(Continued)

“…sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you,…”

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IT’S A CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY, NOT A YACHT CLUB

Church life in a secular society has tended to become a largely privatized affair where witness means inviting people onto the private turf of the reservation where they must learn to absorb language and customs in specially constructed environments that are essentially alien to daily life. To consciously or unconsciously get around this, invitation to a church is often couched in terms pointing to how friendly the church is, the likability of the pastor, programs for the kids and the like. The same kind of things you might say when inviting someone to the yacht club.

What if, in response to the question, ‘Tell me about your church’,  we describe what God is doing in the congregation in baptism, the preached word, the Lord’s Supper and so forth. Many church members would actually think it odd to speak of their congregation in this way and would probably have difficulty doing so at any rate. Invitation is fine but it is not synonymous with Christian witness.

WHERE ARE THE UNIVERSAL CONNECTIONS?

A meaningful Christian witness seeks ways to speak the language of shared universal meaning that connects with the experience of people where they actually live and work. If the God we proclaim in the Christian witness does not appear to relate to the actual life and experience of every human being, it is not because God is not God and has stopped speaking. It may be because our language reflects a whittled-down god. To speak of God in terms that confine Him to the private reserves of the church, like some sort of cultic deity, would then be blasphemy. Then we do not have language that connects the Biblical God to every human being, the Lord of heaven and earth.

LANGUAGE WITH TEETH IN IT: MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT BUT NOT CONFORMITY

Consider this. When the early Church used the phrase ‘Jesus is Lord’, they were placing Him in deliberate competition with the Roman emperor, local rulers and the entire pantheon of pagan gods. This three-word confession touched the life of every citizen of the empire right where they lived. People in the Roman world got it. They knew exactly what the Christians were saying. They rejected it, but they understood it. The language was the language of the culture. This immediate and universal language with bite is what we aim for in Christian witness.

What language of meaning do we share in some universal fashion with all people today? For this is where the Christian witness may have some traction in speaking to our family members, neighbors, friends and business associates in ways that necessarily  give weight to our religious language.

At the same time we must be faithful to the Christian proclamation of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. For Lutheran Christians this means we seek, with integrity, to connect the language of the Cross, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, sin and salvation, law and gospel with the actual world we live in. Here are some things to think about in this regard.

RELIGION AND OUR MOST DEEPLY HELD VALUES

We might do well to re-think how we use terms like ‘religion’, words that are out there in the common culture. If we think of religion as a term that describes churchly matters it does us little good. But if we think of religion as pointing to how we value life and particularly the highest values that guide and control one’s life, the word takes on a much wider significance. For then religion may be discussed on the basis of how we actually live. Every person is continually revealing their highest values in what they do. If you could follow me around for a year and observe me, especially in moments of real crisis, you would have some sense of my life’s most important  values. We need to turn the word religion outward, away from churchly matters, so it can help us engage people at the point of their most deeply-held values. If someone says to you they are not religious, this may be a helpful way to frame the discussion.

THERE ARE NO UNBELIEVERS

This leads to another question. Is it really helpful to divide the world up into believers and unbelievers? In point of fact, every person is a believer in something or someone. Martin Luther used the word ‘trust’ and pointed out, quite rightly, that every person trusts a god, in the sense that every person looks to that from which they derive good and to which they turn for refuge in times of trouble. That god may be drugs, money, work, possessions, self, power, another person – anything will do. But belief or trust is not the exclusive property of the Christian faith or any faith. Every persons behaves, acts on the basis of what we trust.To engage people at this level of discussion is to engage them where life actually matters to them. 

WE ALL LIVE WITH THE MYSTERY – AND BURDEN – OF OUR EXISTENCE

Another area of life shared with all people is the sense of fate. We all experience aspects of life where we are controlled but have no control in return. And the two points in life where this is most true for all of us are birth and death. We have no choice in the matter of our birth and while we may have some say in the manner of our death we have no say in the fact of our death. Every person is continually faced with these questions; Where did I come from? Where am I going? Are we all simply fated victims of impersonal powers? Is life a meaningless accident?  Is there any basis for hope? You might be surprised at how often people have these things on their minds. How often are they on yours?

ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE HUMAN SENSE OF GUILT

Another area of our universal experience that leads to the question of God is in the awareness of our accountability. Along with this people have real sense of their insignificance in the vastness of the universe. Anyone who has ever walked through a major airport, among thousands of nameless strangers, knows what is to feel utterly insignificant. The structures of existence confront us with this. And it is the real experience of knowing we are potentially nothing, that drives us to gain some kind of foothold through power or prestige, to have our ‘five minutes of fame.’ But the very fact we seek to assert ourselves, to justify our existence, bears witness to our sense of accountability.  We all live with a sense of what we are and what we think we should be or ought to be. What does our understanding of God’s grace have to say to those who live under the relentless pressure of the ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’ of existence, often accompanied by a sense of failure? What does it say to you?

THIS WAY TO THE BREAD LINE

Christians are not called to form private religious clubs where we worship little cult deities, stuck in church buildings. To paraphrase Martin Luther, the only thing that sets us apart is that we have been brought into the shelter and handed the free lunch of God’s amazing grace. We are called to give faithful, hopeful and meaningful witness at those places where we are caught in life’s crucible, where people’s hurts and hopes are tangible. Christians sometimes forget that we are all, in the end, needy, hungry, homeless beggars in this life. 

The areas outlined above, it seems to me, are a common currency of meaning we share with those around us that give rise, quite naturally, to the question of God. And while they do not automatically lead to trust in the gracious God we know in Jesus Christ, they are points of contact where we may demonstrate some sensitivity, compassion, humility and solidarity with others around life’s most basic questions and struggles as we respond to God’s call to….

“…sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you,…”

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

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(Continued from last post)

The disconnect between the central themes of the Church – it’s worship, liturgies, law and gospel, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, sin, salvation, etc. – and the daily experience of people has consequences. One of the more obvious of which is a shifting of the focus of the Church away from these, and the challenging communication problems they represent, to popular religion.

One popular alternative is moralism. Preachers of moralism are often greeted at the door with responses like, “Thank you for making clear what I am supposed to do to be a good Christian.” Talk about behavior is something everybody understands. There may not be any real intention to act on the preacher’s prescription but at least they heard something that is understandable. A cartoon in a magazine years ago depicted a woman coming out of church and saying to the pastor, “You make it sound so real.”  The cartoon was not meant to be funny.

Another aspect of the moralism approach is to focus on practical advice for daily living. This is especially popular today and accounts, at least in part, for the success of the mega-church phenomenon. The entrepreneurs of popular religion have found a  formula that works. Downplay the traditional language and forms of the faith and use the Bible as a book on how to do or be anything. Preaching concerns itself with financial advice, personal psychology, family therapy and a host of other topics that “make it sound so real.” One should not be too hard on those who preach such stuff. For in most cases it is the people that demand it and drive them to it. After all, if preachers don’t give me something practical, what good are they?

This leads to my second point, religion as private experience. What matters is what religion means to me. And it doesn’t matter too much what it is.This has great appeal to our egalitarian sense as Americans. And the beauty of it is that no one can argue with you. Your private religion can mean anything you want it to mean. The flip side of this of this privatization of religion, of course, is that it is very difficult to relate your meaning to someone else. If no one can refute it, neither can they share it. The content of the private experience of religion can be very close to orthodox Christian faith. At the same time it can be an expression of these other factors as well.

A third area in which we can see the disconnect between the language of the Church and daily life is in the tendency to speak of God only in relation to things that cannot be otherwise explained by reason. Two people are in car accident. One dies, the other lives. Two people go into the hospital with cancer. One dies, one goes home cancer-free. The survivors claim it was a miracle. Wherever the human factor can be excluded we have room for God language. Or, if religion is not for us, we may want to talk about ghosts, aliens or bigfoot.

