Trinity 17 Sermon

 

    So here is the question for today. Where does your righteousness come from? Where does your salvation, the fact that you are a Christian come from? Is it because you are a good person, or is it from God? Are you righteous because of what you do or because of what God does? Are you a Christian because you are good little person, or are you a Christian because of what Christ has done for you? I say that this is the question for today because this is actually the matter in doubt in our text. The Pharisees are there, watching Jesus. They think they know what makes a person righteous – and they assume it is obedience to the law – if I do good then I really am a good little boy. Jesus disabuses them of this notion, and corrects them and us today as well, if those thoughts had been creeping into our head. Let us look at our text and ponder again the love the Jesus shows us.

    One Sabbath, when He went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching Him carefully. And behold, there was a man before Him who had dropsy. So here’s the situation. It’s a Sabbath – the day of rest, the day where no work was to be done. And Jesus is over at a Pharisee’s house – and it just so happens that there is a man there who has dropsy. And this man doesn’t belong there – he’s not a Pharisee, he doesn’t live in the house. In fact, Jesus is going to send him away after He’s done healing him. It’s all just a test. The Pharisees are watching Jesus closely, waiting to see what He will do.

    We know that you aren’t supposed to test God. We see what the Pharisees have done, how they have set up Jesus, and we think, “That’s kind of rotten.” Yet, do we often put God to the test? Do we often make demands of God, even just in our minds, in our thoughts. When we pray, do we pray “Thy Will Be Done” or do we grouse about what we haven’t gotten and think, “Lord, why don’t You do this? Why do I deserve these things in my life?” That’s putting the Lord to the test. That’s telling God how He should be God. It can creep into our lives on occasion, so do be wary of this attitude. Anyway, let us continue in the text.

    And Jesus responded to the Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then He took him and healed him and sent him away. Is it lawful? Is it okay? If I do this healing, if I show love to this man right now that you have set before me, will you think I am evil? This is the question that Jesus asks of the Pharisees. What makes you a “good” person? Is it the fact that you follow the law? Is that why you think you are good people, oh Pharisees? But they say nothing. Nothing in response. And Jesus does what Jesus always does – He gives healing. This shouldn’t surprise us, and it shouldn’t have surprised the Pharisees either. Jesus is not focused on proving Himself to be good, but rather on showing love. And this He does to this man. Jesus speaks and he is healed, relieved of His suffering, relieved of His affliction.

    Dear friends – never fall into the trap of thinking that what you do makes you a good person. Those ideas are simply the whispers of Satan hanging around you. The Law will never make you righteous. Why? First, it is too late for that. You’ve already sinned. You can’t fulfill the law. You were even born in iniquity. In sin my mother bore me, as the old hymns goes. No good that any of us does will remove our sin. The law doesn’t make us righteous. Second – the law is simply what we are supposed to do anyway. Why would doing it make us “good”? If I simply do the things that I am supposed to do, why would that be praise worthy? When I was young, one of my chores was the fill the ice cube trays. If I filled the ice cube trays – which I often actually failed to do – did that make me good? No. I simply did what was asked of me. In fact, quite a few of you who grew up on the farm probably thought – “Filling the ice cube trays was a chore? What kind of chore was that? Where’s the milking or feeding the animals – those are chores.” All of our works, all the things that we do are actually quite small before God and simply what we are supposed to do anyway. They don’t earn us any brownie points with God.

    And the thing is, we don’t need to earn Brownie points with God. And He said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things. There’s the description of you. You are a little kid that has wandered off and fallen into a well – you are a dumb old ox that has gotten where it shouldn’t be. That’s a pretty good description of our sinful life, isn’t it? Us getting into trouble over and over again. But this is our comfort. That Christ Jesus is not content to leave us in peril or distress, but rescues us from all sin and from all evil. And how? You know the answer – I’m going to be pointing to the Cross. Jesus’ death rescues us from sin. But how does it do so? Here is how. We, you and I, are sinners. Plain and simple. This means we lack righteousness – we are not righteous of ourselves. If you aren’t righteous, you can’t be with God. God is Just. God must punish sin. Plain and simple, that’s the way that it is. If you are unrighteous, punishment must be made. This is what happened on the Cross. Jesus took the punishment for your sin. God is Just and sin is punished. Your sin has already been punished, the penalty has been paid for what you have done. In fact, every sin has been paid for, every sin of every person in all times, paid for by Christ.

