Comments on John 2:1-11

After closing their eyes and listening to the story being read aloud, individuals in the group mentioned some of the things that stood out for them during the reading. One person heard the word “invitation”, connecting it to Jesus being invited to someone’s wedding even though he may have been viewed as ‘different’. He knows what it’s like to be treated like one who is not considered one of the crowd. There were varying opinions concerning Mary’s role as one who was concerned that the supply of wine was depleted. Why was she concerned about it? Was she a perceptive wedding guest, or a kind relative helping the family, or helping a friend in need? Does it matter? Do we see anything that guides us in our willingness to help others? Another heard “Do whatever He tells you” coming from Mary, Jesus’ mother. Isn’t this what we try to do if we follow Him as disciples or servants? We have to be anticipating His orders so we are ready to get the job done. Someone brought up the question, ‘had Jesus called any disciples yet?’ We had to look in chapter one to find that ‘yes’, he had called Andrew, one of John the Baptist’s disciples, who then ran and brought his brother Simon. Philip and Nathaniel were next. We remembered that yesterday’s gospel reading from Mark 1 was the story of Jesus calling Simon and Andrew, except they were casting their net in to the sea because they fished for a living. Two different settings in which the same two brothers are reported to have been called, and in different ways. None of the commentaries we searched gave convincing answers for the variations, so who are we to know more than the ‘experts?’ How does this support the concept of biblical inerrancy? No one suggested there’s an ‘error’ here, but maybe the point is not really about “who” Jesus called but the various ways by which Jesus calls His disciples even today. Maybe stories like this are put in place to loosen up some of the hardline literalists? Who knows? We talked about Jesus’ response to His mother. First, why drag Him into this problem, and then, that His hour had not come. Most mothers know the sound of ‘what’s this got to do with me’ coming from their grown sons, especially during football games on television. And yet, not two minutes later, they are up and doing what mom has asked them to do. Mary seemed to have full confidence that Jesus would do the right thing, even though she didn’t know how or when He would do it. She wasn’t concerned. Just like when we approach Jesus in prayer, pointing to someone in need, we shouldn’t be fretting and constantly in Jesus’ face trying to manipulate Him to do as we wish. It’s just not His time yet. We wait for His timing, fully trusting He will do the right thing. Another question came up: why is Jesus providing more wine when the guests have already consumed what was available first? Aren’t Mary and Jesus both enabling or complicit in the promotion of excessive drinking? We can dream up some wild pictures of the potential for abuse but this doesn’t mean we understand the culture and intentions of people in that place in the first century based on our own experiences. We might reason that Jesus didn’t mind people having a good time at a joyful occasion, the union of two people in lifelong commitment to each other. The question came up about the significance of this being the first miracle in the Gospel of John. Why? I like to think Jesus is introducing Himself as the new wine that has come so we can celebrate the goodness of God. With this miracle, Jesus does show He has power over the natural world in being able to change water into wine. And what about the ‘good’ wine saved until last? What was interesting was the split between the group of people who took this as a good thing to happen for the groom/chief steward, whereas others interpreted the reaction of the steward as negative – why didn’t you serve the good stuff when people could appreciate it, or ‘this isn’t the way it’s always been done.’ This short story brought up many topics for discussion that could have consumed more time if we had pursued them deeply. I’ll touch on Luther’s additions to the discussion in my next blog. Blessings! PWM

