Update – Blogging with the help of Martin Luther

If you’re checking this blog out, here’s what I’m doing: Last year I read Martin Luther’s Church Postil, at least his sermons on the gospels. I saw a different Luther, and heard a different voice. He was teaching local clergy to help them with their sermons, but he was also preaching to the people. Instead of trying to figure out his ‘theology’ and apologetic to Rome or the scholastic community, I wanted to hear what he said to his congregants. I was pleasantly surprised, as much as you can be when trying to wade through the length and breadth of his messages. Luther was no biblical literalist. The Word spoke to him in ways academia might consider superfluous today.

Through 2008, I wrote a prayer every week based on his sermon(s) for the lectionary text for that week. The prayers were provided on Sundays for parishioners to pick up and use during their personal study/prayer time during the week. This year, I’m leading a weekly study on the same gospel texts. We are trying to determine how the gospel text speaks to our lives today, and we consult Luther’s thoughts to see if they add anything to our own ideas. This blog highlights some of the things we talk about and tells some of the more interesting things Brother Martin teaches in his sermons.

You can find Luther’s sermon on the links in the right column. The fastest way to find Luther’s sermon is to scroll down the left column at the sermon website to find the appropriate Sunday’s lectionary text, and then click on it to move to the sermon location on the right. I hope you’ll be blessed somewhere along the line if you choose to follow it. Peace in Christ - PWM

Trials Strengthen Faith - Discussion on John 4:46-54

This is the story of the royal official from Capernaum, who comes to Jesus at Cana where Jesus is well known, asking Him to heal his son who was close to death. We know by the end of the story that this is Jesus’ second miracle, at least in the Gospel of John, having come from Judea to Galilee. His first miracle was changing water into wine, and since then, He speaks of being born again to Nicodemus, talks to the woman at the well about living water, and preaches in Galilee.

One of Luther’s primary points in the teaching of this text is that faith must be exercised in order to have assurance and retain its treasure. There are also differing levels of faith. First the man comes to Jesus because he has heard good news about Jesus – that He is kind, able to heal, and willing to help. That’s why people come to Jesus. They’ve heard good things about Jesus. Is that how our evangelism programs are developed, or do we come with Jesus in one hand and the Ten Commandments in the other?

The man wouldn’t have come if he didn’t trust Jesus could help him. It was about a 15 mile hike from Capernaum. He trusted enough to make the effort to lay his request at Jesus’ feet. Then Jesus says something that some would interpret as a rebuke. You people! You won’t believe unless you see signs. It could have simply been stating a fact. We rarely grow in our trust/faith unless we see Jesus do something for us…like heal a member of our family, or ourselves. Then we have proof that Jesus is kind, is able to heal, and wants to help.

The next level of faith is shown by the man in that he doesn’t make Jesus show up in person to do the healing. He trusted Jesus to do what He said would happen. It makes me think of times when people are gathered together – at mealtime, at a hospital emergency room, and everyone is glad to see the preacher show up so a prayer can be said…and they all feel better when that happens. So the man leaves, trusting Jesus for what He said would happen, and the next day when he is heading home, his servants tell him his son is better – he calculates the timing and this confirms and strengthens his faith in Jesus. Then he tells others – they hear Jesus is kind, able to heal, and willing to help…and now they begin the belief progression.

In struggle and trial, faith is asked to grasp what it believes tighter when it can’t see how the result is going to take place. Faith is not needed if the result is known. The response of faith is to tell others where you saw the goodness of God in your life.

So, have any of us witnessed this type of progression of faith? Yes. I’ve seen God provide for my wife and me ever since we began to tithe in 1997. Ever since that decision, we have never worried for what we would eat, or drink, or wear, or be adequately sheltered. Today, the question pops up in my mind, ‘how will we provide for ourselves in retirement’ – but from what I’ve seen in the last ten years, I quickly dismiss any worry. God will provide.

One in our discussion group spoke of her experience in Nazi Germany when soldiers were waiting for orders to kill her, her mother and sisters. She said she could only stand and have faith. At the last minute, a phone call came, saying ‘if there are no men with them, let them go.’ She’s not doubted God’s protection ever since, and has had many reasons that might have made any of us shudder in fear. Trials strengthen our faith. When we witness God fulfilling God’s promises, our faith grows. And we must tell others when we see God’s presence and activity in our lives. That’s spreading the good news. Blessings in Christ - PWM

Discussion on John 3:16-21

One of Luther’s primary claims is that “the Gospel teaches nothing but the one must learn to know Christ alone, and so the Holy Spirit teaches nothing more” (1st sermon, #1). I don’t disagree with him, but we sure have a lot of people claiming the Gospel is more than that. Maybe that’s what gets us in so many disputes. Anything beyond Christ alone is a matter of one’s opinion. I agree with Brother Martin when he says we should notice that Christ represents the Father to us as none else than the all-loving and magnetic one (#2). God is good all the time. Luther says it several ways in the second sermon on this text, “there is no greater Giver than God” (#12), and “He is the fountain and source of all grace, goodness, and kindness” (#14).

