[This was shared this past Sunday during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Luke 17:1-10
The whole idea of humility, of being humble, is taking a beating these days.
Snapchat and Instagram are full-up with selfies.
We revere athletes, actors, and politicians who arrogantly look down their noses on the rest of the world.
We celebrate and retweet the posts of those who specialize in unkindness and vindictiveness.
And every day, you and I are tempted whenever we go shopping to judge and deem ourselves superior to those we see along the aisles and at the checkout.
Of course, our penchant for arrogance goes back to the garden of Eden. There, the serpent tempted the first human beings with the idea that, if they broke free from God, their loving Creator, they could create their own life apart from God: they could be their own gods.
We’ve been mesmerized by this fiction ever since, inflicting a world of hurt on each other and on ourselves.
All wars,
every instance of child and spouse abuse,
all the feuds between families and among families,
all the prejudice and discrimination, petty egotism, snobbery, and gossip,
every case of murder, thievery, adultery, covetousness, not to mention every time human beings bow down to false idols they think they can control by their sacrifices or piety or good works,
every time we think that our race, ethnicity, nationality, or financial condition makes us better than others,
every time a person looks on the vast cosmos and dares to say that there is no God,
and every time a Christian thinks that God’s gift to them of faith in Jesus somehow makes them better than others,
every time any of these things appear, we cave into this delusion that we can be like God which we inherited from Adam and Eve.
It is our original sin.
We keep trying to ignore, deny, or live around the simple truth that God’s Word teaches: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18)
And why is pride so destructive?
Because pride violates the first commandment. The proud have a false god: themselves.
But we can only find life through repentance and faith in Jesus. So, when we worship at the altar of ego, we place our hope in a god that will die.
A Christian songwriter put it simply: “Pride kills.”
We will either die in pride or we will live in humility.
In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus talks about humility as an essential element of Christian discipleship. Take a look at the lesson, please: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. So watch yourselves.’”
The “little ones” Jesus refers to here seem to be the outcasts, those hated and disdained by society’s so-called “good people” with whom Jesus so readily interacted: People like prostitutes, extortionists, foreigners, beggars, the lame, and notorious sinners.
Jesus is warning those of us who call ourselves Christians to take care that instead of inviting and welcoming society’s “little ones” into fellowship with Christ and with us as He tells us to do, we turn them away or cause them to sin all the more unrepentantly.
This past week, several of us were talking about how often restaurant personnel hate working the Sunday afternoon shift because they know that the Christians taking in lunch after worship are going to treat them like garbage and leave either no tips or miserly ones. A disciple of Jesus understands that a Christian saint is no more than a recovering sinner undergoing reconstruction by the Holy Spirit. But an unbeliever will look at the parade of hypocritical church people eating lunch in their restaurant on Sunday afternoons and think, “If that’s what Jesus does to a person, I want nothing to do with Christian faith.”
Jesus says that when Christians act arrogantly toward non-Christians, we might as well put millstones around our necks and sink into hell. Proud Christians block the grace of God given in Christ not only to those they treat disdainfully but to themselves as well. “So,” Jesus tells us, “watch yourselves.”
Then, in verses 3 and 4, Jesus says, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Refusing to forgive those who have genuinely apologized and sought our forgiveness is the height of human presumption and pride. And we will never be free until we set those who have apologized to us free from the debt they owe us.
This is why Jesus teaches us to pray, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
The word that Jesus uses for forgive in this passage is, in the Greek in which Luke wrote his gospel, aphiemi, literally meaning I release. When we forgive others as Christ forgives us, we not only release them of their debt to us, we also release ourselves from our bondage to sin. We let the forgiveness of God given in Christ flow into our own lives.
Skip down for a moment to Jesus’ words, starting in verse 7: “‘Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, “Come along now and sit down to eat”? Won’t he rather say, “Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink”? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
These words of Jesus may seem cryptic to us. But again, the theme is the essential place of humility in the life of a Christian.
As is often true in His parables, the short stories with deeper meanings He often tells, Jesus here creates a scenario which, to his original first-century hearers, would have seemed outrageous.
In that top-down society, no wealthy land-owner would tell his servant to take a load off his feet and eat with him. And he wouldn’t thank the cook on his payroll for doing his job.
The obvious conclusion is that if a follower of Jesus loves a neighbor, or sacrifices for a fellow believer, or shares the good news of new life through repentance and faith in the crucified and risen Jesus, she or he does so not for applause, recognition, or thank-yous. They do these things because Jesus so lives inside them that it doesn’t even dawn on them to not love their neighbor, to not sacrifice for the fellow believer, to not share the gospel of Jesus with someone in need of Him.
For them, such expressions of faith aren’t planned events. They’re simply the supernatural outgrowth of a life lived with Jesus in daily repentance and renewal.
Humility, you see, is not an acquired life skill, it’s something that happens in the lives of those who seek each day to walk with Jesus.
Our motives, our values, and the way we view everything get changed as Jesus takes up residence in the center of our lives when we take our gaze off of ourselves and fix our eyes firmly on God the Son, the Word made flesh, Jesus.
And that leads us back to the middle two verses of today’s gospel lesson. The apostles hear Jesus’ words and realize that, because of their (and our) inborn sinful nature, the kind of humility that Jesus commends in these verses is impossible. So, they make what seems like a reasonable request.
