I was pondering the other night, thinking about the mid-season/season finale of Caprica. (I cannot tell anymore if SyFy is going with a 13-episode season or a full 22-episode season broken up for winter and late summer.) It struck me that in the BSG story, every time the human civilization reaches the apex of "resurrection" belief the civilization comes crashing down. On Kobol, the Cylons had a belief in the resurrection, and some time after that a devastating war erupted between the lords of Kobol. It is unknown whether resurrection doctrine was intertwined in that. Then when the Cylons leave Kobol and form their own colony, as soon as the Five Cylons rediscover resurrection tech/doctrine, a civil war breaks out and their colony is destroyed. On ,,Caprica" a similar line is developing: resurrection doctrine is fast becoming a reality as two humans have transcended death. Caprica is on the verge of a two wars that will eventually destroy the 12 Colonies.
I am not sure what to make of this. In most religions, and especially in Christianity, the afterlife is seen as a good thing. The Christian concept of resurrection is understood as God's renewal of His fallen creation back to His original intent of purity and holiness. In the BSG world, it appears that the concept of the resurrection is a cause for mankind's destruction. Is BSG trying to put forward the ideal that belief in God, the gods, and a spiritual afterlife something that breeds war and strife? Is BSG focusing on the ideal that religion is the cause of all our problems? Is BSG trying to tackle the threat of terrorism and radical extremists by lumping all religious people into the same boat and saying, ,,Because you believe in God, you therefore are the cause of all suffering on this planet?" I am not sure. So far, there is no light at the end of the tunnel, just the foretelling of horrible destruction without any hope for something better. Perhaps we will see more as ,,Caprica" unfolds.
I miss the days of ,,Babylon 5" where JMS treated people of religious conviction fairly and without stereotypes.
Flags
Bayern, USA, Deutschland
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
More on Heilsgeschichte
Yesterday I was reading Dr. Horace Hummel's excellent book, The Word Becoming Flesh, looking up his references to Heilsgeschichte. While doing so, I came across some other wonderful, but neglected terms: Heilseschatologie(salvation eschatology), Heilsorakel (oracle of salvation),and Heilsprophetie (salvation prophecy).
Hummel made some powerful comments regarding the Minor Prophets. Perhaps more than any other prophet, Hosea is the prophet of Heilsgeschichte (The Word Becoming Flesh 297). The Prophet Habakkuk attacks the problem of evil more directly related to the themes of Heilsgeschichte (The Word Becoming Flesh351). Many times the Minor Prophets are overshadowed by the Major Prophets. Much emphasis is focused on Isaiah and his suffering Servant themes that are so predictive of the Christ. But Hummel points out that a number of the Minor Prophets unpack the Heilsgeschichte theme.
Dr. Horace Hummel rightly notes, "Heilsgeschichte (the term may be used very positively) does not first begin with Gen. 12, as critics commonly hold, but at Gen. 3:15, the ‘Protoevangelium.’" (The Word Becoming Flesh66). This statement is vitally important to understanding Heilsgeschichte. The LORD's salvation history does not begin with Abraham, but with Eve. Abraham and Genesis 12 are merely the next steps in God's unfolding plan to save fallen, sinful humanity, a plan which the LORD undertook at the very moment mankind fell into sin and rebellion. As such, Hummel is challenging the accepted theological approach of historical criticism that devalues Genesis 1-11 as nothing more than a small step above the pagan myths.
God's Heilsgeschichte theme winds its way throughout the Old Testament. Often it is hidden in the saving acts of Israel, quietly pointing to a future, more full saving act of the LORD's Christ. Other times it cries from the roof tops, as seen in Isaiah, Hosea, and Habakkuk. God's salvation history moves forward with each generation in the Old Testament until it finds fulfillment in the New Testament with the birth of Jesus who suffers on the cross for our forgiveness and is raised from the grave on Easter for our victory. The theme of salvation history continues to move forward with the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. On the last day, Christ will return and we will experience Heilsgeschichte in our resurrected bodies.
Hummel made some powerful comments regarding the Minor Prophets. Perhaps more than any other prophet, Hosea is the prophet of Heilsgeschichte (The Word Becoming Flesh 297). The Prophet Habakkuk attacks the problem of evil more directly related to the themes of Heilsgeschichte (The Word Becoming Flesh351). Many times the Minor Prophets are overshadowed by the Major Prophets. Much emphasis is focused on Isaiah and his suffering Servant themes that are so predictive of the Christ. But Hummel points out that a number of the Minor Prophets unpack the Heilsgeschichte theme.
