What if Jesus means what he says?

I got disappointed this last week.

Not for the usual reasons I get disappointed, no sir.  This time, it was about something totally different
. This time it was about the notes in my study Bible.  I glanced at my notes, and I was surprised to find that I totally disagreed with them.  I disagreed with them as a Lutheran.

Now, the 'as a Lutheran' distinction is important, becasue here I am, in the position of holding up the merits of the Scriptures as completely inerrant.  This means that the Bible is literally true in what it says, and that we as Christians who read the Scriptures have to let them say what they plainly say.  Okay, great.  Now that we've established that particular rule, then here comes the hammer-blow:

WHY IS THAT SO HARD?

You and I, average Joe Luther, we get a little smug when there are churches that are blessing animals, or using juice for communion, or believing that the earth is like, really really old, guys, and we get all smug and say to them, and to everyone else, that they should just let the Bible say what it plainly says already.  We use this as our ammunition to blast away at other denominations, stating that we, as Lutherans, have the pure, undivided, unadulterated truth of the Holy Scriptures, because we let the Bible just say what it says and we don't try to insert ourselves into it.

Until we do.

Yes, Lutherans, we are as guilty of this as everyone else, just in other directions.  We are people who know what the scriptures say, and that works when we want to hear it, but it works less well when

we don't want to hear it.  Unlike other denominations, though, we're not all bent out of shape about women's ordination, or the age of the earth, but we're bent out of shape about works.  And this ends up being one of our biggest weaknesses.  You see, because of the way we approach works and grace, because of the way that we approach the operation of Christ and his work that he does.  And central to the notion of the Lutheran esthetic is the idea of Grace.

"For it is by grace that you have been saved, and not through works, lest any man should boast"

That's the scriptures saying what they plainly say, and we hold verses like this very dear.  When Jesus tells us that we did not choose him, but rather that he chose us, we hold to that strongly, and show it proudly, show it off to the other denominations that are all works focused, and we pity them for not having the pure Gospel, the pure truth of the Gospel of Christ, that tells us that we are saved by Grace alone.

And that works, until you realize that Jesus has a lot to say about works.  What Jesus has to say about works is desperately cutting, blazing through us like a torch.  What Jesus has to say about works gives us pause for fear and trepidation, it makes us concerned down to our cores in a way that perhaps we can't even articulate, because we want to run and hide from it basically constantly.  We live in perpetual fear of the reality of what Jesus Christ says about works and their place in the kingdom of God.  This is most especially pronounced in the sermon on the mount, perhaps ironically.  The sermon on the mount is part of scripture that everyone claims to like an awful lot, because it discusses people being blessed and so on.  But there is more to it than that.  It doesn't just tell you that you're blessed when people are mean to you (though it does tell you that).  It tells you that you've got some serious stuff to do.  It tells you that if someone asks you to go one mile, you should go two miles with them.  If someone strikes you on the cheek, offer them your other cheek as well.  If someone sues you for your coat, give them the shirt off your back.  And you, average Joe Luther, you have a couple of questions to ask yourself about that, which is that in this situation, will you let the Bible say what it plainly says?

Most of us won't.  Most of us will do our best to wrangle and to force this passage into saying what we want it to say.  And most of the time, what we wrestle it into saying is what we're already doing.  We wrestle and force this passage into making it not just say what we want it to say, we wrestle the passage into instead of it being what it plainly says, we end up wrestling it ito saying hte complete opposite.  When the Scriptures have Jesus saying 'Give to anyone who would ask of you, and do not refuse anyone who would borrow from you,' what we take that to mean is that we shouldn't give to any common rascal, but rather should save our resources for our family, and the people whom we ought to be helping.  Because surely, Jesus doesn't want you to be a doormat, and just to get walked all over by everyone else.

Doesn't he?  Then why did he say that that was exactly what he wants?

You see, we come face to face with the notion of perfection in these passages, and we don't like what we see.  We come face to face with perfection, with the nature of perfection, of what is essentially required to be perfect, and we explain it away.  We say 'Surely, Jesus doesn't want us to be used.  He doesn't want us to be used up, he doesn't want us to be drained of everything, he doesn't want us to enable those who are users, he wants us to ensure that people who work hard get to enjoy their hard work and the fruit of their labor.  Sweat ownership and all that.  But if that's the case, then, why did he tell us to give without ceasing to anyone who may ask, without stopping to question if it would be a good idea or not?