Verse 5: “Increase our faith!”
This may not be a pious request at all. It may be what can be called the “increase our faith dodge.” You hear it all the time.
Christians who don’t want to heed Jesus’ call to follow or be servants in His Church or share their faith in Christ, will say things like, “My faith isn’t strong enough” or “Everyone else knows more than I do or can do more than I can do.”
I suspect that people don’t really believe these things as often as they say them.
And I suspect that they’re really not that interested in having more faith or following Jesus or sharing Him with others.
I think that often, these are the expressions of a false humility. People figure they sound pious and Christian when they speak of what they can’t do, can’t give, can’t try. And so they keep right on, not doing, not giving, not trying.
Jesus’ response to the apostles is direct. Verse 6: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
To follow Jesus, to heed His call to love and serve our neighbor, to get our minds off of ourselves and onto the God Who creates, gives us faith in Jesus, saves us from sin and death, and empowers us to live more selfless lives, is not about waiting around for God to give us more faith.
It’s acting on the little faith the Holy Spirit has given to us in the big, loving God of the whole universe we meet in Jesus Christ, then daring to live the life of love, joy, and connectedness to others for which He has set us free.
It’s only in those who respond when Jesus says, “Follow Me” that God grows faith: Only when we refuse to look at other disdainfully, only when we dare to forgive those who seek our forgiveness, and only when we heed His call to believe, to love and share Christ’s gospel with others in our lives.
C.S. Lewis observed that, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.”
Without our consciously realizing it, humility becomes part of us as His Word works in us to create faith and we think of Jesus more and of ourselves, less.
When we turn to Jesus, humility begins to break through.
And when humility breaks through, we not only know joy for ourselves, we will share it with others.
We become the conduits of God’s grace for everyone we know.
Turn to Jesus each day and the pride that can kill us will meet its master.
Turn to Jesus each day and He will fill you love for Him instead of pride in yourself.
Turn to Jesus and live. Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Showing posts with label Gossip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gossip. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 09, 2019
Tuesday, May 01, 2018
Gossip Pushers and Junkies Hurt Everyone
This morning, for my quiet time, the passage of Scripture on which I camped was Proverbs 18:1-8. (You can find those verses here.)
The temptation when we read passages like these is to start thinking of all the people "out there" who are unfriendly, who gossip, who spout opinions without the facts, who trap themselves in their own self-centered verbiage.
But the moment such thoughts sneak up on me is the one in which I need to say, "God, what are You telling me in these words?"
Verse 8 brought across to me the importance of refraining from anything like gossip. It says: "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts."
There are several important points to remember when considering this wisdom given by God through Solomon.
First: From the Christian perspective, the gossip we pass on to others may be factually true or factually untrue. The thing that makes gossip gossip isn't its facticity; it's whether the gossip is less than charitable toward the subject of the gossip.
In his explanation of the Eighth Commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," Martin Luther says in The Small Catechism:
The temptation when we read passages like these is to start thinking of all the people "out there" who are unfriendly, who gossip, who spout opinions without the facts, who trap themselves in their own self-centered verbiage.
But the moment such thoughts sneak up on me is the one in which I need to say, "God, what are You telling me in these words?"
Verse 8 brought across to me the importance of refraining from anything like gossip. It says: "The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts."
There are several important points to remember when considering this wisdom given by God through Solomon.
First: From the Christian perspective, the gossip we pass on to others may be factually true or factually untrue. The thing that makes gossip gossip isn't its facticity; it's whether the gossip is less than charitable toward the subject of the gossip.
In his explanation of the Eighth Commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," Martin Luther says in The Small Catechism:
We should fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, lie, or gossip about our neighbors, but defend them, speak well of them, and put the most charitable construction on all that they do.
Gossip is designed to denigrate other human beings, questioning things like their integrity, trustworthiness, or intelligence. And defending gossip by saying, "But it's all true," is, in the eyes of God, no defense.
Second: When we gossip, according to Proverbs 18:8, we are feeding people "choice morsels." Gossip is like a slowly-but-surely acting poison wrapped in chocolate and it becomes part of the person who receives it, distorting their views of those being gossiped about and those who pass on the gossip. Gossip harms its recipients spiritually, diminishing their capacity for love.
A common saying is, "You are what you eat." As Christians who trust that Christ is truly present in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we believe that, as we receive Christ's in, with, and under the bread and the wine, Christ actually enters us, working to transform us from the inside out. Just so, gossip we receive with credulity stays with us and sets to work to lure us into sin and pride, to corrode our trust in God and others, to make us cynical, separating us from God and from others.
Gossip is horrible stuff: The one who gossips is like a drug pusher; the credulous recipient is an addicted junkie; and the entire process of gossip transmission and reception, like any other addiction, has a destructive impact on all who encounter pusher or junkie.
We need to pray both that God would keep us from engaging in gossip and from giving it a place in our lives.
At least this is how God spoke to me in this verse today. What do you think?
We need to pray both that God would keep us from engaging in gossip and from giving it a place in our lives.
At least this is how God spoke to me in this verse today. What do you think?
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Friday, July 15, 2016
The only one whose opinion matters
Public opinion is fickle and people will like or dislike you for lots of reasons, most of them unfair.