Dr. Horace Hummel rightly notes, "Heilsgeschichte (the term may be used very positively) does not first begin with Gen. 12, as critics commonly hold, but at Gen. 3:15, the ‘Protoevangelium.’" (The Word Becoming Flesh66). This statement is vitally important to understanding Heilsgeschichte. The LORD's salvation history does not begin with Abraham, but with Eve. Abraham and Genesis 12 are merely the next steps in God's unfolding plan to save fallen, sinful humanity, a plan which the LORD undertook at the very moment mankind fell into sin and rebellion. As such, Hummel is challenging the accepted theological approach of historical criticism that devalues Genesis 1-11 as nothing more than a small step above the pagan myths.
God's Heilsgeschichte theme winds its way throughout the Old Testament. Often it is hidden in the saving acts of Israel, quietly pointing to a future, more full saving act of the LORD's Christ. Other times it cries from the roof tops, as seen in Isaiah, Hosea, and Habakkuk. God's salvation history moves forward with each generation in the Old Testament until it finds fulfillment in the New Testament with the birth of Jesus who suffers on the cross for our forgiveness and is raised from the grave on Easter for our victory. The theme of salvation history continues to move forward with the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. On the last day, Christ will return and we will experience Heilsgeschichte in our resurrected bodies.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Long-awaited internet search strikes gold!
For several years, I have been searching the internet for sermons preached by Wilhelm Loehe. This morning I found a book that Google Books scanned into their online library of Loehe's Gospel sermons. I took a brief look at it, and was happy to have found it. Even more difficult to find on the internet are English translations of Loehe's sermons.
The only challenge with Google's scan is that the book used the old German typescript, which, if you aren't familiar with it takes some work figuring out some of the letters. I haven't read German texts using the old typescript for some time, but after a few minutes it became more familiar.
I'm interested in reading Loehe's sermons. One website dedicated to him describes him as a preacher in the style of Martin Luther. Loehe was known to preach without notes, only writing his sermon down after he had preached it. This is much different from Norman Nagel's style of reading his sermon verbatim from the pulpit. Nevertheless, Nagel is a great preacher.
The only challenge with Google's scan is that the book used the old German typescript, which, if you aren't familiar with it takes some work figuring out some of the letters. I haven't read German texts using the old typescript for some time, but after a few minutes it became more familiar.
I'm interested in reading Loehe's sermons. One website dedicated to him describes him as a preacher in the style of Martin Luther. Loehe was known to preach without notes, only writing his sermon down after he had preached it. This is much different from Norman Nagel's style of reading his sermon verbatim from the pulpit. Nevertheless, Nagel is a great preacher.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Luke 2,1-5
A translation of a sermon I translated from German that was preached by my friend, Armin Wenz in Germany:
Christmas Eve – 24.12.2008 – Luke 2,1-5 – Oberursel – Armin Wenz
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken throughout the world. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was the governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the family and from the noble house of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and she was pregnant.
Dear congregation!
Christ, the Eternal Son of God, was born under the political laws of our world. These laws of the mighty ones on the Earth are valid. We need governments, which through laws fight against evil and promote the good, that with taxes they look after the streets and build schools.
Admittedly the mighty ones are also always tempted to misuse their power. Jesus had hardly been born, when King Herod attempted to kill Him, because he feared Jesus as a rival. And at the end of His earthly life, Pontius Pilatus handed Christ over to death, even though he had recognized Christ’s innocence.
The wheels of bureaucracy of the Roman Empire included almost the entire known world at the time of Jesus, this bureaucracy frames, so to speak, the life of Jesus of Nazareth. While His mother is pregnant with Him, His parents must travel to their ancestral home of Bethlehem in order to be registered in the census tax. And also the hour of His death is occupied by Roman bureaucrats.
So we see, therefore, that Jesus Christ is not any exception in this point. Also He ends up in the wheels of earthly bureaucracy. Also those who heard about His incarnation also. The Eternal Son of God is also fully whole and truly one of us.
However, dear congregation, solace and help give us this observation only, if we discover, that in reality the emperor in Rome does not pulls the strings, but the Father of Jesus Christ pulls the strings. Yes, in the end it is even so, that the emperor in Rome serves God with his bureaucracy, and also with this census.
And if one viewed the entire history of Jesus, then one notices that God not only put the emperor with his bureaucracy into His service puts, but also the action of the emperor is a parable for what God in Christ is doing for mankind.
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, so the Prophets had proclaimed Him in the Old Testament, is born in Bethlehem, the city of David’s birth.
Long before the decree of the emperor went out, God had already decreed in the Old Testament: The Savior will be born in Bethlehem. And this decree of the emperor in Rome – without knowing it – serves God, in that he ordered the census.
So the imperial heralds are sent out, who requested that the people go to their home towns. Everyone should comprehend, so that the mighty power of the empire is apparent.
The Heavenly Father also sent out heralds. However, He did not send them into all the world, but only to a few chosen people. To the magi, He sent the star. To the shepherds He sent the angel. These heralds also invite the people, to set out for a journey. God’s heralds, however, did not send the people to their earthly, ancestral homes, but they sent them to the Child in the manger.