The point is that religious language today is not required or necessary for an interpretation of our life or our culture. For many it is an option, even a very important option, but it is still an option. Religion occupies a place in life almost like a hobby. It is the kind of thing one drops if reduced to the essentials or if there is something better to do.

All of this is reflective of that secular self-understanding that was yesterday’s topic. And this secular-self understanding is in the guts of the modern world. We all share in its’ axioms to one degree or another. The challenge facing the orthodox Christian and the orthodox Christian community is to avoid the traps of reducing the Christian message to moralism, religious privatization and the relegation of our language to cover only that which is beyond explanation, while allowing the great themes of the faith to speak of God in Christ in ways that confront, challenge and illumine the actual world in which we find ourselves. That’s what we’ll take up in tomorrow’s blog.

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

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“…but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you,…”

Several years ago Linda and I were in Venice, Italy on a Sunday morning and decided to attend worship in the church of Santa Maria della Salute pictured above. When we entered the sanctuary for the principle service of the week, the nave, the main seating area of the church, was empty. A few rows of chairs had been placed in the chancel or altar area of the church beyond the arch in the center of the picture and that is where 30 or 40 of us gathered.

This scene is played out in hundreds of church buildings all over Europe, increasingly in other parts of the world and in the United States. What has happened that could create such a disconnect between the people who invested themselves and their communities to such an extent that buildings such as these could be raised at enormous cost and great effort, and the people of today?

The short answer is that secularism has resulted in this disconnect. And this disconnect is most clearly seen and felt in the failure of the traditional language of the Church to speak to the experience of people today.  The hypothesis of God is simply not needed by millions of people today in order to inhabit the institutions and roles of society. This secular self-understanding is quite at odds with much of the Church’s language and it is so difficult to deal with because it embodies axioms we do not even bother to question.  They are in the cultural air we breathe. And if you take a deep breath, in Venice, Italy or in Orange County, California, this is what you get:

First, life is the product of blind forces and blind chance. Natural forces are without mind and without purpose. Nothing is necessary. Everything is accidental. It is not hard to see how this cultural axiom conflicts profoundly with the Sunday morning confession, “I believe in God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth.” For six and and one half days a week we have to compartmentalize this belief in a Creator and then, on Sunday, confess one.

Second, you only go around once. This life is all you have. The good life is here and this is the only place you will find it. Massive amounts of wealth are deployed in the attempt to hang on to life for all we are worth. Death is the ultimate tragedy so we deny it as much as possible.  People don’t die, they ‘pass’. The dead are made to appear as if they are ‘sleeping’ or if that is too much we simply cremate the remains. Out of sight. out of mind.

Third, the language of absolutes is to be avoided. We must speak in the terms of relativism, opinions, climates, attitudes, feelings. No one is right.  It is the height of folly to make claims for absolute truth. Religion is privatized.  I just happen to be what I am by accident, because of the historical circumstances of my birth, etc.  In such a climate we are really quite unhappy with anything but pragmatic and temporary solutions. No one size fits all, please.

Fourth, you and I are on our own in the world. We make our own meaning. I’ll do it on my own if I can, in community with others if I must, but meaning is self-created.

With this cultural oxygen passing through our lungs, no wonder it’s easier to find people to serve as church treasurer or on the property committee than lead Bible studies. I can balance the checkbook and change a light bulb but how do I speak the language of God in such an environment?

For many today the churches are perceived as peripheral and irrelevant, where language speaks about a cult deity around whom a few people gather but not a God that necessarily must lead to the use of religious language that speaks meaningfully to all aspects of daily life.

(To be Continued)

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

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“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

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Large elements of our society have decided that generalizations and categorizing are heresies of the first order. God forbid that anyone or anything be lumped together in some broad, sweeping statement. Everyone and every thing is unique, beyond categorization. Really?