Spiritual meaning of John 1:19-28

One of these days I'm going to take time to figure out how to add some pictures to these pages to break the monotony. Martin Luther suggests the spiritual meaning of this gospel shows us the preacher’s office from the New Testament. It is the voice of one calling, a living voice. Luther says the Old Testament is dead writings put into books. He offends a lot of people with that comparison. I’m going to guess he doesn’t mean it as bad as it sounds, since what he says later in this sermon teaches the preacher to preach the Law. He believed performing the work of following the Law does nothing to gain the mercy of God. This is why he infers the Law is useless, but only in this way. He doesn’t mean it isn’t beneficial to us. He says the voice of the preacher is to be heard freely in the wilderness, out in the open, not just under the tents of the religious. That voice is to be bold and fear no one, nor death, nor hell, etc. These are images he takes from John the Baptists appearance and manner. This includes a strict and chaste life. Because the world cannot bear the Gospel, the preacher must scorn the world and preach without fear. Why can the world not bear the Gospel? Who doesn’t want to hear good news? Or are contemporary John the Baptists not preaching the Gospel? The only Gospel I hear some complaints about is the one that says God's grace is bigger than some people think is 'fair' or 'just.' I wonder? Luther said Gospel sermons are not given to soft phrases or dealing with hypocrisy and flattery. A sermon of the cross is hard, rough, and sharp to the natural man. This doesn’t quite agree with another sermon he gave that said only the Gospel should be preached, referring to the good news, because once the natural person has been brought to despair by the Gospel, (s)he needs to be comforted by the Gospel. In many other sermons, we will see Luther saying people responded to what they had heard about Jesus that was good – His ability and willingness to help – that’s why they came to Jesus in the first place. If we expect 'unbelievers' to turn to Jesus, is it going to be because the Bible says you're supposed to do this, or because He can help them? That's about as effective as a Muslim saying we need to believe their religion because the Koran says we should. No book is going to convince anyone of anything who has given no authority to it. A living voice is needed. In this sermon, Luther says the Law should be preached first so that people can learn what great things God demands of us; and our inability to perform it. The baptism in the Jordan is cold water in the form of teaching of the Law, which does not kindle love but rather extinguishes it and causes us to become hostile to it. Somehow, this makes one recognize that John is right, and we need to turn around and become a better person. Then the preacher points to Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He alone must take on all sins because we cannot get rid of any of them by our works. We do not look to ourselves, but only to Christ alone. But do we have to do this every week? I agree we should preach Law and Gospel, but not with quite the same bent as many Lutheran theologians profess. I think we should preach Jesus’ version of the law along with the Gospel which I’ll talk about later. I can’t help but think Brother Martin was stretching the spiritual imagery in this sermon. But that’s okay, it spoke to him in his setting and it formed his thoughts. I do agree with him that the Gospel is a living voice – the voice of one who has encountered Christ and who tells how Jesus has changed his or her life. The Gospel is not just the words in the New Testament, to be read as if they happened 2000 years ago. If we consider ourselves John the Baptists, then once we encounter Christ, all we can do is point to Him and not call attention to ourselves or to works as playing any part in our salvation. Christ is present today. We need to point to where He is active in our lives today. This is the Gospel. The Law on the other hand needs to be preached, but not used as a bludgeoning tool every week. The Law was a gift to the children of Israel and it is a gift to all people. The Law guides us to bring peace and harmony in human interactions. And as Luther will say in another sermon, the Law was given to serve love. If a law doesn’t serve love, it doesn’t need to be followed. The Law teaches us what will bring us the quality of life only God can give us – eternal life. This is what Jesus told the rich young man when he asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said in so many words, “Follow the commandments.” When we go against these precious instructions, there are negative consequences… pain, shame, and blame. The psalmists portrayed the Law as a gift, not a baseball bat to force external actions for changing behavior. Jesus condensed the law into the purpose for which it was given – love. Love is a commitment to act in the best interests of our neighbor. When we act in the best interests of others, life is good. This is the law Jesus taught. Blessings, PWM