The deal is, at its core and nature, that perfection, she's a tricky mistress.  Perfection, divine perfection, it's a whole other game than we want to play.  You see, if you explain away what Jesus says in these passages as just being idealistic gas, or as exaggeration for the sake of it, then you'll be missing the larger point.  After telling all the people who are there for the sermon on the mount all that stuff, he then tells them to be perfect, as their heavenly father is perfect.  If you're trying to explain this away, if you're trying to tell me, and more accurately yourself that this is big talk and Jesus is just trying to say something completely different, then you're in trouble with who you think Jesus actually is and what he does.

All these things that Jesus talks about in the Gospel reading, these are things that he does for us.  These are things that he does for us out of his own perfection, and we don't think anything of it.  Take a good long look at what Jesus says is important, and then place it side by side with what he does.

"You have heard that it was said 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.  If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."

Then, they spit in his face, and struck him, and some slapped him saying 'prophesy to us, you Christ!  Who is it who struck you?' (Matthew 26:67-68)

"If anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well."

When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe ... And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. (Matthew 27:31, 35)

"And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles"

So they took Jesus, and he went out bearing his own cross, to the palce of the skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. (John 19:17)

"Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you."

[the theif said]"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus said to him "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:42-43)

Do you see what's hapening here?  Do you see what's going on?  What Jesus is saying is not vague idealistic gas, it's not just some exaggeration that he's never planning on putting together in the first place, he is speaking real, actual, genuine words about what he is going to do.  What perfection is all about.  This is what perfection is all about ,this is where it lives, is in Christ.  If you explain away his words in Matthew as just being for exaggeration, then you have to deal with the fact that he shouldered all of it, and walked it to the cross, including, by the way his dispension of grace to a common rascal who was crucified next to him, who wasn't exactly the most deserving person in the whole world.  But Jesus is serious when it comes to perfection, and really, desperately puts it out there as the cost and weight of glory and majesty.

So look at his words, and then look at yourself.  I know you're tempted to, but don't explain his words

away, don't sweep them under the carpet, don't claim that they're about something else, because they aren't.  Let them say what they say, and then realize how far you still have to come to meet those standards.  Realize that you can't nor ought you even try, to bend those words to fit your life.  And if the scriptures won't bend for you, then you must bend for them.  Bend how, be perfect?  Not likely.  But if you won't be perfect, how best to bend yourself to these scriptures?

By meekly kneeling on your knees, and being in repentance of all the things you have not done.  Repenting of missing the mark on those standards that Christ has plainly set out for you.  Repent for all the blown chances and missed opportunities.  Because it is for this reason that Christ died.  Not just for other people in their shame and such, but for you.  For your sin, for your shame, for your inattention to the standards that Christ has set out for you, and for your justifying your sin, and smudging the words of Christ.

As before, you don't like this passage.  I don't either.  You don't want Jesus to tell you to be a dormat.  But he does.  You don't want Jesus to tell you to give and give and give to users, but he does.  He not only says it, he does it.  Becuase he is perfect.  And it is his perfection that is the only source for our life and grace and righteousness.

PJ.

Think Fast

Fish on Fridays was something I grew up knowing about.  My family was always desperately protestant, so we didn't hold to a weekly fast or anything like that, but there were people who did, and
growing up in a Catholic school, you certainly knew about it.  And as the weekly fast rolled around, it seemed curiously arbitrary.

First of all, why do fish not count as meat?  They're an animal, aren't they?  Secondly, with the weekly fast rolling around, it wasn't as though people went meat free, it was fish on Fridays, that was the way it was presented.  Now, as a protestant growing up in a Catholic world, that was something to see.  But the other problem with the way it was presented (and I know this isn't how it was intended, before all the regular Catholic readers jump all over me) was that there was some inherant moral benefit to going without meat for a day.

Now, if you think about fasting on face value, it all seems largely arbitrary.  The idea of fasting, whether it be part of Lent, or Ramadan, or a weekly observance involving being a pescetarian for a day, it all seems a bit arbitrary.  And that arbitrary nature can be traced right the way back to the Old Testament, to a time in which the people of God were in the wilderness, and God was giving them the commandments that they were to observe.  And of the commandments that God was handing down, a generous number of them had to do with what you are or are not allowed to eat.  If you're feeling adventurous, go ahead and check this out, and it'll tell you, based on Leviticus 11, what you are or are not allowed to eat.  Yes, that's right, you don't get to eat bat.  Or owl.  Guess Amanda will be delighted.