Fear not! Behold, I proclaim to you a great joy, that will be for all people; for to you, today, the Savior has been born, who is Christ the Lord, in city of David.
The Savior, says the angel, the Savior has been born. The Roman emperor also claimed for himself the title ,,savior“. Yes, he claimed that he had brought peace to the whole world peace, in that he forced all people under his control. If the angels now describe Jesus as the Savior, then put in there that clear indication of God:
Dear shepherds! Dear people of all times! Your Savior doesn’t sit in the palaces of capital cities. These sovereigns are only servants of God who shall provide for it, that it on Earth moderately approaches civilian/civil. However, they are not your savior: they guarantee neither your health nor your life-happiness and certainly not your eternal salvation.
You want to find your Savior, like the magi and the shepherds do, so approach the Child in the manger. And hear, that through this Child you can also be My people. Whoever has been baptized in the Name of this Child, that person is registered in heaven, that person’s name is written into the book of the life. That person gets civil rights with God’s heaven for all eternity.
Therefore Baptism is like that census. The preaching of the gospel and Baptism give Christ and His resurrection a world-wide census. Christ sends out His heralds who preach His Word and baptize in His Name. People become so registered as children of God.
This registration is not the first route of an obligation for people, as the emperor’s census-tax was, but it is a privilege. Has registered us as God’s children, so we have the right to call upon the Heavenly Father directly. So we have the right to receive at any time Jesus Christ’s gifts of salvation, which we get through our faith in Him: to hear His Word and to receive His Sacraments.
This faith is the type and means, how we take our claim in the heavenly civil rights.
Therefore, whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. So says Christ, and He adds: But whoever does not believe will be damned.
Therefore, whoever does not come to Jesus and abide in Him like the shepherds did, that person gives up his civil rights. God does not force us, but He invites us.
And although it was a clear, little flock that assembled themselves around the manger in Bethlehem, this flock continues to grow to the present day, so that they are more numerous than the inhabitants of the Roman Empire ever were.
The Roman Empire goes the way of all empires. The only empire of this world that will not go under, is God’s empire that founded upon and built upon Jesus Christ, this empire, that has called everyone, who hear the Christmas gospel.
Therefore, you dear birthday-guests of the Savior Jesus Christ, if we in our life here and there complain about the many bureaucracies in our land, if we register here and there must report: Lets us not forget that in reality a different regiment is in place that is far better than the power of the politician.
And lets us not forget also that Mary and Joseph and Christ themselves were commissioned to register births and deaths with the earthly authorities.
Also that has however only serve God’s goals in heaven and with also goes, that we
through the work of salvation of the Savior win that heavenly civil rights, that we had lost based on our sin.
Therefore, dear Christian, do it as a grateful, good citizen of the heavenly empire: use the
privileges that bring you to the Child in the manger. The voice of one in that praise of the angel, when the world sings a song of sorrow, the praise the shepherds and the magi.
Then the degree of the emperor put the whole world in motion. For centuries the gospel of Jesus Christ put all people of men in motion. It may that it in these parts there are fewer people, because many people only view Jesus as folklore and ornamentation, but not as
Savior and King, with the gift that they live forever.
But on the whole the Roman Empire does not see, and not even the greatest in Germany or Europe see, that has seen and will see mankind, but that flock of people who are described in the Revelation of John, where he calls out:
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! (7,9-10).
But the Lamb of God is He who came to the world in the manger at Bethlehem, who on the cross at Golgotha laid down His life for the sin of the world. He has risen, He lives, and is returning again on the last day, appearing to open the door of heaven.
He is not like folklore and ornament like the Halloween pumpkins or the Easter bunny, that is put up today and tomorrow is cleared away, but He is the Lord and Judge of the world, to those He mercifully meets, who believe in Him.
He alone is the Savior and no one else, He calls you and me to Him. Blessed is everyone, who hears His Name and along with the shepherds adore Him all their life. Amen.
Christmas Eve – 24.12.2008 – Luke 2,1-5 – Oberursel – Armin Wenz
Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken throughout the world. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was the governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the family and from the noble house of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and she was pregnant.
Dear congregation!
Christ, the Eternal Son of God, was born under the political laws of our world. These laws of the mighty ones on the Earth are valid. We need governments, which through laws fight against evil and promote the good, that with taxes they look after the streets and build schools.
Admittedly the mighty ones are also always tempted to misuse their power. Jesus had hardly been born, when King Herod attempted to kill Him, because he feared Jesus as a rival. And at the end of His earthly life, Pontius Pilatus handed Christ over to death, even though he had recognized Christ’s innocence.
The wheels of bureaucracy of the Roman Empire included almost the entire known world at the time of Jesus, this bureaucracy frames, so to speak, the life of Jesus of Nazareth. While His mother is pregnant with Him, His parents must travel to their ancestral home of Bethlehem in order to be registered in the census tax. And also the hour of His death is occupied by Roman bureaucrats.
