“You serve a dead God,” Ibrahim countered. “A weak, pathetic, defeated, crucified, dead God.”
“He was all those things, you’re right, and that is why I love Him. He was all that for me, for now.”
“You’re a fool,” Ibrahim sneered. Feeling his anger swelling within him, he decided to return Isaac to his cell.
“You can’t kill me,” Isaac called as Ibrahim closed the door.
Ibrahim stuck his head back into the cell and said, “I can, and I will if I need to.”
“You can’t kill me, because I can’t die, because of that weak, pathetic, defeated, crucified, dead God. I already died with Him.”
The door closed with a thump. Ibrahim marched up the stairs and out onto the porch, hoping the crisp air would cool his rage. He was not Hatim. He didn’t do any of this because he liked it. In fact, he hated it, but it was Allah’s will. He was but Allah’s instrument, and Allah was not defeated. Allah conquers. But he could not confuse himself with Allah. He must remain calm. He must stick to the plan. He must be but an instrument, a vessel. Allah’s wrath was not his own.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Sacred Meditations Passage
Year B in the 3 Year Lectionary has a particular baptismal emphasis, and we encounter St. John the Baptist in these weeks, who preaches Christ and baptizes for the forgiveness of sins. Here are some thoughts from Gerhard on Baptism:
There was a pool near the sheep gate in Jerusalem. At certain times, an angel used to descend and turn the waters of it. Whoever descended into it first after the waters were turned was healed of whatever disease he had suffered (John 5:2-4). The water of Baptism is that pool which heals us from all the disease of sins when the Holy Spirit descends into it and turns it with the blood of Christ, who was made the [sacrificial] victim for us, just as the sheep to be sacrificed were also washed in that pool in Jerusalem. At Christ’s Baptism, the heavens were opened. Likewise, in our Baptism, the doors of heaven are opened. In Christ’s Baptism, the entire Most Holy Trinity was present (Matthew 3:16). So also, it is present in our Baptism. And so, in the words of promise that are joined with the element of water, faith receives the grace of the Father who adopts us, the merits of the Son who cleanses us, and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us.
There was a pool near the sheep gate in Jerusalem. At certain times, an angel used to descend and turn the waters of it. Whoever descended into it first after the waters were turned was healed of whatever disease he had suffered (John 5:2-4). The water of Baptism is that pool which heals us from all the disease of sins when the Holy Spirit descends into it and turns it with the blood of Christ, who was made the [sacrificial] victim for us, just as the sheep to be sacrificed were also washed in that pool in Jerusalem. At Christ’s Baptism, the heavens were opened. Likewise, in our Baptism, the doors of heaven are opened. In Christ’s Baptism, the entire Most Holy Trinity was present (Matthew 3:16). So also, it is present in our Baptism. And so, in the words of promise that are joined with the element of water, faith receives the grace of the Father who adopts us, the merits of the Son who cleanses us, and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Sacred Meditations Passage
We are now into Advent. Gerhard provides these thoughts on the coming of our Lord and His judgment:
Satan will accuse me, your friend. He will accuse me, your brother. He will accuse me, a most beloved son of the eternal Father. How will you then severely judge your friend, your brother, and your son? Moses will accuse me in that judgment. He will speak curses on me, “for I have not kept all which is written in the book of the law” (Deuteronomy 27:26). “Surely you, O Jesus, have become the curse for me to free me from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13). I will be cursed by Moses, but I will be blessed by you. Indeed, I long to hear that voice: “Come, blessed ones, inherit the kingdom of My Father” (Matthew 25:34). Moses will accuse me, yet you will surely not accuse me before the Father, for you intercede for me (Romans 8:34). Therefore, I do not fear the curse of Moses, for you have removed that handwriting which was against me (Colossians 2:14). Damned ones will accuse me and proclaim that I am guilty of the same punishment as them. I admit, O Lord Jesus, that punishable guilt unites me to them. But my acknowledgment of that punishable guilt and my knowledge of your saving work distinguish them from me. “Whoever hears your word and believes in him who sent you has eternal life and will not come into judgment” (John 5:24). I hear your word, Lord, and I believe in you with faith, albeit it languishing faith, yet faith nonetheless. I believe, Lord, but help my unbelief (Mark 9:24). I believe, Lord, but increase my faith (Luke 17:5). Although I may not be free from all the sins of the damned, yet from unbelief alone you will nevertheless free me, O Lord. All those accusers terrify me, but you, the Judge, encourage me.