John 1:19-28 “The Witness and Confession of John the Baptist

In our afternoon discussion of this text, the first part of the gospel focused on the temptation John faced to feel flattered by the attention he was getting from the Jews in Jerusalem. This attention wasn’t restricted to the religious establishment, but included governing Jews. I like to relate these contexts to current day situations, and what came to mind was the temptation high profile preachers and evangelists today face when politicians approach them to see if they can drum up a little support from their followers. We just experienced it in the recent election when politicians were schmoozing or distancing themselves from Rick Warren, John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Jeremiah Wright, etc. The governing officials weren’t really interested in their theology, but only their voters and popularity. The officials were asking if John was Elijah because of the reference in Malachi 4:1-6. Elijah will precede the coming day of the Lord. If you read chapter 4, the question that comes up is this: is this ominous day of the Lord when those who are arrogant and evil doers will be stubble and the day that is coming will set them on fire. This fire, we determined is the refiner’s fire that is talked about in chapter 3 of Malachi, and not ‘hell fire’. The Elijah figure will precede the Messiah, and the result will cause some to be purified. Jesus confirms in Matt. 11:14 and 17:11 that John the Baptist is the Elijah referred by the OT to come before the Messiah. We thought it odd that John denied he was a prophet, but commentaries think he was denying that he was the prophet foretold by Moses. Luther believed the prophet referred to was anyone who would be a leader of the people and pointed to a coming messiah. The Jews had been waiting for a prophet to come for four hundred years. But John denied being any kind of prophet because, according to Luther, prophets foretell the coming of Christ, whereas John’s role was to point to a present day Messiah, not one in the future. Bringing this into today, Luther says the role of the preacher today is the role of John the Baptist: to point to Christ among us now, (not to pull attention to ourselves) and not to look to the future for a messiah to come. It’s not a future salvation but a present day salvation. When John says his role is to prepare the way for the Lord, I looked up the definition of the Hebrew word for “prepare”, also translated as “make straight”, and it means “turn and do.” John’s role was to ‘turn and do’ the way of the Lord? That’s an interesting way to look at it when you consider the definition of ‘repent’ is ‘to turn away’ from the world, and one of the two definitions of ‘forgive’ is ‘to let go of sin’ (on the part of the sinner!). John preached a baptism (immersion) of repentance (turning away from the world) for the forgiveness of sin (letting go of sinful ways) from Mark 1. To prepare the way of the Lord is to turn and do the will of God. To open the way to God reigning in your life is to do the will of God. Jesus said the same thing when He told the rich young man the way to inherit eternal life was to follow the commandments. We talked about John’s baptism with water being a reference to the physical component of the rite in which one makes a commitment to turn away from the world and to let go of sin. Our physical efforts to stay away from sin are pitiful. That’s why we must repent/turn away daily. Only with Jesus baptizing us with the Holy Spirit do we stand a chance of resisting the temptations of the world do any degree. Then we have the possibility of living the quality of life only God can give us, which is but a foretaste of the feast to come. Luther, however, taught that preparing the way of the Lord meant knowing how undeserving and sinful we are, humbly knowing our miserable condition and inability to lift ourselves higher even through works. Christ has to dwell within us for works to do any good, because they are Christ’s works and not ours. Spiritual conceit and pharisaical pride are hindrances to the way of the Lord. They give a false sense of security when one does good works (#27). Luther’s teaching in this sermon is that preachers need to preach the Law so people can learn what great things God demands of us and that we cannot fulfill. We have to be brought to the point of despair before we hear that the Lamb of God, Jesus, takes away the sin of the world. I found this interesting because it seems to conflict with another sermon Luther wrote where he said preachers should only preach the Gospel. One reason is that the Law never saved anyone. The Law can only show you that you are unable to follow it. In many sermons, He points out that people came to Jesus because they heard a good report about Him, that He was able to help them and was willing to help them. Good news draws people to Him, not the Law. Once someone recognizes their sin through the Law, confesses and turns their life around, then why pound them with the Law again and again except to keep them on their knees and uncertain of their eternal future? It’s a form of manipulation and control. The Gospel gives us freedom. There’s an ending section where Luther gives the spiritual meaning of the text, and I’ll cover that in a few days. I have some variation of opinion from Luther on this. Blessings, PWM

