You may be familiar with the "solas" of the Reformation. Sola is Latin for "alone" or "only." The three most familiar solas are sola scriptura (scripture alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and sola fidei (faith alone.) Which is to say, we teach that scripture alone is the basis for what believe. We believe that we are saved solely by God's grace, through faith in the saving work of Christ alone and not through our own works.
There are a couple other solas that were prominent during the Reformation that you may be less familiar with. The first is Solus Christus, or Christ alone. In a sense, this is the most important sola. We are saved through the atonement that Jesus made when he died on the cross. "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). The last of the five solae comes to prominence about a century after the Reformation. Soli Deo Gloria means to God alone be the glory. J. S. Bach wrote the initials S. D. G. and the bottom of all his sacred compositions, short for soli deo gloria. Bach understood that his vocation was God-given, and he hoped that when the music was played and sung, it would point toward God. The truth of Scripture rediscovered during the Reformation is that according to Scripture alone, we are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. To God alone be the glory. The world has many euphemisms for death, some of which are a bit crass, phrases like, "kicked the bucket," "pushing up daisies," "bit the dust." I could go on. Sometimes we use such phrases so we don't have to speak about the reality of death. Death can be an uncomfortable subject of conversation. Often, we avoid the topic so we don't have to confront our own mortality.
But Christians speak about death differently. We are much more realistic about death. First, we recognize that all people die because all are sinners. Physical death is the consequence of sin, both inherited sin and the sins we commit. Christians also recognize the eternity of the soul, and that although we were spiritually dead the Christian has been crucified and raised with Christ in our baptisms. Though we die, we know that our souls go to be with the Lord, and our bodies will be raised to eternal life on the last day. Thus, we have different ways to speak about the death of the believer. Scripture provides us with mortis dulcia nomina, Latin meaning “The Sweet Names of Death”. These ways of talking about death reflect the reality of what we believe. Here's a list: “Gathered to one’s people” (Gen. 25:8, 17), “Departure in peace” (Luke 2:29), “Depart and be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23), “Taken from evil” (Is. 57:1), “Sleep” (Matt. 9:24; John 11:11; 1 Thess. 4:13; Daniel 12:2), “Rest” (Rev. 14:13; Heb. 4:11), “Passing from death to life” (John 5:24), “Deliverance from evil” (2 Tim. 4:18), “Gain” (Phil. 1:21). Luther writes: "Scripture has a lovely manner of speaking of death and the deceased,” and then proceeds to set forth this 'lovely manner' ... We must henceforth learn a new speech and language in speaking of death and the grave.… That is not a human, earthly language, but a divine, celestial language. For the like you find in none of the books of all learned and wise on earth.… But among Christians this should be a familiar, common, and current speech.” As God's people let us have confidence that for us death is but sleep, and our Lord will return in glory to awaken us on the last day, to live forever with Him. God allowed His people living in Judah to be taken into exile by the Babylonians in judgment over their idolatry and their abandoning of the Lord and His ways. Some remained in Judah of course, but some of these fled to Egypt in fear of further Babylonian conquest. While in Egypt, the people once again began worshipping false gods, including "the queen of heaven." So, Jeremiah was sent to call the people to repentance and to remind them that their idolatry is what put them in this situation in the first place. If they did not repent and change their ways, they wouldn't survive in Egypt or ever be able to return to their homes in Judah. (Jer. 44).
It was a stern warning and based in historical fact. The exiles responded to Jeremiah's words by saying, "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster" (Jer. 44:16-17). Stunning. The people not only ignored Jeremiah, they doubled down on their idolatry! They were determined to serve their false gods, which were really no gods at all. How does such idolatry look in our day and age? Our idols are perhaps not as obvious or "in your face" as those of the Israelites. We don't typically say that we will make offerings to some false god. Yet we do it. We commit time and money to things that don't matter, things, people, institutions that we put our trust in over and above God. We may know more about our favorite sports team or celebrity than we do about God's word. We may prioritize time on Sunday morning for family, fun, or sleeping in over hearing God's word and receiving His sacrament. As God's chosen people, we should respond to God's rebuke concerning our own idolatry not by saying, "we will not listen to you," but "Lord, have mercy on me a sinner." In Genesis 4 we find the chilling account of Cain killing his brother Abel. After Cain is sent away, Moses gives a summary of Cain's apparently numerous descendants (Gen. 4:14-24). One gets the impression that some of these are very impressive people. They are inventors of music, they learn how to raise livestock, they develop the means by which to forge iron and bronze, and they build cities. They seem to be the movers and the shakers the important people of the day. There's just one problem, their hearts are full of evil. One of Cain's descendants, Lamech, writes this poem, "I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold” (Gen 4:23-24).
