Tag: Faith

What Now?: Love is Born from Faith

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Faith and love are intimately connected in the Christian’s life. To have faith in God is to love God; to love God is to have faith in God. How could one have faith in God and not also love God and what God loves? There’s really no argument about the deep and abiding correlation between the two. However, in this intimate connection a confusion occurs between the two, making them synonyms, one able to replace the other. If this is so then one can love God first prior to faith, making faith a product of love. While this seems a rather logical and benign claim, it ignores human history with God and what all of scripture tells us.

The truth of it is this: we don’t inherently love God, at least not the God who self-discloses as God. We do love the god we make up in our heads and hearts, the one we wallpaper on to God. But do we, apart from faith, really love God for the sake of God? No. We don’t. God in God’s own self is too full of awe, God’s love for us is beyond comprehension, God’s actions and mission collide with and contradict much of what we consider reasonable. Jesus, God’s own son, God of very God, the Word of God incarnate, was rejected by his own people because of these characteristics of divine love flowing in and through him to the people. We like to think we’d be different; I promise you, we wouldn’t be.

However, there’s good news here, and Romans highlights it for us: love is born from faith; to love is faith manifesting itself. And, according to Romans, faith is a gift that is given to us by God in the hearing (however one “hears”) the proclamation of Christ crucified and raised so that we may be justified and made righteous by faith and sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is this basis that Paul works from in the last 1/3 of the letter when he shifts to exhortations of right and good Christian praxis in the world.[ii] It is faith established first that affords Paul the space and foundation to exhort the Romans to love with their whole mind, heart, strength, and soul. It is faith, for Paul, that informs and causes loving deeds that are truly about the beloved and not about the one who does the deeds; it is this faith inspiring love that fulfills the law.

Romans 13:8-14

Halfway through Chapter 13, Paul exhorts the Roman Christians,

Owe nothing to no one, except to love one another. For the one who loves has made full the other law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not kill,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love works not evil for the neighbor; therefore, love is the fullness of the law (vv8-10).

Paul has already anchored the Roman Christians in their justification with God by their faith in Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit apart from any work, thus fulfilling the entire first tablet of the Big Ten. Now, he turns to the second tablet, the ethical portion, the commands concerning neighbor. First, the Roman Christians were to avoid being in debt to anyone: temporally and spiritually. They were to pay off what was owed to anyone and avoid participating in the obligations of patronage where one’s existence was dependent on another’s wealth and power, potentially bringing the Roman Christian into conflict with their new community of the body of Christ.[iii] According to Paul, the only thing that the Roman Christian should have as debt is the debt of love and corresponding loving deeds toward and for the neighbor.[iv]

For the Roman Christians, to have faith and, consequently, declare that God is trustworthy and truthful means that those whom God loves the Christian loves, too. One cannot declare God truthful and trustworthy, receive divine grace and mercy, and then deprive those things to the objects of God’s love, the neighbor, “your” neighbor. This is so because faith in God produces love of God, to love God means to love that which and those whom God loves; therefore, if the logic is logicing, then to love God is to love the neighbor and to love the neighbor is to love God.[v] This is why Paul can exhort the Roman Christian to be in debt to others in love, because love born of faith is always looking to serve the beloved. This is also why Paul can boldly declare that love both does not do evil and—all by itself—is the fulfilling of the law, it is how the law is made full (not just once but everyday).[vi]

Why?

Because who, in their right mind, would do anything (intentionally) to harm the one whom they loved? Would one betray one they loved? Would one take the life breath of the one they loved? Would one deprive the one they loved of material goods necessary to live? Would one reduce the one they loved to their possessions? Would one do anything directly or indirectly evil to the one whom they loved? While accidents happen in the life of the Christian and these accidents can impact the ones the Christian loves, what is being addressed here is the intention and impact of the Christian’s actions toward the neighbor, toward the other who is also the apple of God’s eye. Therefore, love cannot intentionally do evil to the neighbor, and, more than the absence of doing evil it proactively provides for the well-being of the neighbor.[vii] (Because there is evil in not acting when and where one can.)

This is why Paul then beseeches the Roman Christians to wake up and lay aside works of darkness and put on the armor of the light. He writes,

Also this, having considered the season, that [it is] already the hour for you to wake up out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we [first] believed. The night is almost gone, but the day has come near. Therefore, let us throw off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of the light. Let us walk decently as in days, not in wasteful celebration and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the coveting of the flesh (vv11-14).

Both knowing and being made aware of the impact of their actions toward the neighbor should (and must!) awaken the Roman Christian into the light of exposure and cause them to change their ways, to repent, to turn, and to press more into their faith[viii] that justifies, eager to be molded into those who are like and represent Christ in word and deed, to the glory of God. Paul is eager for Christians to WAKE UP,[ix] act (at all times[x]) as if they are in the light[xi] seen by all,[xii] and to see how important it is, in their present moment, to act according to the reign of God and resist the impulses of the kingdom of humanity privileging status and power at the expense of the livelihood of the neighbor.[xiii] For when the neighbor is thought of and considered, is prioritized, when their needs are met (in whatever form those needs manifest) then surely God is and will be praised and everything comes full circle: loving deeds born of faith return and nourish the very faith from which they come as the one who believes witnesses and participates in the mission of God going forward to bless the people of the earth, the continued fulfillment of the promise given to Israel through Abraham and Sarah. For Paul, the love born from faith curtails selfish desires[xiv] that thrust the Christian further into indebtedness and/to darkness and prioritizes another’s life, love, and liberation.[xv] It is through faith manifesting as loving deeds for the well-being of the neighbor to the glory of God that the Christian’s allegiance to God and God’s reign is displayed, an allegiance that cannot be shared with the kingdom of humanity.[xvi]

Conclusion

When Paul exhorts the Roman Christians toward love, it is not an exhortation to be nice or kind. It is not about offering a smile or being polite, as great as those things are for human well-being. It is not even an exhortation to the absence of doing harm (even though that is clearly pictured). What Paul is exhorting the Roman Christians toward is a love that actively seeks and brings to fruition the well-being of the neighbor, a love born of faith that brings the very good to those who have not the very good. And by the “very good” I don’t strictly mean the proclamation of Christ (although this is a very good thing). I mean to reach back further to a time when God created everything and called it very good (Gen 1), I mean to bring (in deed) the goodness of the mission of God that results in the robust provision for the neighbor. Thus, to love, according to Paul, is not easy. It’s hard; this is why he speaks of putting on the armor of the light.[xvii] To love the way God loves will square us off and bring us face to face with the anger and resentment of the kingdom of humanity that thrives off death, indifference, and captivity, the kingdom that hates the light preferring the darkness instead (Jn 1). We need the armor of the light as we participate in the divine mission of God’s revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world for the well-being of the neighbor to the glory of God.[xviii] We need faith by which love and all else is added to us.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 224. “From the concern about one’s obligations to external authorities, Paul moves to a discussion about obligations within the community of followers.”