There is a book in my library which deals with Classical art. But the period of Classical art does not exist except in someone’s mind. Classical art is a category that is imposed on historical persons, sculptures, paintings, architecture and so forth. Classical art is a category because enough people have studied certain similarities and groupings have agreed upon the term. So, art and architectural historians generalize using the term ‘Classical’.

It is absurd to say we cannot generalize. We have to generalize and categorize. It is absolutely essential to human life.

I was standing in line at the grocery store the other day and standing in front of me was a man. There is no other person on earth who is exactly who he is but I looked at him and knew immediately he was a man and not a dog. I know he was a man because I have seen enough men and enough dogs to know the difference. I have some general categories with which to work and therefore I was able to conclude, with an extremely high degree of probability, that he was a man and not a dog.

The real issue is not that we categorize or generalize. The question is whether we do it well or badly. This brings me to the subject of today’s post; Christian doctrine.

There is a widespread impatience and weariness today (notice, I’m generalizing) with respect to doctrine. I have heard television preachers, for example, say with pride to large masses of approving listeners that they do not preach doctrine. They only preach the Bible. At which point they launch into sermons that are laced with doctrinal statements. This is dishonest, of course. It is impossible to speak of the faith without speaking doctrinally. This is simply an example of handling doctrine badly, of not “rightly handling the word of truth.”

There are three components of faith: knowledge, assent and trust. All three are important but must be handled with some care or we end up in the ditch. One ditch is to say that faith is only knowledge and assent. Certain sentences or propositions are laid out and if you agree you have faith.

Another ditch is to say that you just have faith. Down with doctrine! But faith in what? The Great Pumpkin? The Tooth Fairy? To claim faith without knowledge or assent is to begin faith within your own experience. And that can mean anything.

Christian faith or trust is based upon doctrine, that body of knowledge which the Church uses to give shape and content to trust, to faith. It is simply not enough to say that you have faith in Jesus. Which Jesus do you mean? The Jesus of David Koresh or Jim Jones or the Mormons?

The words we use to gather up the faith and hand it over are not the faith. Even our most important words, the Bible, out of which all doctrine is drawn, are not the faith.  I do not have faith in the two natures of Christ. I have faith in Jesus Christ, True God and True Man. I turn to the Bible, itself a collection of inspired, doctrinal confessions, to give content to Jesus, true God and True Man..

As the Church reflects upon the God of the Bible it categorizes the Bible’s witness into generalized statements regarding God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, sin, creation, the people of God, salvation and numerous other aspects of the faith. Christians do not always agree on these generalizations but they are important, necessary and essential.

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

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Jesus said to them, “Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.”

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A wise man once observed that people in the affluent western world are like a child sitting in the midst of puzzle pieces scattered on the floor all around. The child  picks up one piece after another, examines it, admires the shapes and colors but finally becomes frustrated and despondent because he has no conception of the whole. This is a picture of what is, perhaps, the greatest crisis of our time; the crisis of meaning.

Millions of people today, young people especially, live their lives in fragments. One experience or one moment is episodic, detached from a greater whole. The result of this meandering is a culture where neurosis is epidemic. Drugs, alcohol and a thousand other diversions are used to mask the sense of life’s ultimate meaninglessness. What does the Christian faith have to say to these who in one way or another are debilitated by hopelessness?

At the same time, many secular men and women are not doubled up with the cramps of meaninglessness. They seem to function with intellectual and moral integrity, keeping a stiff upper lip in the face of an essentially empty cosmos. This is what pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer meant when he observed that modern people have “come of age”. What does the Christian faith have to say to these who are doing just fine, thank you, and claim to have no need of it?