Now, these laws were put in place by God to set his people apart, to remind them that they were called to holiness, to be a bastion for him in an unfeeling, uncaring world.  In the same way as they were essentially the only monotheists in the area, they were also the only ones to abjure from the eating of pork, to divide the meat from the dairy, and the only ones to not eat bats.  Guess Alice Cooper won't be assuming the mantle of Judaism any time soon.

But as time wore on, people started to get the idea that avoiding pork, shellfish, ostrich, whatever, was a moral act in and of itself.  As though going without was better than having just by nature.

Fast forward to the here and now, and we have the same idea.  We get to thinking that over the lenten season, going without Chocolate is by itself a moral act.  But emptied of its significance, it means nothing at all.  There are basically two reasons to go without something.  First is simple, to remind yourself of the suffering of Christ, and to be cognizant of it all the time.  it's a good discipline to get into, to be aware of Christ's suffering all through Lent, or on Friday, or what have you, and to have that be a part of your life every day.  In the same way that keeping Kosher reminds the Jewish individual every day, at every meal, heck at every snack, that they are set apart by God as chosen people.

Secondly, though, things get a bit more nebulous, and this is where we fail.  The Old Testament reading from Sunday is about fasting, and it talks about the type of fast desired by God.  The fast desired by God is not just a going without, though.  It's not just you shrugging your shoulders, and not having what you might otherwise have.  You see, the way we fast in the Protestant church is lot like the old gas boycott, which just delays our consumption of the good in question, but doesn't alter the underlying habits.  That is, if you're going without chocolate for Lent, the chocolate is still there, just hanging out in the closet.  It's in the pantry, waiting for your binge on Sunday, or on Easter, and the underlying habits are still the exact same as they always were.  But the Old Testament reading from Sunday makes clear that what is desired by God.

3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness[a] will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

He wants your fast to have real, tangiable results in the real world.  In other words, going without is one thing, but what do you do with the thing you've given up?

For most of us, we either just hide it in the pantry, or just go without buying it for the 40 days of lent, and no harm done.  But imagine, if you will, buying the chocolate that you would have been eating, and giving it away.  I gave up ketchup a few years ago, and all I did was not buy ketchup for Lent.  It was terrible and hard, because I love Ketchup more than I love my parishoners, but I went without it.  And
in the process, I just steered clear.  I didn't use my ketchup budget to become more charitable.  And I should have.

In other words, in the Christian experience, there should be no giving up without giving out.  There ought to be no fasting without an equal and opposite charitable reaction.  when you give something up, there is no neutral space, so what do you do with that space and time that you now have?  As usual, the best guide for this is Jesus Christ himself, who committed the ultimate fast.  He fasted not just of what we fast of, chocolate, dessert, wine, ketchup, all that, he fasted first of the heavenly pleasures, then of his work, then of his friends, his clothing,his life.  And what happened to all that stuff?  It was all given away.  It was given to us.

In the fasting of Christ, nothing that he gave up was just given out to the ether, it was given to us. We were direct beneficiaries of his sacrifices, and his fasting. Whatever he was giving up, he was also giving it out.  This began with his departure from Heaven, and culminated with his suffering on the cross, in which he fasted from life itself, not just giving it up, but giving it out.  Giving it out to us.  We were beneficiaries of his sacrifices, and people who delighted in receiving what he had given up.

But you don't think of it as fasting, do you?  You don't think of the work of Christ as fasting, though you probably should.  And you don't think of your own charity as fasting, though you ought to do that as well.  Whenever you give something away, you are fasting of it.  Whenever you give something to the food bank, you are fasting from that item - you are not eating it, so someone else can.  Whenever you give up clothing, you are fasting from it, and donating it to someone else who can use it.  Whenever you contribute to charity, or buy something for someone who needs it, or give up any of your valuable resources, you are fasting.  And that's the best kind of fasting of all, because it meets the needs that God has put into place in the Old Testament.  What kind of fasting does God want?  The kind that break the yoke of the oppressed, that sets the captives free, that feeds the poor, and so on.

In other words, the type of fasting that God wants, is the fasting that he himself did in the person of Christ.  And thanks be to him that he fasted of his life, and instead of giving it up, gave it out.  To us.

PJ.

The temptation of our Ford.

Why can't I have nice things?

That's a question that dogs us, isn't it?  Most of us have things that look nice, but aren't.  What I talked about at great length on Sunday was the fact that it's easy enough to get things that look okay from a distance, but up close, they're cheap and nasty.  Furniture is a good one.  Most furniture looks okay, it looks alright from a distance, but up close, well, things get a bit more disastrous.  Most furniture today is composed of compressed sawdust and faux leather.  It looks the same as real good furniture.  It doesn't have the same weight or heft, it chips a lot easier, it falls apart a lot faster, but it looks the same as the expensive stuff.

