Catastrophe and the hidden God/revealed God

Pat Robertson, televangelist, and all-around egghead sought to one up his explanation of why 9/11 happened, and why Katrina happened, today when he declared, "We will serve you if you get us free from the French," paraphrasing/quoting the people of Haiti 200 years ago to Satan himself. Satan's reply was "Okay, you got it." And in striking up that deal with the devil you get why Haiti has been poor and why they experienced yesterday's devastating earthquake.

Now the only reason I bring up Robertson is to highlight how much of a problem his theological framework is. Oh, and also to point out that he pulls this Hatians working a deal out with the devil from the opposite place of reality. The first thing that came to mind when I heard Robertson said this (okay after the initial "again?"), was Luke 13:1-5:

¹There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ²And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? ³No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. ⁴Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? ⁵No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

Robertson seems to think he is exempt from the seemingly random acts of nature, of which God is Lord over, when Jesus himself told people, "Do you think that these were worse sinners?"

The problem with Pat's theology is he seeks after the hidden aspects of an already revealed God. The interesting thing about Pat's theology is, in that respect, the rest of us aren't all that different from him. We all will try and explain why bad things happen, especially when they happen to good people, in order to satisfy ourselves. We become obsessed with the hidden will of God. We are not satisfied with what God has revealed to us because this world is a maddening place. What kind of a God allows something like a 7.0 earthquake to rock a poverty stricken island? What kind of God allows supposedly one of his own shepherds, Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, to be crushed under the rubble?

This God who allows natural disasters scares us on our backs. We end up looking up at a world, and a God, who we know nothing about and it frightens us to our core. This is what happens when we constantly talk about the things of God that we do not know much about. When Christians are constantly explaining God and never proclaiming Him we get caught up in missing the whole point of why God came. God did not come to reveal some abstract "truth" or to give us some abstract "wisdom" or to give us a seemingly abstract set of rules and moral conduct. When we "preach" about a God who came and gave us a book on good and moral living we miss the point. The constant explaining of God, which never gets around to proclaiming, leaves God on our backs and we cannot shake him.

The late Gerhard Forde in his book Theology Is for Proclamation, once said:

We see that apart from God preached, we are estranged from God. Rather than being the one we are allegedly always seeking, God not preached appears more as the one we can never quite get off our backs. As such, "God," is the name for whomever or whatever is "out there," "up there," "in the depths," "transcendent to us," and messing with us...Outside the proclamation both theistic and atheistic theologians are strangely one. Both are trying to get God off our backs. The theist most often does it by trying to make God "nice," to bring God "to heel," so to speak, and the atheist does it by trying to make God disappear. Both attempts have a similar outcome from the point of view of proclamation: they only subvert it.

Nevertheless, for better or for worse, neither theistic nor atheistic appeals seem to work for long. We may find an argument temporarily convincing, but then something else overtakes us--some tragedy, some joy, some fortune or misfortune, some deed or happening that inflates or deflates our ego--and we are back where we started (p. 14).

Forde goes on to describe how this "God not preached" in the end gets us nowhere. This is not to say that explanation does not have its place, it most certainly does. But the problem with explanation is that most people begin and end with just explanation. Many Christian churches see no reason to proclaim to people once they've been "saved." The Gospel is not something that should cease to be preached once people have been "saved." The Christian life is not to get saved and then find out what the point really is, what God really wants from you. The Christian life begins, is lived, and ends on the very same point: Christ crucified and risen.

So Forde offers up that the only solution for this problem of the hidden God is actually proclaiming the revealed God:

This is the classic illustration of how a theology that understands the place of proclamation will make certain moves and refuse to make others. Luther knew that only the proclamation--only the preached God, the living Word here and now--could save us from the God not preached, the absolute God (p. 28).

In closing I offer up a prayer from Concordia Publishing House's Pastoral Care Companion, with those affected inserted:

Almighty God, merciful Father, Your thoughts are not our thoughts, and Your ways are not our ways. In Your wisdom You have permitted this disastrous earthquake to befall Haiti. Keep the Haitians and all of s from despair and do not let our faith fail us, but sustain and comfort us. Direct all efforts to attend the injured, console the bereaved, and protect the helpless. Deliver any who are still in danger, and bring hope and healing that we may find relief and restoration; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Ransomed Shall Return

Read this today as part of CPH's daily devotion, Portals of Prayer. This passage really speaks to Advent, in my opinion. I think it's one of the most beautiful pieces of scripture that I haven't stumbled upon yet. So much of Isaiah gets wrapped up in Isaiah 6, 40, 53, 55, and hey those are some great places to read/reflect/and to meditate. But Isaiah 35 is an absolute gem in my opinion. The ESV heading gets you ready for it, "The Ransomed Shall Return." God's vengeance is stored up for our enemies: sin, death, and the devil. This will be one heck of a parade on this Highway of Righteousness! Happy reading.