[iii] Lancaster, Romans, 224. “To tell the followers of Rome not to owe anything may have partly meant to make sure they paid what was due (financially and socially), but it may also have discouraged participation in patronage that would saddle them with obligations outside the community of followers.”

[iv] Lancaster, Romans, 224. “Instead of taking on obligations outside the community, the one obligation to which they should commit themselves is to love one another (13:8).”

[v] Lancaster, Romans, 225. “It may also be said that one of the ways we honor God is by treating well the ones that God has created, so the two commandments that Jesus named are not unrelated, and Paul understood that.”

[vi] Lancaster, Romans, 224. “We are under obligation to others, and we do need to obey the law, but the obligation and obedience are both carried out by loving one another. This is what God’s authority requires of us and how we are subject to it.”

[vii] Lancaster, Romans, 226. “Many have seen, then, that the kind of love that fulfills the law is not simply a sentimental emotion, nor is it even simply not doing harm; a proper understanding of this commandment calls us to active caring toward those around us.”

[viii] LW 25:480 “Therefore the works of darkness are the works of those who are asleep in the spirit, in the bad sense, that is, those who are snoring away in the desires of the world—not only those works which are popularly thought to be evil but also those which are considered good, and yet are evil because of the inner evil, for men do them without the watchfulness of faith.”

[ix] Lancaster, Romans, 227. Acts of darkness, things done at night, “For people in Rome, excessive behavior at evening feasts was common practice, and excessive behavior often leads to quarrels and strife. Such behavior was common in the order of the empire as it is in other times, and places, but this order is passing away.”

[x] Lancaster, Romans, 228. “Knowing the time, then, does not mean having in mind a date of a future occurrence but rather becoming aware of how our history is relativized by the eternal God. In every. Moment, we must be mindful of the Day.”

[xi] Lancaster, Romans, 227. “The passing of the old order means that we no longer have the cover of darkness and secrecy, so we should live at all times with the honor and integrity that can bear the scrutiny of day.”

[xii] Lancaster, Romans, 227. “Even in the twilight, they must live as if they day were fully light.”

[xiii] Lancaster, Romans, 226. “Paul is telling the followers of Jesus in Rome that the time in which they are living is a critical time, so they should be alert.”

[xiv] LW 25:111fn11 “But it does more good to the one loved, because this is the nature of love, that it favors in a good way and does good, even if it suffers evil and is hated.”

[xv] Lancaster, Romans, 228. “Paul’s point is not about hurtful self-denial. Rather, they say it is about excess and letting the desires rules us so that our aim in life is to gratify them. The desires of the former way of life—and they include mor than physical desires (for instance, desiring honor)—should not rule us. This Lord overturns the expectations and gratifications of the old order.”

[xvi] Lancaster, Romans, 229. “The constancy of this demand requires us to ask in every moment where our allegiance lies, and whether or not we are displaying our allegiance to Jesus Christ in our thoughts and actions.”

[xvii] Lancaster, Romans, 227. “The idea that what one needs to wear for the coming day is weaponry suggests that the dawning of a new day with a new order will bring struggle.”

[xviii] LW 25:112fn14 “He creates a remarkable antithesis whereby the places ‘light’ and ‘darkness,’ ‘works’ and ‘armor’ in juxtaposition. And this is surely true, because the life of the new law is a battle and a war, and therefore we need armor.”

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Tupac Shakur’s “How Can We Be Free?” [A Guest Post by The Rev. Anthony Stevenson]

During the summer session I taught for BSK Theological Seminary this summer, I asked the students to submit weekly 300-word responses on the weekly assigned readings. For the last week, I assigned some poetry and lyrics by Tupac Shakur and a speech by Malcolm X (“The Ballot or the Bulelt”, 1964). The responses–across the board–were powerful; potentially the best week of responses of the seven (and, tbh, each week collected strong responses!). With that said, the following response about Tupac Shakur’s poem “How Can We Be Free” written by The Rev. Anthony Stevenson (pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Cynthiana, KY) demanded a wider audience. With his permission, I am honored to be featuring it here.

I love the impact of my theological education and my pastoral experiences, but what do I say to people who feel stretched thin by political division, economic pressure, and the relentless weight of social unrest? The question of what it means to be free is suspended in the air with new urgency. We live in a climate where people constantly speak of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom to live without fear, yet many still feel locked up by temporal forces shaped by a lack of feeling free. Where is my liberty in a world shaped by racialized poverty, surveillance of the Black community, and generational trauma? Tupac argues that “freedom” becomes a slogan rather than an experience. Tupac’s poem, “How Can We Be Free,” challenges me to recognize how societal structures, economic, political, and cultural divisions, have and continue to produce a kind of invisible imprisonment.

As I speak from a pastoral, sanctified voice that speaks honestly to the world’s realities while immersing people in the deeper freedom that God offers, I stand boldly before God. My pastoral leadership cannot ignore the pressures shaping people’s lives; it must acknowledge the exhaustion, the frustration, and the longing for something fresh and reviving. Tupac’s question, “How can we be free?” is not just poetic; it is prophetic. Yet I must also send a high alert to the Black community that freedom is not merely a political condition or a social achievement; it is a spiritual reality rooted in truth, justice, and the liberating love of Jesus Christ. In a world where many people feel ensnared by circumstances that seem beyond their control, they find themselves overwhelmed by the rising costs of food, gas, and a decent standard of living. I confess that many feel caught in generational cycles of debt, struggling to break free. As racial inequities continue to limit our opportunities, there is little space left for rest or meaningful reflection. The everyday tension between the promise of freedom, liberty, and justice for all humankind feels fragile, incomplete, or unevenly distributed. In this fork-in-the-road moment, Tupac’s question remains unanswered: “How can we be free?”

This pastoral moment invites me to invite us to imagine freedom not as a distant belief but as a present possibility. If “[t]his so called ‘Home of the Brave, / why isn’t anybody backing us up!” (lines 9-10), “How can we be free?” to live authentically, to stand against injustice, to walk with dignity, and to have faith that God can break every chain. In this pastoral moment, allow me to back you up.  I am thrilled to declare that the gospel offers holistic liberation, freedom from sin, fear, injustice, and every burden that confines us, restoring God’s love within all humanity.

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What Now?: Justified by Faith

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Nothing makes me more excited about the lectionary than seeing Romans listed as the epistle reading. There’re a few reasons for this. First, the Letter of Paul to the Romans features significantly as one of the principle texts of Luther’s reformational insights thus is a “must read” for Protestant Christians generally and Protestant theologians specifically. Second, it’s a letter that has found itself the center of attention in momentous instances of church history and which finds import and context in the post-modern era; it’s a letter that transcends time and space, refusing relegation to the era of its inception. Still, if I were to stake my love of Romans on one specific characteristic it wouldn’t be the two reasons already given, though they feature significantly. It would be this: it’s the absolute best place to start when considering what Christians believe and why they (should) believe it. Romans takes us to the heart of the formation of Christian Doctrine in its most explicit and didactic capacity. Romans is the closest thing we have to a Pauline “systematic theology” built from and around profound development of a different strand of Jewish and rabbinic teaching resisting anti-Judaic and supercessionist trappings.