A few years ago, I wrote a song inspired by the circumstances of several people I'd known through the years who were falsely accused of financial shenanigans, one at a corporation, the other at a public entity.
In each instance, the media reported the allegations while the accused were forced by legal realities to refrain from comment.
Meanwhile, their communities were abuzz with unkind rumors of all manner of illegal, nefarious, and immoral activities of which my acquaintance was supposedly guilty.
In both cases, I felt like I was watching a game of telephone, a tumbling profusion of lies, sparked by, in each instance, one unproven allegation. Every time I tried to correct the false information, I was treated either as naive or complicit with wrongdoing.
You know, it isn't just the American system of jurisprudence that holds a person to be innocent until proven guilty, the God of the universe expects us to treat rumors, even allegations from public officials, as false until proven otherwise. In the eighth commandment, God says, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." In his explanation of this commandment, in The Small Catechism, Martin Luther writes:
We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain his actions in the kindest way.We need to be told this kind of thing, of course, it's foreign to our nature to give others as much consideration as we expect for ourselves.
But fallible human beings clearly aren't the ones whose opinions about us should matter most in our lives.
My song starts out:
People will say what people will sayI've seen that this is often true. People say uncharitable things about others because, in doing so, they make themselves feel superior. They're looking for affirmation in all the wrong places.
They refuse to be confused by the truth
We make a mistake when we allow the opinions of others about us to rule our choices and behaviors. The only One Whose opinion of us matters is God. He will judge our lives, not other people.
The great news in all of this is that God judges those who turn from sin and turn in faith to Jesus Christ with grace. He will do that even for people who are guilty of the sins that others gossip about. He will even forgive gossipers and would-be judges who repent and trust in Christ alone as their judge, God, and King.
Jesus frees us from the changing whimsies of others' opinions of us, roots us in love and life for eternity, and sends His Word and His Holy Spirit to guide us toward living according to God's will, not others' will, not our own. In this, there's freedom.
None of this means we should ignore the opinions of other people altogether. When loved ones or mature fellow church people speak the truth in love to us about perceived wrongs or bad judgment on our part, we should listen; they may be speaking God's truth to us. Christians, in particular, voluntarily live in a community of mutual accountability with their fellow Christians. Where this mutual accountability exists, we actually have more freedom not less, as God uses Christian community to set us free from sin and relational acrimony.
In any case, our ultimate Judge is God. And His desire is to set us free...if will let Him.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[I don't know where I got this graphic. I saw it a year ago, liked it, and kept it. Apologies if I have violated any copyright laws.]
Sunday, January 18, 2015
The Golden Rule of the Internet?
Look, you don't have to be credulous or naive...in fact, you don't have to believe pro football player Golden Tate's denials of some of the sordid reports about him that have appeared on the Internet.
But his words in this article are right on in an era when gossip has gone viral and when a favorite hobby of many is to drag others down on the Internet, celebrities and even ordinary people whose only "crime" is that someone, for some reason, finds them mockable. (Think of the young woman that dozens of web wags thought had been caught on national TV stepping out during Ohio State's recent Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama. The video with scandalous inferences burned up the Internet. But very few people with whom I've spoken know that the inferences were wrong and the man whose head she had touched was not a side interest, but her boyfriend.)
Tate begins by writing of himself as pro player in the public eye:
But his words in this article are right on in an era when gossip has gone viral and when a favorite hobby of many is to drag others down on the Internet, celebrities and even ordinary people whose only "crime" is that someone, for some reason, finds them mockable. (Think of the young woman that dozens of web wags thought had been caught on national TV stepping out during Ohio State's recent Sugar Bowl victory over Alabama. The video with scandalous inferences burned up the Internet. But very few people with whom I've spoken know that the inferences were wrong and the man whose head she had touched was not a side interest, but her boyfriend.)
Tate begins by writing of himself as pro player in the public eye:
You don’t know me.
Sure, by watching the NFL and playing fantasy football, you are aware of me as No. 15 on the Detroit Lions. You saw me win a Super Bowl last season with the Seattle Seahawks. You comment on my on-field celebrations and my perceived brashness. You frame what you think of me based on that, and how I perform, and what’s said and written about me by newspapers and magazines and blogs and talking heads.But you don’t know me, Golden Tate, the person. What I’m all about. You don’t know how much I care about my relationships with the fans and city in which I play.
Later, Tate suggests that people try to abide by the Golden Rule:
The false rumors about me served to open my eyes and sensitize me to what I read or hear in the media. Imagine, for a moment, walking in my shoes — having malicious and damaging accusations flying fast and furious, only you had no way of stemming the tide; no one person to call out and demand a retraction and an apology from. Now, imagine yourself squarely in the public eye, facing thousands of people lambasting you for something you didn’t say or do.
DeAngelo Williams was right. In the Internet era, stories like these live on — in search engines, in archives, and in the minds of fans watching the game. They will never fully go away, regardless of how I address them and how others debunk them. I actually learned something through all of this, it’s my Golden Rule, so to speak: “Treat others as you would like to be treated — especially on social media.”
Good idea! Read the whole thing.
In Martin Luther's Small Catechism, the Reformer explains the meaning of the Eighth Commandment, first given by God to the human race through Moses at Mount Sinai:
We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, [think and] speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.
In other words, we human beings are called to strive to find to think and say the best about others whenever possible.
Knowing that this is God's will for us should stop everyone in our tracks to confess our sins to God and turn to Him for the forgiveness and renewal He offers to us through Jesus Christ.
For Christians to know that this is God's will for us should motivate us, out of simple gratitude for Christ's cross and empty tomb and the grace that saves from sin and death all who believe in Christ, to ask God to help us always strive to "put the best construction on everything" done by our neighbors, whether they live next door, serve in the White House or Congress, or play in the NFL.
For Christians to know that this is God's will for us should motivate us, out of simple gratitude for Christ's cross and empty tomb and the grace that saves from sin and death all who believe in Christ, to ask God to help us always strive to "put the best construction on everything" done by our neighbors, whether they live next door, serve in the White House or Congress, or play in the NFL.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Speak Life!
I love this track from the newest TobyMac LP, Eye on It. Speak Life is all about using our speech to lift others up and not tear them down.
With so much negativity and pain in the world, much of it caused by our misuse of the gift of speech, the song is a great reminder.
Of course, it's naive to think that we can successfully resolve to use our mouths the way God intended. Our experience with busted new year's resolutions should tell us that. Our sin gets in the way. We get in the way.
That's why Jesus warns us, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit [by which Jesus means when we believe in Him and are so connected to Him, we're supplied with His life and goodness, and so life and goodness spring from us], because apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
If we are to "speak life" and not death to the world, enlivening others with the love and goodness that comes from God, we must retain our focus on Jesus Christ, God the Son, Who has brought love into our world. (We need to keep our eye on Him!)
And when our attention wanders onto the lost, dead pathways of this self-centered world, we need to return to Christ, turning from sin and trusting Him with our past, present, and future.
I love Paul's words in the New Testament book of Philippians: "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8).
Think Christ.
Trust Christ.
Then, you'll speak life!
(And if you're the praying type, ask God to help me practice what I just preached.)
Of course, it's naive to think that we can successfully resolve to use our mouths the way God intended. Our experience with busted new year's resolutions should tell us that. Our sin gets in the way. We get in the way.
That's why Jesus warns us, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit [by which Jesus means when we believe in Him and are so connected to Him, we're supplied with His life and goodness, and so life and goodness spring from us], because apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
If we are to "speak life" and not death to the world, enlivening others with the love and goodness that comes from God, we must retain our focus on Jesus Christ, God the Son, Who has brought love into our world. (We need to keep our eye on Him!)
And when our attention wanders onto the lost, dead pathways of this self-centered world, we need to return to Christ, turning from sin and trusting Him with our past, present, and future.
I love Paul's words in the New Testament book of Philippians: "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8).
Think Christ.
Trust Christ.
Then, you'll speak life!
(And if you're the praying type, ask God to help me practice what I just preached.)
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Put Off the Old, Put On the New
[This was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]
Colossians 3:1-17
1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. 7These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.
8But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. 11In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
12As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Chapter three of the New Testament book of Colossians represents something of a break from the first two chapters of this letter on which we’ve been focused for several weeks. In the first two chapters, Paul (with the help or, at least, the assent of the young pastor Timothy) makes an extensive confession of Who Jesus is: God in the flesh come to earth to die and rise and share His victory with believers. All who believe and are baptized are Christ’s resurrection people.
In fact, just to get you in the right frame of mind, I invite everybody to make two affirmations right now:
But it’s at this point that a question should arise in our minds: Now what? Jesus hasn’t come back yet nor have we died and come face to face with Jesus yet, so how do we live today?
This was an important question for Paul and Timothy to answer for the Colossian Christians because they wanted to correct the incorrect impressions of the Christian faith created by teachers who had come to the Colossian church and told the believers there that, on top of Jesus, they also needed to obey a string of regulations. (Some of their regulations seem to have been like Jewish ritual law, some of them like a first-century version of New Age mysticism.)
No, says the letter to the Colossians, we only need Christ to be saved from our sins and to have life with God!
So, does that mean that we Christians can do anything we want? There have been some Christians who have thought so. Some of you will remember the scandal that enveloped televangelist Jim Bakker some years ago. His downfall involved extensive sexual scandal, financial misdeeds, and prison time. To his credit, Bakker later wrote a book, the title of which contained his confession: I Was Wrong. But when Bakker went to prison, one denominational group said that they would be happy to ordain him, repentance or not. Their reason: Bakker's sin was of the flesh, but as a Christian, he was only responsible for spiritual sins. I have no idea what that means; but it shows the extent to which we human beings can go to exonerate ourselves of responsibility for our sins.
Often, we all can be like the character in one of George Bernard Shaw’s plays who says, “I love to sin. God loves to forgive. It really is an admirable system.”
But in fact, the follower of Jesus Christ is called to choose an entirely different orientation for his or her life and daily decision-making. We are to live as people who, through our Baptism, have died and risen with Christ, no longer oriented to the sin and death of this world, no longer taking our cues from what the New Testament calls life in the flesh, but living lives that reflect the reality of heaven and the new life that is ours through Jesus Christ.
Now look at verses 1-4 of our lesson on the special handout we distributed this morning. Read those verses silently, while I give a more literal translation from the Greek in which it was first written:
This is what Martin Luther was talking about when he said that each day we need to come to God to repent for our sins and each day, through the forgiveness God gives through Christ, we’re to walk in the power of Christ’s new life. That's daily repentance and renewal.