Adam and Eve had another son, Seth, (along with other sons and daughters). We learn of Seth's descendants in Genesis 5, but at the end of Chapter 4 we read this, "To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Gen. 4:26). That is the great accomplishment of Seth's line, "they began to call upon the name of the Lord." What a contrast with the descendants of Cain! In the eyes of Scripture, Seth's descendants are most notable because they called on the name of the Lord. Of course, the patriarch Noah is a descendant of Seth. Humanity would be saved from the destruction of the flood through Noah and his family on the ark. "Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Of all the people of the earth, only Noah and his family were found to hold fast to the mercy and promises of God. The great men of Genesis 4 were destroyed in the flood, while the family who called upon the name of the Lord was spared. It is not for greatness in this life that we strive. Fame and riches pass away. Rather we are to be those who call upon the name of the Lord. We are those who are to gladly hear the Lord's word, attend the Divine Service to receive His gifts, and lead lives of repentance and faith in God's mercy for Jesus' sake. The world may not be impressed with us, but God will keep us secure in the ark of His church unto eternal life. In the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. None of his court magicians or enchanters could tell him the dream or interpret it. The king insisted repeatedly that he would not trust any of his wise men to interpret the dream unless they first tell him what the dream was. One of these wise men responds, "The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh" (Dan. 2:11).
This reaction highlights a basic difference between the faith of the Christian and whatever it is that the pagan or unbeliever trusts in. The assumption of the world is that if there is a god, he is far away and unknowable. Unbelief says the dwelling of the gods "is not with flesh." God cannot be known or touched. God is not here with us in the flesh, because he is too great to be among us mere mortals, so the thinking goes. We know differently. In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel was able to see and interpret the dream. This is because God the Holy Spirit was dwelling within Daniel. For us we know that in fact God does dwell with flesh, namely in the flesh of Jesus Christ, who is truly man and truly God. Jesus is God incarnate, literally God in the flesh. Our God has a body. A body that was born, suffered, died, and was buried. A body that rose victorious over death. And Jesus still has His body. He is still fully God and fully human, and He is in all places with His body. As Christians we know that God's dwelling is with flesh, it is with us. Moreover, our own bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. That is, God dwells in each of us, so that we may be witnesses to the saving works of Christ in our words and actions. Thanks be to God. Think for a minute about all the images you see on a daily basis. They could be still images or moving images (video). It's estimated that the average person sees up to 10,000 ads a day, double the 2007 number and up to 20 times more than we saw in the 70's. And that's just ads, the images we usually try to ignore! Then there's social media pictures, and memes, and videos. We see images on TV and in newspapers and books. People show us images on their phones, and then there's all the images we intentionally seek out on the internet for better or worse.
Now think about Jesus' day. There were very few "images" to even see. Statues or paintings of various Roman gods perhaps, but no images that were exact representations of actual things. And yet Jesus says in Luke 11:34, "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness." Much evil starts with the eyes. David's adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband started with his eyes (2 Sam 11:2). What we see with our eyes can lead to jealousy, envy, and covetousness. In the garden of Eden, when Eve saw that the tree was good for food and Satan promised that their (spiritual) eyes would be opened, Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Instead of subjecting our eyes to things that will lead us astray, we should focus our eyes (physical and spiritual) on the things of God. "I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless" (Ps. 101:3). "I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways" (Ps 119:15) "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season" (Ps. 145:15). Or as the writer the Hebrews says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:2). When the Hebrews grumbled against God in the desert and the Lord sent serpents to bite them, He offered salvation through Moses. Moses built a bronze serpent on a pole, "if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live" (Num 21:9). So, we look to Jesus raised up on the cross and risen from the dead, so that we too might live. You've no doubt heard the saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." According to the Dictionary of Idiomatic English Phrases, this is "an ancient proverb recommending prudence in behaviour. We must adapt ourselves to the prejudices and customs of others." Evidently, this saying dates all the way back to the 300's AD. The story goes that St. Augustine and his mother were planning to visit Rome. The Christians there fasted on Saturday. This was not the practice in Milan where Augustine lived. Augustine consulted his mentor St. Ambrose who told him, "When I am here (in Milan) I do not fast on Saturday, when in Rome I do fast on Saturday." This appears to have given rise to the saying, "When in Rome do as the Romans do."
