen from the dead, called them to life! “Because I live”, he promised, “so will you.”

So faith hears the message proclaimed of Christ Crucified and Risen. We stand before this proclamation and in this liberating Word we, too are brought from death to life. In the word of the Gospel and the sacraments, the Living Lord confides Himself to us, and in the words of the New Testament, …”causes us to be be born anew to a life of hope through faith in the power of God” (1 Peter 1).

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Tomorrow: “He ascended into heaven…”

–

_

For the next couple of weeks I am commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. My remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

_______ 

Whenever the weekly lectionary presents me with a text on hell, I am tempted to sidestep it and look for another. Preaching on hell in the post-modern world is a bit like telling scary stories to frighten children. It is hardly the proper subject for the mature and enlightened. Millions of people, both within the churches as well as without, will hear no talk of hell for they are quite certain it does not exist. 

In the early 1980’s a group of us toured what was then East Germany. it was the 450th anniversary of Martin Luther’s birth and most of the places where Luther lived and worked were in the eastern part of that country. One of our stops was the concentration camp at Buchenwald. As we walked over the ground which had been the scene of senseless, premeditated mass murder one of our group said, “It must have been hell.” It was the right choice of words. Nothing else would do. The words written over Dante’s gate to hell could have been written over the gate to Buchenwald, “Abandon hope all you who enter here.”

We live close together on this tiny celestial ball. Our experience of being together may teach us that even as we attempt to create our versions of heaven on earth we also create our versions of hell on earth. We may not hear this in the churches anymore but television, movies, novels and plays scream these themes at us day and night. We desire friendliness and recognition but all too often we receive – and give – contempt and suffering. We turn each other’s lives into a living hell on such a scale the sheer ordinariness of it is staggering.  

Theologian Jurgen Moltmann has written, “What we have dismissed as a fairy tale is actually quite near, as near as our desire to live and our not being able to live, our desire to love and not being able to love. This becomes the anguish that has no name. Its thorn is guilt, the fiery torture of a bungled life. That is why all hells depend on us. “I do not do the good things I want to do; I do the wrong things I do not want to do” (Romans 8:19).” We may say about the Buchenwalds and the Auschwitz’s of this world, “Never again.”  But on what do we base our assurances? Are we safe from ourselves?

Jesus came proclaiming and living among us the nearness of God’s kingdom. Yet we made His life unbearable, finally giving Him a taste of hell on the cross. One more victim of the death dealers. What made Jesus’ death unique, however, is that this one who experienced profound abandonment (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”), is the same one who lived in the full consciousness of God’s presence (“The Father and I are one”). Through this experience of utter abandonment with the full knowledge of God’s nearness Jesus descended into the deepest torment of hell.

This is why Christians have taken such comfort in the knowledge that the just and righteous one was abandoned to hell’s fury. For if the Son of God, in whom God and life in their fullness dwelled, was subject to death and the deepest torment of hell, we also who long for love and life but too often receive or deal in contempt and death may no longer look to ourselves to break the impasse of evil. Instead, we are summoned, as Luther proclaimed, to “Look to the wounds of Christ, for there has your hell been mastered.”

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

_

_

For the next couple of weeks I am commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. My remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

 __________

 The section of the creed dealing with Jesus Christ is as significant for what it does not say as it is for what it says. Missing from this section of the creed is any reference to the teachings and works of Jesus, to what we might call His earthly ministry. The language moves from His birth immediately to His death, resurrection and the events following, including His Ascension to the Father. This pattern is present in all the ancient creeds of the Church. Therefore, it is not accidental.

What is mentioned was of the greatest significance to the early Church. The details of the Christological section of the creed provide the basis and criterion for understanding and confessing what is essential about Jesus and His Gospel.

There is much that can be said about this article, too much for the length of this blog. So I want to focus on the word “crucified”.  In this article of the creed “crucified” appears with the words “suffered”, “died” and “buried”. One would think a reference to crucifixion would be superfluous under the circumstances. Why this specific reference to the manner of Jesus’ death?

The answer, I believe, lies in the fact that the event of the cross is the key to understanding the meaning of Jesus entire mission to this world. On the cross, humanity looked upon the One who had encountered them in love and righteousness and dealt with him as a common criminal. The event of the cross, then, exposes human antipathy toward the Living God and puts the lie to all our claims to love justice.

The event of the crucifixion is mentioned in the creed because this event, unlike any other in all of history, confronts man with the enormity of his crime; the theft of our existence and contempt for the Living God. At the same time the cross reveals God’s intention to have mercy on sinners. The Cross of Jesus is the consequence of God’s love. On the cross God reveals His intention to sustain us in all that we do, for all that we do is finally unsustainable and leads to death. In the death of Jesus all our works and all our ways are buried with Him. 

Tomorrow: “He descended into hell…”

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

_

_ 

For the next couple of weeks I am commenting on the articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This is for my benefit as much as anything. My remarks are organized only because they are following the outline of the creed. So while they are not systematic, I hope they are not rambling either! I’m giving myself a refresher course and you’re invited to come along. And as you do I trust these few words may contribute something to your understanding of what it is to have faith in the God of Jesus.

 _________

There is hardly a teaching of the Church more inaccessible to modern reason than the virgin birth. The problem is simple. Conception and birth are a process of natural life which bring a person into existence who had no prior existence.  Yet the Church confesses that the Son was born of Mary and has existed eternally just as God is eternal.  

Faith may confess this article of the creed with assurance but it does not remove the stumbling block. But if it is the task of faith to make the Son of God accessible to the world, then some way through the obstacle of reason must be found. 

Some would argue that these stories are nothing but reflections of the mythic traditions of the Hellenistic world. But this interpretation does not do justice to the forward looking, eschatological character of the revelation in Christ which is anything but a falling back into myth. The infancy narratives which are contained in Matthew and Luke are subject to the revelation of Jesus Christ as the living Word of God. In Jesus something entirely new has happened. The restraint of the birth narratives makes no room for the details of conception or the actual birth. What matters to the gospel writers is that God has revealed Himself in the flesh. What can be said of this human birth cannot be said of any other human birth, yet it was as real a birth as yours or mine. For in Jesus God does not begin a new ‘uber’ race but a new humanity.

Therefore, the Church cannot acquiesce to the insistence of reason that the virgin birth be dismissed from our confession. For our confession preserves the mystery of the Word made flesh, in all lowliness, meekness and humility. The confession of the virgin birth, which includes the poor, lowly girl who submitted to God’s will for her, guards against the presumption of reason and the will of man which refuses to receive the essential message of the Incarnation; God’s salvation comes – and is willed – in the form of man’s lowliness and weakness without any kind of pride, even unto death on the cross.

Tomorrow: “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried…”

“May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

_