The Father has handed over all judgment to you (John 5:22). He has placed everything in your hands (Matthew 11:27). In turn, however, he has handed you over for us all (Romans 8:32). Indeed, you have handed yourself over for the Church to sanctify and cleanse her, washing her with water and the Word (Ephesians 5:26). How will you then judge those severely for whom you have handed yourself over to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8)? “You will not have hatred for your own flesh. We are members of your body, of your flesh and your bones” (Ephesians 5:29,30).
Satan will accuse me, your friend. He will accuse me, your brother. He will accuse me, a most beloved son of the eternal Father. How will you then severely judge your friend, your brother, and your son? Moses will accuse me in that judgment. He will speak curses on me, “for I have not kept all which is written in the book of the law” (Deuteronomy 27:26). “Surely you, O Jesus, have become the curse for me to free me from the curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13). I will be cursed by Moses, but I will be blessed by you. Indeed, I long to hear that voice: “Come, blessed ones, inherit the kingdom of My Father” (Matthew 25:34). Moses will accuse me, yet you will surely not accuse me before the Father, for you intercede for me (Romans 8:34). Therefore, I do not fear the curse of Moses, for you have removed that handwriting which was against me (Colossians 2:14). Damned ones will accuse me and proclaim that I am guilty of the same punishment as them. I admit, O Lord Jesus, that punishable guilt unites me to them. But my acknowledgment of that punishable guilt and my knowledge of your saving work distinguish them from me. “Whoever hears your word and believes in him who sent you has eternal life and will not come into judgment” (John 5:24). I hear your word, Lord, and I believe in you with faith, albeit it languishing faith, yet faith nonetheless. I believe, Lord, but help my unbelief (Mark 9:24). I believe, Lord, but increase my faith (Luke 17:5). Although I may not be free from all the sins of the damned, yet from unbelief alone you will nevertheless free me, O Lord. All those accusers terrify me, but you, the Judge, encourage me.
The Father has handed over all judgment to you (John 5:22). He has placed everything in your hands (Matthew 11:27). In turn, however, he has handed you over for us all (Romans 8:32). Indeed, you have handed yourself over for the Church to sanctify and cleanse her, washing her with water and the Word (Ephesians 5:26). How will you then judge those severely for whom you have handed yourself over to death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8)? “You will not have hatred for your own flesh. We are members of your body, of your flesh and your bones” (Ephesians 5:29,30).
Even Death Passage
“YOU THINK THESE ARE THE AMERICANS?” Schultz asked Schmidt as he sat on the loveseat, reading through immigration records.
“Sure seems like it.”
“Why pastors?”
“Who knows? I don’t understand any of it.”
“Of the case?”
“No, of religion.”
“Never go to church?”
“Not since confirmation.”
“Evangelical or Catholic?”
“Evangelical. It was getting harder and harder to tell the pastors from the politicians. God was obsessed with social democracy. You go?”
“Try to. My wife takes the kids every week.”
“Catholic?”
“No.”
“Evangelical?”
“No.”
“What then?”
“Independent.”
“What do you mean?”
“Old Lutheran, not state church.”
“How’d you end up there?”
“Wife.”
“You into it?”
“I’ve got no problem with it. It’s important to her.”
“What’s it like?”
“I don’t know. A lot of Jesus.”
Schmidt chortled, as if he knew Schultz’ pain. “He’s everywhere, isn’t he? In your wallet, on the ballot, in the bedroom, on your case about whatever the pet peeve is that week.”
“Mostly on the cross, way our pastor tells it.”
Unsure what to make of the remark, Schmidt changed the subject. “You think they’re going to kill them?”
“I’m planning on not giving them the opportunity.”
“Good plan. Let’s hope it’s realistic. These guys don’t seem like amateurs.”
“Neither are we, Schmidt.”
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sacred Meditations Passage
This Sunday is the First Sunday in Advent. Gerhard writes about Christ's coming:
“I announce great joy to you,” said the angel at the nativity of our Savior (Luke 2:10). It is truly great and greater than human intelligence understands. Great was the evil. We were held captive under the wrath of God, the power of the devil, and eternal damnation. Greater still was the evil since man was either ignorant of or denied that greatest evil. Now truly great joy is announced to us because he who would liberate us from all those evils was coming into the world. The Physician comes to the sick, the Redeemer to the captives, the Way to the lost, the Life to the dead, salvation to the damned. Just as Moses was sent by the Lord to free the Israelite people from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 3:10), so also Christ was sent from the Father to deliver the entire human race from the captivity of the devil. Just as the dove returned to the ark with an olive leaf after the deluge of the world had dried up (Genesis 8:11), so also Christ came into the world to preach peace and reconciliation between God and man. Let us therefore sing joyfully concerning his merits and comprehend the great mercy of God who loved us so much, even when we were still enemies (Romans 5:8). He did not disdain to assume our nature in a most strict union with his divinity. Why then would he reject those with whom he has been joined through participation in the flesh? Who has ever hated his own flesh (Ephesians 5:29)? How then would he who has made us participants in his own nature by that highest and infinite mercy now be able to turn us away?