Finishing John 1:1-14

This is a continuation of the first sermon text we discussed: Jesus as Light is the light or understanding of grace seen in Christ. There are two kinds of light, one is the natural light of human reason. The other is the Light seen in Christ which is above human reasoning. Luther says human reason rises up against grace, especially when reason accuses grace of forbidding good works or when it insists upon having its own way and standard of becoming pious (#51). The true understanding of God’s grace gives rise to good works, not the reverse. One of the major themes in Luther’s sermons, as I have read them, is the concept that we love God best when we love our neighbor. After all, what can we REALLY do for the God of all creation? Mumble some words of prayer or practice some religious ritual correctly? How does this help God? Does it raise God's self-esteem or sense of power? Loving God means we appreciate God’s undeserved favor to us enough that we care for our neighbor because we know this is pleasing to God. In reference to good works, Luther also points out that good works never bring about a change of heart (#101). Only faith changes a person and makes a child out of an enemy. Our study group talked about the practice of posting the Ten Commandments in schools and public places. Do people think that displaying rules of moral behavior will change the nature of a person? Only Jesus can bring a new birth to make someone a new person. Maybe we should press for putting pictures of Jesus holding little children in our schools and prisons. In our church building, we have a large painting of Jesus, the shepherd, reaching one hand toward us as if to say, “Come to me,” and in the other hand, He holds a black sheep. I love it. Jesus holds a black sheep – not a white one. He holds the sinner close to Him, not necessarily the righteous. There is no other Light (‘understanding of God’) than Christ, God’s Son in the flesh. Luther says the Light of grace is “faith.” Christ shining in a dark world is like the sun shining on a blind person. A blind person still cannot see. You or I can do all we want to try to help a blind person see, but we fail until Jesus Himself opens the eyes of the blind to see Him as the revelation of God. Luther compares us to John the Baptist as forerunners of Christ, preaching and pointing out Christ to others. Through the Gospel, the Light is brought to the world. The name ‘John’ in Hebrew means ‘grace’ or ‘favor.’ Luther says this signifies that John’s preaching and message was sent into the world, not because we deserved it, but purely out of God’s grace and mercy. He was sent by the grace of God. I guess this could suggest that you and I are also a ‘means’ of God’s grace when we tell others the good news of God in Christ. We prepare the way for the Anointed One to enter a person’s life when we share Him. Christ is presented to open their eyes. Here is where Luther says the Gospel writer sets aside the doctrines of men saying, “for what men teach will never show Christ, the Light, but will only obstruct it” (#75). The teachings of men are based on reason, the natural light. “Whoever points out Christ is surely sent by God, and has not been invented by man.” I agree with many things Martin Luther teaches, but he reminds me by his own words that he is human and capable of misunderstanding, like when he conditions his variation with important early church fathers on individual teachings, saying, “St. Augustine was only a man, and we are not compelled to follow his interpretation…” (#46). He respects Augustine enough to not want to "disagree" with him, but he differs from Augustine’s opinion that Jesus as the "light" of men referred to natural human reason. Luther’s opinion is that Christ is the Light of men that God might become known (or be understood correctly) to the world (#123). This is one of the sermons wherein Luther comes down on the Pope because he – or anyone who sets aside Scripture and sets up his own law in their place – is an anti-Christ (#81). If it is not in Scripture, then it must be a human invention. If it does not point to Christ as the one who redeems us from sin, death, and Satan, then its questionable as to whether we need to believe it. Other tidbits to contemplate: the divine birth is faith, a gift from God (#109); Christ’s humanity is the clouds covering his divinity (#90); Christ is the “brightness of the Father’s glory,” which means his divinity (#135). This is all I can cover on this sermon in a short blog. There’s much more if you’re interested, like about 14,000 words more. I wonder if Luther preached this sermon in one setting? God’s blessing, PWM

Comments on John 1:1-14

Thank you to those who came to our study on this text. Combining 50 pages of Luther’s commentary with the text is almost overwhelming. We had good conversation on the topics we had time to discuss. We probably left with more questions than answers, but questions start turning the wheels that press against faith to strengthen it and help it to grow. They also keep faith moving forward instead of remaining in one place and stagnating. Let’s remember that ‘faith’ means ‘trust’ – not the teaching of tradition or fact. Our first priority in discussing Scriptures is to discern how the Word speaks to us and shows us how it applies to us in our lives. Watching how Luther applied it to the challenges he faced may help us to learn how God speaks to us today, also. Here are some highlights and additions: This first text in John tells who Jesus is, and why Jesus came into the world. Luther thought this Gospel text was the most important because it is founded on the important article of faith concerning the divinity of Christ. The Word (Son of God) existed before creation, was with God, and was God. The Word created all things. The Word confirms the Godhead is made up of more than one Person, yet remains one God. The Word reveals the image of God in God’s entirety. This is where one big question arose. If the Word, who is Jesus, is God and when we look at Jesus, we see the entirety of God, then why do we feel upset if we try to interchange Jesus with God as described in the Old Testament? We read some verses in Deuteronomy 29 and substituted “Jesus” name in place of ‘the Lord’ or ‘God’ to see if there was a consistent picture. This is what it looks like: vs. 27, “Therefore Jesus’ anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. In furious anger and in great wrath, Jesus uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now…” That was a very mild place to insert Jesus. I just happened to open the Old Testament to that place. There are many other places that exchanging Jesus’ name for God are quite disturbing. So, the Word made flesh is one with God? Then why can’t we exchange them? Maybe this is why St. Paul said we must work out our own faith with fear and trembling. An answer might be found in the 18th verse of John 1: “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.” Jesus reveals God and makes God known. He is God. One with the Father. Luther said this text gives Christ three titles or attributes: the Word, the Life, the Light. We talked about Jesus as the Life, the fountain and cause of life and how this is a reference to eternal life. Much of the time, life and death refer to spiritual life and spiritual death in Scripture while the body still lives, moves, and breathes. Several Bible commentaries tell us that the phrase ‘eternal life’ – at least in the days of the writing of the Bible – referred to a quality of life only God can provide. So many people today think of eternal life as ‘heaven after we die.’ Luther agrees with eternal life being accessible in our time on earth, in section #39 of his sermon he says, “Yes, natural life is a part of eternal life, its beginning…those who believe in Him, and acknowledge Him from whom they have their being, shall never die; but this natural life of theirs will be extended into eternal life, so that they will never taste death, as John 8:51 says…” Time is up right now, so I’ll return in a day or two to continue… Blessings! PWM