    That’s a great thing, a truly good thing. That’s why we call it Good Friday. But that’s not the end. It’s not just a matter of the fact that some 2000 years ago God did something. Through His Word and Sacraments, Christ comes to you. He not only takes the penalty for your sin – but He gives you His own righteousness – He unites you to Himself in Him so that you can stand in the presence of God for all eternity. It’s not that Jesus simply wipes the slate clean on the Cross – no God does more than that. Jesus takes from you your sin and in return He gives to you His righteousness. Are you holy and righteous right now? Yes. Perfectly and completely – and why? Not because of what you do, but because of what Christ has done and what He gives you. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus. Hear what Paul says in Ephesians. There is One Body and One Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all through all and in all. You were brought into Christ’s life – you were united to Him by your Baptism. He has called you unto Himself, and He gives you all that He is. That is your righteousness. We have a taste of this now – we see it dimly – for we are still in the world full of sin, we are still bound to our sinful flesh. We can only look forward to the day of the resurrection of the dead when our bodies will be perfected and glorified like His – but we know and we see that this is coming. This is our hope, this is the faith which we believe – that Christ has not only died for our sins but lives to make us His Holy, Righteous children.

    Jesus further explains this idea to those Pharisees and us by means of a parable. When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the place of honor; lest someone more deserving than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘friend, move up higher.’ This is what God does for you. Your place, your standing with God isn’t something you have to claim by your works, by what you do. Your spot at the feast in heaven doesn’t come on account of what you have done. Rather this – God raises the lowly and places them in the heights of heaven. Christ Jesus has seen you, and He has declared you to be His friend. More than that – in Baptism Jesus declared you to be family – His brother, His sister, His co-heir of His kingdom. Why are you downcast, O forgiven child of God – the kingdom of God and eternal life are yours! Why? Not because of what you do, not because of your own “honor” - because we all know that can fail. You are here not because of your own honor, but because Christ has honored you. You are here not because of your own works, but because Christ has worked for you and declared that His works are in fact your works. Over and over, Christ Jesus forgives you; His death and resurrection are applied to you. You are called to His own table even this day, because His feast of Victory is a feast for you and a Victory won for you. What is there for you to do to earn any of this when Christ has done it all already?

    Dear friends in Christ – trust not in your own works. Look not to your own works. There is no life there. We cannot make God respect us more or value us more by what we do. Rather this – look to Christ, for He has called you in Baptism, and has given you life and righteousness in Himself. Christ Jesus has seen you, lowly as you are, and He has called you His own friend, and more than just a friend, He took on flesh, became your brother, and went to the Cross so that having shed His blood for you He might call you to sit at His side for eternity at the heavenly feast. This is our hope, this is our joy, this is the truth we cling to all of our days. Amen. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Trinity 16

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit +

    As He drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd was with her. Death confronts Christ. As Jesus approaches this town, He sees death. We know death isn’t a pretty thing. We hear of this woman who has lost both her husband in the past and her only child this day, and even if we haven’t experienced that ourselves, we’ve seen enough loss in our life to know that what she is going through is horrid and rough. And so, in our Gospel lesson, death confronts Christ – and Christ will not let death stand. Our Lord will act, our Lord will show that He is indeed God and that He has vanquish death. The young man will be raised – we know this. But let us see what we learn from Christ Jesus our Lord in how He acts.

    And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Jesus sees, and then He acts. Jesus beholds a problem, and then He does what He needs to do. How wonderful, how comforting is that? All that will happen, it isn’t in the woman’s hands – it is in God’s hands. Which is good for her. She was probably distracted. Her son’s body was being carried to the cemetery – do you think she was looking around the crowd – do you think she would have noticed Jesus approaching? Probably not. And yet, of His own Will and of His own accord Christ Jesus comes to her, unasked, unrequested. God doesn’t have to wait for you to ask. God isn’t sitting up in heaven just waiting and waiting for you to pray and ask Him something – He works for your good without your even asking. What do we learn in the catechism. “The kingdom of God certainly comes without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.” “The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.” God acts. God is God, and He is God for you. When God sees a need, He jumps into action. God’s action is service to you.