When considering all that has (quickly) transpired within the Christian metanarrative comprising the seasons and events from Advent through Trinity Sunday, it makes intellectual and faithful sense to pick up a text that essentially and qualitatively answers the question that is on the lips of any disciple on this Sunday: what now? So, in my opinion, there’s no better way to jump into “Ordinary” time than by jumping into the deep end of Christian thought with Romans! Considering the gospel passage from last week on Trinity Sunday, on this morning we, the baptized, enter the teaching phase of our annual Christian pilgrimage as we are made disciples of Christ (again) by the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory God and for the wellbeing of the neighbor.

Romans 4:13-25

We open on Paul discussing promise and commandment. Paul explains, For the promise that he would be the heir of the cosmos did not come to Abraham or his descendants through the law but through justification of faith (v13). In Romans 4, Paul is building a case for the primacy of faith as the foundation of how one is made righteous (justified) before and by God. Here, in v. 13, Paul is using Abraham to demonstrate that Abraham received the promise of God not through a command but through faith that God is who God says God is. What precedes Abraham’s following God is Abraham’s trust in God.

Further, Paul writes, For if the heirs are to be such out of the law, faith has been made void and the promise rendered inoperative. For the law produces/brings about wrath; but where there is not law neither is there transgression/violation (vv14-15). Paul emphasizes that if the heirs of Abraham are made so by the law, then faith (as justification and righteousness before and with God) is emptied out, it is void and useless. Concurrently, if faith is made empty and useless, this means the promise is inoperative because one cannot believe in the promises of God through their own deeds; promises are believed and clung to by faith. God speaks and is considered trustworthy and honest or God is not—only faith can do this, recourse to works of the law is taking matters into one’s own hands and denies God God’s trustworthiness and honesty (essentially declaring God a liar). According to Paul, the law brings about something different than faith;[ii] where faith brings about the application of the truthfulness and trustworthiness of the promise of God, the law brings about wrath and the subsequent loss of the promise.[iii] This is basic civil and theological logic: without the promise, the law is forced to function in a way that it is not supposed to function. Synchronously, where there are rules and commands there is bound to be the breaking of rules and commands thus the presence of wrath exponentially increases in comparison to where there is no law or command. The law isn’t bad,[iv] but if the law is being used to justify oneself then it is being used badly and thus causes that which it does not want to cause (wrath).[v] For Paul, one can only be justified/made righteous before God by ascribing to God what is rightfully God’s—trustworthiness and truthfulness[vi]—and this can only be done by faith. Faith places the emphasis of promising and fulfilling where it belongs: with God.

This is why Paul can then say,

For this reason [justification is] from faith, so that in order to secure the promise according to grace to all the descendants, not only to the ones from the law but also to the ones who [share] from the faith of Abraham—who is the parent of all of us, just as it has been written, ‘I have made appointed you the Parent of many nations—in the presence of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and the one who calls the things that are not as being (vv16-17)

For Paul, Abraham receives the promise of God by faith thus opening access to the promises and who can be grafted into this promise of God to Abraham for the wellbeing and benefit of the entire cosmos. The promise received by faith means that anyone can believe and, if this, then anyone who encounters the promise and believes is then grafted into Abraham’s family without everyone having to become a member of one nation. If by law, then the cosmos and everyone/thing in it collapses into one nation which is antithetical to the trajectory of the gospel proclamation—while aiming to make one body of Christ, gospel proclamation and hearing is not a nation making enterprise. The promise is that Abraham will become the parent of many nations, not one singular nation. The God who made such a promise is the God who calls the dead to life and who calls into being that which isn’t; this is not a God who is bound by human legalism or the designs of superiority and nationalism that are characteristic the kingdom of humanity and its death dealing and destruction making ways.

Paul then writes,

Beyond hoping in hope, [Abraham] believed with the result that he would become ‘the parent of many nations’ according to that which has been said, ‘In this way your descendants will be.’ And not weakening in faith he took note of his own body having been deadened—beings somewhere around a hundred years old—and taking note of the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Now toward the promise of God Abraham did not dispute but being empowered by/in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that which God has promised God is able also to do (vv18-21).

For Paul, Abraham features as not only the progenitor of God’s chosen people, but also as an example of one who is justified by faith apart from works of the law. For Abraham and all his descendants, being an heir is something that comes by faith and not by legal law adherence.[vii] Paul presses an important point here: justification and righteousness is through trusting and deeming truthful the God who made the promise (back in Gen 12-17) and as such justification and righteousness are of God who deems one worthy based on faith and not on birth, or pedigree, or nationhood, or skin-color, or sex and gender, or any legal law adherence.[viii] If it is by these things then faith is rendered useless and the promise would be inoperative (neither faith nor the promise would matter). If it is by these things then humanity can boast; but humanity, according to Paul, cannot boast because justification and righteousness are the doings of God and not of us (Paul emphasizes that Abraham’s trust was in God and not in his own strength for his body and that of Sarah’s was deadened; therefore Abraham cannot boast in himself but only in God.[ix]) And because this is all of God and by faith, the promise of God to Abraham can transcend time and space, boundaries and boarders. For Paul, Abraham’s trust in God and his considering God trustworthy and truthful, Wherefore [his faith] was reckoned to him as righteousness/justification (v22).

Conclusion

As it was for Abraham, so it is for all those who come after Abraham and are encountered by God’s call through God’s word in the event of faith.[x]

Now, ‘it was reckoned to him’ were not written for the sake of Abraham only but for us also to whom it comes so that it is reckoned to us, the ones who believe upon the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over for the sake of our trespasses and was raised for the sake of our acquittal/being pronounced justified/righteous (vv23-25).

The beginning of our journey as disciples of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit is built on faith and not on works of the law—no matter how great those works can be. Our union with God and our being grafted into the body of Christ is done by faith alone and not by any works. All of this is a gift of God, something we did not earn through our birthright and/or merits. Paul at the end of our passage drives home how no one, not one person, is exempted from the death of Christ: we are all guilty. And if this is so, then we are all under the condemnation that comes with breaking the law. (Not only have we broken a law, in the death of Christ we caused the entire law to fold in on itself; no work of ours, no law obedience of ours can remedy that catastrophe.) And if this is also so, then we are trapped in captivity to our condemnation, unable to extricate and liberate ourselves. Jesus’s death and resurrection from the dead is God’s activity on our behalf to liberate us and set us up before God as justified and righteous.[xi] This is the fulfillment of the promise from Gen. 12-17 and it is accessible to us only by faith. So, as we begin (again) to believe in Jesus’s resurrection from the dead and his ascension to heaven releasing the divine Spirit among us, we see that our resurrection (present and future) is dependent on the same faith and trust Jesus had in God. And even as we are rendered unto dust in awakening to our guilt, we are brought into new life by our faith and dependence on Christ, in faith affirming God as trustworthy and truthful, and here we are given (again) hope in this God who creates and recreates,[xii] accounting us righteous and justified by faith in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] LW 25:278. “For the Law and faith deserve opposite things.”