The Ransomed Shall Return

What Shall We Do?

Today's post comes from Concordia Publishing House's daily devotional, Portals of Prayer:

Devotional Reading for: 12/6/2009 Associated Scripture Readings: Luke 3:10-18 Psalm 66:1-12

What Shall We Do?

The crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” Luke 3:10

As we live in this time after Jesus’ first coming in Bethlehem and waiting for His second coming at the end of time, many people want to know: what shall we do? What does God expect of us? The crowds asked this question of John the Baptist as he prepared the way for Jesus. John’s answer was simply this: do what has been given you to do. Perform your vocations in honesty and love. Some people think that is not enough. We must do bigger and better things for God! But it is enough, because Jesus came to do all that is required of us. His perfect life, death, and resurrection set us free from the obligation of the Law. In Jesus, we are children of God. Our sins are forgiven, and we have the promise of eternal life. Jesus has done it all for us! What then is there for us to do to earn God’s love? Nothing? Freed from the burden of the Law, we give ourselves in service to God and service to our neighbor. As Luther said, “God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor does.” Jesus has set you free to love and serve others, whether you are a parent, student, soldier, or baptizer. What you do is important.

Lord God, thank You for setting me free from my sins in Christ Jesus. Help me to use my freedom to serve my neighbor in honesty and love. Amen.

December 25th

Maybe this seems more appropriate to be an actual December 25th post, but I found this too good to not share right away.

In our culture there is this profound "fact" that December 25th is strictly a pagan holiday adopted by Christians. Granted, as the article points out, many pagan practices do come over to the more modern (and postmodern) sector but the actual origins of celebrating Christmas on December 25th come from this idea of tying creation/redemption together. The author posits, with evidence provided, that early Christians tied Jesus' conception (March 25th) to his passion (on or around March 25th). And exactly nine months following March 25th is, you guessed it, December 25th. He cites St. Augustine among others for this.

Have at it yourself and weigh it against the abundance of other noise in our culture. I found it to be a nice read which gives Christians of all stripes a reason to celebrate Christmas on December 25th even if in the past they were afraid of celebrating it because it is "pagan." And most importantly this idea that Christmas also points to the cross. That's really what the origins of celebrating Christmas on December 25th seem to be about. Enjoy!

Why December 25th?

The Useful Sinner

Over the summer while shadowing Pr. Jonathan Priest of St. John's Brooklyn, I had the opportunity to follow him in his day to day life as a pastor. Part of that day to day life was going into Manhattan really early (7am) on Thursday mornings to meet up with a group of young 30-somethings, also living in the Greatest City in the World, who are devout Christians. A few of these guys happen to run/post on the renowned Christian blog, Mockingbird. During one of those Thursday mornings one of the guys who runs the blog, David Zahl, tossed me a tiny book called The Useful Sinner by J. David Hawkins.

The Useful Sinner is about a man who had a long sexual relationship with a woman who is not his wife and the aftermath of the whole thing. The first thing his wife did when he confessed to her was grab his hand and make him kneel at the bed with her and to pray. In the midst of her hurt, in the midst of her anguish, she gave her traitor husband grace. The book goes on to detail how just because they both wanted to work it out did not make it easy. They had to deal with the other woman and her husband, how their marriage ended because of it, and the public perceptions caused by the affair. The man's image was tarnished, and even worse his own wife now had a tarnished image for being attached to such a creep. Yet in the end through much prayer and counseling they worked it out.

I bring this up because of the findings of the last week of this weird Tiger Woods story. Today the world's #1 golfer, and richest athlete admitted to letting his family down and "transgressions." I hope and pray for Tiger's sake that his wife Elin is as gracious as the woman in the story. And that they would seek out the God of reconciliation in hopes of repairing their badly damaged marriage.

I think the problem with lifting up celebrities is we expect them to be better than ourselves. We want celebrities to be what we cannot be, gods on earth. This does not excuse Tiger's behavior whatsoever, but I think it is a common result of what happens when we push pride ahead of what we really are--dirty, rotten sinners. Tiger is fully responsible for what happened to his family and nobody else. But the idolizing of him that so many have done, myself being chief, does not help. Celebrities begin to believe their invincibility and seek out hidden lives to suppress something they never could handle. And many times this comes in the form of sexual sin and as a result despair.