    This is how you are to act, O Christian. When you see a need, you are to follow your Lord’s example and offer service without needing to being asked. We all know that this makes life better. You've all had times where you had a need and someone just stepped up – it's wonderful. And you've seen the gratitude that people show you when you step up and handle something simply and well without them having to ask. It's fantastic, and we all know it. And yet, the reality is we don't always act that way. There are times enough in our own lives where we fail to serve like we ought. Where we fail to show love like we ought. Or even hesitation, even simple griping about our help – that shows that we fall short. The text doesn’t say, “When Jesus saw the procession, he shook his head and said, ‘Boy, I guess I better do something since no one else is.’” Often times the service we give is sketchy and spotty. How many times do we have to remember to put on the happy face before we do something to cover our own grumbling? Just pause for a moment, think back on this past week – how often have you hesitated, have you grumbled about the opportunities to serve that God gives you?

    Thankfully, this is not God’s attitude towards you. He doesn’t grumble when He must give you help – He never hesitates to give you aid. God serves you today even when you fail to ask. Our prayers and worship life here aren’t what they ought to be – and He is still gracious to us. God serves us here at Trinity even when we don’t ask. You know what is the great example for this – Baptism. How many of you were brought as children, as infants to this very font. What happened here? We learn in the catechism “[Baptism] works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.” That’s a fantastic gift which most of you never asked for. Come to the faith as an adult and you will request it – but most of us here – we were brought to the font – and God simply gave. Yes my child, the words and promises of salvation as found in Scripture are for you. God gives without your asking – God prepares to give even before you exist – for these promises are of old.

    We see the simple fact that Christ serves – and this teaches us. But let us now look at how Jesus serves. Then He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.” This is what Jesus does. Jesus restores the young man to life. And in doing so, Jesus isn’t simply giving a gift to the young man who is raised. In fact, the focus of this miracle isn’t primarily on the dead guy – it’s on the mother. Jesus has compassion on her – Jesus restores the man to life and gives him to her. This man, o woman, was to provide for you and care for you – it was his duty as your son. Death took him away; I shall restore him to you. Jesus does this by giving life. Every thing that man does for his mother is clearly and firmly a gift from God to her for the rest of her days. Jesus doesn’t just give life to the dead man – but he gives life and joy to the mother as well – Jesus sees that she will be taken care of.

    This is what God does here today. Jesus works in you and through you, and He uses you to give life to others. Did you note what our Epistle says? “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” The power at work within us is Christ; it is none other than Christ Jesus who lives in us and works through us – and why? So that we give life to our neighbors. Again, more Catechism! “We should fear and love God so that we do not take our neighbor’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income.” “We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain everything in the kindest way.” Note what we do. We help our neighbor improve and protect his income. God works through us to give our neighbor life – to provide for him. We defend our neighbor’s reputation. God works through us to give our neighbor life – to keep his life from being a hassle where others constantly berate him. And all of this is Christ’s doing. It is not I who live but Christ who lives in me. There is nothing more profound in Scripture than this – that God takes us sinners – forgives us and makes us to be His servants, and He works through us.

    Now, this is not to say that we no longer sin. This isn’t to say that we sometimes don’t fight God tooth and nail over what He wants us to do. We can be stubborn folk – and not just stubborn, but downright evil folk – for that’s what our sin is. Sin is nothing other than telling God you won’t do His Will, sin is nothing other than telling Christ to take a hike – saying to God, “No, You will not work through me, for I want what I want.” And this is why God speaks His Word of law – to crush and beat down and batter and destroy the sin within us. The Law is proclaimed so that we would be turned away from our sin and flee to Him for mercy and refuge, and receive from Him the forgiveness of our sins which was won upon the Cross by Christ Jesus.

    You see, Christ does give you life. Sin, sin is death. Your sin is your death – when you sin that’s just death taking a little nibble off of you. Where there is sin, there is death – which is why Christ defeats death in His resurrection. This is why God has ordered that His Word of forgiveness be spoken to you over and over again. Because forgiveness is life. Where there is forgiveness, there is life – and not only life – but Christ’s life. And our Lord emphasizes this in His Sacraments. Consider Baptism. Paul says in Romans “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.” Baptism gives life. It gives life here on earth for it unites you to Christ and it gives life eternal for it unites you to Christ. Jesus gave you life at Baptism. Consider the Lord’s Supper. It brings life – it brings Christ’s life. What does our Lord say? This is My Body, this is my Blood. Literally Christ gives us His own life. In the Supper, you receive our Lord’s own life giving Body, His own life giving Blood. The very Body that was nailed to the tree to defeat death – Christ gives you. The very Blood that was shed to wash away your sins – Christ gives you. His supper is indeed a foretaste of the feast to come – when we celebrate the Supper here indeed Angels and Archangels and all the company of heaven rejoice and sing our Lord’s praises for He brings us Himself, He brings us the Kingdom, He brings us heaven right now and here – for Jesus brings us Himself – and we are given life in a wonder and mystery no less astounding than what they saw at that funeral that Jesus interrupted. Our Lord says to us, “Take and Eat,” “Take and Drink” – and we are given life.