The custom of fasting on Saturday is what we would call an indifferent matter. It was a cultural practice, a particular religious discipline that in one place Christians fasted on Saturday while in another place they didn't. It makes sense to conform to a particular culture when you're an outsider regarding indifferent matters. You may notice this when you visit other churches while travelling. Even amongst traditional, liturgical, LC–MS churches you will see some variations in practice. A problem arises when this mindset is taken too far. There are many practices that our culture promotes of which we should be wary because they are not indifferent. They run contrary to God's clear word. Sometimes dangerous cultural practices or mindsets finagle their way into the church or the lives of individual Christians. Some examples include: false definitions of marriage, the status of an unborn baby, losing ourselves in entertainment, living together before marriage, knowing more about our favorite sports team than the Bible, relying more on politcians than the Lord, or just generally wanting the church to look more like the world. Now define this world as "Rome." We will not live in Rome forever. Spending too much time learning how to live in Rome, puts our eternal destiny in danger. We must be wary of everything the culture promotes as "good", yet we have the freedom, the obligation, to live in this world with our neighbors shining the light of God's love as we do so. You are a citizen of heaven living in Rome. Pronouns seem to be a popular topic nowadays. You may have gone to conferences or events where you are asked what your "preferred pronouns" are. Some social media sites even let you select pronouns for your profile. I had no idea when I was in 9th grade English class diagramming sentences what a hot topic pronouns would one day become!
Anyway, I want us to consider pronouns for a moment, not the ones we use to describe other people but the ones we use to describe the congregation where we are members. Most of you are members at Victory in Christ, but the same ideas apply no matter which congregation you are a member of. The way you talk about your church, the pronouns you use, says a lot about how you view yourself as part of that congregation. Here's an example. Maybe you're telling someone about Easter breakfast at your church. Do you say, "They're having an Easter breakfast" or "We're having an Easter Breakfast"? Do you see the difference? In the first case you are talking about your congregation in the third person, they, as if you're not really part of it. In the second case you are associating yourself with your congregation by speaking in the first person, we. Isn’t that better? "We have communion every Sunday. We have Sunday School and Bible Study at 11:00. We will be worshipping at 7:00pm on Wednesdays during Advent." And if there is something you see that needs doing around the church you can say to yourself, "How can I help?" versus, "What are they doing about that?" Language is important; it shapes the way we think. That's why there is so much wrangling over pronouns in our culture. Language is often changed in an attempt to alter our sense of reality. It is the same with how we talk about our congregation. The way we speak reflects what we think and influences how we perceive ourselves as a member of the body of Christ at our church. You say it every week in the Nicene Creed, "I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." But do you realize what a radical belief that is? First, unbelievers don't believe it. Most would say you just "end" when you die. There is nothing after death. Or some might think your spirit or soul just goes off to someplace nice. Even many Christians are confused about the resurrection of the dead. How many times have you heard about a deceased loved one, "Now, they are an angel," or about the body of the dead, "Well, they're not there anymore?"
Christianity doesn't teach that you become an angel when you die. Death is the separation of the soul from the body. The souls of believers are taken to heaven to be with the Lord, while the souls of the unbelievers are tragically consigned to hell. But this is not the end. On the last day, when Christ returns in glory, our bodies will be raised from the dead. They will be raised as imperishable, perfect bodies. Our souls and bodies will be reunited, and we will again be whole people. God's people will live with Him forever, soul and body, in the bliss of the new heavens and the new earth. Our bodies are not fleshly prisons from which our souls wish to escape. God created us as soul and body. When a loved one dies and you see their lifeless body, that is still the same body that held your hand, kissed your cheek, and spoke to you. Yes, their soul is "not there" but that body is still their body. Death and time will take that body and turn it to dust, but on the last day God will again breathe life into that dust, re-forming that same body into a glorious and perfect body. As the Apostle's Creed puts it, "I believe ... in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting." Thanks be to God that He will give us new glorified bodies on the day of Christ’s return! Why do we give offerings? There is, of course, a very practical reason to give money to the church; to provide for the financial needs of the congregation including mortgage payments, utilities, building upkeep, supplies, materials for worship and teaching, and salaries. Unlike a typical business, a congregation doesn't charge for its "services." Rather, those who attend give freely as they are able to support the ministry undertaken by that congregation.
So, is the church just another non-profit? Well, yes and no. As far as tax law is concerned, our congregation is a non-profit organization. Like many non-profits, we are solely dependent on offerings and gifts for our budgetary needs. However, we shouldn't understand the church in this merely secular way, as simply a non-profit business providing a particular religious "product" to members. The Christian congregation is the body of Christ. He is her Lord. "Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life" (Matt. 10:29-30). In a typical business transaction when you pay a $1 you get a $1 worth of product or service. Is that true in church? The gifts that Christ gives are free in terms of cost yet priceless in terms of value. The tithes and offerings we give to the church in response to Christ's love are multiplied more than a hundredfold as we receive back from the Lord as pours upon us the riches of His grace. Our worldly riches may be few or many, but the riches of eternal life are countless. Thus, we Christians give generously as the Lord has generously given to us. He takes what we give and returns it a hundredfold. |