Colossians then lists five interrelated, overlapping sexual sins that Christians need to put to death within themselves.
First there’s fornication. The Greek word is porneian, from which we get the English word "pornography." According to the most renowned theological dictionary of the New Testament Greek, in its entry on porneia or fornication, “the [New Testament] is characterised by an unconditional repudiation of all extra-marital and unnatural intercourse.”
The list of sins we are to put to death through repentance goes on to include uncleanness (which would include any dirty, demeaning, or sexist words about sexuality), passion (which, in this case, means the desire to use another person for one’s own desires with no regard for the other person), evil desire (which refers to improper sexual desires, such as the desire for someone else’s spouse), and greed (which is actually a covetousness that makes either sex or the object of sexual desires a god for the covetous person).
That list pretty much runs the gamut of all of humanity’s sexual sins and they all, Colossians says, are to be put to death by daily repentance. Failure to strive to put them to death, our lesson tells us, will cause even those who have been baptized to incur God’s wrath.
I know that this makes God seem like a terrible spoilsport. But, in fact, God wants us to respect the gift of sexuality He has given to us. We see God's elevated view of our sexuality throughout Scripture. Genesis, for example, says that God created us male and female. The Song of Solomon celebrates in beautiful imagery the sexual relationship of husband and wife. In the books of the prophets, God said that the relationship of spouses stood as a metaphor for His relationship with Israel: He was Israel’s husband, Israel was God’s wife, and God lamented Israel’s faithlessness in running after other gods. In the New Testament, the Church is called the Bride of Christ. God wills that Christians’ relationships with members of the opposite sex be as unadulterated as our relationship with Christ. Thank God that whenever we fail to live in purity, either sexually or in other ways, we can turn to Him in repentance and receive forgiveness.
Our lesson goes on to talk about sins of the mouth—literally, the original Greek says, sins that come from our “stomatos,” our stomach or our gut. We're told to get rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language.
God takes His gift of speech to us seriously, too. This is why the Ten Commandments include the eighth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” In The Small Catechism, Luther explains the commandment in this way: “We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain his actions in the kindest way.” Again, thank God for the gifts of repentance and forgiveness and fresh beginnings and new starts.
Verses 9 and 10 tell us: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.”
In the first century church, those who were baptized took off their old clothes, were baptized, and then received new white robes in recognition of their having put off the old orientation to this world and put on the new orientation to Christ and to heaven. Since we have put on this new way of life of being “Christ’s resurrection people,” our call is to keep putting off all the vices that our lesson lists, so that our relationship with Christ can be kept clear and clean and pure.
Now, I wanted to be sure to talk about verses 12-17, even though they're not appointed for today, because it’s important to see that a relationship with Christ is not just about the things we put off or get rid of. This is, by the way, one of the deficiencies I see in how we usually commemorate the Lenten season. Everybody talks about what they're going to give up during Lent: "I'm going to give up chocolate." "I'm going to give up swearing." That's fine if the giving up leads us to a deeper relationship with Christ. But life with Christ is also about putting on new ways of living, joyful ways of living! Read verses 12 to 15 out loud with me:
None of this is to say that Christians are to be milquetoasts. Verse 16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom…”
This passage bears directly on something coming up at Saint Matthew. You may have heard that there’s a vote on August 29. The issue at hand will be whether Saint Matthew should leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Some are worried about the vote because people have varying opinions. I’m not. As someone once said, “If two people agree on everything, at least one of them is irrelevant.”
Whether it’s on how the Church addresses social justice issues, what pastors and bishops should say on political matters, how much emphasis should be placed on evangelism and discipleship, how much heed we should give to Latin American and African Lutherans who are deeply disturbed by recent actions of Lutherans in North America and Europe, or what we teach our children about the gift of sexuality, if your opinions are rooted in the Word of God—chapter and verse—then, by all means, you need to share those views among yourselves.
When we let Christ’s word dwell richly in us, we will all have times when we have words that teach and even admonish one another and help us all to put off the ways of the world and to put on the things of Jesus Christ.
Finally, verse 17 says, “And, whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” May this be our aim every single moment of every single day. Amen
Colossians 3:1-17
1So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. 7These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.
8But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. 11In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
12As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Chapter three of the New Testament book of Colossians represents something of a break from the first two chapters of this letter on which we’ve been focused for several weeks. In the first two chapters, Paul (with the help or, at least, the assent of the young pastor Timothy) makes an extensive confession of Who Jesus is: God in the flesh come to earth to die and rise and share His victory with believers. All who believe and are baptized are Christ’s resurrection people.
In fact, just to get you in the right frame of mind, I invite everybody to make two affirmations right now:
- “I have died and risen with Christ!”
- “We are Christ’s resurrection people!”
But it’s at this point that a question should arise in our minds: Now what? Jesus hasn’t come back yet nor have we died and come face to face with Jesus yet, so how do we live today?
This was an important question for Paul and Timothy to answer for the Colossian Christians because they wanted to correct the incorrect impressions of the Christian faith created by teachers who had come to the Colossian church and told the believers there that, on top of Jesus, they also needed to obey a string of regulations. (Some of their regulations seem to have been like Jewish ritual law, some of them like a first-century version of New Age mysticism.)
No, says the letter to the Colossians, we only need Christ to be saved from our sins and to have life with God!