Now, this is an issue for each of us, because we all, almost by nature, want to upgrade our stuff.  Why do you think DIY network and HGTV do so well?  They do well because we all want something a little better than what we have. We all want to get one step ahead of what we're currently looking at.  All our stuff is almost by definition going to be middle of the road.  Because we're middle class.


Yup, if you're reading this on a computer, you're middle class, pretty much.  You have enough to get by.  But you don't have nice things.  Now, here's the deal.  Your middle of the road lifestyle, where the nice stuff in creation is just a little out of reach, that's a lot like the second of the twelve days of Christmas.

You know that song, right, the 12 days of Christmas?  The one that has a partridge in a pear tree?  Well, the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me two turtle doves.  But what you may not know about turtle doves is that they were what Jesus' family offered up for his purification at the prescribed day.

22 And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), 24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” 

Luke 2:22-24

Now, what you may not know about turtle doves is that they were not the only thing prescribed for the purification.  The book of Leviticus informs new mothers as to what they are to bring forth for their purification - a lamb, or if they can't afford a lamb, a turtledove.  Now, do you see why this is important?

It's important because the family of Jesus, they didn't have everything.  They weren't in luxury.  They weren't given to wealth and excess.  They instead had enough to get by, but not the nicest stuff.  Now, you and I, we're like that too.  We're not starving, we're not living moment to moment, we have enough to keep the wolf from the door.  But we don't have the nicest stuff.  We don't have the best of the best.  We buy cheap vodka, we buy compressed sawdust for furniture, we buy the mugs that chip, the plumbing that leaks, the entry-level cars, and we make do.  And we live in a world in near constant temptation, where the stuff that is genuinely nice, it's just out of reach.  Juuuust out of reach.  We can afford entry level things, but not the nice things.  And so we are in a state of near constant temptation, perpeturally staring at what is nice and high quality, and not being able to afford any of it.

This is the life of Christ, in which he had mid range stuff, but he didn't have the nice stuff.  He had enough to get by, he wasn't starving, but he wasn't living in pronounced luxury.

Now we think about the temptation of Jesus in pretty narrow terms.  We think about his temptation in

terms only of the temptation in the wilderness.  We think about his time with Satan in the wilderness, where Satan told him to turn stones into bread, and Jesus rebuffed him, and would not be tempted into it.  But the temptation of Jesus didn't end there.  If he did work in his father's shop, if he was a carpenter, then he would have been tempted just like you are, with nice things that are just outside of reach.  He would have lived an entire lifetime, his whole professional career, not being able to afford nice things.  And every day would have been a temptation in that regard, especially at the start of his ministry.  You forget, as I do, that he went from being middle class, able to afford some things, but not everything, to being unemployed.  He was engaged in full time ministry, he roamed around from place to place, he promised his disciples that the son of man had no place to lay his head, he was leaving behind any and all comfort that could have existed, and the nice things of this world went from being just out of reach, to being forever out of reach.  And as his ministry wore on, it wasn't about having nice things, it was about losing what little he had.  It went from him being reasonably middle class, or at the very least working poor, to losing his carpentry practice, his friends, his clothes, his life.

All of it.

He knew what it was like to be tempted by nice things.  He knew what it was like to want and to not have, he knew what it was like to desire, and be unable to fulfill that desire.  In other words, he knew

what it was like to be you.  He knew what it was like to be young and powerless, he knew what it was like to care for aging parents, he knew what it was like to work for a living, to have friends die, to have a parent die, everything.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them,[k] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:14-18

You know that your savior was like you in terms of having arms and legs and a head, but you forget that he was like his brothers in every respect, including economically.  He went through scarcity, and at the time in his life when he should have been expanding his business and getting more comfortable, that was when he walked away from it all.  Not that he wasn't tempted to go back to it, either.  In fact, some of his greatest temptations must have come from the promise of returning back to his family and his hometown, which he did after his ministry began.  However, he never stayed.  All the temptations of comfort, of acquisition, of expansion and ease, those were temptations that he left behind.  He left it all because he was like us in every respect but one.



He had no sin.

So all your temptations, all the times when you have craved nice things, all the times when you have looked at what is good and pleasant to the eye, all those times that you've caved and lived well outside your means, those are things that Jesus died for.  He knew temptation but did not go for it.  You know temptation and go for it. And it is the work of Christ, his resistance to temptation, that gives you salvation.

PJ.