Many in the Christian Church in this country do sense this tidal wave of meaninglessness. For this cultural fragmentation can be seen in the churches as well.  But in far too many cases the response has been to close the blinds and retreat into legalism or fundamentalism where the church tinkers with the cultural conforming moral expectations of the middle class or cranks out institutional “how-to” programming while evacuating the religious substance of the faith. I suspect that the degree to which the churches fail to take seriously the depth of alienation and sin all around them is in direct proportion to the failure to consider these same things within themselves.

When Jesus spoke of the integrating power of God He spoke of the Kingdom of God, which is better translated, The ‘Rule’ or ‘Reign’ of God’. ‘ “The Kingdom of God has come near you”, he proclaimed. In Jesus Christ God has addressed the cognitive dissonance of meaning by reaffirming His gracious and determined commitment to the world. Years later, as Paul reflected on the faith, he came to see the Cross, the Crucified Christ as that great, integrating moment when all the alienations of this life were gathered up in God’s all-embracing mercy and grace.

If the Church is going to be a faithful witness to the Gospel in this time, we cannot afford to meet this crisis with indifference. We dare not close the blinds. What God has united on the Cross we have no right to separate. Which is to say, since Christ has died for ALL, all people are our concern. The mandate is simple. We are called to proclaim the reconciliation that is in Jesus and with some joy, too. For our mission is positive, proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the center and goal of world history.

So whether in dialog with the lost wanderer or the self-satisfied secularist, our goal is the same; to bear witness in all humanity and humility to that power of God, unleashed in the Gospel of Jesus the crucified One, that the world might believe, and in believing find reconciliation, coherence and purpose in Him.

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

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“The law and the prophets were until John: from that time the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and every man enters it violently.”

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 In the famous Heidelberg Disputation of 1518, Martin Luther set forward the following proposition;

 “A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls a thing what it actually is.”

Among the observations inherent in Luther’s statement is that the theology of glory lacks a basic integrity because it fails to tell the truth about our situation. We see this widespread phenomenon in much of televised American evangelical religion with its’ promises of comfort and painless prosperity if only we get an angry God off our backs and on our side by believing in Jesus. 

What Luther knew is that an inadequate proclamation of the truth results in this theology of self-deception. The theology of glory fails to acknowledge the historical priority of sin, and the resulting bondage, that is determinative of each generation. And this bondage is principally revealed, as Luther discovered, in the fact that we live under God upon whom we are utterly dependent and yet against whom we must struggle. This is our bondage. When the seriousness of our situation is side-stepped, therefore, there can be no real comfort. Even our religion becomes an enterprise in which are actually trying to be free of God. For what we are attempting to address is not God’s anger with us but our anger with God and God’s absolute claim upon our lives.

Jesus entered this ‘no-win’ situation. The terrible realization of the disciples is that they knew the crucified one could not be the Messiah, the Anointed One. Even after all their time with Him, they had not changed. Yet in the light of the Resurrection the stunning truth came upon them; a change had taken place in God. For the crucified Messiah could only mean that God had become sin for them.

The realization that we do not want God, that we construct numerous defenses against God, including religion, is what the theology of the cross exposes. In this respect it must do so violently because it moves in on territory that is already occupied by the sinner. This is why we see baptism not as a sign of some free choice but as the work of the Holy Spirit bringing to us, “violently”, the death to sin that  only  God can bring. In order for there to be new life there must be death to the old and that is the last thing we want.  That is why baptism must never be seen as some cute expression of religious culture. An actual death occurs and must occur so that the Christ may bring the new person forth on the other side.

The theology of the Cross bears witness to the Gospel not through slick marketing programs, side-show mega-churches or gun-point evangelicalism. The witness to the crucified and risen Lord emerges from within the truthfulness of a Christian community that is honest about its’ helplessness and bondage, relinquishes all claims, and confesses its’ utter dependency upon the grace and mercy of God.