    Dear friends in Christ Jesus our Lord – see what our Lord does. He never hesitates to serve – for He shows us love even before we ask. He gives us life – in fact, He is our life – we live through Him and in Him and by Him. He beats down and forgives our sins, and gives us His own strength, indeed His own life in His Word, in His Baptism, in His Supper. This is what we receive from Him without fail. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

Trinity 15 Sermon

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +

    I think people often misunderstand the idea of growing in the faith. There seems to be this idea that to grow in the faith, to better understand God and His love for you means that somehow you understand the bizarre and the hidden. Like growing in the faith comes with a secret decoder ring or maybe a few, extra books no one else knows about – oooOOOooo. No, not so, my dear friends. While there are great and wondrous mysteries in the Christian faith, they are not strange; they are not bizarre. Our Lord commends unto us a faith as of a little child – simply trusting what He has taught us. That, actually, tends to be the hard part – to simply trust what our Lord says – yet that is what we are called to do. And so today, as we look at our Gospel lesson, we are again going to review that which is simple, that which is basic – something we so often forget. God cares for you. Simple as that – and if we slowed down and remembered this, our understanding of God and His love for us would be so much greater.

    Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Our Lord asks us a question – is not life more than food, the body more than clothing? Is not your life more than your stuff, your job, your busyness – your mammon? We know we're supposed to say our life is more than just this... but practically speaking we tend not to act that way. How many of you this week have been quite busy contemplating all the trappings of life – how to pay for the things you want, how to handle the schedule, what my friends think about me – so on and so forth. We get caught, we get fixated on the things of this life. We identify ourselves by our jobs, by where we live, by who we are friends with, by what we do. We treat our life, our existence as simply the sum of the things that we have, the things that we do. But that is not who you were created to be. Man was created in the image of God, created to be in relationship with God. That’s a wonder of the Christian faith. In the garden, Adam walks with God. In the garden, Adam simply tends the creation, not wresting crops from amidst the weeds by the sweat of his brow. But sin makes us forget who we were created to be. Sin looks at and desires the trappings of this life – power, money, wealth, worldly respect. None of that matters, none of that lasts. Everything in this sinful world grows old and decays – it does not last. No, as Christians, our focus is to be on things that endure, things that last – our life with Christ, our life in union with all of God's saints from all times and in all places. As Christians we are to be content to be simple stewards of the gifts God provides for us so that we can show love to all those whom God places in our lives.

    This is hard. Seriously – horridly hard. Every day we struggle with sin, every day Satan tosses more and more temptations and lures in front of us – things to crave, things to desire, things we think are so important, are so vital to our life. This is why our Lord teaches us not to be anxious. Listen to the Words of Jesus. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Again, it's one of those things that sounds so simple that we assume that it is too good to be true. God will provide. When it boils down to it – it's true. God indeed provides for us. But what happens so often is we see our work, the things we do, the actions we take – and we think, we feel that our possessions are about what we do. “I've worked hard for everything I have.” That may be the case – well done, hard worker. But who provided you with that talent that you could use? Who provided you with the opportunities you have? We rely upon God and His goodness to us – and the sad thing is we can take His simple and routine blessings for granted and forget that everything we have comes from His goodness.

    But, of course, the problem with it all being gift from God and His goodness, means that God's in control, and we're not. And man, if we don't just hate not being in control. And Jesus knows this; He knows that we are control junkies. And He knows that when we don't get all the control that we want, we start getting anxious – especially if the things we are worried about are well and throughly out of our control. And let's be frank – we are bombarded by the media with all sorts of troubles and problems and disasters that are completely beyond our control. And that tends to make us anxious. Nervous. Worried. And so often about things that we have no absolutely control over. And you know what all that is? Pointless and unproductive. Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? Yeah, stress and anxiety don't fix anything; they just make things worse. And yet, we run down those well trodden paths of fear and anxiety, don't we? I know I ran down them many-a-time myself this past week. Nervous, fretty, stomach flipping – what can I do, what should I have done, maybe I'll do this. I, I, I. Me, me, me – all that burden, all that pressure, for what? Stuff that isn't mine to control, not given to me.

