Highlights from class February 17, 2010

Interesting discussion! I took a look at the videos and felt the need to comment on the content, keeping in mind both the things that percolate around Ash Wednesday and Lent as well as Pr. Mark’s sermon about temptation yesterday – the temptations and the tools.

I do want to address the two videos by Francis Chen (particularly the last one) and make a few comments:

Francis Chen’s point is really illustrated in the video where he compares the life of a Christian to a gymnast who performs a routine before a judge. The proper Christian life to Mr. Chen appears to be the one that follows Christ by ‘taking risks’ before standing before the Judge – not clinging to some kind of safety (?) and meekly standing before Him.

There’s a big problem there: when we start thinking in those kinds of terms, suddenly we’re doing all we can to somehow ‘measure up’ – to make sure we’re doing the things we really should be doing in order to stand before the judge – whether it’s feeding the poor, sending enough money to Haiti, voting for the right political candidates, handing out enough leaflets, etc., etc. It’s what we do that really matters.

In the first video, Jesus is a role model – someone we really need to emulate. But can we? St. Paul speaks of something radically different in Romans (See Romans 2-4 for “the” example.) In that letter, Paul puts into perspective what we can do with the works of the Law:

But now a​the righteousness of God ​has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for ​all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, ​through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in ​his divine forbearance he had passed over ​former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith p​apart from works of the law. Or ​is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and ​the uncircumcised through faith.

… or as Pr. Mark put it yesterday, there’s only one word that can fell the demon: “Jesus”, not the comforts we can build for ourselves by our accomplishments, our power, our wealth, etc.

Then….

Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

… which is what much of the passages (particularly those in 1 Cor ) get to in the “Training for the Christian Life” get to – Paul doesn’t discipline himself in order to earn merit, he talks of discipline (particularly at the Corinthian ‘idol barbecue’) as a means to avoid his own temptations as well as to prevent others from falling into temptation.

So, to answer the two questions:

1) Would you live differently if you knew today was the day of the 2nd coming?

2) If so, do we need to make adjustments in our lives now?

1) Where it really matters – it’s doubtful that I really can. Sure, I might work to make life a little better, but when it counts – the only answer I should have is that “Jesus Is Lord – repent and believe the good news.”

2) The adjustments that I should make are those that open me even more to the Gospel – that Christ was crucified for our sins and raised from the dead. (You might say that the only ‘dismount from the balance beam’ that God himself did was to have us take his dead body off the upright beam after we killed him because he wasn’t living up to our idea of what constituted good works.) Maybe if I really believe that, then I can go forth and do good things for my neighbors without the constant fear that what I’m doing just isn’t “good enough” – because I’ll face up to the fact that it really isn’t.

Further thoughts/reading: the “What Would Jesus Do?” notion can slip easily into “Pelagianism” or “Semi-Pelagianism”, which are described in the Formula of Concord, Article II ( Of Free Will ). In the “Negative Statements”:

2. We also reject the error of the Pelagians. They taught that a person by his own powers, without the Holy Spirit’s grace, can turn himself to God, believe the Gospel, be obedient from the heart to God’s Law, and so merit the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

19 There are only two efficient causes for a person’s conversion: (1) the Holy Spirit and (2) God’s Word, as the instrument of the Holy Spirit, by which He works conversion. A person must hear this Word. However, it is not by that person’s own powers, but only through the grace and working of the Holy Spirit that he trusts the Word and receives it.

… and in the ‘Affirmative Statements’ of Section III: The Righteousness of Faith Before God

2. We believe, teach, and confess what our righteousness before God is this: God forgives our sins out of pure grace, without any work, merit, or worthiness of ours preceding, present, or following. He presents and credits to us the righteousness of Christ’s obedience [Romans 5:17–19]. Because of this righteousness, we are received into grace by God and regarded as righteous.

4. We believe, teach, and confess that this faith is not a bare knowledge of Christ’s history, but it is God’s gift [Ephesians 2:8]. By this gift we come to the right knowledge of Christ as our Redeemer in the Word of the Gospel. And we trust in Him that for the sake of His obedience alone we have—by grace—the forgiveness of sins and are regarded as holy and righteous before God the Father and are eternally saved.

… or, that “one word”, I suppose.

Jerry:

Thanks for the clarification! I understand your point a bit better.

Mr. Chan’s video reminds me of a lot of preaching I’ve heard from time to time – back when we were ‘church shopping’ plus visiting various places: the “Jesus & the Cross but…” followed by the “you gotta, you gotta, you gotta” message that eventually ended with “… or you can just throw a bit more money in the offering plate, do ‘x’ task or program that we’re really into right now, etc. etc. Then you’re cool – unlike those other people!” (Sometimes “Jesus & The Cross” is dropped for the sake of time constraints.)

(I just listened to a podcast recently that featured some audio from the Saddleback “Radicalis” conference of a sermon/speech given by Mark Driscoll where he talked about a ‘how and why’ of ministry/evangelicalism that was really, really good – I’m Googling around to see if I can find the video… it was noted how Driscoll followed a Rick Warren keynote and ripped apart Warren’s opening about success, purpose, metrics, etc. with a reason of “how and why” we bother doing this at all message.)

To your specific points:

1) No, I don’t believe I do enough in terms of either my own spiritual practice or my witness. I do feel that part of it is that I just haven’t been exposed to enough in my earlier years (which is also probably why I drifted off in my college years to become the ‘once in awhile Christian’) to the kinds of materials or discussions that focus on what we confess and why we believe that what we confess is actually true.

(Pr. Mark’s sermon this week on the ‘temptation and the tools’ was really amazing in this regard. Sometimes we don’t realize what we have in the toolbox.)

2) I can state that I don’t practice what St. Paul preached in Romans (Romans 10 ) that there are ‘two parts’ to the faith:

But ​the righteousness based on faith says, ​“Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “ ‘Who will descend into the ​abyss?’ ” (that is, ​to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ​“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and n​believe in your heart o​that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ​“Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; ​for the same Lord is Lord of all, s​bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

I was raised in the mode (like a lot of Lutherans, I suppose) where we practiced a certain amount of piety, but didn’t do a lot of ‘confessing with our mouth’. We attend our church, support our pastors, etc. – but I often just didn’t equip myself with the tools to face a world that either a) doesn’t talk much about God b) says nearly anything or attaches nearly anything with the name of God.

(This is why I’m both excited about having a standing Wednesday night ‘basics’ kind of session and also disappointed that I can’t seem to clear out that hour on a regular basis….)

As far as the concept of spiritual practices, I have been trying to re-incorporate something that my grandparents and mother have done ever since I can remember: simply making time for a simple devotional. My grandfather has had a copy of that little Portals of Prayer magazine around for a long time and my mother has always been involved in some kind of devotional exercise.

Even just having that stuff ‘laying around the house and used’ served as a witness to me, in some fashion.