So, does that mean that we Christians can do anything we want? There have been some Christians who have thought so. Some of you will remember the scandal that enveloped televangelist Jim Bakker some years ago. His downfall involved extensive sexual scandal, financial misdeeds, and prison time. To his credit, Bakker later wrote a book, the title of which contained his confession: I Was Wrong. But when Bakker went to prison, one denominational group said that they would be happy to ordain him, repentance or not. Their reason: Bakker's sin was of the flesh, but as a Christian, he was only responsible for spiritual sins. I have no idea what that means; but it shows the extent to which we human beings can go to exonerate ourselves of responsibility for our sins.
Often, we all can be like the character in one of George Bernard Shaw’s plays who says, “I love to sin. God loves to forgive. It really is an admirable system.”
But in fact, the follower of Jesus Christ is called to choose an entirely different orientation for his or her life and daily decision-making. We are to live as people who, through our Baptism, have died and risen with Christ, no longer oriented to the sin and death of this world, no longer taking our cues from what the New Testament calls life in the flesh, but living lives that reflect the reality of heaven and the new life that is ours through Jesus Christ.
Now look at verses 1-4 of our lesson on the special handout we distributed this morning. Read those verses silently, while I give a more literal translation from the Greek in which it was first written:
If therefore, you were co-raised with the Christ, seek the things above where Christ is sitting at the right hand [that is, the power hand] of God. Fix your mind on the above things, not on the things of this earth. For you died, and your resurrection life has been hidden [in this world] with Christ through God Himself. Whenever Christ, our life, becomes visible in this world [that is, when Jesus comes back to the world], then also the glory of God living in us will be seen by all.After these verses, we’re told that if our basic orientation has shifted from earth to heaven, there is something we must do. Verse 5 expresses it this way: “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly…”
This is what Martin Luther was talking about when he said that each day we need to come to God to repent for our sins and each day, through the forgiveness God gives through Christ, we’re to walk in the power of Christ’s new life. That's daily repentance and renewal.
Colossians then lists five interrelated, overlapping sexual sins that Christians need to put to death within themselves.
First there’s fornication. The Greek word is porneian, from which we get the English word "pornography." According to the most renowned theological dictionary of the New Testament Greek, in its entry on porneia or fornication, “the [New Testament] is characterised by an unconditional repudiation of all extra-marital and unnatural intercourse.”
The list of sins we are to put to death through repentance goes on to include uncleanness (which would include any dirty, demeaning, or sexist words about sexuality), passion (which, in this case, means the desire to use another person for one’s own desires with no regard for the other person), evil desire (which refers to improper sexual desires, such as the desire for someone else’s spouse), and greed (which is actually a covetousness that makes either sex or the object of sexual desires a god for the covetous person).
That list pretty much runs the gamut of all of humanity’s sexual sins and they all, Colossians says, are to be put to death by daily repentance. Failure to strive to put them to death, our lesson tells us, will cause even those who have been baptized to incur God’s wrath.
I know that this makes God seem like a terrible spoilsport. But, in fact, God wants us to respect the gift of sexuality He has given to us. We see God's elevated view of our sexuality throughout Scripture. Genesis, for example, says that God created us male and female. The Song of Solomon celebrates in beautiful imagery the sexual relationship of husband and wife. In the books of the prophets, God said that the relationship of spouses stood as a metaphor for His relationship with Israel: He was Israel’s husband, Israel was God’s wife, and God lamented Israel’s faithlessness in running after other gods. In the New Testament, the Church is called the Bride of Christ. God wills that Christians’ relationships with members of the opposite sex be as unadulterated as our relationship with Christ. Thank God that whenever we fail to live in purity, either sexually or in other ways, we can turn to Him in repentance and receive forgiveness.
Our lesson goes on to talk about sins of the mouth—literally, the original Greek says, sins that come from our “stomatos,” our stomach or our gut. We're told to get rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language.
God takes His gift of speech to us seriously, too. This is why the Ten Commandments include the eighth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” In The Small Catechism, Luther explains the commandment in this way: “We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain his actions in the kindest way.” Again, thank God for the gifts of repentance and forgiveness and fresh beginnings and new starts.
Verses 9 and 10 tell us: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.”
In the first century church, those who were baptized took off their old clothes, were baptized, and then received new white robes in recognition of their having put off the old orientation to this world and put on the new orientation to Christ and to heaven. Since we have put on this new way of life of being “Christ’s resurrection people,” our call is to keep putting off all the vices that our lesson lists, so that our relationship with Christ can be kept clear and clean and pure.
Now, I wanted to be sure to talk about verses 12-17, even though they're not appointed for today, because it’s important to see that a relationship with Christ is not just about the things we put off or get rid of. This is, by the way, one of the deficiencies I see in how we usually commemorate the Lenten season. Everybody talks about what they're going to give up during Lent: "I'm going to give up chocolate." "I'm going to give up swearing." That's fine if the giving up leads us to a deeper relationship with Christ. But life with Christ is also about putting on new ways of living, joyful ways of living! Read verses 12 to 15 out loud with me:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.Just think how different the life of the world and of the Church at large would be if, in the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we chose to put on those virtues every day of our lives? That can happen as we daily surrender to Christ!