    And here's where you don't need a deep, dark, hidden mystery. You need simple, clear, to the point. Jesus Loves Me. Think that's a kids' hymn? Well, do you have that “they are weak but He is strong” truth mastered yet, cause I don't. We worry, we get ourselves worked up, trying to control every little thing that happens – and all we do is make ourselves frazzled, frustrated, and miserable. When we forget that God is in charge and rather make it all about me and my strength and what I can do – well, we set ourselves up for disappointment and failure.

    And the thing is, we don't need to focus, we don't need to worry about the things of this life – that's not a burden we need. We don’t need to be the ones in control – for we know that God is in control, and we know that God provides for us. In fact, we should all be praying this several times a day. Right before our Gospel text in Matthew, Jesus teaches the Lord's Prayer. Fantastic prayer, of course – and what is there smack dab in the middle but this phrase – give us this day our daily bread. Everyday we pray that God provide us what we need for the day – and that's it. As simple as that. Jesus doesn't instruct us to pray something long or complex – we don't have to tell God whether we want wheat bread or white – we simply put everything into God's hands. Give us our daily bread – give, freely, out of Your own goodness, give because You are God and You are good – give us our daily bread. Give us all that we need for this day, whatever that is. Do you see how simple that prayer is? All the complexities of life, all the drama, all the times we get all worked up and riled up with worries and cares – not needed. We know that God provides for us, just as He has in the past.

    Indeed, we know that God provides us with all that we need not only for this life, but also for life eternal. This is what we see and trust by faith. The mystery, the wonder of the Christian faith isn't simply that God provides for our earthly needs, but that in addition God has had mercy upon us – that even as we so often fret and flitter and abuse His gifts to us – God restores us to Paradise. This same Jesus who tells you not to be anxious about your life will lay down His own life – He will stride boldly to the Cross in order to be able to provide for You not just your daily bread, but His life giving Holy Supper. He suffers and dies not just to see that you have shelter against the storms of this fallen world, but that you have a home with Him for all eternity. This is the wonder which we see each week here in His house – that God has mercy upon us and gives us life in His name. That's why Jesus can tell us not to be anxious, why not to worry about what we eat or wear. Is not life more than food, the body more than clothing? Indeed it is! For you have been claimed by Christ – in the waters of Holy Baptism God declared you to be His own child – your life is more than just that life of a mortal man, doomed to die. You have been given the gift of immortality, that even though you die, yet you shall live in and with Christ for all eternity!

    All the junk, all the burdens we worry about, all the things we fret and worry about – that agitation's not needed. Not needed at all. God is the one in control, God provides for you, God holds you tenderly in His almighty hands, showing His love for you not just in the things of this brief sojourn we have in this sinful, fallen world, but God will be your God for all eternity, providing for you completely with all that you need for salvation and eternal life. And this you know. For the Bible tells you so. And Jesus will keep telling you this over and over, because it's true, and all the stress and fear and worry in the world can't change the fact that He has died and risen for you, O baptized child of God. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Paulson and the Dangers of Reactionary Theology

    So Stephen Paulson wrote an essay in the Lutheran Quarterly that has some major flaws.  I'm sure that there will be plenty of people who will point out those flaws in detail, especially in our LCMS circles. However, I think that many from within the LCMS will miss part of the nuance of those flaws, how they manifest - and how it forms a similar danger for us with in the LCMS.

   The first thing we in the LCMS forget when dealing with Paulson is that Paulson is not LCMS.  "Duh, it's clear that he's not LCMS and should never be!!!!"  Yes, that is true - he's not LCMS.  Remember what that means.  It means he is only tangentially involved in LCMS discussions or approaches - Paulson's main focus, context, background, and shaping is dealing with the ELCA.

    So what does this mean? In his attacks upon "the Law" and any sort of didactic, culture shaping application of the Law by the Church, Paulson is directly responding to the "woke" progressive elements of the ELCA.  He is attacking the doubly "Progressive" sanctification of the ELCA.  Paulson is not a "liberal" in the political sense; he (and Forde before him) is attempting to counter and react to all the crazy liberal social theories that are now much more manifest in society today.  In the late 80's and early 90's, the ELCA was already institutionally captured by what we might call "CRT" or "Intersectionality" today.  Paulson is reacting against all of that.

