How I Understand Today's Outrages in Boston from a Lutheran Christian Perspective

As a Lutheran Christian, I feel equipped by our Lutheran Confessions to understand and deal with events like the Boston Marathon bombings.

In the first place, human depravity and sin don't surprise we Lutherans. We understand original sin and how those unmoved by the grace of God given in Christ are left disarmed before the temptations to sin created by the devil, the world, and our sinful selves.

Secondly, we understand that because there are people who refuse to live voluntarily under the Kingdom of God ruled by the loving grace of Christ, God has established another means of rule: the kingdom of the world. This kingdom--the kingdom of governments and such--has every right and, in fact, every responsibility to bring the people responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings to justice. This kingdom is meant to act as a bridle on the sinful actions of those whose lives are not being reconstructed by the grace of God in Christ.

Thirdly, we understand that even when the perpetrators of these bombings are apprehended, arrested, tried, and convicted, God will want them, even as they receive the punishment they deserve, to enter His kingdom through repentance and faith in Christ. When Jesus was crucified unjustly, neither the thief on the cross nor Jesus Himself denied that the thief deserved the criminal punishment that the thief received from the civil authorities. But when the thief asked Jesus, in an obvious statement of repentance and belief, to be remembered in Jesus' kingdom, Jesus promised him that on that very day, the thief would be with him in paradise.

Terrorism and murder can't go unpunished. Grace isn't a license to sin. But true justice is not revenge either. 

In a fallen world, justice meted out to those who commit acts of hatred is the duty of the kingdoms of the world.

In this same fallen world, grace is the gift of God and the response of God's people to those who repent and trust in Christ. 

A classic example of a Lutheran understanding of accepting God's two ways of ruling the world comes, ironically, from Pope John Paul II. The pontiff was the victim of a would-be assassin's bullet. John Paul recovered and his attacker was tried, convicted, and sent to prison. During Mehmet Ali Agca's prison term, the pope visited him. Their one-on-one meeting was recorded by a photographer. The attacker kneeled and asked for forgiveness from John Paul, which the pope granted. But after their meeting, as the TIME magazine cover article on forgiveness pointed out at the time, the pope left his assailant to finish his prison time. Both grace and justice were served. God must be allowed to rule over both His kingdoms.

May God's rule in both spheres--the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world--prevail in the wake of today's outrages in Boston.

[The sermon on April 7, dealt with the Lutheran understanding of the Bible's teaching on God's two kingdoms.]

The Kindness Outreach Chronicles (Part 6)

A group of Saint Matthew folks went out again today for a Saturday morning Kindness Outreach. Once more today, we gave away 210 bottles of cold water to folks in cars stopped at traffic lights, walkers, a fellow trimming hedges at a nearby house, and one dog. (More on the dog later.)

The writer of the New Testament book of Ephesians reminds followers of Jesus Christ that their relationship with Christ and the eternity with God that Jesus offers comes not because we're good or virtuous people nor for any good things we might do. "For by grace [that is, God's charity] you have been saved [from sin, death, and hell] through faith" (Ephesians 2:8). We are saved by God's grace, which we claim as our own when we dare to trust Jesus' promise to erase the death-dealing power of sin over our lives AND that He will give us new lives with God.

Kindness Outreaches present a great picture of how "grace through faith" works. We saw it again today.

The water we give is free. All people need to do is trust us enough to take it.

But some don't. Of course, we don't force the water on them any more than Christ forces Himself or His grace on anyone. Until the light turns green, when handing out water would entail stopping traffic, something we don't do, people can change their minds. Similarly, as long as we draw breath or until Jesus comes back, we can--like the thief on the cross who knew his sin, but turned to Jesus for forgiveness and the promise of paradise with God--we can turn to Christ and live. But why wait? The blessing of being sustained and accompanied, actually being dwelt in, by Jesus in this life are too good to pass up!

Few of the people who receive or reject the bottled water we offer them on Saturdays will ever think of themselves as participants in a living parable about how salvation works. But we do hope that the water and the little cards that accompany each bottle will help them think, "I wonder why people who believe in Jesus are out giving away something for free on a Saturday morning?"

If they are spiritually disconnected people, asking that question could lead them on a road to Christ. That's what we pray will happen because it's only through Jesus that the free gifts of forgiveness and life with God can come to a person. As Jesus says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).

So, what happened today?