“I announce great joy to you,” said the angel at the nativity of our Savior (Luke 2:10). It is truly great and greater than human intelligence understands. Great was the evil. We were held captive under the wrath of God, the power of the devil, and eternal damnation. Greater still was the evil since man was either ignorant of or denied that greatest evil. Now truly great joy is announced to us because he who would liberate us from all those evils was coming into the world. The Physician comes to the sick, the Redeemer to the captives, the Way to the lost, the Life to the dead, salvation to the damned. Just as Moses was sent by the Lord to free the Israelite people from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 3:10), so also Christ was sent from the Father to deliver the entire human race from the captivity of the devil. Just as the dove returned to the ark with an olive leaf after the deluge of the world had dried up (Genesis 8:11), so also Christ came into the world to preach peace and reconciliation between God and man. Let us therefore sing joyfully concerning his merits and comprehend the great mercy of God who loved us so much, even when we were still enemies (Romans 5:8). He did not disdain to assume our nature in a most strict union with his divinity. Why then would he reject those with whom he has been joined through participation in the flesh? Who has ever hated his own flesh (Ephesians 5:29)? How then would he who has made us participants in his own nature by that highest and infinite mercy now be able to turn us away?
Even Death Passage
The last few months before the trip had been the worst. He was unhappy—profoundly and seemingly inescapably unhappy. It had been a long winter. “I resign,” he would inexplicably mutter under his breath as he drove or showered or sat in his office. Each day was another tug on the rope around his neck—when would his toes leave the ground? He was convinced he was losing his mind. His members seemed cold and unappreciative. Attendance sagged. Distractions and dissensions and time -consuming though unrewarding tasks with nothing to do with the ministry loomed unrelentingly and unceasingly. Even the most trifling matters seemed to take on an insurmountable immensity. Depressed and burned out, he didn’t talk to her, and when he did, it was only to rant. Come home, mix a drink, retreat to his office and his books: that was the evening ritual. And what did she do? She gave him time to work through his funk.
It came to a head not long before he left. She knocked on the door to his office and mentioned something that needed to be done—not nagging, just reminding. He exploded, vehemently took to task everyone and everything that had knocked the wind out of him, turned his bed into a hideout, stripped his church life of what made the church the church. He was relentless, rabid, someone he’d never been before. And while he was swinging at the world, she took all the verbal punches; mad at God and the devil and everything in between, she was the one he berated. And why? Because she would sit there and take it. Because she would forgive him. Because her commitment to him didn’t depend on how much he did, or how far he bent backwards, or how careful he was not to offend. Because she loved him, loved him as the church loves Christ precisely and even as he treated her as the old evil foe does Christ’s bride. And she took it. She sat there. She looked at him with eyes that said that she knew him and this wasn’t him and that if this might bring him back she’d happily bear with it all. And he hated himself all the more. Would he ever be able to tell her he loved her again and not have it seem a joke? What untold damage had he done that he would never be able to repair? What would she harbor for the rest of her life because of him? How would she remember him? Would she remember him?
It came to a head not long before he left. She knocked on the door to his office and mentioned something that needed to be done—not nagging, just reminding. He exploded, vehemently took to task everyone and everything that had knocked the wind out of him, turned his bed into a hideout, stripped his church life of what made the church the church. He was relentless, rabid, someone he’d never been before. And while he was swinging at the world, she took all the verbal punches; mad at God and the devil and everything in between, she was the one he berated. And why? Because she would sit there and take it. Because she would forgive him. Because her commitment to him didn’t depend on how much he did, or how far he bent backwards, or how careful he was not to offend. Because she loved him, loved him as the church loves Christ precisely and even as he treated her as the old evil foe does Christ’s bride. And she took it. She sat there. She looked at him with eyes that said that she knew him and this wasn’t him and that if this might bring him back she’d happily bear with it all. And he hated himself all the more. Would he ever be able to tell her he loved her again and not have it seem a joke? What untold damage had he done that he would never be able to repair? What would she harbor for the rest of her life because of him? How would she remember him? Would she remember him?