In this section, he says something that might contradict one of the three ‘alones’ of the Reformation: Christ alone, Word alone, faith alone. Luther says in sermon 1/#2, “I have often said that faith alone is not sufficient before God, but the price of redemption must also be in evidence. The Turk and Jew, too, believe in God, but without means and mediator.” This gospel lesson says we cannot approach/possess the Father without a mediator. Our good works do nothing to make us worthy to approach God.

The older versions of this text use the word “judge” when describing why the Son came into the world – He did not come to ‘judge’ the world. Newer versions of the Bible are using ‘condemn’ – maybe because the translators want their image of Jesus coming at the end of the world as our Judge to stay intact…"He will judge the world in righteousness." Except that Luther says if Christ is our Judge, He can’t be our Savior. He can’t be both Judge and Savior. We fear a judge. We can’t love someone we fear. But “when we know Him as the gospel pictures Him, and long for Him as the best friend my heart can choose, then it is well; love soon follows” (#10).

The Greek concordance also defines the word translated “judge” and “condemn” as “rule.” The passage could read like this: God did not send His Son into the world to rule the world… and this means in a physical, earthly governing sense. Jesus was never sent to rule as a king in the land, but to save or ‘rescue’ the world from sin. This is done in His spiritual kingdom – our hearts and minds.

Another interesting concept we find from this sermon is that “the only sin is unbelief” (#13). It’s a great thought. Unbelief is the absence of trust. We commit sin against the commandments only because we do not trust God to do as God has promised. We steal because we don’t trust God to provide for our needs. We commit adultery because we don’t trust God will meet our needs for relationship. We kill/murder because we don’t trust God will exact punishment / vengeance on our adversary. The origin of sin is unbelief – little to no trust in God to provide for us.

The end of the passage, "he that does the truth comes to the light so his works may be seen," tells us we are to “live for the purpose of serving by your life, not yourself, but your neighbor (19). This is consistent with one of Luther’s major themes in his Church Postil that we should love our neighbor, for this is how we love God.

The second sermon has many references to 'eternal life' and 'damned,' etc., that seem to be limited only to the afterlife, when I think much of what he says applies just as readily to the present day. Like many contemporary preachers, Luther’s statements seem to go back and forth from painting God as wrathful, but then he says something like, “God would never have given His Son for us if He was angry with us and condemning” (2/#23). There isn’t a clear resolution between the two sides to God, except that it is belief in Jesus Christ that is the difference between the saved and the damned (2/#43). So isn’t being damned a result of God’s anger that people loved darkness more than light? Either God is good all the time, or God is not good all the time. Can this be a both/and scenario? I think not.

One blessing is to understand that if God was willing to give His beloved Son to save us, why would God withhold anything else from us? God has given us the ultimate Gift, so the rest is gravy, and certainly won’t be withheld from those who love God with all their heart, mind, and soul. That’s a pretty good reason to start working on loving God more. Grace and peace to you! PWM

