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Minister’s Musings
October. Reformation Sunday. At this time of the year I remind myself of what the essence of being Lutheran is about. We are truly radical - not in the sense of rioting and making a loud display. But Lutherans, when we are being true to our heritage, are radical in our understanding that it really is all about God. As my friend Avery put on his answering machine, “There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us any less.”
In Luther’s explanation to the 3rd article of the Apostles’ Creed he says, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith;” Even our faith is a gift from God!
Nadia Bolz-Weber is a pastor in Denver. She doesn’t look like most Lutheran pastors. She is really into body art and has some amazing tattoos. She doesn’t talk like most Lutheran pastors, although sometimes she sounds a lot like Luther, using words that I don’t anymore (most of the time). But when she speaks, she is extremely clear about the Lutheran understanding of what it means to be Christian. Here’s part of a sermon:
Sometimes when I first meet new people and they find out that I’m a pastor they say “I’m not into organized religion. I just hope that being a good person is enough”. I’m like, “yeah, it’s not”. But I can see where they are coming from - if you obey the 10 Commandments then you are covered, right? Of course that would make you the first person to pull it off - basically our record as a species is like 125 Billion and – 0 but hey, knock yourself out. And we do. We try really really hard. Why? Because when sinners hear the law – what sounds like demands from God, we have exactly 2 choices. Pride. Or Despair.
Pride in this realm is the empty comfort of being right. . . . It is approaching the word of God as a rule book and spiritual self-improvement policy. On the other hand pride under the law can be political correctness and the tyranny of being more anti-oppression and more inclusive and more multi-cultural than anyone else. . . .
The other option of course, if we do not look at the demands of God with self-congratulations, is to look on them with despair. Jesus helped to up the ante here for those of us who think “just being a good person is enough” . . . To those who are prideful that out of our virtue we give to charity (check) Jesus says oh yeah, sell all you have and give it to the poor (ok, maybe un-check). It can feel like a set up. I wonder if moving from vice to virtue isn’t a really a lousy salvation plan namely because it’s not actually possible to pull it off. The thing is, me-based solutions don’t look very hopeful.
Our wisdom says that religion, when properly practiced should get us something. Our wisdom says that the solution should be a market system for making our way to God. But that’s not it. And the solution also isn’t to just try harder. If trying harder worked some of us in this room would have arrived. Although honestly several of you would have no hope whatsoever.
Well, there is a solution but there is good news and bad news about that. The bad news is that it’s not a me-based solution. The good news? It’s not a me-based solution.
The solution is Christ. See, when I think that my efforts toward fulfilling God’s demands or being virtuous or trying harder is what will earn my salvation then this means that I no longer really need Christ. He is for all intents and purposes left idling in his van on the corner. . . .At the cross Jesus messes with all our ideas about rules and worthiness and power; here we see a messiah who is foolish enough to allow himself to be killed and not even in a neat or noble way. The solution is for God to be made flesh and walk among us, God’s own beloved sinners. Because this changes everything. See, Jesus isn’t a new Moses bringing a better law we’ll never live up to. Jesus isn’t just sitting in heaven waiting to see if we can pull off the impossible and then condemning us for our inevitable failure. Jesus subverts the entire paradigm. Jesus actually IS our righteousness. This righteousness we have is not our own, but that of a Merciful and gracious God who comes to us in vulnerability and suffering. And the thing is….with the righteousness of Christ there is no extra credit to be obtained. . . .
So it ends up that it actually is good news that “just being a good person” is not enough. Because the cross is enough . . . Only a God who slips into skin taking on flesh in all its broken glory – only this God of foolish love who dies a scandalous death without even lifting a finger to condemn the enemy – only this God can love you where you are. Right now. Because in the world according to God that’s how things work. (From a sermon for Lent 3B at http://sarcasticlutheran.typepad.com/sarcastic_lutheran)
And when we encounter this God who loves us right where we are, we are free to live: to be fully human (not super-human or sub-human), to make mistakes, to rejoice, to despair, to have faith and to doubt and know that we are never outside of the hands of the God who loves us without limits. And that’s what excites me about being a Lutheran Christian.
In Christ,
Pastor Betty
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