Opening blog

May our writings and our heartfelt meditations be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. (Adapted from Ps. 19:14.) I pray the words that arise from the discussions in this blog will glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In 2008, I read Martin Luther’s sermons based on the gospel texts in his Church Postil. A postil is a short homily or commentary on a passage of Scripture. He prepared these sermons to instruct clergy who were not as well versed in biblical exegesis, and offered them for preaching in churches in the land. He wrote many of them in his early years, and then they were edited under his supervision until 1544. I took notes on each sermon's commentary and then composed a prayer for each homily based on the main themes that resonated with me at the time. The members of the congregation I serve could pick up a new prayer each Sunday for personal use. I tried to keep the prayers in line with Luther’s explanations so that the congregation could gain a sense of Luther’s understanding of the texts. During this process, I learned a great deal about Luther and his understanding of Scripture. Many of his interpretations confirmed and enhanced what I think the Spirit has been trying to teach me over the last ten years. And yet, I didn’t always agree with everything he said. He was a special servant and messenger of God, sent as an instrument to be used by God in a mighty way, but that didn’t make him infallible. Just because I don’t agree with him on some points means nothing more than that I see some things from a different viewpoint at this time in my spiritual journey. This year, I plan to review the texts and his sermons again, one each week, and make comments on them to engage our friend, Martin Luther, in a 21st century table top discussion of sorts. His view will initiate and inform our conversation with the Word. I hope you will join me in this amiable dialogue, and maybe we all can learn and grow in our understanding of how to live as Christians following Christ. The method to my madness is to begin our discussion with the sermons Luther wrote on the Gospel of John. I am leading a Bible study on Monday afternoons (3:30 pm – 5:00 pm), so if you live close enough, come and join us! The church address and phone number will be placed somewhere for easy access - I just haven't figured out where yet. I will try to write my blog within 24 hours after that session. I will list the texts for discussion each month, and provide a link to the sermon so you can read it in advance, or refer to it in the event some part of our discussion stirs you to understand the context in which he interpreted the Scripture. (Give me a day or two to figure out how to link to the sermons.) After I go through the gospels in the Church Postil, I may blog Luther’s epistle postils (say that 7 times fast!), or I may take another route to blogging other gospel texts. That’s over a year in the future, so I’ll play that by ear. I know you will feel free to support or disagree with Luther’s comments or my own comments, as well as to add what other influential people of the faith considered when explaining these texts. Disagreement doesn’t mean we are right and it doesn’t mean the other person is ‘wrong.’ I like the image of two people describing the same house to each other. They may disagree in the way they see it, only to find out they are standing on opposites sides of the house. It only means we see from different perspectives. It’s not our ‘right thinking’ that saves us, we are saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Finally, I hope we use this opportunity to glorify God in our writings, and pray for greater love and trust in our Lord as we share our witness of God’s goodness in Jesus, the Christ. Peace in Christ - Paul DATE: Sermon Text: January 12, 2009 John 1:1-14 January 19, 2009 John 1:19-28 January 26, 2009 John 2:1-11 February 2, 2009 John 3:1-15 February 9, 2009 John 3:16-21 February 16, 2009 John 4:45-54 February 23, 2009 John 6:1-15 St. Matthew by the Lake Lutheran Church 3966 U.S. Hwy 641 North Benton, KY 42025 270-527-1856