None of this is to say that Christians are to be milquetoasts. Verse 16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom…”
This passage bears directly on something coming up at Saint Matthew. You may have heard that there’s a vote on August 29. The issue at hand will be whether Saint Matthew should leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Some are worried about the vote because people have varying opinions. I’m not. As someone once said, “If two people agree on everything, at least one of them is irrelevant.”
Whether it’s on how the Church addresses social justice issues, what pastors and bishops should say on political matters, how much emphasis should be placed on evangelism and discipleship, how much heed we should give to Latin American and African Lutherans who are deeply disturbed by recent actions of Lutherans in North America and Europe, or what we teach our children about the gift of sexuality, if your opinions are rooted in the Word of God—chapter and verse—then, by all means, you need to share those views among yourselves.
When we let Christ’s word dwell richly in us, we will all have times when we have words that teach and even admonish one another and help us all to put off the ways of the world and to put on the things of Jesus Christ.
Finally, verse 17 says, “And, whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” May this be our aim every single moment of every single day. Amen
Friday, June 06, 2008
A Look at This Sunday's Bible Lessons (June 8, 2008)
This week's look at the Bible lessons for Sunday will be brief.
The Bible Lessons:
Genesis 12:1-9
Psalm 33:1-12
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
The Prayer of the Day:
O God, you are the source of life and the ground of our being. By the power of your Spirit bring healing to this wounded world, and raise us to the new life of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
A Few Comments:
1. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Bible lessons appointed for the Sundays after Pentecost attempt to answer the question, "Now what?" They direct us to how we live our lives in light of our faith in the God born, died, and risen in Jesus Christ and come to us in the Holy Spirit.
Each Sunday during this season then, we confront one or two important elements involved in following Jesus through our daily lives.
2. This Sunday, maybe the largest theme is the centrality of heeding God's improbable call. People of faith are called to follow where and when God calls. This is underscored in the lessons from Genesis and in Romans, both of which discuss God's improbable call of Abram and Sarai (later Abraham and Sarah) from their native Ur (in what is modern-day Iraq) to become, despite their advanced years, the ancestors of Israel. It's also seen in Jesus' call of the tax collector, Matthew, in our Gospel lesson; tax collectors were lowly regarded by Jesus' fellow Judeans, seen as notorious sinners.
3. A curiosity regarding our Gospel lesson is that Jesus' call of Matthew and Jesus' confrontation of the Pharisees horrfied by Jesus dining with tax collectors and other sinners is set amid a long string of healings and miracles recounted in chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew's Gospel.
But maybe this shouldn't surprise us, especially in light of Jesus' response to the Pharisees criticism of Him. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," Jesus tells the Pharisees. In other words, the condition of sin, separation from God, is more fatal than any physical ailment. Jesus, the great physician, was willing to make housecalls, in order to do battle with the condition that, untreated by His grace, is eternally fatal. He still makes such calls through the Word, the Sacraments, prayer, and the fellowship of believers.
We saw Jesus implicitly connecting the forgiveness of sins to healing earlier in this chapter, Matthew 9:2. There, He forgave a paralytic of His sins. Sin is a bigger problem than disease. Notice too that there, as well as in this Sunday's Gospel lesson, Jesus forgives without any indication of repentance on the part of those to who He brings forgiveness/healing. This isn't to disdain repentance. But those who trust in Jesus, believe in Him, trust Him also to take dominion over their sins, even when they're not fully aware of them. You see, all sin is rooted in our failure to allow God first place in our lives. When we trust (have faith in) the God we see in Jesus, our sin is supplanted by God's authority. Repentance inheres in authentic trust in God. Repentance, turning to Christ, is a daily and ongoing part of the lives of Christians, who nothing but recovering sinners who trust God.
4. In our lesson from Romans, Paul discusses the nature of faith, our relationship with God. God blesses us with new life and His constant presence not because we are good people. Abraham's blessings came to him not because he was a good man, Paul says, but because he believed in God. (I laugh a little at Paul's portrait of Abraham. While what he writes of the ancient patriarch of faith is true, it overlooks those moments when Abraham's faith wavered. Twice, you'll remember, unsure that God could be counted on to protect him, Abraham told foreign kings that Sarai/Sarah wasn't his wife, but his sister. The kings briefly prepared to take her as their wives, each avoiding consummation and offense to God simply because God warned them not to go forward with their plans.) The blessings of new life in Jesus Christ belong to all with faith in Him.
5. A major point of interest to me in this Sunday's lesson from Matthew is that Jesus responds to the Pharisees' criticism, although they don't express it directly to Him. It required no supernatural abilities for Jesus to be aware of their criticisms.
Gossip always gets back to the person being gossiped about. Always. And it never contributes to the resolution of conflicts.
Jesus nipped gossip in the bud by confronting the gossips, as we see in our Gospel lesson.
This is an enormous problem in congregations, fostering feelings of distrust and enmity. This is why Jesus commands us in Matthew 18:15-20 on how to deal with situations in which we feel fellow church members have wronged us. We're not to bellyache to others. We're to go directly to the person we feel has wronged us...and we're to do so with the idea that we could be wrong and they could be right.
If their offenses against us don't rise to such a level that we feel it appropriate to confront, then we shouldn't say anything at all to anyone but God.
This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I'm still learning it.