• A woman was walking with her dog. She said that she wasn't thirsty, but that her dog was and loved to catch water from a bottle as she poured it. My wife Ann said, "Mark, you've got to get a picture of this!" I did. It's below. After Ann and Fran had a conversation with the woman, Ann told her, "Here's a bottle for you." She took it and said goodbye to us all as she walked on.
• Jesse, a college sophomore from our congregation, took water to the occupants of a stopped vehicle. A little kid offered the entire allowance he had just received in exchange. Even kids find it hard to fathom getting something for nothing...which is why the good news about Jesus is so hard to accept and so fantastic to receive!
• A woman stopped at a light on Hunter Street, her windows rolled down, had initially turned down my offer of water. But I persisted. "Really?" I asked. "It's cold and wet and free!" She laughed and said, "All right." She took the bottle and thanked me.
• A woman in her sixties wasn't going to take a bottle. "You're not going to get thirsty?" I asked her. "OK," she said, "but just one."
• Another woman was skeptical. "What's the catch?" she asked. "Nothing," I told her, handing a bottle to her and telling her, "Have a good day."
• A woman told Fran and Ann that she didn't need water, but wondered if she could make a donation to our work. They said, "No, thank you." We never take money. 
• A young mom happily accepted water and told us, "This will get me through the drive home!" 
• Three guys involved in lawn care were bunched together in the cab of their truck, the first vehicle in a line at the red light. At first, they refused our offer. But as they saw us giving away water to people behind them, they evidently thought better of it. "Hey!" the guy riding shotgun called out, "Could we have some of that water?" Sometimes all we need to take the leap of faith or trust is the example of others living with faith or trust.

Like I say, Kindness Outreaches present living pictures how "salvation by grace through faith" works.

No Kindness Outreach next Saturday. But we'll do another one on Saturday, August 27.

Where Do We Go When We Die?

Twice in the past two days I've been asked, “What happens to the follower of Jesus who dies? Do we go into some sort of sleepy holding pattern or do we go immediately to heaven with God?”

First, it should be said that people who entrust their lives to Jesus Christ can face death and what lies beyond with confidence.

The first-century preacher Paul writes in the New Testament portion of the Bible: “...we know that if the earthly tent we live in [our bodies] is destroyed, we have a building from God...eternal in the heavens.” [Second Corinthians 5:1]

From Jesus Himself, we have the assurance that all who believe in Him won’t forever be erased or go to hell, but live with God forever, something He tells us in the Bible’s most famous passage, John 3:16.

Jesus-Followers know that whatever lies ahead, they belong to Jesus Christ. period.

But the Bible seems to say two different things about what happens to followers of Christ when they die.

There are numerous passages that intimate believers fall asleep, awaiting what the Bible calls “the day of the Lord,” when Jesus returns and brings them back to life again.

In the Old Testament, for example, the book of Daniel says, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” [Daniel 12:2]

In a New Testament account of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we’re told that Jesus knows that his friend, Lazarus, has died and says of it that Lazarus has “fallen asleep.” [John 11:11]

Paul, in another place in the New Testament, spoke of the more than 500 believers who had seen the risen Jesus, and then noted that while most were still living, some had “fallen asleep.” [First Corinthians 15:6]

On the other hand, there are passages of the Bible which intimate that the Christian’s transfer to heaven follows death immediately.

For example, there are the words Jesus spoke to one of the criminals executed on a cross at the same time as He was. The criminal turns from sin and pleads with Jesus, Who hardly had the look of a king at this point, “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.” Jesus replies, “Truly, I tell you, today you will be with me in Pardise.” [Luke 23:39-43]

So, what are we to make of these seemingly conflicting teachings? An important principle to apply in understanding the Bible is this: When confronted with such apparent conflicts, we should avoid the easy-outs of harmonizing or of choosing one teaching over another.

Christians believe that the entire Bible was inspired by God. [Second Timothy 3:16] Nothing is there accidentally.

Beyond that, particularly as it relates to the New Testament’s witness for Jesus, the Bible is a far more historically-reliable document, written closer to the events it describes, than almost any other historical writings we have from the ancient world. The whole Bible deserves a fair hearing from fair-minded people.

So, I would say that these seemingly conflicting perspectives on what happens to the Christian who dies are both true.

I believe that these two teachings--death as sleep, on the one hand, and immediate transfer to eternity with the God we know in Christ, on the other--are really two perspectives of the same experience, two sides of a single coin.

From the earthly perspective, the believer has fallen asleep. They’ll remain that way, dead, as Jesus’ dead body remained from Good Friday through the first Easter Sunday morning, until Jesus returns and rouses them to life again.

But from the perspective of eternity, which is a state of timelessness, what C.S. Lewis called “the eternal now,” believers who have died already are in heaven, already in God’s presence.

This is what I believe. I could be wrong. But no matter the actual facts, believers in Jesus know, as Paul writes, that “whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” [Romans 14:8