Sacred Meditations Passage
In the spirit of thanksgiving, Gerhard reminds where our true treasure rests and warns against false security:
What are the afflictions of the pious? They are bitter arrows sent from the sweet hand of God. God esteems those unworthy of chastisement in this world whom he will nevertheless reject in eternity. Often the happiness of human success is evidence of eternal damnation to come. Nothing is unhappier than sinful happiness. Nothing is more miserable than one who is ignorant of his misery. Wherever you turn your eyes, there you find a reason for sorrow and gaze upon the remedy for security. Lift up your thoughts to the God whom we have offended. Look down to the hell that we have earned, back to the sins that we have committed, forward to the judgment that we fear, inward to the conscience that we have soiled, outward to the world that we have loved. See where you have come from and be ashamed, where you are and sigh, where you are heading and tremble. Narrow is the gate of salvation, but still narrower is the way (Matthew 7:14).
God gives you the treasure of faith, but you carry this treasure in a jar of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7). God gives you angels for protection (Psalm, 91:11), but the devil is not far away to seduce you. God has renewed you in the spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:23), but you still have much of the old flesh. You have been established in the grace of God, but you have not yet been established in eternal glory. He has prepared a mansion for you in heaven, but he yet chastises you with the challenges of the world. God promises forgiveness for the penitent, but he has not promised to give a penitent will to the delinquent. The consolations of eternal life await you, but it is nevertheless necessary for you to enter into it through many tribulations (Acts 14:22). The crown of eternal reward has been promised, but first a serious battle remains to be surmounted. God does not change his promises, but neither ought you change your zeal for eternal life. If the servant is not doing what is commanded, God does what is threatened. One therefore ought to continually be ashamed and mourn, putting aside security, lest by the righteous and secret judgment of God we are deserted and relinquished into the power of the devil for destruction.
For that reason delight in divine grace for as long as it is present, although you must never nonetheless presume that you possess this gift of God as an inherited right so that you actually become secure concerning it as if you could never lose it, lest God should suddenly take the gift away and retract his hand and you become disheartened and sorrow more than you ought. You are indeed in every way blessed if you take diligent care to avoid indifference toward the appearance of every evil. God will not desert you, but beware lest God is deserted by you. God has given grace. Pray that he may also give perseverance. God grants certainty about salvation, yet he does not grant security. You must fight bravely so you may also triumph sweetly (2 Timothy 4:7).
What are the afflictions of the pious? They are bitter arrows sent from the sweet hand of God. God esteems those unworthy of chastisement in this world whom he will nevertheless reject in eternity. Often the happiness of human success is evidence of eternal damnation to come. Nothing is unhappier than sinful happiness. Nothing is more miserable than one who is ignorant of his misery. Wherever you turn your eyes, there you find a reason for sorrow and gaze upon the remedy for security. Lift up your thoughts to the God whom we have offended. Look down to the hell that we have earned, back to the sins that we have committed, forward to the judgment that we fear, inward to the conscience that we have soiled, outward to the world that we have loved. See where you have come from and be ashamed, where you are and sigh, where you are heading and tremble. Narrow is the gate of salvation, but still narrower is the way (Matthew 7:14).
God gives you the treasure of faith, but you carry this treasure in a jar of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7). God gives you angels for protection (Psalm, 91:11), but the devil is not far away to seduce you. God has renewed you in the spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:23), but you still have much of the old flesh. You have been established in the grace of God, but you have not yet been established in eternal glory. He has prepared a mansion for you in heaven, but he yet chastises you with the challenges of the world. God promises forgiveness for the penitent, but he has not promised to give a penitent will to the delinquent. The consolations of eternal life await you, but it is nevertheless necessary for you to enter into it through many tribulations (Acts 14:22). The crown of eternal reward has been promised, but first a serious battle remains to be surmounted. God does not change his promises, but neither ought you change your zeal for eternal life. If the servant is not doing what is commanded, God does what is threatened. One therefore ought to continually be ashamed and mourn, putting aside security, lest by the righteous and secret judgment of God we are deserted and relinquished into the power of the devil for destruction.
For that reason delight in divine grace for as long as it is present, although you must never nonetheless presume that you possess this gift of God as an inherited right so that you actually become secure concerning it as if you could never lose it, lest God should suddenly take the gift away and retract his hand and you become disheartened and sorrow more than you ought. You are indeed in every way blessed if you take diligent care to avoid indifference toward the appearance of every evil. God will not desert you, but beware lest God is deserted by you. God has given grace. Pray that he may also give perseverance. God grants certainty about salvation, yet he does not grant security. You must fight bravely so you may also triumph sweetly (2 Timothy 4:7).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