During this coming Sunday's Small Catechism moment, we'll be considering Luther's explanation of the Eighth Commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." As always, Luther sees the manner in which God seeks to protect us in this commantment. What does the commandment mean? Luther says:
[Each week, I present some thoughts on the Bible lessons for the succeeding Sunday. In doing so, I hope to help the people of the congregation I serve, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, to prepare for worship. And because, we will almost always use the appointed lessons for the Church Year, I also hope that these thoughts can help others prepare for worship too.]
The Bible Lessons:
Genesis 12:1-9
Psalm 33:1-12
Romans 4:13-25
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
The Prayer of the Day:
O God, you are the source of life and the ground of our being. By the power of your Spirit bring healing to this wounded world, and raise us to the new life of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
A Few Comments:
1. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Bible lessons appointed for the Sundays after Pentecost attempt to answer the question, "Now what?" They direct us to how we live our lives in light of our faith in the God born, died, and risen in Jesus Christ and come to us in the Holy Spirit.
Each Sunday during this season then, we confront one or two important elements involved in following Jesus through our daily lives.
2. This Sunday, maybe the largest theme is the centrality of heeding God's improbable call. People of faith are called to follow where and when God calls. This is underscored in the lessons from Genesis and in Romans, both of which discuss God's improbable call of Abram and Sarai (later Abraham and Sarah) from their native Ur (in what is modern-day Iraq) to become, despite their advanced years, the ancestors of Israel. It's also seen in Jesus' call of the tax collector, Matthew, in our Gospel lesson; tax collectors were lowly regarded by Jesus' fellow Judeans, seen as notorious sinners.
3. A curiosity regarding our Gospel lesson is that Jesus' call of Matthew and Jesus' confrontation of the Pharisees horrfied by Jesus dining with tax collectors and other sinners is set amid a long string of healings and miracles recounted in chapters 8 and 9 of Matthew's Gospel.
But maybe this shouldn't surprise us, especially in light of Jesus' response to the Pharisees criticism of Him. “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick," Jesus tells the Pharisees. In other words, the condition of sin, separation from God, is more fatal than any physical ailment. Jesus, the great physician, was willing to make housecalls, in order to do battle with the condition that, untreated by His grace, is eternally fatal. He still makes such calls through the Word, the Sacraments, prayer, and the fellowship of believers.
We saw Jesus implicitly connecting the forgiveness of sins to healing earlier in this chapter, Matthew 9:2. There, He forgave a paralytic of His sins. Sin is a bigger problem than disease. Notice too that there, as well as in this Sunday's Gospel lesson, Jesus forgives without any indication of repentance on the part of those to who He brings forgiveness/healing. This isn't to disdain repentance. But those who trust in Jesus, believe in Him, trust Him also to take dominion over their sins, even when they're not fully aware of them. You see, all sin is rooted in our failure to allow God first place in our lives. When we trust (have faith in) the God we see in Jesus, our sin is supplanted by God's authority. Repentance inheres in authentic trust in God. Repentance, turning to Christ, is a daily and ongoing part of the lives of Christians, who nothing but recovering sinners who trust God.
4. In our lesson from Romans, Paul discusses the nature of faith, our relationship with God. God blesses us with new life and His constant presence not because we are good people. Abraham's blessings came to him not because he was a good man, Paul says, but because he believed in God. (I laugh a little at Paul's portrait of Abraham. While what he writes of the ancient patriarch of faith is true, it overlooks those moments when Abraham's faith wavered. Twice, you'll remember, unsure that God could be counted on to protect him, Abraham told foreign kings that Sarai/Sarah wasn't his wife, but his sister. The kings briefly prepared to take her as their wives, each avoiding consummation and offense to God simply because God warned them not to go forward with their plans.) The blessings of new life in Jesus Christ belong to all with faith in Him.
5. A major point of interest to me in this Sunday's lesson from Matthew is that Jesus responds to the Pharisees' criticism, although they don't express it directly to Him. It required no supernatural abilities for Jesus to be aware of their criticisms.
Gossip always gets back to the person being gossiped about. Always. And it never contributes to the resolution of conflicts.
Jesus nipped gossip in the bud by confronting the gossips, as we see in our Gospel lesson.
This is an enormous problem in congregations, fostering feelings of distrust and enmity. This is why Jesus commands us in Matthew 18:15-20 on how to deal with situations in which we feel fellow church members have wronged us. We're not to bellyache to others. We're to go directly to the person we feel has wronged us...and we're to do so with the idea that we could be wrong and they could be right.
If their offenses against us don't rise to such a level that we feel it appropriate to confront, then we shouldn't say anything at all to anyone but God.
This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. I'm still learning it.
During this coming Sunday's Small Catechism moment, we'll be considering Luther's explanation of the Eighth Commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." As always, Luther sees the manner in which God seeks to protect us in this commantment. What does the commandment mean? Luther says:
We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and explain his actions in the kindest way.Notice that the commandment calls us to be co-conspirators with God in protecting, enhancing, and shoring up the reputations of others. That means not just refraining from telling lies about them, it also means speaking well of them when others are talking them down.
[Each week, I present some thoughts on the Bible lessons for the succeeding Sunday. In doing so, I hope to help the people of the congregation I serve, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, to prepare for worship. And because, we will almost always use the appointed lessons for the Church Year, I also hope that these thoughts can help others prepare for worship too.]
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