Tiger seems to be in despair, and I hope he is. What he did is inexcusable and he needs to be forthright in that and feel the sting of that. But I also hope Tiger and his family find reconciliation in the Gospel of Hope that extends further beyond any possible despair or sin. Tiger Woods is a sinner, no kidding, he is a human being. This above any injury or "loss" on the golf course proves this. The question of whether or not Tiger Woods was really human stops with this story. He is human, the same fallen human the rest of us are. I think it would do everyone, myself included, a lot to just admit we're sinners and combat temptation that way instead of pretending we're above temptation or falling. Any one of us could fall like Tiger has, and that is the lesson we should take away from this.

In The Useful Sinner, the adulterous husband comes across St. Paul's words in Romans 7, "For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." --Romans 7:15-20

This is the cry of every human. We always do things we hate. Tiger Woods is no exception. Our hope is found in Jesus Christ who, in the flesh, overcame every temptation that we cannot withstand. I hope in this Advent Season Tiger and his wife Elin and their whole family can find the restoration, hope, and reconciliation that is only found in the God who took up residence in human flesh to beat back sin, death, and every evil.

Give Thanks With a Grateful Heart

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ, powerful blessings to you from the Holy Spirit, Amen. On the basis of the Gospel lesson this evening, “Give thanks with a grateful heart.”

Brothers and sisters it is good to be here with you this Thanksgiving Eve. It is good to be back here with you after spending an incredible summer here. I give thanks to God for you, the people of St. John’s Williamsburg, and bring you greetings from one of your seminaries Concordia St. Louis.

This Gospel text, though only 7 verses, really packs a punch in what Luke is conveying to us. Appropriately this is the traditional text for this special evening service we call “Thanksgiving Eve Prayer.” In this story we see ten lepers, the untouchables of society, being cleansed by Jesus. It’s a remarkable story for sure, but the interesting this is that only one comes back. This means that 90% of the people just healed by Jesus do not come back to give thanks to him for what he has done to them and for them. St. Luke seems to be teaching us a lesson on proper manners. It seems that giving thanks, as it is today, was also then taken for granted. St. Luke seems to be telling us to give thanks with a grateful heart. What is it that you all are thankful for? (assume rhetorical question will be answered). I’m thankful for my family, my friends, my education, and for each day God gives me. We have a tradition at our table for Thanksgiving that before we dig into the meal we go around saying one thing we are thankful for. I’ll have to tell you that we have Thanksgiving at a very big house on Long Island every year. So one year we were going around the table and when it came to one of my cousins to say what he was thankful for he declared, “Uncle Harvey’s paycheck.” Give thanks with a grateful heart.

It always amazes me how quickly Thanksgiving comes around. It seems like just yesterday I was helping out with Vacation Bible School here in August, and now I am here for Thanksgiving Eve. It seems that once Halloween ends the run up to Christmas begins. I have seen some homes remove Halloween decorations and put up Christmas ones immediately after. Do you all get the feeling that I do that Thanksgiving has become a forgotten holiday? Oh sure, we know it’s there because it usually involves eating food, maybe with family, maybe with friends, in some form or another we are aware of its existence. Thanksgiving is also the unofficial official start to the Christmas season. The day after Thanksgiving is commonly known as “Black Friday” when people go out and shop till they drop for the next months holidays best deals. There’s a parade that happens across the bridge here that you all may be aware of, but how does that parade end? It ends with Santa Claus, a symbol of Christmas, riding down Broadway in his sleigh. Yeah we know this “Turkey Day” exists but I’m talking about the actual Holiday of Thanksgiving, do we celebrate it?

Our culture and our own selves have become so engulfed by this commercialization of not only Christmas but our entire lives that we acknowledge the presence of Thanksgiving, but I have a feeling we leave out the Thanks and the Giving part. So much so that isn’t it the case that we have given a nickname for this holiday that completely eliminates the name “Thanksgiving?” Yes, in fact, I just used it myself, “Turkey Day!” Give thanks with a grateful heart? More like “give thanks with a full tummy!” The problem is, my brothers and sisters, that we do not give thanks with a grateful heart. All too often we go through life making excuses for why we cannot give thanks with a grateful heart. But all too often we give thanks for the things that fill our stomachs. Whether it be food or whether it be the fact we fill our minds and bodies with so much useless stuff that it absolutely renders us unable to give thanks with a grateful heart.