[iii] LW 25:278. “That is, the Law merits wrath and the loss of the promise, but faith deserves grace and the fulfillment of the promise…”

[iv] LW 25:279. “Thus, the Law works wrath, that is, when it is not fulfilled, it shows the wrath of God to those who have failed to provide for its fulfillment. Thus the Law is not evil, but they are evil to whom it was given and to whom it works wrath, but to others (that is, the believers) it works salvation; actually it is not the Law that works this but grace. Therefore, if the promise were through the Law, since it works wrath, it would follow that the promise is not a promise, but rather a threat. And thus the promise would be abolished and through this also faith.”

[v] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 85.

[vi] LW 25:40 “For if God promises and there is no one who believes Him when He promise, then surely there will also be no promise of God and no fulfillment, for it has been promised to no one, since no one has received it. Therefore faith ratifies the promise, and the promise demands faith in him to whom it is made.”

[vii] Lancaster, Romans, 85. “Inheritance is clearly a gift. It is not something owed because of adherence. Because this inheritance is not a matter of legal adherence, all Abaham’s descendants (Jew and Gentile) can receive this gift because the faithfulness of Abraham is a possibility for all of them.”

[viii] LW 25:280. “If seed and physical generation were enough to justify an to make people worthy of the inheritance, it follows that faith is not necessary for justification and or worthiness of that kind, since he who is righteous and worthy needs neither justification nor worthiness.”

[ix] Lancaster, Romans, 86. “Because he cannot boast in his own achievements, Abraham is in a position to honor God alone, as God should be honored. God reckoned Abrahm’s faith as righteousness not because of Abraham’s own glory, but because Abrahm glorified God.”

[x] Lancaster, Romans, 87. “Paul asserts that just as this faith was counted on Abraham’s behalf, our faithfulness to the same God  (who did another outrageous thing by raising Jesus from the dead) will be counted as righteousness for us.”

[xi] LW 25:284. “The death of Christ is the death of sin, and His resurrection is the life of righteousness, because through His death He has made satisfaction for sin, and through His resurrection He has brought us righteousness. And thus His death not only signified but actually effects the remission of sin as a most sufficient satisfaction. And His resurrection is not only a sign or a sacrament of our righteousness, but it also produced it in us, if we believe it, and it is also the cause of it.”

[xii] Lancaster, Romans, 86. “The God who creates is the same God who resurrects. This God has power over death and nothingness, and so this God is worthy of our hope.”

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Anchored in God, Hope Comes

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Lately, I’ve heard much about hope and our need to have it. Considering that we are immersed in socio-political events (both national and global) that are chaotic and tumultuous, this plea to the keeping and having of hope makes sense. Have hope! Cling to hope! Hope is all you need! Those exhorting us to hope see hope as the antidote to the creeping threat of despair and our increased paralysis to do anything. Hope is seen as the foundation and motivation to keep on keeping on as we feel lost in a sea of unmanageable events. It’s the supposed driftwood keeping us afloat among the raucous and stormy waves.

Unfortunately, the pleas to cling to hope above all else render the human being turning in on themselves. Hope becomes this illusive thing that we fight to have while finding ourselves increasingly unsure about what it means or even feels like to have hope. Hope is strangled in our death-like grip as we strive to keep it refusing to let go. We kill hope as we burden it with power it doesn’t have, forcing it do magic for us. We are convinced by those who encourage us to have hope that hope is the only way through events feeling way bigger than we are. And the more we fight to keep and have our hope, the more we turn in on ourselves; sadly, this trajectory will secure we not only lose touch with hope but will also lose touch with her little sister perseverance.

We can’t cling to hope thinking that it will keep despair away. It won’t. Hope isn’t the antidote to despair (it’s not even a good antonym for it). Comfort is the foundation of the reversal of despair. Encouragement, too. Once we have these two things in place, then, and only then, can we begin to make space for hope to show up. This is why Peter in our epistle does not tell his audience to cling to hope. Rather, he anchors them in something bigger, something outside of themselves, something that will comfort them and encourage them.

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

Peter begins his final thoughts to his audience with endearment and encouragement. Calling them Beloved, he writes,

…do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal occurring among and in you to test you as taking place as alien to you. Rather, rejoice! according to which you are having a share of Christ’s passion so that also you might rejoice jumping for joy in the revelation of his glory. If you are defamed in the name of Christ, [you are] blessed because of the Spirit of glory, namely the Spirit of God, is resting upon you (4:12-14).

Peter knows that his audience will face persecution for their faith in Christ (from their neighbors and not as sent by God), especially as they participate in God’s mission of the revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world. [ii] Peter has already addressed the manifold fruit that comes from faith that will cause them to stand out. So, they will be tested[iii] and persecuted. There is no way to live in such a way that is both faithful to the proclamation of Christ crucified and raised and without test and trial.[iv] So, they must remember who and whose they are. Peter’s use of “beloved” in address isn’t just a nice way to address his audience; it’s a way of reminding them that their faith unites them to Christ in his belovedness of God. This is important because the testing and persecution that will happen is not bad but good, and Peter must try to help them reframe these experiences in the name of Christ.[v] Thus, as Christ is beloved of God so, too, are they. This also goes for their “fiery ordeal” and the persecution that will come because of their faith (in the name of Christ); as Christ suffered[vi] at the hands of errant humanity, so, too, will they.[vii] To experience both is to be “blessed”;[viii],[ix] again, just as Christ is blessed.[x] For Peter, it boils down to identification:[xi] if the believer is eager to identify with Christ’s blessedness and belovedness, then they must prepare to and welcome identification with Christ’s foundational[xii] suffering; there’s no option to have the former without the latter. So, Peter encourages them, rejoice now because you will rejoice later,[xiii] cloaked and covered in divine glory just like Christ.[xiv] (They are not to rejoice in or because of their suffering, but only because of what is to come in Christ.[xv])

Peter then shifts the focus away from his audience to God.[xvi] In light of what has been said,[xvii] Peter urges them, Therefore, humble yourselves under and toward the strong hands of God, so that God might elevate you in time (5:6). By centering God in the text, Peter gently directs the audience’s attention to God. There’s movement here; it’s more than just turning one’s head but directing one’s self, one’s body toward and under God. The only way to do this is through humility; in humbling themselves, Peter’s audience can direct their entire selves toward and under God. It’s here—under and toward God—where Peter’s audience will find their comfort and their protection, their foundation and stability, their sustenance and their fortitude, and (even) their hope and perseverance. He does not direct them inwards, but outwards toward God, the divine parent and loving progenitor of Christ, all of Creation, and of the faithful whom Peter addresses. Those who bring themselves low will be brought high by God.[xviii]

Thus, Peter can further beseech his audience,

Cast all your anxiety upon God, because this one, God, cares about you. Be sensible, be alert. Your opponent, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion seeking something to drink down. Oppose him, solid in faith, having perceived that your siblings in all the cosmos are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (vv7-9).