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

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“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

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Johann Sebastian Bach is known for his mastery of the ‘fugue’, a musical form built around one, recurring theme. Bach’s  ‘Art  of the Fugue’  is a collection of brilliantly constructed fugues that exemplify the form. So much so that they can be played by virtually any instrumental combination with satisfying effect. These fugues can be quite complex. At the same time they never lose sight of that one, central theme.

Bach offers an insight into the nature and purpose of theology, of the Christian witness. Like the winding counterpoint of the fugue, the great theme of the Cross may be amplified in any number of voices. Indeed, it should be. But if that theme is broken or lost, the composition wanders aimlessly. The composition is disharmonious and ultimately pointless. 

One can sense today the widespread confusion regarding the Christian faith. There are many voices but the counterpoint often lacks harmony and focus. When the message of the Cross falls out of the center of the Christian witness disharmony results. St. Paul was among the first Christians that we know of to tap the podium in an effort to get the attention of the members of the orchestra who were wandering off into themes of their own making. He heard, as we can today, elements of the church that were losing their voice for the Cross. 

This is not to say that the Cross is not widely talked about today. But much of that talk “spins” the Cross to be a moment of divine identification with us poor victims of whatever injustice we feel has come upon us. Poor Jesus was a victim, too. So He can relate. He can identify with us and we with Him. But this is not the message of the cross. This is not the theme  The fact is that the Cross reveals that no one was interested in identifying with the gracious God in Jesus. He died alone and despised. “Weep not for me”, Jesus said,. “but for yourselves and your children.” 

This, then, is the great fugal theme of the faith. On the Cross God seals the exits so that there is only one way out. That way is the crucified and Risen Lord Himself. The Cross does not identify with us. It indicts us. At the same time, the great theme of the Cross rings with the sound of pure grace. “Father, forgive them”, he said. If the cross indicts us in our godlessness, even more does it reveal God precisely where He means to be found, in the suffering and dying Jesus where God moves against us and for us. 

The Cross is where the Truth is told, revealed, where God is known, where godless ones like you and me are brought to an end and invited, commanded to resin up our bows, break out the trumpets, xylophones, clarinets, electric guitars, kazoos or whatever voice we have and join the theme! Plumb it to the depths, soar to its’ heights with the madness and reckless abandon that can only come from those who know they are as good as dead, and yet so very much alive through our Crucified and Risen Lord!

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

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“So that the law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But now faith that is come, we are no longer under a tutor. For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ.”

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From the moment of our baptism God has held us in the spontaneous life of the Spirit. As sons and daughters we have been called to live freely in the Spirit, not under the law but by grace. The Christian faith has always struggled with this freedom. The New Testament itself grapples with it. Paul embraces this freedom with a frightening certainty. James seems to be hedging his bets. Has God given us in this freedom a load that is too much for us to bear?  Is the water too deep? That depends.

As the freedom of the gospel coaxes the Christian into deeper water the old sinner in us, standing comfortably in the shallows and equipped with the water wings of the law, immediately mounts a defense; ‘You just can’t do what you want!  God wants obedience after all! You have to do something to show God you have a serious faith!’ 

If freedom only serves to evoke this self conscious awareness of my lack of freedom, I will be tempted to turn to the Law for remediation, balance and security. And when I do I may discover a kind of relief being moored to the Law. I will find a kind of comfortable certainty there that freedom simply does not give. When the Christian lives this way, daring only to wade into the shallows of freedom, a little bit of freedom is all you get. The Church has stood in the shallows of freedom, wearing the water wings of the Law, for much of its history.

If my freedom, however, is informed not by fear and self-consciousness but by the Cross, something else happens. I am taken out of myself and taken up into the spontaneous life of Christ, where the only Law that is defining is the law of love. When the Cross is the starting and ending point of faith, Christ becomes the end of the law. I am able to remove the water wings of the law and plunge headlong into the deep waters of faith, hope and love, into the depths of the grace that by water and the word has set me free.