So we see, therefore, that Jesus Christ is not any exception in this point. Also He ends up in the wheels of earthly bureaucracy. Also those who heard about His incarnation also. The Eternal Son of God is also fully whole and truly one of us.
However, dear congregation, solace and help give us this observation only, if we discover, that in reality the emperor in Rome does not pulls the strings, but the Father of Jesus Christ pulls the strings. Yes, in the end it is even so, that the emperor in Rome serves God with his bureaucracy, and also with this census.
And if one viewed the entire history of Jesus, then one notices that God not only put the emperor with his bureaucracy into His service puts, but also the action of the emperor is a parable for what God in Christ is doing for mankind.
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, so the Prophets had proclaimed Him in the Old Testament, is born in Bethlehem, the city of David’s birth.
Long before the decree of the emperor went out, God had already decreed in the Old Testament: The Savior will be born in Bethlehem. And this decree of the emperor in Rome – without knowing it – serves God, in that he ordered the census.
So the imperial heralds are sent out, who requested that the people go to their home towns. Everyone should comprehend, so that the mighty power of the empire is apparent.
The Heavenly Father also sent out heralds. However, He did not send them into all the world, but only to a few chosen people. To the magi, He sent the star. To the shepherds He sent the angel. These heralds also invite the people, to set out for a journey. God’s heralds, however, did not send the people to their earthly, ancestral homes, but they sent them to the Child in the manger.
Fear not! Behold, I proclaim to you a great joy, that will be for all people; for to you, today, the Savior has been born, who is Christ the Lord, in city of David.
The Savior, says the angel, the Savior has been born. The Roman emperor also claimed for himself the title ,,savior“. Yes, he claimed that he had brought peace to the whole world peace, in that he forced all people under his control. If the angels now describe Jesus as the Savior, then put in there that clear indication of God:
Dear shepherds! Dear people of all times! Your Savior doesn’t sit in the palaces of capital cities. These sovereigns are only servants of God who shall provide for it, that it on Earth moderately approaches civilian/civil. However, they are not your savior: they guarantee neither your health nor your life-happiness and certainly not your eternal salvation.
You want to find your Savior, like the magi and the shepherds do, so approach the Child in the manger. And hear, that through this Child you can also be My people. Whoever has been baptized in the Name of this Child, that person is registered in heaven, that person’s name is written into the book of the life. That person gets civil rights with God’s heaven for all eternity.
Therefore Baptism is like that census. The preaching of the gospel and Baptism give Christ and His resurrection a world-wide census. Christ sends out His heralds who preach His Word and baptize in His Name. People become so registered as children of God.
This registration is not the first route of an obligation for people, as the emperor’s census-tax was, but it is a privilege. Has registered us as God’s children, so we have the right to call upon the Heavenly Father directly. So we have the right to receive at any time Jesus Christ’s gifts of salvation, which we get through our faith in Him: to hear His Word and to receive His Sacraments.
This faith is the type and means, how we take our claim in the heavenly civil rights.
Therefore, whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. So says Christ, and He adds: But whoever does not believe will be damned.
Therefore, whoever does not come to Jesus and abide in Him like the shepherds did, that person gives up his civil rights. God does not force us, but He invites us.
And although it was a clear, little flock that assembled themselves around the manger in Bethlehem, this flock continues to grow to the present day, so that they are more numerous than the inhabitants of the Roman Empire ever were.
The Roman Empire goes the way of all empires. The only empire of this world that will not go under, is God’s empire that founded upon and built upon Jesus Christ, this empire, that has called everyone, who hear the Christmas gospel.
Therefore, you dear birthday-guests of the Savior Jesus Christ, if we in our life here and there complain about the many bureaucracies in our land, if we register here and there must report: Lets us not forget that in reality a different regiment is in place that is far better than the power of the politician.
And lets us not forget also that Mary and Joseph and Christ themselves were commissioned to register births and deaths with the earthly authorities.
Also that has however only serve God’s goals in heaven and with also goes, that we
through the work of salvation of the Savior win that heavenly civil rights, that we had lost based on our sin.
Therefore, dear Christian, do it as a grateful, good citizen of the heavenly empire: use the
privileges that bring you to the Child in the manger. The voice of one in that praise of the angel, when the world sings a song of sorrow, the praise the shepherds and the magi.
Then the degree of the emperor put the whole world in motion. For centuries the gospel of Jesus Christ put all people of men in motion. It may that it in these parts there are fewer people, because many people only view Jesus as folklore and ornamentation, but not as
Savior and King, with the gift that they live forever.
But on the whole the Roman Empire does not see, and not even the greatest in Germany or Europe see, that has seen and will see mankind, but that flock of people who are described in the Revelation of John, where he calls out:
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! (7,9-10).
But the Lamb of God is He who came to the world in the manger at Bethlehem, who on the cross at Golgotha laid down His life for the sin of the world. He has risen, He lives, and is returning again on the last day, appearing to open the door of heaven.