Peter’s audience need not bear their own anxiety as if no one is in their corner.[xix] Peter has spent the entirety of the letter telling them they are not alone even when they suffer for doing good and especially when they are anxious facing the reality of the suffering that will come. Peter’s audience can cast their cares on God because this one, this God, the parent of Jesus Christ with whom they identify, have God in their corner. This is important to remember[xx] because an adversary is on the loose, looking to devour[xxi] the faithful; [xxii] the faithful will only have success in opposing the opponent when they cast their entire selves toward and under God’s mighty hand of protection. This explains why Peter admonishes them to resist by faith, being clear minded and alert like a soldier on watch ready to resist incoming attack.[xxiii] It is not that they will resist this adversary by memorizing scripture passages or blindly holding to certain dogma and doctrine;[xxiv] rather, it’s about humbling oneself and being protected under the strong hand of God who will strengthen those who know they are weak apart from God. Peter’s audience is encouraged to find their support and strength[xxv] in God by faith; they can be comforted in knowing that the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also raise them both from the dead and into glory like Christ.[xxvi] God will help God’s people because God has helped God’s people in Christ. [xxvii] God will triumph over evil because God has already in Christ. Peter then takes this encouragement one step further and broadens their awareness to include their siblings who also suffer similarly; they are truly not alone.[xxviii]

In closing, Peter reminds his audience,

Now, the God of all grace, the one who called you into God’s eternal glory in Christ, after suffering a little while, God, God will mend, fix, strength, and establish you; to God be the strength forever and ever. Amen (vv10-11)

What they will experience and endure for this little bit while still here in the temporal realm will be vindicated in the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead; God will not let God’s people endure suffering while here on earth and not follow through with restoration that comes in eternal glory for those who are located in Christ by faith.[xxix] At this point, Peter’s audience can have hope; here, they can receive hope because of all that has occurred before them and on their behalf. In remembering and recalling Christ and God’s work in and through Christ and what will come for those who are in Christ by faith, Peter’s audience can believe that this God is faithful to who God says God is and this is the foundation and the source of their hope. And it’s this hope born from this assurance that then gives them the necessary perseverance they need to endure the chaos and tumult that is present and will come.

Conclusion

When we think about hope we think about something we expect to happen in the future. In this way, hope is that thing that can disappoint rather than please. When hope fails to produce material or spiritual alterations to our life, it makes sense to ditch it. If my hope keeps presenting as dreaming of phantoms of good and better, then it’s nothing but that which perpetually disappoints me. The mythological carrot of sadistic King Future luring on the peasants of the present eager to steal their labor and love.

Another problem arises when we cling to hope as if it is the thing that will save us. As we do this, we turn in on ourselves, digging deeper eager to mine hope from the subterranean self. But it’s not there; it’s not deep in us like a precious ore waiting to be excavated. Our persistent digging only makes matters worse because in this instance it is all up to us.

Hope rides in neither with blind optimism about the future nor ruthless determination to have it. It’s comes with remembering and recalling; specifically, it comes in remembering and recalling what God has done in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. When I’ve read through the First Testament and the recorded stories of Israel’s journey and walk with God, Israel’s hope in God is a ripe present hope based on historical stories hallmarking the past: we hope now because God has done… Today we can press on because yesterday God saw us through it. These ancient stories of God’s journey with Israel and God’s work in Christ reminds us that what is isn’t ever all there is. We live in the collision of the possible with the actual, in what has been and what will yet be. Here in is hope’s realm.

Hope always takes up residence in the present with every anthology of the past stacked against her walls. Hope comes to us as we remember what is right now, isn’t all there is right now because in the past what was wasn’t all there was; all things are possible with God. Hope comes as we remember possibility. Hope comes with the whisper filled wind of history surging and coursing around our fatigued bodies causing us to remember. And as we remember, we find ourselves accompanied by hope and then perseverance.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] I. Howard Marshall, “1 Peter,” The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, eds. Grant R. Osborne, D. Stuart Briscoe, and Haddon Robinson, (Downers Grove: IVP Press, 1991), 151. “[Peter’s Christians are to see themselves as] suffering at the hands of those opposed to God and his sovereign rule, and as part of the cost of bringing salvation to the world.”

[iii] Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, TNICTNT, ed. F.F. Bruce (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 164-165. “The picture of a refiner’s fire was picked up in the Intertestamental period as a picture for testing (therefore ‘to test you’)…”

[iv] Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, 164. “…our author turns toward the future. All the careful and considerate living possible will not prevent persecution…”

[v] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 165. “Thus these Christians are to see what is happening to them as a refining process that will reveal the genuineness of their faith…and therefore be to their ultimate benefit. While painful, this type of suffering is not something they should think strange, but something they should welcome.”

[vi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 165. “there is a second reason why the readers should not think their ordeal is strange: it is the same type of thing that Christ received and thus it is an indication of their identification with him.”

[vii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 164. “Thus he encourages the Christians in Asia Minor, ‘do not be shocked’ as if what is happening ere ‘strange,’ using vocabulary familiar from 4:4….Do not think it is foreign; do not think that this ought not to happen.”

[viii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 167. “On the one hand, they are blessed now if this is the case…The very persecution is a sign of their blessedness. On the other hand, they are ‘insulted because of the name of Christ.’ To be so insulted is not simply to recive a rebuke…but as is the case in the contexts in which the term appears elsewhere in the NT and the Greek TO…it means to be rejected by the society (or even by humanity). And the reason they are rejected is ‘the name of Christ’; that is, because of their association with Christ either because of their life-style or because of their direct confession…Thus it is that because of their association with Christ their social group now rejects them; they are outcasts. But that is not their true state, for peter tells them they are blessed.”

[ix] Marshal, 1 Peter, 153. “To be insulted publicly is, by normal reckoning, a source of misery. But Peter echoes Jesus and says that, on the contrary, appearances are deceptive. IN fact, you are blessed.”

[x] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 164. “…these Gentile converts had no experience of being a cultural minority. Before their conversion they were perfectly at home in their city. And instead of rebelling against God they had accepted the gospel message. But now they were experiencing cultural isolation and personal hostility, not what they might have expected as the blessing of God. Well might they have wondered if something had not gone wrong. Thus our author reassures them: persecution is not something ‘strange’ or foreign to their existence as Christians. What is happening is right in line with Christ’s predictions.”

[xi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 166. Identification with “…Christ’s suffering during his life on earth, especially his death on the cross.”

[xii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 166. “Instead of focusing on Christ’s present suffering in the church, Peter focuses on the church’s sharing in Christ’s foundational suffering, not in a salvific sense (there is no hint in 2 Peter that this sharing either forgives their sin or adds to the work of Christ), but in a sense of identification and real unity. In other words, as the Christians suffer because of their identification with Christ, they enter into the experience of Christ’s own sufferings.  This experience creates a re-imaging of their own suffering, which will allow them to see the real evil as an advantage as their perspective shifts.  This process is precisely what each of the passages in 1 Peter that use this language does; each encourages a reimaging of suffering as an identification with Christ (and thus a type of imitatio Christi is encouraged in how they behave in the suffering situation) that will lead to an eventual participation in his glory.”