Leprosy was the untouchable disease. There are pages and pages of laws concerning how to deal with leprosy in an Old Testament book called Leviticus. Lepers were unclean and cut off from society because of their disease. They could not engage in worship, they could not live at home, they had to live in isolation or in colonies with other lepers. It was a incurable, nasty, hideous, devastating disease. Another thing here is that Jesus was passing by near the border of Samaria. Samaria was a place inhabited by people called Samaritans. Samaritans were absolutely detestable people to the Jews. They were incredibly unclean even without disease. The disease in and of itself was that they existed! So wonder of wonders that amongst the ten lepers here one of them is, you guessed it, a Samaritan.

In our own lives we have the untouchables of society, don’t we? There are many people outside these very walls who society has deemed “untouchable.” They are the poor, they are the homeless, they are the teenage boys and young men who take solace in gangs, they are the teenage girls who become pregnant and are deserted by the boys who took part in this. The untouchables are the mentally disabled, the untouchables are those whose skin color are darker than others, the untouchables are those who speak a different language, the untouchables are the babies aborted by the millions each year because of the sins of their parents. Our society is full of untouchables. At first glance it seems Jesus here kind of waves them off. They, the untouchables, cry out to Jesus from afar and he tells them to go on their way and show themselves to the priests. What is this? Where is the Jesus who touches and heals? Where is the Jesus who is face to face when he heals? Why the seemingly impersonal send off to be someone elses problem? It is worth noting that according to those laws in Leviticus that in order to be declared clean and to re-enter society one must show themselves to the priests. So if these ten lepers wanted to be declared well, to be declared clean, they had to go show themselves to the priests to prove they were clean. If they did not do this, they could not be told they were well, and they could not re-enter society.

While going along the way the lepers were cleansed. The text does not say whether or not there was a debate to go back and thank Jesus first then go to the priests, it just says one of them turned back. Give thanks with a grateful heart. This left this one former leper in a minority of one. And just to add to the mess, this one leper who was returning back to thank Jesus was the one Leper who was also a Samaritan! How ridiculous is this? Why would this guy disobey Jesus and not go to the priest to be told he was made well and could re-enter society? Does he also not remember that just because he was cleansed of his leprosy that he is still a Samaritan and cannot be in contact with Jews, for Jesus was a Jew. What was this guy thinking? He had to go show himself to the priest if he wanted any chance at being declared well and re-entering society.

Brothers and sisters, was there ever a time when you were supposed to be going along about your day to be involved in society, to enter it so to speak, when you stopped right in your tracks with great news, with great healing? Was there ever a time when you may have been on your way to run an errand when you received the phone call that someone you loved had been healed? Was there ever a time when you realized you had become healed? Did you ever fall on your face to thank God? This man, in that moment, could not have cared less about seeing the priest in the temple or re-entering society. At that moment, this dirty untouchable Samaritan had to do one thing and that was “praise God in a loud voice.” So he went back to Jesus, threw himself before him and gave thanks with a grateful heart. In the book of Hebrews the writer tells us that Jesus is our High Priest. He is the one who declares us clean on account of his sacrifice. This Samaritan did not disobey Jesus, this Samaritan showed himself to a priest, the priest, the high priest, Jesus Christ, and gave thanks with a grateful heart.

Jesus is the one who declares us well and makes us clean. Just like in this story when Jesus tells the former Leper, yet still Samaritan sinner, to go because “your faith has made you well” so too Jesus cleanses us in the waters of Holy Baptism and declares to us that we have been made clean and in our faith we go on our way. Brothers and sisters Jesus is the great High Priest who has the authority to declare what is clean and who is clean on account of his death on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks with a grateful heart for the untouchables outside tonight who, in Christ, are declared well and clean. Give thanks with a grateful heart that Jesus woke you up this morning and that he sustains you in life by providing us with all that we need, as we see in Martin Luther’s explanation to the first article of that great, ancient creed. Give thanks with a grateful heart for even the trials that come in your life because as one belonging to Christ he said you will be persecuted because of him. Give thanks with a grateful heart that Jesus has overcome this world and all its evils and that with him you too overcome this world. Give thanks with a grateful heart that even in death the world could not hold him in and Jesus broke free from that bondage. Give thanks with a grateful heart that Jesus kills your sin and makes you alive in baptism and sustains you in that faith he gave you by giving himself to you in this little feast we have ourselves called “Holy Communion.” Give thanks with a grateful heart that just like the grave could not hold Jesus in, nor will it be able to hold you in. On that last day Jesus will raise us to life in our bodies and we will walk in the glory of his light forever on the new earth. Give thanks with a grateful heart that this world does not have the final say. Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks, Jesus has created a new heart within you. With that heart give thanks to the one who overcame death and grave on your behalf. Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks! Amen.