Follow-up to John 3:1-15 – Luther's ideas

In his sermon, Luther talks about the severity of change that a new birth brings. “The nature of the soul must change and it must become an enemy of the body, desiring that the body may die, so that it (the soul) may enter into a new life. That this will be, we are to believe, but not to know how. It is the work of God, and he has not commanded us to fathom it” (1st sermon, #15, p. 416). I wonder how Luther would address the definition used by George Barna to define “born-again” Christians as “people who said they had made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that was still important in their life today and who also indicated they believed that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.” To call oneself born again and to be born again presents the same conundrum as when one calls herself a “Christian.” Does one truly follow Christ in all things or just in the convenient things? (This is the stained glass window in the sanctuary of St. Matthew by the Lake Lutheran Church, Benton, KY.) In sermon 2 (#9), Luther is describing what Jesus means when he tells Nicodemus he must be born again. “My teaching is not concerning what you must do or not do, but concerning what you must become...It is not the hand and foot or their actions that must be changed, but the person.” Our lives must erupt from the core of our being, the heart, rather than from efforts we religiously perform intended to win heaven when we die. If we are living our lives today in order to gain a wonderful eternity, this is works righteousness. It is selfish and self-serving. Living from the core of our being, with Christ born in us as that core, our actions can only be in response to the care and love we have for the person in need today – forget after we die, the need of our neighbor is today. Luther makes an interesting comment in sermon 2 (#12) when he says “the Law cannot aid man to become holy in the sight of God nor save him from sin and everlasting wrath.” So if this is the case, why do so many Christians promote the publishing of the Ten Commandments in public places? What is the purpose? Is it to ‘attract’ people to Christianity? Has the Law ever attracted anyone to itself? If we are trying to train people to become better people on their own effort, wouldn’t it be better to encourage publishing something more positive, as in “this is how to become a better person.” Love your neighbor. Take care of people who are weak and unable to care for themselves. Help someone today. Be kind. Give a compliment today. Etc. Luther’s explanation for Nicodemus’ response about being born again, about going back into a mother’s womb, doesn’t pay compliments to people who promote literal interpretations of the words of the Bible, “by doing so, they testify to their own blindness and ignorance in these divine matters” (#16). I’ve recently been told that some in the Christian community strenuously object to applying the imagination to God’s word, and we should not to go beyond the words we read in Scripture. If we limit ourselves to only what the eye can see, our only tools for interpretation are human reason and logic. To do this is to make the Bible a history book rather than a guide to our lives today and it shuts off the waterfall of living water that is available. We must let the Word speak and the Spirit guide, and not limit the ink and letters on the page to what reason can explain. One thing I find limiting in Luther’s theology is his understanding that heaven, the kingdom of God, and eternal life are the same thing. As well informed as he was, He didn’t have the wealth of information we have today in Bible scholarship to know the concept of eternal life in the first century was not a synonym for the place we go after we die. Eternal life is the quality of life only God can give us, both now as well as after we pass from this life. The focus is on the present day in which we are living, and the abundant life God desires for us. The kingdom of God refers to the place where God reigns, and God does not only reign in heaven. Hopefully, we ask God to reign in us, and we become the place God lives and reigns. We are the kingdom of God, or at least, potentially --- and when it happens, we are born again. Peace in Christ - PWM

Born Again discussion – John 3:1-15

Rather than cover the ‘usual’ comments on this text, I’ll highlight the items that attracted the attention of our study group. That Nicodemus came at night is usually interpreted that he didn’t want others to see him approaching Jesus to be taught by Him. It could also be a continuing image of darkness that was expressed in chapter one, vs. 5, where the darkness did not comprehend the light. Nicodemus was in the dark, lacking true understanding, even though he was highly esteemed in religious circles and theologically trained. Throughout this passage Jesus points to Nicodemus' lack of understanding even though he was well-versed in scripture and the religious tradition. Are there Christian religious leaders today who are ‘in the dark’ even though they think they understand or see the light? Is is only those outside the Christian traditions who do not understand Jesus and His teaching clearly? Evidently something happened to Nicodemus, he was ‘born again’ between this time and the crucifixion, because he participated in the preparation of Jesus’ body and placement in the tomb, which was not at night when others might see his involvement (John 19:39). (I took this picture from my back porch this morning - "As the deer panteth for the water...") We noticed that Nicodemus opened the commentary with a statement, not a question. Jesus responded with a statement that didn’t seem to connect with Nicodemus’ statement. Nicodemus was drawn to the miracles/signs of Jesus that made him think Jesus was from God. Jesus ignored the reference to signs, and went directly to the purpose for which He had come: to proclaim and promote the kingdom of God. It is as if Jesus was saying, “It’s not about the signs, they aren’t important. What is important is the kingdom of God.” Our discussion then centered around the ‘kingdom of God’ which most people equate with heaven, as in the place we want to go when we die. However, the Greek word for “kingdom” is also translated as “reign”. Any place where God reigns is the kingdom of God, the reign of God. So many more references to the kingdom of God/heaven make sense in the Bible when we think about the ‘reign of God’ rather than a place we go after death. In this case, God does not reign in anyone who is not born of the Spirit. We also talked about being born of water. Many people interpret being born of water as baptism with water. However, baptism is not mentioned or referred to in this passage. John the Baptist said he baptized with water, but Jesus would baptize with the Spirit. The baptism of John was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This passage is about being born, coming forth from the flesh/water, and from the Spirit. The water in this context seems to indicate the natural birth process referring to the womb of the woman and the water within which the fetus has developed. You have to be born into this world, first, and then born of the Spirit in order to let God reign in your life. One difficulty about this conversation revolves around our lack of understanding as to why certain people are ‘chosen’ to be given a new birth of the Spirit and not others. Some of us couldn’t remember a time when we did not believe in Jesus as the Son of God, ascribing to His teaching, loving and trusting in Him. Others pointed to times later in life where the ‘light’ went on, and they began to understand what belief was all about. We would be so much more comfortable if we could control the spiritual birthing process, or at least understand it. This is another one of those things we have to chalk up to ‘faith’, trusting God knows best and we don’t have to know these details in order to live with God reigning in us. When God reigns in us, we are the kingdom of God. I’ll add more to this before the next discussion. Peace in Christ - PWM