[xiii] Marshal, 1 Peter, 152. “He is talking about rejoicing that, when suffering does come to us, we can see it as a sharing in Christ’s suffering.”

[xiv] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 168. “Thus those suffering for Christ experience through the Spirit now the glory they are promised in the future…Indeed, their very suffering is a sign that the reputation (glory) of God is seen in them, that the Spirit rests upon them. They can indeed count themselves blessed.”

[xv] Marshal, 1 Peter, 152. “…Peter is not urging Christians to seek suffering, even suffering for Christ.”

[xvi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186.

[xvii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186. If all that has come before is true, then “the duty of the believer is not to resist (either attacking the persecutor or raging against God), but to ‘humble p[himself] under the mighty hand of God.’”

[xviii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 186. “…they are to see God’s work behind their suffering and submit, allowing themselves to be brought low, for his purpose is that ‘he may exalt you in due time.’”

[xix] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 188. “When pressures come on the Christian the proper response is not anxiety, for that comes out of a belief that one must take care of oneself and a lack of trust in God. It is rather a trusting commitment to God….in the assurance that God indeed cares and that his caring does not lack the power or the will to do the very best for his own.”

[xx] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 189. “Thus, after writing his comforting thoughts about God, Peter must go on to warn…[the devil] is on the prowl.”

[xxi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 191. “The goal of the hunt is to find someone to devour.”

[xxii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 190. “The devil is not a neutralized foe, but one who is seeking the destruction of the believer.”

[xxiii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 189. “…here…the meaning is not literal soberness as opposed to drunkenness, but a clear-headedness that comes from a freedom from mental confusion or passion. Likewise alertness, which in military contexts refers to a soldier on watch, is opposed to mental and spiritual lethargy…. that would prevent one from recognizing and meeting an attack on one’s faith.”

[xxiv] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 191-192. “The devil is resisted by being ‘firm in faith.’ The concept is not that of holding certain doctrines firmly, which is a meaning of faith found in the Pastorals…but that of remaining firm in one’s trust in God.”

[xxv] Marshal, 1 Peter, 171. “What Peter is talking about is not putting strength into believing but drawing strength from what we believe.”

[xxvi] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 195.

[xxvii] Marshal, 1 Peter, 172. “During this period of affliction God will help his people.”

[xxviii] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 192-193. “One thing that will make their commitment firmer is the awareness that they are not suffering alone. It is not ‘just me’ who is suffering or even ‘just us,’’ laments that make the suffering seem unfair and unjust, but ‘our brotherhood throughout the world.’”

[xxix] Davids, Frist Epistle of Peter, 196-197. “The one who has planned and promised is also the one to whom belongs the power to fulfill. This is indeed assurance for his readers.”

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Wednesday of Holy Week: A Brief Meditation

In our Isaiah passage, the prophet makes clear that he is caught up in God’s divine pathos and love for God’s people. He is to “sustain” the people who are wear. Isaiah is awakened every morning with new words speaking of Divine love for and presence with God’s people—whether or not they know it or feel it. Isaiah submits to this pathos—“was not rebellious” and “did not turn backward”.

A sudden shift in the text tells us that Isaiah speaks as one who is found in conflict with those around him who “strike” and “pull” at him. Isaiah finds strength to face this specific conflict with others and his general conflict as a prophet of God with the kingdom of humanity. Where does he find this strength? The very pathos of God that has swept him up in the first place. The prophet’s glory comes from glorifying God and not the kingdom of humanity, so the prophet can press on and continue with his vocation and journey. The prophet does not speak and walk alone; God is with him for God’s Spirit is in him, fueling him, encouraging him, exhorting him forward. This one is beyond being found guilty.

Isaiah is speaking of Israel; this is Israel’s call and it is this path through conflict, anguish, pain and suffering that Israel will be a blessing to the nations and bring glory to God who will be praised among those nations so blessed by Israel. Their call—stemming from the promises given to Abraham—was not to a life of comfort and privilege but to service, service to God that was service to their neighbor. It was not about domination, but solidarity with those around them. It was not about isolation and a pulling away, but a pressing forward and pulling humanity together. It was not for the destruction of the earth, but for the righting of wrongs.

For us Christians, this passage provokes us to think of Christ. Christ is the one who is caught up in the divine pathos and love for God’s people, it is Christ who sustains the people, especially the oppressed and disenfranchised. It is Christ who is awakened every morning with God’s word on his tongue and in his ear, for it is his will that is so conformed to God’s will. It is Christ who submits—willingly—to the God’s desires for the world.

But we must also see ourselves as those who confront Christ, who strike and pull at him, who punish him, who cause him pain and suffering. We are not off the hook here.

It is Christ who will contend with us and the kingdom of humanity and endure beating and whipping, pain and suffering, and even death because he so identified with humanity, shrugging of royalty and taking on vulnerable human flesh. It is Christ who sets his face “like flint” to complete the divine love task of divine liberation bringing new life. Christ will bear the burden of being found guilty when he is not; he will suffer for that imputed guilt. But even in this, God’s glory is hidden in the Christ’s suffering and revealed on Easter morning.

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Faith Fuels Audacity (sermon for St. Luke’s)

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

When I was first Christian, I had this (mis)understanding that faith would be this thing that added flavor to my regular day in and day out, that I’d be even more fine with life (whatever it was before I had faith). Fatih returned me to my life and just made me more easy going about it all. It was embedded in the evangelical culture that surrounded me, texts, discussions with peers over coffee, and littered throughout the youth material I was exposed to while helping to lead youth group. Faith wasn’t about changing anything around me, it was about changing my attitude and posture towards the things around me. Essentially, “having faith” was synonymous with “actively choosing” to be always happy even when things turned toward not-so-happy. I had to be always happy and always clappy. To be anything short was a lack of faith. Faith had nothing to do with activity of justice in the world.

But that’s a very wrong idea of faith. It’s wrong for wo reasons: 1. faith is dynamic and not static; and 2. Faith has nothing to do with choice but with trust that seems to be born from the void. In no way, shape, or form does faith return you to the status quo in which it encountered you. Faith isn’t an affirmation of your current experiences. To have faith means to encounter God and to encounter God necessarily means to be moved from something old and dead into something new and alive. And this faith isn’t something we do but something that is done to us; thus, when we encounter God and hear our names called by this God in God’s incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, faith comes to us from the outside and finds home in our hearts and minds by the power of the Holy Spirit, much like mercy, grace, and forgiveness do.