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

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“Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called,…”

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I once spoke with a war veteran who had been involved in the most intense combat. Memories of  hand to hand fighting, the unleashed fury of heavy bombardment, the carnage of the battlefield were vivid even after many years. He recalled a day when the fighting was so fierce and the bombardment so unrelenting that he was tempted to preserve himself and desert the battlefield. It was only the discipline of his training and loyalty to his fellow soldiers that made it possible for him to hold his position.

There is a kind of metaphor for living in this episode. Life is full of temptations to ‘abandon the battlefield’.  This has always been so but I cannot help but wonder if this is not a particular feature of our time. The twenty-four hour bad news cycle (which one person has called it)  keeps us mired in the latest skirmishes and conflicts – of every variety – all around the world. We are bombarded with an unbroken deluge of problems, great and small, day after day, most of which we can do nothing about.

In such an atmosphere, when many sense that life has become chaotic and unmanageable, the temptation can be to abandon the fray for the short-term goals of self-interest and self-preservation, by pursuing money, pleasure, power or simply retreating in Hobbit-like fashion to a place removed from conflict and turmoil, plugging their ears while others take up the fight.

The Christian is also faced with this great temptation. And there have been times in the history of God’s people when abandoning the battlefield’ has seemed the better way. One only has to think of the ancient desert fathers who retreated to caves and animal dens in an effort to flee the corruption of the world.

But the Christian dare not abandon life in these ways for to do so is tantamount to proclaiming that God has abandoned the world. Some simple disciplines can help.

First, along with exposure to the news, control your input by reading your Bible daily.  Beginning and ending your day with the Scriptures serves as a continuing reminder that God is always around. You can start and end the day by being reminded of the latest outrage or God’s great promises. The choice is yours.

Second, say your prayers. Even if your prayers are complaints, throw them to heaven. God hears even when no one else does. You are not in this fight alone.

Third, join others in worship. Worship is the gathering of your comrades in arms, where through the Word and sacraments we are equipped for spiritual warfare, given strength and assurance for the horizontal dimension of hope as we live in and engage the world for the kingdom. Worship is also a living metaphor that tips hope on its vertical axis, reminding us that we are a forever people, captured and held by the grace of our crucified and Risen Lord, destined for eternity. Worship lifts our eyes toward the larger vision.

Regular Bible reading, prayer and worship give the life of faith coherence, vision, joy, and that courage in Christ which resists the temptation to ‘abandon the battlefield’ of living.

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

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This post appeared Nov.22, 2012 on Pastor Mark’s blog

Now thank we all our God

The famous hymn of thanksgiving below was written by Martin Rinkart, a Lu­ther­an pastor who served his hometown of Eil­en­burg, Sax­o­ny, dur­ing the Thir­ty Years’ War. The walled ci­ty of Eil­en­burg saw a stea­dy stream of re­fu­gees pour through its gates. The Swed­ish ar­my sur­round­ed the ci­ty, and fa­mine and plague were ramp­ant. Eight hund­red homes were de­stroyed, and the peo­ple be­gan to per­ish. Pastor Rinkart’s wife was among the dead. There was a tre­men­dous strain on the pas­tors who had to con­duct do­zens of fun­er­als dai­ly. Fi­nal­ly, the pas­tors, too, suc­cumbed and Rink­art was the on­ly one left—doing 40-50 fun­er­als a day. When the Swedes de­mand­ed a huge ran­som, Rink­art left the safe­ty of the walls to plead for mer­cy. The Swed­ish com­mand­er, im­pressed by his faith and cour­age, low­ered his de­mands. When it was all over, 4,800 people had died.

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,

Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us

With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;

And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

 All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;

The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, whom earth and Heaven adore;

For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Martin Rinkart has left the world a story, and a hymn, that testify to the faith and joy that are deeper and more enduring than the passing shades of happiness, stronger than suffering and death. Martin was not able to do what he did because he was great. He carried the burdens of so many, together with his own – with joy and thanksgiving in his heart – because he had a great Lord.

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

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