He is not like folklore and ornament like the Halloween pumpkins or the Easter bunny, that is put up today and tomorrow is cleared away, but He is the Lord and Judge of the world, to those He mercifully meets, who believe in Him.
He alone is the Savior and no one else, He calls you and me to Him. Blessed is everyone, who hears His Name and along with the shepherds adore Him all their life. Amen.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Liturgical Calendar
While doing some research on the German liturgical day "A Day of Repentance and Prayer" I recalled the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Bavaria website. They have a well-done liturgical calendar in Adobe Flash Player. It also has some soothing atmospheric music to listen to.
Historic Liturgical Calendar
I've been having an annual Day of Repentance and Prayer for about ten years. Traditionally it is on the Wednesday prior to the Last Sunday of the Church year. I move it to the previous Sunday, using the 2nd to Last Sunday in the Church year as a Day of Repentance and Prayer. The new LSB hymnal has propers for this day, and I have used those in the past, but I usually prefer the historic readings and propers.
Historic Liturgical Calendar
I've been having an annual Day of Repentance and Prayer for about ten years. Traditionally it is on the Wednesday prior to the Last Sunday of the Church year. I move it to the previous Sunday, using the 2nd to Last Sunday in the Church year as a Day of Repentance and Prayer. The new LSB hymnal has propers for this day, and I have used those in the past, but I usually prefer the historic readings and propers.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
A Reformation sermon from my friend Rev. Armin Wenz
Reformation Festival - 31.10.2006 - Galatians 5,1-6 - Oberursel- Armin Wenz
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
Dear congregation!
,,The Open Society and their Enemies,” is the title of a book by the English philosopher Charles Popper. Inside the scholar sits apart with the enemies of freedom on a political level. Since freedom is a lofty estate, it is necessary, always again to truly engage and repel what endangers freedom.
It is a hallmark of dictators, that they lull the people while they say: ,,Simply trust us with your needs; do not be concerned about the risk to your freedom.” In the Church, one also encounters this under the devout clothing, when the impression is awakened, that whoever shall warn against heresies that alter the gospel must not have any faith in God.
Paul and Martin Luther proceeded differently. For they heard the mission-task of the Lord Christ to His Church to faithfully teach only the gospel. And furthermore Paul and Luther were uncompromising in their quarrels against the enemies of the freedom of the gospel in the Church.
The Reformation thereby came about when Luther, charging through the holy Scriptures, calls out to the Church of his time, about the same sorrowful temptations he had experienced: You have lost Christ. Like Paul, Luther was not arbitrary with his unrelenting criticism, but reminded them about the reason of salvation for the lost: For freedom we have been released by Christ!
Reformation, therefore, means: Discovering again the freedom that we have from Christ as a gift. Reformation means: Discovering again Jesus Christ and His salvation. If the Son now sets you free, then you really are free; so says Jesus in John’s Gospel (8,36).
There rings with that freedom that Christ gives it as a present or gift, and it must not be added to. Freedom is lost to us if we attempt to obtain it through our own mighty works instead of receiving the gift. Whoever the Son has made free, he is really free.
Luther has summarized it with the famous solus Christus - Christ alone. He alone is the reason of our salvation and our freedom. However, adversaries surely then arise who endanger this freedom, in that they want to add to the work of Christ.
Against these enemies of freedom, Paul holds firm about a certain salvation, that we can only have salvation in Christ, if He alone comes to us by grace. And secondly he remains firm against the enemies of freedom, that we can receive the salvation in Christ alone by faith. With the Latin phrases it says: The solus Christus is inseparable from the sola gratia, that is: by grace alone, and likewise it is inseparable from the sola fide, that is: faith alone.
We come to the first argument of Paul against the enemies of freedom: Solus Christus stands only if sola gratia stands. That is: The salvation of Jesus Christ for us is grace and nothing but grace. Paul cries out to these same Galatians: You have Christ lost; you have fallen from grace.
What brings the apostle to speak these piercing words? It is the piety of the Galatians that has brought them to this serious danger. The Galatians had not all of a sudden reversed and become atheists. In the end, one must take ,,by faith” seriously.
Christ has released us from the yoke of sin and death. They believed that also. However they experienced just as we do that sin and death are still a painful reality. This is the temptation.
Was the sin really forgiven if you must still ask for forgiveness? Was one now really a child of God with eternal life when you still had to suffer painful sickness and death?
What could be more appropriate than the visible signs of faith which help his own deeds? Jesus, however, had been a Jew. And Christians should nevertheless model their lives after Him. If it was so difficult to live as righteous and holy as He could, then at least one could let himself be circumcised.
