Questions and Reflections

Category: Freedom of a Christian

A Life that Trusts God

Where does faith happen? For Luther, faith happens in us. Faith is not an abstract concept or an idea detached from everything. Faith is a gift from God and that gift is given to people. We have a tendency to talk about faith as if it's separate from actual people. We act as if there's some kind of "true" or "pure" faith that we could store it in a bottle. We would point to that bottle of faith to show others what true faith looks like. But that's not how my faith works. Faith is for people which means faith needs people. We can't reasonably separate faith from the people who experience it. So faith is more than something we have. Faith is, above all, lied. 

And that lived faith is, for Luther, expressed in our relationships to one another. As we heard earlier in his writing, faith is the source of who we are. Faith is a deep seeded trust in God and God's care for you. And how do we know that God cares about us? Because, through faith, we discover that God sent Jesus not only for the world; but for you too. Faith is a gift that trusts in God's promises. And that trust is makes us free. There is nothing we can do to earn God's love or God's attention. There's nothing we can think up that might  bring us closer to God. Rather God comes to us, freeing us from the need to cross the uncrossable chasm separating us from God. So God, through Christ, builds a bridge across the gap we cannot cross. 

Since we are free from trying to get God's attention, we are then freed to live a life that trusts God. And that life, as we see in our reading today, is one that looks to our neighbor's needs first. This life lives for other people before it lives for ourself. As Lutherans, we know that a Christian is more than someone who accepts a certain kind of belief. A Christian is also someone who lives the faith out loud. This kind of living is not easy and it does ask us to do difficult things. But being a Christian means we have a new name that invites us into a new way of living. "Without a doubt we are named after Christ - not absent from us but dwelling in us; in other words: provided that we believe in him and that, in turn and mutually, we are a second Christ to one another, doing for our neighbors as Christ does for us." pg 525.  



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What Preaching Should Be

The holiest time of the church year is in three weeks. We will start that week by waving palm fronds in the air, remembering the crowds who welcomed Jesus into the city of Jerusalem. And then, on Good Friday, we will see Jesus on the cross. Holy Week is an emotional week. We discover who we are. We see how we respond to the love and grace Jesus brought. We see first hand how consumed we are by our desire for control, selfishness, and greed. Holy Week is a mirror to our need to be our own god. And it's also a week that has, historically and even today, been a week full of antisemitism. 
 
Luther, in this passage from On Christian Freedom, called out antisemitic preaching. In his era, crowds during Holy Week attacked Jewish homes and synagogues. Passion plays (reenactments of Jesus' crucifixion) would be so theatrical and emotional that church-goers responded with violence. Much of this violence relied on people's pre-existing hatreds, support of local governments, and (what I would call) heretical understandings of Jesus' story. Luther, who wrote many antisemitic statements and documents during his lifetime, wasn't forceful enough in his denouncement of this kind of Holy Week preaching. Yet he was knew what preaching wasn't supposed to do: encourage any kind of violence against marginalized groups. 
 
Preaching, for Luther, is not a lesson about Jesus. Preaching is an event. It's seeing who we are and how Jesus comes to us anyways. Preaching isn't a series of moral lessons to help us become our best self. Preaching is about Jesus being 100% for you right now. Jesus isn't for you as you might become. He isn't waiting for you to make yourself right before he shows up. He's here now. and that grace changes everything. 
 
The grace is something we can't earn. It's also something we struggle to trust. As people, we're used to wanting to do something to make us "better." But Luther is firm that the grace God gives you is free. And it's through that grace and love that you are made into something new. 
 
Luther is an example of how the grace Jesus gives us helps us see more clearly. Luther saw the antisemitism in the preaching he heard during Holy Week. But he still failed to see his own antisemitic ideas and beliefs. Our prayers should always ask for Jesus' grace to refine our sight so we can know ourselves better. And as that grace shines a light into our own darkness, it also forms us to be the followers of Christ we are called to be. 


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Faith of the Heart

It's easy to get stuck in our heads. If a problem comes up, we spend a lot of time and energy dwelling on it. If we have an issue with another person, we might even role play entire conversations with them during long car rides. Sometimes these conversations are helpful. The words we say help us gather our thoughts and plot a plan of action. But if these pretend conversations are connected to a deep feeling of anxiety, we might end up lost in our own heads. We end up overthinking the situation. We are consumed by thoughts and end up lost in inaction. Your mind is powerful, complex, and unique. But even a healthy mind can be caught in a feedback loop that traps it. 

I like how Martin Luther in our selection from The Freedom of a Christian talks about "faith of the heart." We tend to talk and imagine that faith is mostly in our minds. We need to "believe" certain ideas and accept a certain vision of reality. Belief is about what you choose to accept or say yes to. This kind of faith feels very much like something we might learn in school. We need teachers and classes to grow in our faith and, hopefully, a few special graduation events a long the way. This kind of faith is a faith of the mind.

But Luther doesn't experience faith in this way. For him, faith is the center of his reality. In scripture, the heart was always the place where faith lived and breathed. And in ancient times, the heart was the center of everything about us. The heart was where thoughts were created and where the soul lived. The heart was the center of what made a person who they were. For Luther, our faith isn't about what we believe. Our faith is really about what is the center of who we are. Faith isn't something only located in our head. Faith is part of everything that makes us who we are. 

This kind of faith is a faith that can live through those moments when we lose ourselves in our head. It's a faith that can handle those moments in our lives when doubt is all we have. A faith that is at the core of who we are is faith that we can rediscover when we haven't felt Jesus in our life for awhile. This kind of faith is something we cannot earn or create on our own. It's a deep faith that only God can give. And God grants us this faith through baptism, worship, communion, and daily interactions with the Holy Spirit. We might not sense God in our life. But God continues to grant us the faith we need to know that we are God's. And this kind of faith, this faith of the heart, is the only faith that can help us live through every part of our lives. 



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Freedom of a Christian: Part 1

Today's First Reading is the opening of Martin Luther's "On Christian Freedom." Written in 1520, this short writing is one of Luther's most poetic works. After Luther posted his "95 Theses" on a church door in October, 1517, a split grew within the church. On one side was Luther, a monk and theology professor, who felt compelled to speak out about abuses in the church. On the other side was the Pope, Roman Catholic Church, and the Holy Roman Emperor. Luther's sermons and writings were widely published, making him one of the first best selling authors. As the debate about  abuses grew into a wider conversation about faith and Jesus, different people tried to reconcile the opposing sides. During one of these attempts, Luther was asked to write a "reconciliation-minded letter" to the Pope. Luther wrote the letter and attached a short writing describing the heart of his beliefs. That short writing is "On Christian Freedom."

The core subject of Luther's writing is faith itself. Using the standard writing devices of his day, he begins by talking about his experience of faith. He asserts himself as a learned authority on the subject and invites us into his writing. Luther firmly believes that faith matters and he wants to show us why it should matter to us too. But faith isn't merely abstract thoughts located in the brain. Faith is something we live out loud. Luther moves from his invitation into his themes or how he will structure his writing. He will explore faith in two sections focused on freedom and service. And those two sections appear to be at odds with each other. In Christ, we are subject to no other person. We are as free as we can be. Yet at the same time, we are subject and bound to everyone. That everyone includes more than just our family and friends. It includes neighbors and strangers too. Luther's writing begins by making the claim that the Christian life is a paradox we get to live out.



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