Ice storm blues

Please forgive the delay in our fourth sermon text discussion. I live in western Kentucky, hit by an ice storm two weeks ago. The church does not have power restored yet, so we have not been able to meet for our discussion. Pray for a successful return of electrical power to us so our preschool can reopen and we can worship and study in warmth and light. THANKS! Blessed in Christ's abundance, PWM

Luther’s interpretation of John 2:1-11

First, I planned to post this earlier, but an ice storm took down power lines all over our area and we’ve been without electricity for a week. This will delay our scheduled discussion of the next text until next week (assuming we have power restored by then). For now, I’ll post some of Luther’s comments about last week's text. Brother Martin determined that Mary was involved in the acquisition of more wine because she was helping a poor relative (niece) in acting as the bride's mother. He thought this was more evidence that Jesus goes to the poor, not the rich. Because Jesus goes to this wedding is additional confirmation that marriage is the work and institution of God.

Luther chides the leaders of the church. He calls them Caiaphases for declaring and preaching marriage as being the only state instituted by God, (which he doesn’t agree), but then the church shuns the state of marriage, deeming themselves so holy that they avoid marriage and will not even attend a marriage, making themselves holier than Christ himself (#3). Luther’s portrayal of marriage is rather comical, and sad. He says, “Marriage is a state that cultivates and exercises faith in God and love to our neighbor by means of manifold cares, labors, unpleasantness, crosses, and all kinds of adversities…” (#4). It sounds like marriage was a bit difficult for Martin, at least in the moment he was writing this sermon, but he was making the best of its trials. Later he talks about the blessings believers receive in these marriage trials, blessings that pagans are unable to experience or know because they don't have Christ to sweeten the trials. The fact that Christ provided additional wine to people who may have already had too much to drink, Luther says is evidence that Christ is not displeased with the marriage feasting and partying, but moderation is still the standard for acceptable consumption, attire, and celebration. He defines moderation as ‘twice as fine as usual for the social position of the person.’ Jesus’ reaction, or lack of immediate response to Mary’s request, was seen as the usual way of Christ. He does not hurry to meet our needs but uses this as a way to test and strengthen our faith and trust (#13). Mary is a good example for us. She didn't doubt He would help, even though she didn't know when or how He would help. We are to believe God is good all the time, no matter how harsh we think His words might be. Luther said the highest thought we can receive from this lesson is that we honor God as good even when we ‘see’ God act otherwise (#18). I think he might explain this as interpreting God’s actions are always for the best, and that human wisdom does not know all the details or why the limited amount of what we can see happening will bring about the best. Luther has some interesting ‘spiritual’ meanings that he finds in the details of the story. The most obvious is that this (and every) marriage represents Christ and His bride, the Church. The six waterpots of stone for purification represent the books of the Old Testament by which law and commandment made the people pure only on the outside, by works (#27). But works without faith does not purify the heart. There were six waterpots, not seven, showing that labor and toil to achieve purification only create a state of unrest. When there is no Sabbath or rest from our works God is not permitted to work in us. The water in the pots is the substance of the Law, and the pots are stone that represents the tablets of Moses, the commandments. This is why the Jews were 'stiffnecked'. They saw the law as difficult and against them. The Law demands our works. But when the Gospel comes, which is Christ, He changes the Law into something delightful, (#31) which is the water becoming wine. Water/law only brings the fear and dread of God’s judgment. The wine is the Gospel showing us we cannot meet the full requirements, but Christ has met them for us, and takes our sin on Himself. The servants in the story are preachers who bring the Gospel to others. My own addition to this analogy is this: water (law) is necessary to life. We need it. It cleanses our outer actions by helping us make better choices, but they are selfish choices because we understand the negative consequences of going against the law. Water does not make us joyful. It cannot lead us to celebration. But Jesus Christ changes us on the inside when He brings good news to us. He is the new and best wine that raises our spirits, and brings delight in following the law, and celebration to our lives so that we cannot get enough of Him. We can consume as much of Him as we desire. We cannot get too much of the Best Wine. I enjoyed Luther’s allegorical interpretations on this text. I hope you did, too. Blessings, PWM