Such regulations like the law of the circumcision can at least clearly redeem someone. If one is circumcised, then one has, so to speak, a mark of certainty on his body. What’s the objection? Paul doesn’t exaggerate here, when he exclaims: If you allow yourselves to be circumcised, then Christ will be of no use to you? For Paul, freedom is at stake here. You have lost Christ, if you want to be justified through the law, and you have fallen from grace.
He says that you cannot secure freedom by your own power and discretion. You may not help Christ. Whomever Christ has made free, is completely free; no additional mark of this freedom is needed, for Christ is the proof of this freedom.
Do not put on again the yoke of slavery! What does this mean for us? What does this mean for us, when we waver, become uncertain, and before long we are unsure whether we really belong to God? The question is then: Where do we look for help?
The answer to these questions is clear when Paul says, either you are looking for your salvation in Christ alone, or you have lost Christ. In medicine, many diseases simultaneously need different medications and treatment methods. Not so with freedom.
The answer to the question: ,,Who will I call on to help me when my faith wavers?” is: Christ alone. As soon as we join Christ ,,and” fill-in-the-blank, then we have lost our freedom and will become enslaved. Such examples of this enslavement are: Christ and circumcision or Christ and Buddha, Christ and the Anthroposophy#, Christ and my holiness, Christ and my good works, Christ and my sacrificial life to family and career.
The whole system of relics and the countless works of penance in the Middle Ages go back to this desire of the Christian to reassure himself by imagining that God approves of me, and He does so rightly. Anyone can see it, because I have obtained it.
Luther’s Reformation turned itself against this mania beginning with his 95 Theses against indulgences. Whoever grounds his freedom and Christianity on own performances or on the performances of others, builds on sand. Why must Christ die, if we can achieve freedom with our works? Christ wants to give away His freedom, but if we want to even partially obtain this freedom by our own works, then aren’t we guilty of making Christ a liar?
Grace is not a measurable thing, that we can supplement or multiply. The grace of God in Christ is rather our recent acquittal in the court by virtue of the power of Baptism, because Christ bears eternal death for us and we have been reconciled with God. And that works itself also out of the question, how we properly receive the grace of Christ.
Again, the solus Christus, that is ,,Christ alone” shall not be encroached upon. Therefore, the second argument of the apostle against the enemies of freedom is: Solus Christus stands only if grace alone is received by faith.
For what applies for grace also applies for faith: it is not a work of the people, by which we complete or supplement God’s work or make it valid for us, but faith is entirely and truly a gift of Jesus Christ through the proclamation. In the third chapter Paul asks the Galatians: I just want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the preaching of faith? (3,2) As the acquittal stands by grace alone, so also faith as a gift of the Spirit is contrary to any notion that we are justified by the law.
This justification, which you still miss and cannot see, says Paul, is not fabricated through your chosen works, but by trusting on it, that God will accomplish what He has begun in you, as He has planted the seed of the word God into your hearts. Therefore he says: We wait in a spirit of faith for the justification on which we must hope.
We are completely justified for Christ’s sake, because He has acquitted us from our sin. At the same time, our justification is still hidden, it still waxes, because we repeatedly fall into sin. But in such situations our works don’t compensate, but our only help is that we take refuge in Jesus, receive His Absolution, and strengthen our faith through His holy meal.
The life from the Sacraments and from the proclamation is the only right answer for all temptations and doubts. It is no wonder that when the works of man and the pride in them become important, then one gives little respect to the work of God in preaching and the Sacraments. But this was exactly the situation that Luther interrupts at the end of the Middle Ages. Only in the intense life from God’s Word and Christ’s Sacraments do we remain in freedom, because we only receive Christ’s grace. The freedom must always be received anew and strengthened by the rescuer.
The tension is over now, so that only the right fulfillment of the law in the form of love becomes possible in us. Because if I am exempt from the necessity to achieve my salvation, then Christ makes me free to love the neighbor. I must now no longer devote my life’s strength to the purchase of my salvation. Circumcision is not necessary; an indulgence is not necessary. I must no longer be like a humming-top that is only spinning around for myself. So I find time and freedom in the works of life, that I don’t do so I will be saved, but I do them because I am saved and I want my neighbors to also find and experience this freedom.
Just as by faith, we put our hope in God alone and our relationship to God is repaired, so also faith that is active in love repairs the damage of our relationship to our neighbors.
The soul breathes because it is free from the coercion that it must continually prove something before God and the world, just what it always means, that we believe that we are obedient to God and man. With Christ’s forgiveness and grace, a person therefore also gladly and freely gives to the neighbor so that he can also breathe, in that he grants forgiveness and love to him, he also gladly gives everything as a gift, just as what he has received from God.
Luther had uniquely described this life of Christian freedom as: ,,The Christian lives in Christ by faith, and lives in the neighbor by love. By faith he runs to God, and from God he runs again by love and remains always in God and divine love. This Christian freedom, which makes the heart free, surpasses all other freedoms, just as heaven surpasses the earth.” Amen.
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
Dear congregation!
,,The Open Society and their Enemies,” is the title of a book by the English philosopher Charles Popper. Inside the scholar sits apart with the enemies of freedom on a political level. Since freedom is a lofty estate, it is necessary, always again to truly engage and repel what endangers freedom.
It is a hallmark of dictators, that they lull the people while they say: ,,Simply trust us with your needs; do not be concerned about the risk to your freedom.” In the Church, one also encounters this under the devout clothing, when the impression is awakened, that whoever shall warn against heresies that alter the gospel must not have any faith in God.
Paul and Martin Luther proceeded differently. For they heard the mission-task of the Lord Christ to His Church to faithfully teach only the gospel. And furthermore Paul and Luther were uncompromising in their quarrels against the enemies of the freedom of the gospel in the Church.
The Reformation thereby came about when Luther, charging through the holy Scriptures, calls out to the Church of his time, about the same sorrowful temptations he had experienced: You have lost Christ. Like Paul, Luther was not arbitrary with his unrelenting criticism, but reminded them about the reason of salvation for the lost: For freedom we have been released by Christ!
Reformation, therefore, means: Discovering again the freedom that we have from Christ as a gift. Reformation means: Discovering again Jesus Christ and His salvation. If the Son now sets you free, then you really are free; so says Jesus in John’s Gospel (8,36).
There rings with that freedom that Christ gives it as a present or gift, and it must not be added to. Freedom is lost to us if we attempt to obtain it through our own mighty works instead of receiving the gift. Whoever the Son has made free, he is really free.
Luther has summarized it with the famous solus Christus - Christ alone. He alone is the reason of our salvation and our freedom. However, adversaries surely then arise who endanger this freedom, in that they want to add to the work of Christ.
Against these enemies of freedom, Paul holds firm about a certain salvation, that we can only have salvation in Christ, if He alone comes to us by grace. And secondly he remains firm against the enemies of freedom, that we can receive the salvation in Christ alone by faith. With the Latin phrases it says: The solus Christus is inseparable from the sola gratia, that is: by grace alone, and likewise it is inseparable from the sola fide, that is: faith alone.
We come to the first argument of Paul against the enemies of freedom: Solus Christus stands only if sola gratia stands. That is: The salvation of Jesus Christ for us is grace and nothing but grace. Paul cries out to these same Galatians: You have Christ lost; you have fallen from grace.
What brings the apostle to speak these piercing words? It is the piety of the Galatians that has brought them to this serious danger. The Galatians had not all of a sudden reversed and become atheists. In the end, one must take ,,by faith” seriously.
Christ has released us from the yoke of sin and death. They believed that also. However they experienced just as we do that sin and death are still a painful reality. This is the temptation.
Was the sin really forgiven if you must still ask for forgiveness? Was one now really a child of God with eternal life when you still had to suffer painful sickness and death?
What could be more appropriate than the visible signs of faith which help his own deeds? Jesus, however, had been a Jew. And Christians should nevertheless model their lives after Him. If it was so difficult to live as righteous and holy as He could, then at least one could let himself be circumcised.
Such regulations like the law of the circumcision can at least clearly redeem someone. If one is circumcised, then one has, so to speak, a mark of certainty on his body. What’s the objection? Paul doesn’t exaggerate here, when he exclaims: If you allow yourselves to be circumcised, then Christ will be of no use to you? For Paul, freedom is at stake here. You have lost Christ, if you want to be justified through the law, and you have fallen from grace.
He says that you cannot secure freedom by your own power and discretion. You may not help Christ. Whomever Christ has made free, is completely free; no additional mark of this freedom is needed, for Christ is the proof of this freedom.
Do not put on again the yoke of slavery! What does this mean for us? What does this mean for us, when we waver, become uncertain, and before long we are unsure whether we really belong to God? The question is then: Where do we look for help?
The answer to these questions is clear when Paul says, either you are looking for your salvation in Christ alone, or you have lost Christ. In medicine, many diseases simultaneously need different medications and treatment methods. Not so with freedom.
The answer to the question: ,,Who will I call on to help me when my faith wavers?” is: Christ alone. As soon as we join Christ ,,and” fill-in-the-blank, then we have lost our freedom and will become enslaved. Such examples of this enslavement are: Christ and circumcision or Christ and Buddha, Christ and the Anthroposophy#, Christ and my holiness, Christ and my good works, Christ and my sacrificial life to family and career.
The whole system of relics and the countless works of penance in the Middle Ages go back to this desire of the Christian to reassure himself by imagining that God approves of me, and He does so rightly. Anyone can see it, because I have obtained it.
Luther’s Reformation turned itself against this mania beginning with his 95 Theses against indulgences. Whoever grounds his freedom and Christianity on own performances or on the performances of others, builds on sand. Why must Christ die, if we can achieve freedom with our works? Christ wants to give away His freedom, but if we want to even partially obtain this freedom by our own works, then aren’t we guilty of making Christ a liar?