    And rightly so.  If you want to understand what Paulson is doing, you have to remember that for him the "Church" teaching morals means the utter destruction of any semblance of morality in the name of acceptance and welcome.  It is the "Church" pushing and promoting sexual deviancy.  It is the "Church" pushing people away from simply being the creatures they were created to be and pushing them into self-defining and refining everything.  

    In the LCMS, we are fighting against the infiltration of these ideas; Paulson is and has been fighting a church that actively teaches these ideas - where these ideas being pushed functionally "is" the ELCA's idea of what the third use of the law looks like.

    It was utterly right to have been repulsed by what the ELCA had been pushing in late 80s and following, just as it is utterly right to oppose these foolish ideas today.

    But then how did Paulson get it so wrong?

    Because instead of defending the truth and teaching the truth, he fell into reactionism.  The opposite of any error is just another error.  As the church was teaching incorrect social teaching, the reaction was that the Church should have no social teaching. 

    If you are in the LCMS, don't denigrate this reaction.  It is politically, worldly speaking, a solid tactical move.  If there's a debate, and you are utterly outnumbered and cannot win the debate because you'll be shouted down, there's a wordly wisdom to undercutting the idea of debate at all. It's practically the same idea as time wasting at a convention - if a resolution you don't want to pass will pass if it comes to the floor, you keep it from coming to the floor.  Or perhaps this: Instead of trying to fix public schools and how they teach, maybe it's best just to withdraw from public schools, or try to shut down the entire endevour.  It's not a "fix", but it is a way to attempt to curtail the worst excesses for at least some people.

    While the reaction was functional, it ignored the fullness of the truth.  It ignored the fulness of the Scriptural witness.  Here, Paulson's reactionism ran right along the theological weaknesses present in the ELCA. The ELCA and it's predecessors had already weakened the idea of the Scriptures as the Word of God.  Instead of being the Word of God, the Scriptures merely contained the Word of God.  The practice was already established to simply deny that something is the Word of God.  Hence, when it comes time to react and reject a practice that some claim to be "Godly", Paulson rejects it as being the actual Word of God.  However, he doesn't stop there. To curtail the wicked and falsified moral teaching from going forward, he ends up wanting to circumvent all moral teaching in Scripture.  The (well meaning) attempt to fight one error puts incredible strain on another deep flaw, and that's where things break apart.  Moses as moral teacher is not put in his proper place to serve the neighbor and drive to repentance, but instead is utterly rejected as not being God's Word at all in an effort to prevent a wretched abuse of the twisted-moral teaching.  And stuck in his reactionism and his Scriptural presuppositions, Paulson can't see it.

    This is an example of the dangers of reactionism.  Instead of being driven into the Scriptures, Paulson (and Forde) reacted in a reasonable, understandable way.  But the goal of opposing something bad (in this case, very bad) overshadowed the Word - it became higher than the Word.  And then, given time, this plays out in extraordinarily typical "contains, not is" tomfoolery.

    "Okay, Brown - say this is all an accurate assessment.  Why is your post entitled 'Paulson and the Dangers of Reactionary Theology'?  We're LCMS, we're not going to fall into that contains BS."  True, but we in the LCMS do have our own traditional flaws and weaknesses, ditches we will drop into.  We have a history of pietism.  We have a history of isolationism.  We have a history of proof-texting, which can end up denying other parts of Scripture just as much as "containism" can.  There's a reason Dr. Scaer used to say, "Gentlemen, we must destroy Lutheranism before Lutheranism destroys us" - referring to these sorts of weaknesses and habits that can overshadow and push us away from the central point of the Scriptures - that Jesus is the Christ, that we are to know nothing but Christ and Him Crucified, that the Church stands and falls on Article 4.  If your use of Scripture does not reach its ultimate goal, its end in Christ, in the "so that you may believe" - you've misused and bastardized the Scriptures just as much as whatever that Deuteronomy 30 rant in Paulson's paper was.