Quarter Break

Time to crack open November I suppose! I write this from Orlando International Airport awaiting my flight home to Islip, Long Island, New York. At seminary we are on a quarter schedule, each quarter lasts ten weeks, and what a quick ten weeks that was. The nice thing about the quarter system is you work really hard for ten weeks straight and then get two weeks off for break at a time (with the winter quarter being interrupted by Christmas/New Years). The other nice thing about being on a quarter system is that by the time I'm beginning to grow weary of classes I only have to make one more push to finish out strong. Fourteen weeks worth of semesters=several pushes to get through to the end.

All that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed myself in St. Louis. The city itself is a nice town with a lot to offer. I often found myself taking solace in Forest Park on the nice days we did have (October was a wash out, November has been beautiful, September was great). One of my favorite things to do is people watch. Not in the creepy stalker way but in the taking in creation way. I'm always wondering where people are running off to. Mainly I decide that people are off running to do similar things as I, such as taking a break from "life" in a beautiful park. But even with that there are time constraints that hold us back from what we would otherwise enjoy in the moment. Even sitting there reading or people watching I'm ever mindful of this annoying clock that keeps telling me what time it is and what I have to do. That's more of a sidetrack rant, but I stand by it. So to recap of the classes:

Lutheran Mind: This class was literally about the mind. There were many days I came back to my room needing a nap because of the mental beating I had just taken. Because of those continuous mental beatings I enjoyed that class immensely. Most of the lectures were engaging and the class discussions on Thursdays were great. It was awesome to bounce ideas off of our Professor, Dr. Biermann, and listen to him respond with his wealth of knowledge and passion. At first glance the course "Lutheran Mind" looks like/sounds like a typical hoop to jump through. But it was not that at all, Lutheran Mind is a brilliant course that has me fired up for systematics the rest of the way here.

Pastoral Ministry: This introduction to Pastoral Ministry was a lot of fun. The lectures were the absolute best part, the grading was a bit annoying but whatever, and the class discussions that filtered from the lectures were very fruitful. Dr. Utech's ability to story tell made that class so engaging. He has such experiential depth that I could only hope to have by the time I retire, and this guy is still relatively young.

Greek Readings: Greek Readings is a course that has the intention to make you ever more familiar with the language and give you a foundation before getting into the exegetical courses. The professor, Dr. Oschwald, is a very pastoral man with you guessed it--vast knowledge. Our section was kind of his guinea pigs on test styles for the course but aside from that it was fun to run through selected texts of the New Testament with him in the original Greek.

Hebrew Readings: Same purpose as Greek Readings except in Hebrew! This was my only class on Friday, and at 2pm, at first I was thinking this would be cause to gaze out the window in hopes of weekend glory. Yet it turned out I found myself wanting more time in the class. Dr. Bartelt is the guy for Hebrew in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The standard Hebrew text bears his authorship and once again he is another person with a knowledge that makes me long to be half as smart by the end of my time in ministry. This class often went over the allotted time as we listened to Dr. Bartelt share with us the wonders of the Old Testament and the Hebrew text. Seriously, this class was great. My only gripe is that Dr. Bartelt was gone for 2 weeks guest lecturing at a seminary in South Africa. Oh well, I'll get over it since he was helping further advance the kingdom to our brothers in Africa.

So there ya have it. Next quarter, which begins November 30th, I will be taking Worship, Intro to Exegetical, Intro to Historical Theology, Lutheran Confessions I, and Pastor as Counselor. I am looking forward to getting into these classes.

One more note before I shut down and board, I am finding that seminary is not the hoop jumping experience I thought it would be. Every faculty member I have run into so far, even beyond my own classes, has been extremely pastoral and relevant. The seminary led by President Dale Meyer are making great strides to engage this fallen world with the true Gospel. Theology does not have to be sacrificed to do this and they recognize this. It seems to be full steam ahead with reaching out and I could not be happier.

For now I'm off to Islip to enjoy a nice long break at home, a Phish concert in Philadelphia, a return to St. John's Brooklyn Thanksgiving Eve to preach, and Thanksgiving my favorite holiday.