Grace is not a measurable thing, that we can supplement or multiply. The grace of God in Christ is rather our recent acquittal in the court by virtue of the power of Baptism, because Christ bears eternal death for us and we have been reconciled with God. And that works itself also out of the question, how we properly receive the grace of Christ.
Again, the solus Christus, that is ,,Christ alone” shall not be encroached upon. Therefore, the second argument of the apostle against the enemies of freedom is: Solus Christus stands only if grace alone is received by faith.
For what applies for grace also applies for faith: it is not a work of the people, by which we complete or supplement God’s work or make it valid for us, but faith is entirely and truly a gift of Jesus Christ through the proclamation. In the third chapter Paul asks the Galatians: I just want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the preaching of faith? (3,2) As the acquittal stands by grace alone, so also faith as a gift of the Spirit is contrary to any notion that we are justified by the law.
This justification, which you still miss and cannot see, says Paul, is not fabricated through your chosen works, but by trusting on it, that God will accomplish what He has begun in you, as He has planted the seed of the word God into your hearts. Therefore he says: We wait in a spirit of faith for the justification on which we must hope.
We are completely justified for Christ’s sake, because He has acquitted us from our sin. At the same time, our justification is still hidden, it still waxes, because we repeatedly fall into sin. But in such situations our works don’t compensate, but our only help is that we take refuge in Jesus, receive His Absolution, and strengthen our faith through His holy meal.
The life from the Sacraments and from the proclamation is the only right answer for all temptations and doubts. It is no wonder that when the works of man and the pride in them become important, then one gives little respect to the work of God in preaching and the Sacraments. But this was exactly the situation that Luther interrupts at the end of the Middle Ages. Only in the intense life from God’s Word and Christ’s Sacraments do we remain in freedom, because we only receive Christ’s grace. The freedom must always be received anew and strengthened by the rescuer.
The tension is over now, so that only the right fulfillment of the law in the form of love becomes possible in us. Because if I am exempt from the necessity to achieve my salvation, then Christ makes me free to love the neighbor. I must now no longer devote my life’s strength to the purchase of my salvation. Circumcision is not necessary; an indulgence is not necessary. I must no longer be like a humming-top that is only spinning around for myself. So I find time and freedom in the works of life, that I don’t do so I will be saved, but I do them because I am saved and I want my neighbors to also find and experience this freedom.
Just as by faith, we put our hope in God alone and our relationship to God is repaired, so also faith that is active in love repairs the damage of our relationship to our neighbors.
The soul breathes because it is free from the coercion that it must continually prove something before God and the world, just what it always means, that we believe that we are obedient to God and man. With Christ’s forgiveness and grace, a person therefore also gladly and freely gives to the neighbor so that he can also breathe, in that he grants forgiveness and love to him, he also gladly gives everything as a gift, just as what he has received from God.
Luther had uniquely described this life of Christian freedom as: ,,The Christian lives in Christ by faith, and lives in the neighbor by love. By faith he runs to God, and from God he runs again by love and remains always in God and divine love. This Christian freedom, which makes the heart free, surpasses all other freedoms, just as heaven surpasses the earth.” Amen.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
American commentator re. the recent German elections
The Coalition of the (Sort of) Willing
This is a fine article, but there is more that could be said. It should be noted that the CDU/CSU and the FDP have been coalition partners before over the years, and yes, they are the preferred partners among their parties. This could have been more strongly stated and developed in the article. Also, the left parties, Die Link and the Green Parties, along with the FDP all made sizeable gains in the election and the Bundestag (all getting over 10% of the vote).
Finally, recent European elections should serve as a wake-up call to the United States as we ponder socializing our health care even further. France, Germany, and the European Parliament have moved away from Socialist parties and formed more free market capitalist governments. Although Europe is still quite Socialist, there is a trend to move in a more free market direction (the FDP's centerpiece), especially concerning what to do about socialized health care. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, these countries make regarding reforming their burdensome health care costs. Other observers think Britain may also dump Labour and go with a more conservative/free market party in their next election.
This is a fine article, but there is more that could be said. It should be noted that the CDU/CSU and the FDP have been coalition partners before over the years, and yes, they are the preferred partners among their parties. This could have been more strongly stated and developed in the article. Also, the left parties, Die Link and the Green Parties, along with the FDP all made sizeable gains in the election and the Bundestag (all getting over 10% of the vote).
Finally, recent European elections should serve as a wake-up call to the United States as we ponder socializing our health care even further. France, Germany, and the European Parliament have moved away from Socialist parties and formed more free market capitalist governments. Although Europe is still quite Socialist, there is a trend to move in a more free market direction (the FDP's centerpiece), especially concerning what to do about socialized health care. It will be interesting to see what changes, if any, these countries make regarding reforming their burdensome health care costs. Other observers think Britain may also dump Labour and go with a more conservative/free market party in their next election.
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