    So, watch yourself when you are reacting to the social tomfoolery of the day.  It is worth reacting against.  However, don't fall into mere reactionism, where opposing a false social teaching becomes the HIGHEST goal and purpose.  First and foremost must be Justification by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.  Otherwise, other things will come in and break.  Whether that becomes false, extra scriptural standards of purity, or false expectations for outward demonstrations of piety, or Pharisaical disdain, it doesn't overly matter; Justification gets jettisoned in any case. Correcting errors is and can only ever be a preaching of the Law, which cannot and must not ever predominate over the Gospel.

    Because the danger of all this social tomfoolery isn't merely civil disorder.  Natural law and reality (sometimes cold, hard, and deadly reality) tend to fix civil issues in the long run... maybe with the decline and fall of an empire, but so be it.  The real danger of all this social stuff is that it is an attack on Justification by Grace through Faith in Christ.  Where there is no sin, there is no need for a Savior.  Where the fight is over making this world just so, looking forward to the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come (the result of Christ's death and resurrection) is cast aside.

    Be frustrated with with all the stupid social stuff.  You ought to be.  But don't let it push you into reactionism, otherwise you'll end up treading the same path Paulson has but just falling into, just with LCMS crazy sprinkles instead of ELCA crazy sprinkles.

    

    

The Idolization of the Will

     We have a problem with our will.  We think our will is important.  We think our will is what defines us.  Even though we are instructed to pray against our will in the Lord's Prayer (Thy will be done: God's will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature...)  - God's Will is to be done, not mine!

    But surely, once we are redeemed, we must bring our will, our reason, our thoughts, our decision making in line with God - we must improve our will, we must train it better!  Hence we love a nice, "corrective" use the of the Law, thinking it's just nudging our will back into shape, like honing a knife.  No big deal, this will just keep you sharp.  Then we will be better Christians!

    There's a problem with this.  The Law doesn't give life or make alive.  Nor does my will make me alive or better.  The Christian life is not "make better choices". The Christian life is one of fruit.

    Consider the fruit of the Spirit.  What "choice" does the tree have regards to the fruit?  It has none.  The tree doesn't have to will to make fruit, it doesn't have to choose to make fruit, it doesn't have to will it; if the tree is healthy, it will simply produce fruit because that is what God has created it to do.  No choice required, and no ample sermons yelling at the tree will make it produce better fruit (except humanly speaking that the Carbon Dioxide expelled as you yell at it is plant food).  It is the tree that God has made it to be; it will bear fruit as He gives it to bear fruit.

    Now, there are things that get in the way.  If the tree is diseased, it bears bad fruit. The solution here isn't a matter of the Tree's will, but it's curing the disease.  Make the tree good (justify it), and the fruit will be good.  If the tree lacks water - it must be watered by another (extra nos) - the refreshing streams of life must be poured upon it.  

    None of that growth hinges upon the will.  Neither do my works hinge upon my will, my making better decisions, my choices.  I am who I am in Christ.  He does it all through me.

    Now, I DO see, when I am made to look at myself by the Holy Spirit using His Law, to see that there is a war within myself.  That my own flesh hinders and keeps me from doing the good.  Like a dam in the river, my sin repeatedly stops the flow of the good, clean river through me, making everything a muddied, swampy mess.  The solution is not to exhort the river, but to clear out the dam.  To remove the log so that the eye sees clearly. To mortify the flesh and to receive again the forgiveness, LIFE, and salvation of Christ.

    We notice that from the Small Catechism, right?  That my life is not a "choice" - that it is not a result of my will, nor is it the summation of my choices.  It is a gift, given to me, something I receive from outside myself right along side of and exactly at the same time as I receive forgiveness, for "where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation."  Life is tied not to my choice, not even my being better guided by the law; it is tied to forgiveness.  It's tied to Christ who is indeed the Life of all the living.

    We make an idol of our will.  We think our will improves things (or even can improve things).  We're not impious enough to say that our decisions justify us, and maybe we won't say that they sanctify us (although a lot of us like the Shake and Bake approach to Sanctification where we like to talk about our help... as though one who who is made Holy can help in being made holy!), but man, we do slide into that idea that our will will in fact make our lives better.  We think we "vifify" ourselves... but our lives, our works, our new obedience isn't from us.  It's all from Christ Jesus!
   
    But what if I'm not being used well enough?  Well - who told you that you were naked?  Who told you that you weren't a "good enough" instrument?  Have you been listening to accusations again?  Has the Accuser risen up against you?  Guess you need to Gospel to drive those accusations away.  Because you are Christ's, and He will use you as His own instrument whom He loves and cherishes dearly, loves even more than His own life.

