Compassion: Thoughts on Trinity 16

Compassion. That's what Jesus had for the mother. σπλαγχνίζομαι, the feeling you get in your guts when you see others in pain and suffering.

Interestingly, Luke uses this verb and noun in four places. And in each place it is at the very center of the episode. It marks the turning point, the climax of Jesus' teaching and work, of God's nature (Luke 1:76-79; 7:11-17; 10:25-37; and 15:11-32).

So what does that tell us? Perhaps that the miracle is not the main thing. But rather the disposition of God toward sinful men. That Jesus is the one who suffers with those who suffer. That He knows their pain, that He identifies fully with them, and takes that pain and suffering into Himself (Heb 4:15). Jesus has σπλαγχνίζομαι because He is the σπλάγχνον.

σπλάγχνον was at first a reference to the inner parts offered for the sacrifice. Later it came to denote a more subjective feeling in the heart or the guts. And finally, it pointed to the heart.

In Jesus we have the very heart of God. In Jesus we have the tender mercy of the Father. In Jesus we have the sacrifice that God gives to take us back as His children. In Jesus the compassion of God takes up flesh so that it was necessary that He go to His Passion, to suffer and die and be raised on the third day.

Jesus' compassion--His suffering with the mother, His suffering for the mother--gave rise to one of the loveliest sentences Luke wrote: " . . . and Jesus gave him back to his mother" (Luke 7:15). They are brought back together, reconciled out of death into life. 

He can only do that because of His Passion. He can only do that because He is what reconciles us to the Father and to one another. His Passion gives us back to God. It gives us back to one another, whether that separation is caused by death or by sin. "And He gave him back to his mother." He will also give you back.

Your questions have already been answered.

I've mentioned before how working as an assistant editor on CPH's new Gerhard volumes (Theological Commonplaces) has been a real eye-opener, especially to the sad fact of the inadequacies of our own MDiv doctrinal theology education. Most every question we are asking today, most every controversy we are beating each other over the head with, has been thoroughly handled by Gerhard four centuries ago. Worship wars? Pastoral education? Pastoral pay? Women in the ministry? All in volume two of On the Ministry. 

Currently I'm working on the volume concerning original and actual sin. I just sent off a long section on concupiscence. Perhaps that does not sound too exciting - but the argument between Rome and Wittenberg on this topic could not be of more contemporary importance. Is our inward tilt toward sin, our desires, our inner brokenness really sin? Or is concupiscence not really sinful? This argument maps onto the current discussion in the Christian world concerning homosexuality. Gerhard has all the ammunition you need: Scriptures, patristics, clear reasoning, history, etc.

Here's a snippet from Gerhard on venial and mortal sin - another long lost Lutheran distinction that would clear up a lot of thinking in our ministerium.

That some [sins] are called venial and only some are called mortal is not because of the nature of the sins but because of the mercy of the Father, the merit of the Son, and the sanctification of the Spirit. This distinction does not pertain to all people in general but only to the reborn. It is not to be taken from the Law which accuses and condemns all sins regardless of their type and size, but from the Gospel which demonstrates that sins of weakness and ignorance and corrupt lusts are not imputed to those who believe in Christ if they resist them; that is, if the reborn,
(1) acknowledge these evils which dwell in their heart;
(2) grieve seriously over them;
(3) ask and believe that they are covered by the merit of the Mediator as by an umbrella;
(4) by no means relax the reins ujpon them but resist them by the Spirit, crucifying the flesh along with its desires [concupiscentiis].
These four chief points are very correctly assigned to remission and mortification in the Apology to the Augsburg Confession. 

I know the books are pricey (and I don't get any royalties, alas), but if you buy one volume a year and commit to read through you will plug a lot of gaps that your MDiv did not fill.

+HRC

Why did Michal despise David?

This morning I've been pondering the dance that David did before the LORD and how Michal despised him for it (2 Sam. 6).

She was Saul's daughter, born to royalty.  She knew the life of luxury.  Now she was a queen.  But here is her husband, the king, dancing in the street, as a commoner.  Dancing with the plebes.  How dare he!  This is beneath the dignity of his high state.

My take, therefore, is that David's dance, far from being useful in making statements in favor of the employment of popular beat and music--to say nothing of liturgical dance--into the church's song, is rather a prolepsis of the humiliation of Christ.  David did not come down from heaven, but he came down from his throne.  He was not equal with God, but he was a bearer of God's kingship.  And he, like Jesus, made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.

The dance of David is about the humiliation of David.  Michal despises this, because she is the bride of false devotion.  She, and not he, is more the token of false worship.  He will not succumb to her pressure, but remains resolute in his humble devotion to God.

Such is true faith.

What is the therefore there for? Thoughts on Trinity 15

What is the therefore there for? It's a silly way to make a point but important nevertheless. If you look only at the appointed text for Trinity 15, you don't have a full picture of what therefore is there for.

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. “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. . . ."

However if you go back to verse 19 and continue to verse 25, it becomes more clear.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. “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."

The issue here is that our eyes are bad. That we don't receive the Word, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We don't invest in the things that have an eternal ROI. And because our eyes are bad, we see only the bad things, the evil things that surround us. We come home from a day at work, and we talk about the things that went wrong. Even our best days, when almost everything goes according to plan and where almost everything comes off without a hitch, we come home and dwell on and stew over the few things that went wrong. We fixate on the problems, which breeds anxiety and worry. Why is it that we wonder and fixate on how so much goes wrong? Why do we not marvel instead at just how much goes right? 

For what if people could read your hearts and minds? What if every lie you told, every juicy bit of gossip you spoke was fully known by everyone? Consider that despite your past arguments, your passive aggressive one-liners, your spouse still loves you, your children still want nothing more than to spend time with you, and your friends still answer your phone calls and e-mails. Or consider not how few people fill the pews in church, but rather dwell on the fact that there are so many, that Sunday after Sunday, the pews hold the same people for the same message that they’ve known and heard since childhood? This is a miracle of God’s grace and mercy and providence.

We have a vision problem. Our sight is darkened. Our conscience is defiled and tainted. We don't see things as the Lord reveals them to us in His Word. We only see the gunk and the grime, and we fixate on it, as though we were looking through a windshield soiled with bugs and dirt and mud unable to see past it all to the light of day to the clear reality beyond all the mess.

And so our Lord asks us what there is to worry about? Your heavenly Father has sent light into the world. He set the lights by His Word in the sky in the beginning. He has sent it now in the flesh. The light is among us. The Lord provides. He provides everything we need for this body and life. He has given all that we need for this body and eternal life. He cleanses your conscience with water and word, clothes you with His body and blood, His righteousness. The Kingdom is yours. For you have the King to whom they belong. His throne is still the cross. The victim is still the victor. The Lord reigns. He reigns forever, provides forever, lives forever. And so shall you. What is there left to be anxious about? 

The Lutheran Beard

Feel like doing something Lutheran for Reformation Day? Misplaced your copy of oppressive canon law and thus can't toss it in the bonfire? You can metaphorically, yet more substantially, oppose the false pretenses of the Bishop of Rome (if you are a secular cleric) by growing a beard.

Exempla: