I'll rephrase that. I always feel bad when I have to preach the law to the congregation.
We Lutherans have this awesome thing going on, which we call 'Law and Gospel.' It was really popularized by Walther. Put into its simplest possible terms, if you're comfortable, you should be terrified, and if you're terrified, you should be comforted. This was the basic building block of the teaching of Jesus when he was here on earth with us. When he was doing his teaching and preaching, what you've noticed is that he was nice to the sinners, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the various bad eggs who were around, but he was harsh to the pharisees, the saducees, the chief priests and elders of the people.
And why was that? The understanding these days seems to be that Jesus is the friend of the plucky underdog, that he is around as some sort of galactic socialist, designed to redistribute wealth and so on. And the reason that we like this, is because we always view ourselves as the plucky underdogs in our own stories. We view ourselves as facing the wind, taming whales, all that stuff. That's how you and I see ourselves. And because we see ourselves in that light, the modern church heads into some trouble when it comes to preaching law. When it comes to preaching law, most people want a nice 'fire and brimstone' sermon, in which I, or a pastor like myself, preach damnation about those who aren't in our church, and probably never will be. Honestly, I've had a few people come to me and ask for more preaching on the law, ask for a little more hellfire, ask for a little more promise of damnation, which at first caught me by surprise, until I figured out what was going on.
If I was to preach a sermon on attendance, everyone who heard it would be saying 'yeah, right on!' As well they might. Because, by definition, if you're listening to a sermon on attendance, you're at least there to hear it! And you can get rather smug, and think to yourself 'yes, those other goofballs out there should really go to church more.' And yes, they probably should. But why oh why would I bother telling the people who are there that the people who aren't should be?
This last Sunday, I preached the law on a particular hobby horse of mine. That is, I preached about the reading from Acts regarding cornelius. This particular passage is a passion of mine, particularly because it is related to the way our churches function in the real world. And when I say our churches, I mean our Lutheran Church-Canada churches, legit. The whole deal with Cornelius, in case you didn't know, is the blowing of Christianity open to the world outside. Even though Christ our Lord had told his disciples that they were to preach his message to the ends of the earth, the disciples didn't think that Jesus actually meant it. The idea that the disciples had is that if people were going to be Christians, then they would have to be Christians like them. In other words, the disciples kept kosher, they went to the synagogue, they spent time dealing with the temple and everything related to it. And they kept kosher. It's a reality so nice I said it twice, but it's important for this conversation. When the disciples get together, they do so as Jewish Christians. They're Christians, obviously, but they're Christians as an off-shoot of their Judaism. And this, this is the beginning of a problem that will plague us from the first century to the present day. The idea is that in order to be a Christian, you have to be like us first. Who is us? It's whoever happens to be running the congregation at the time.
For us, in Lutheran Church-Canada, we happen to be overwhelmingly German. Yes we do. And we tend to say things like 'Lutheran last names' 'Lutheran pop', all sorts of other stuff that is entwined with German culture. And this makes it difficult to do any kind of reasonable outreach beyond our immediate community. Our favourite target is German catholics, but that stopped being a fertile ground about six hundred years ago. The real fertile ground for outreach is honestly going to be either Canadian atheists, or failing that, people who don't look all that German.
And this is why I preach on the law in this manner. The big threat facing the Christian church, the big panic, the big problem that we face down all the time is not the homosexuality, it's not the abortion, it's not the gambling, or the drug addiction, it's not murder or rape.
It's that you're a bunch of Pharisees.
That was the problem with the synagogue and the temple back in the New Testament days, and it's the problem in churches today, and don't think that it's a problem only in LC-C churches. It's a problem with all churches, more pronounced with in churches that have a sort of National background (Anglicans, Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, etc). Your church has a problem, in that it's not about making you more like God, it's about making other people more like you. And if you think I'm making this up, I'm not. This is a problem plaguing churches these days. The idea from the beginning was that we were made in God's image, and we have taken this in later days to mean that we are supposed to make other people in our image. When it comes time to discuss food or drink or worship times, or prayers or anything like that, we turn into Pharisees remarkably quickly, saying 'well, if you're going to be a Christian, you're going to have to go to church at 8:30 in the morning, and use p.158 out of the hymnal.' As though Jesus, when he was walking on God's green earth, was setting up Lutheran churches, placing organs in them, and signing off on the only true hymnal, the blue hymnal. None of that happened. We get confused so quickly because we're so silly. We're silly silly people. We feel as though we are the barometer of holiness, and everyone else should be judged through our lens. If we don't drink alcohol because we have a problem with it, we usually think that nobody else should either. And that gives us the awesome sense of security, it lets u s look at everyone else, and say that they have a long way to go to catch up with us. Our way is the best way, even though it is just useful for us, and has nothing to do with scripture at all. But that was never the idea - all things are lawful, says the scripture, but not all things are profitable. It's up to you, and what is driving a wedge between you and God. And for most of you, I doubt very much that it's the same things as it is for me. That's because we're all sinners, but all pulled in different directions. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses, and that's fine. But the big danger is when we assume that there is a simple, easy to follow standard for holiness that involves haircuts, not wearing jeans, jello salad, cabbage rolls, and German music. Because it doesn't, and it never did.
I'm in the business of preaching law sometimes, not often, but sometimes. And when I preach the law, what should I preach about? The demon liquor? The rampant adultery that is constantly happening? The gambling addictions that tear families apart? Maybe. But if I was hungry, I'd talk about food. Our churches aren't full to the brim with gambling addicts, or alcoholics, or abortion providers, or murderers, but they are full of cold, self-righteous prigs. And if I'm going to preach the law, what do you think I'm going to preach about? What did Jesus preach about? It was, and always has been, about opposing the proud, and giving grace to the humble.
PJ.
No comments:
Post a Comment