    Everything else is sinking sand.  Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith, the Alpha and the Omega.

    

Two Theses on My Theological Enemies

     One always has theological enemies.  This is just the reality of life in this sinful world. There will be people who come to an aspect of theology and just don't get this. Sometimes this is just a matter of having a theological blind spot, and sometimes they are pernicious, wicked tools of Satan. (As an aside, if you think you know which one they are, there's probably a 50% chance you're wrong.)  

    Suffice it to say, there are, and always must be opponents.  Enemies.  Villains. And the world has given us some sage advice on how to deal with any enemy.  You crush them.  You crush them by villainifying them, by breaking them down utterly.  Destroy them completely, by any means necessary.  Hence the old adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

    Yet the wisdom of the world does not play out in full with the wilds of church theology, and so I will posit two theses, both of which are true, even though seemingly in contradiction:

1 - The enemy of my enemy, though useful against my enemy, is still wrong elsewhere.

2 - My enemy is quite often right about a great many things.

    We fall into trouble with the first one quite often in the Church.  A semi-recent example (that probably won't offend too many Confessional guys) would be the way that we cosyied up to the Neo-Evangelicals during the battle for the bible.  Indeed, they were enemies of our enemy de jour - the Higher Critic.  And in terms of Scriptural innerancy, they most certainly weren't bad allies to have.  However, we forgot that they would be our enemies on other fronts, and we got too close, and we forgot to guard ourselves on those other fronts... and then we start producing things like "Evangelical Style, Lutheran Substance" or "Everyone a Minister".  Did we win the battle for the Bible... sure, at the cost of unleashing the Worship Wars.

    We still fall into this same temptation.  We see an issue that is BAD (note my all caps).  And I will even concede that it is BAD (see with what large letters I am writing to you).  There are many people who will attack that BAD thing, and even with excellent argumentation.  However, that does not make them... good.  It does not justify them.  And quite often they come with extensive baggage.  Be careful how close you keep them.

    Of course, this plays into the second point.  My enemy is often right about a great many things.  See, part of the reason why I can be leery so easily about that person you've saddled up to in your quixotic fight against that BAD idea is that I'm much more concerned about BAD2 - a second bad idea over here.  For what ever reason, I've got a different focus - and here I see something else.  Your primarily villain isn't so bad when it comes to discussing BAD2 - in fact, he's quite good.  And you new ally, well, when it comes to BAD they might be okay, but on BAD2 they are utterly terrible and dangerous.

    This is the reality of life.  It's why Lutheranism at it's best is the Lonely Way.  There are times we ally with people, but then times when we must oppose them.

    We ally with Rome on many life issues, but must oppose them on Justification and faith.
    We ally with Conservative Protestants on Scripture, but must oppose them on worship and the Sacraments.
   We ally with Calvinists on election unto Salvation, but must oppose them on election unto damnation.
    We ally with the Arminian on the faith comes by hearing, but must oppose them on making a decision for Christ.

    Depending on the fight at hand, we have different allies.

    We forget this.  And we get tempted to get to close to one specific ally, especially when one specific fight calls to us.  And we can utterly forget that even the people whom we are fighting with now can indeed be our ally on other issues.

    So it might be good that someone is dead set against social justice stuff, doesn't mean that they are right on everything.  Be on guard.  And that crazy social justice guy - they might be on to something good elsewhere.

    And that Wisconsin guy might be good on somethings, but not on others.  And even Paulson has a few chestnuts that are spot on. And Biermann has some valid points even while others I would quibble with.

    Things seem so simple when we can boil all of our energy, our zeal, for focus onto one issue de jour, and then simply evaluate things along those lines.  But, of course, if we're boiling all of our zeal and focus into something, we've turned it into a hobby horse, and idol.  Hence, the beauty of the Lectionary that makes us look at different things all the times.
   
    This is also why quests for incessant doctrinal purity always will break your heart - you dig enough and push enough, and there's always an error somewhere.  Including within yourself.  This is why the "statis est" of the Confessions, of the Concordia are utterly wise.  It's why Luther even acknowledged in Smalcald that there were places we agreed with Rome, and even places where we could have reasonable debate.  That's hardly the simplistic monolithic constructions we find such comfort in.

    But we don't pay that much attention to Smalcald, anyway. Ah well, oh what of that, oh what of that!