This is the point of Lent (or one of the points of Lent). Lent is a moment in liturgical time that asks us to come to the end of ourselves and find ourselves flung upon God and God’s mercy and grace. Lent, week by week, pries one finger at a time off the rope we are clinging to justify ourselves and make ourselves important in our own eyes (and the eyes of others) until the couple of fingers that are left cannot hold our weight, and we are forced to let go and fall into the void we are terrified to fall into. But in that darkness lives not a leviathan eager to consume us, but God ready to catch us and consecrate us into a new life on new ground participating in the mission of God by faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 12:1-4a

“The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

Chapter 12 in Genesis follows a colorful series of events: A loving God’s creation of everything from nothing, from the biggest to the smallest and everything in between (Gen 1), the establishment that community—with all of its similarities and diversities—is the best representation of God’s being in the world (Gen 2), fierce cherubim and seraphim blocking off all access and reentrance to the Garden of Eden after the rather fateful “applegate” and subsequent curses (Gen 3), the first murder (Gen 4), various human civilizations being established (Gen 5), the appearance of the Nehphilim (the byproduct of the Sons of God knowing the Daughters of Humanity) (Gen 6:1-6), a massive and destructive flood (Gen 6:7-8:22), a rainbow of divine promise (Gen 9), and the Tower of Babel (Gen 11). It’s here, at this point in the story, where God (once again) begins anew, moving from a general approach to a specific approach: God will call one person, not for any other reason than God’s love for the whole world.[ii] Promise eclipses condemnation; salvation triumphs over judgment.[iii]

God’s promises and blessing to Abram suggests a reversal of the curses uttered just chapters earlier.[iv] These blessings and promises highlight that Abram has done nothing to receive them; they come as a “bolt from the blue.”[v] The idea that God cannot be with God’s beloved as a result of the fall back in Genesis 3 is rendered myth. God calls Abram and blesses him; where Adam, Eve, and the serpent leave behind paradise, Abram is invited into it: paradise is union with God. Herein is the foundation for the claim that the curses are being reversed: by God’s love, Abram will be a great nation (many children, one of whom will be the Messiah, the promised child of Genesis 3) and this nation will be a blessing to the rest of the world.[vi],[vii]

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.

In this moment of hearing the divine summons, Abram goes from a childless old man to the parent of many; here Abram becomes a new person, a new being by the Word of God summoning him to God’s self and thus into new life.[viii] And not a new self for his own sake. In hearing of the divine summons, Abram is ushered into a new life for others.[ix] This other-orientated characteristic of his new life will become part of his new identity in God and with God as he becomes a conduit for God to bless other nations.[x] And in our context, the overflow of blessing and promise has already started: as Abram responds to God and finds his new life in God, Lot goes with him into this new thing.[xi]

Abram’s encounter with God in the event of faith sent him on the way; it moved him from his old life defined by his old patterns and actions into a new life defined by new patterns and actions. God’s promise and good word called him out of and moved him from the ways of the kingdom of humanity into new life defined by the reign of God.[xii] Through no work of his own or deservedness, Abram is called out of death into life, [xiii] and receives all righteousness by faith[xiv] alone (sola fides).[xv] The bareness that once defined Abram’s (and Sarai’s) life—a bareness that symbolized not only a lack of promise[xvi] but a lack of lively living and the absence of hope—is now replaced with faith clinging to the promise of God resulting in the active fruit born of faith trusting in God’s action toward Abram and Sarai.[xvii] And it is this faith on the move with the God who seeks after the beloved that will provoke God’s glory to be hallowed by the neighbor who is so loved[xviii] by those who, like Abram and Sarai, live and act by faith and participate in God’s mission of justice[xix] and the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation.[xx]

Conclusion

Faith is not a return to or affirmation of what was; it can’t be because it is born of God and not of humanity. (Humanity prefers the known and old; God is always on the move, doing something new.) When we acquire faith, we acquire all of God and that means (definitively) we acquire something new, something different, something (even at times) strange from what we have known. Faith is not our own work that brings us up into the light where everything becomes clear and discernable. Faith is the work of God summoning us down into the dark, into the void, into the depths of trust. Faith renders us fools and stumbling blocks to those who dominate by the wisdom and reason of the kingdom of humanity. Faith beckons us (always) into something new…not a new God but a new encounter with God that moves us and provokes us to new life that is bedazzled by the new fruit of the reign of God. Faith moved Abram into being a blessing to the nations (and not only for his own). Thus, while the one who receives faith is passive in the reception, they do not stay passive; they become active because faith does not know stillness and idleness and is eager to work itself out in loving deeds for the neighbor’s well-being (being blessed) and to the glory of God (God being blessed by the neighbor).

To have faith isn’t always about having confidence and certainty about events and situations in the world. Even if by faith we can be certain of God’s disposition and posture toward us, we cannot be certain that things of the world will go our way or the way we want. (And often they won’t.) What faith does do, though, is give us the daring energy and praxis in the world to call forth and pull into the kingdom of humanity the reign of God—whenever and wherever it is needed and demanded. It fuels the audacity of our participation in the mission of God which is the bringing forth of divine justice in the world. Faith is the bedrock and foundation of our active pursuit of love where there is indifference, of liberation where there is captivity, and life where there is death.

(Portions of the middle were edited versions from this sermon: https://laurenrelarkin.com/2023/03/05/nothing-seems-to-satisfy-craving-identity/)

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Levenson, “Genesis” The Jewish Study Bible: Featuring the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation. Eds. Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler. Oxford: OUP, 2004. 30.    “The universalism that marked Gen. chs 1-11 having now failed, the Lord begins anew, singling out one Mesopotamian—in no way distinguished from his peers as yet—and promising to make of him a great nation, not numbered in the seventy nations of ch. 10.”

[iii] Miguel A. De La Torre, Genesis, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible. Eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2011), 142. “This biblical passage….bridges the story of human rebellion with the story of human promise, the story of God’s judgment with the story of God’s salvation.”

[iv] Levenson, “Genesis” The Jewish Study Bible, 30. “What the Lord promises Abram (his name is changed to ‘Abraham’ only in ch 17)—land, numerous offspring, and blessing—constitutes to an extent a reversal of some of the curses on Adam and Eve—exile, pain in childbirth, and uncooperative soil…”

[v] Levenson, “Genesis” The Jewish Study Bible, 30. “The twin themes of land and progeny inform the rest of the Torah. In Gen. ch 12, these extraordinary promises come like a bolt from the blue, an act of God’s grace alone; no indication has been given as to why or even whether Abram merits them.”

[vi] LW 2 (Luther’s Works Vol 2 “Lectures on Genesis Chapters 6-14” Ed. Jaroslav Pelikan. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia, 1960.) 246. “…Moses reminds his people that they were chosen by the Lord, not because they had deserved this but because the Lord had loved them and was keeping the oath that had been given to their fathers? In this passage we see that the beginnings are in agreement with the end. For what is Abraham except a man who nears God when He calls him, that is, a merely passive person and merely the material on which divine mercy acts?”

[vii] De la Torre, Genesis, 145-146. “Because Abram obeys, God promises to make him (not Sarai) a great nation, blessing him and making his name so famous that future generations will use it as a blessing. Unlike those who solely rely on their own abilities, set out to make a name for themselves (Babel), and fail (1:4), Abram discovers that obedience to God is what makes on famous.”

[viii] LW 2 247. “Thus, as I said above, Abraham is merely the material that the Divine Majesty seizes through the Word and forms into a new human being and into a patriarch, And so this rule is universally true, that of himself man is nothing, is capable of nothing, and has nothing except sin, death, and damnation; but through His mercy Almighty God brings it about that he is something and is freed from sin, death…”

[ix] De La Torre, Genesis, 142. “Even though God chooses one people, the promise made to God’s chosen exhibits caring for all of humanity, for they too can partake in the blessing. The God of Abram is not limited to this one family, this one clan, this one tribe. Abram’s God is the God through which all nations can find a blessing because Abram’s God is the God of all nations.”

[x] LW 2 258-259. “Here is presented the amazing promise that this people will not only be increased among itself and be blessed materially and spiritually, but that the blessing will also overflow to the neighboring nations and peoples. This happened to the Pharaoh in Egypt.”

[xi] LW 2 275. “Behold God’s marvelous counsel! The promise pertained to Abraham only, not to Lot. Nevertheless, God attaches Lot, like a proselyte, to Abraham as his companion and moves his heart so that he wants to go into exile with his uncle rather than remain in his native country among the idolaters. This is because the promise given to Abraham be blessed with his descendants, it him others would become partakers of the blessing, even though the promise did not properly pertain to them.”

[xii] De la Torre, Genesis, 145. “The call of Abram becomes the call of all who choose to follow God. All who are to follow the Divine must leave their old life behind and follow toward a new creation.”

[xiii] De la Torre, Genesis, 145. “Abram’s hand was on the plow, and he did not look back. He obeyed and left, breaking with tradition and the past. There were no preconditions before God called or chose Abram. Unlike Noah, we are not told that God chose Abram because he was righteous or just. Indeed, as Abram’s life unfolds, we discover a very flawed man. Nevertheless, God chose him.”

[xiv] LW 2:267. “Therefore faith is an active, difficult, and powerful thing. If we want to consider what it really is, it is something that is done to us rather than something that we do; for it changes the heart and mind. And while reason is wont to concern itself with the things that are present, faith apprehends the things that are not present and, contrary to reason, regards them as being present.”

[xv] De la Torre, Genesis, 145. “Abram did not need to first change his life or become more acceptable to God before being chosen. All he did to make himself worthy of God was obey. Abram’s obedience becomes the foundation of faith.”

[xvi] De la Torre, Genesis, 143. Ref. Walter Brueggemann “…[Sarai’s] barrenness symbolizes a people without promise.”

[xvii] De la Torre, Genesis, 143-144. “As Bruegemann states, barrenness is the way of human history, an effective metaphor for hopelessness; but in the arena of barrenness, God’s life-giving action takes place.”

[xviii] De la Torre, Genesis, 146. “God’s purpose for the world will rely on this one man and his descendants, a difficult task since he and Sarai are advanced in years and she is barren. Any hope of fulfilling the promise will only be attributed to a miracle from God.”

[xix] De la Torre, Genesis, 147. “If God is a God of justice, then all who are committed to justice are a blessing to the one who God chooses to exemplify justice, even if at times they fall short. Only when we practice justice can we call Abram our spiritual father and be grafted onto the vine.”

[xx] De la Torre, Genesis, 146-147. “We bless Abram, and God, by doing what God requires of us. And what does God requires or us? He requires us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Mic. 6:8). Justice cannot take place on an individual basis. Community is needed if justice is to occur, if loving mercy is to happen. Hence the call of God for Abram to be an example of God’s justice requires the establishment of a people, of a nation; thus Abram must have descendants.”

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It’s Both/And

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]

Introduction

Our spirituality often gets forced into a binary: it’s completely earthly or it’s totally otherworldly. Either we’re completely consumed with the things and events of this world bearing the burden that it’s our responsibility to fix and mend, or we turn two blind eyes to the fires and tumults burning and occurring around us and stare heavenward convinced that one day God will suddenly make everything right.

I think human beings love binaries because they seem easy to navigate. Isn’t it just easier to live as if all of this is right and all of that is wrong? If everything is determined in its substance to be 100% good or 100% bad, then our choices will be clear, and we’ll (always) know what to choose and when to choose it (or not). The thing is that this line and way of thinking is exhausting because it removes us from having any control over ourselves and the things presenting to us asking for our action. It’s exhausting because we aren’t the ones in control but are being controlled. It’s exhausting because we’re under the subjection of toil, of the “shoulds”, of the “having to prove our righteousness through our works” or the lack thereof.

But human beings don’t work this way and certainly don’t work best this way. We thrive when we ourselves in distinction from our temporal or spiritual allegiances, when we have a bit more alterity regarding our self-expression and self-determination, when we take a moment, catch our breath, and see and hear what’s needed in the moment. Rarely are moments in life demanding my response so crystal clear, black and white, good or bad; often, there are too many factors needing to be considered, most importantly considering any other person in the mix beside myself.

This is why I think Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, is exceptionally helpful here; even if passages such as the one below are used to affirm radical departures from the temporal realm to the spiritual life; that’s not what Paul is advocating for. Rather, the Christian is the epicenter of both the spiritual and temporal realms, working out their spirituality in the temporal realm while bringing the temporal needs of their neighbor into the spiritual realm through prayer. And all of it is about looking to and keeping our eyes fixed on Christ.

Colossians 3:1-11

Paul begins chapter 3 with, Since it is the case that you were raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Keep setting your mind on the things above, not on the things upon the earth… (vv.1-2). In the previous chapter, Paul mentioned that the Colossians identifed with Christ in his death; now, he balances the equation: if you have died with Christ then you can identify with Christ in Christ’s resurrection. For Paul, the Christian journey by faith and deeds is not only about dying to the old self and to the world and its deeds, but it’s fundamentally about taking hold of—orienting oneself toward—the resurrected life because those who identify with Christ in his death also identify with Christ in his resurrection. The Christian life is not merely a set of do-nots, but a big, robust set of do-pleases![2] Paul expects the Christians he teaches to be those who have one foot in the death of Christ and one in the resurrection of Christ. It is the Christian, for Paul, who operates by and through divine grace: she’s not the one who rejects the world or finds herself consumed by it; rather, she’s the one who is oriented toward Christ[3] and infused with God’s grace[4] that she’s compelled to walk in the steps of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in the world.[5] What this entails is a new perspective, one that is informed by the things above most of which/whom is Jesus of Nazareth the Christ sitting at the right hand of God.[6] With this new perspective so inspired by the death and resurrection (and ascension) of Christ, it’s the Christian (having died and continually dying to the old self) who is the one who can navigate the treacherous way through the world avoiding all those ideologies of the kingdom of humanity demanding complete devotion and manipulating through fear and anger.[7],[8] Thus why Paul then says, …for you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. Whenever Christ, your life, might appear at that time you, you will be revealed in glory with him (vv.3-4). Their identification with Christ will cause the Colossians to walk differently in the world, but their reward lay not in popularity within the kingdom of humanity (which will probably hate them for moving against the status-quo), but in the glory they’ll receive when they’re revealed as God’s own through Christ and by the Holy Spirit.[9]

Having spiritually and theologically described the way the Colossians now identify with Christ in his death and resurrection while living in the world,[10] Paul spells it out for them. He writes, Therefore, you put to death the members that are of the earth: fornication, impurity, inordinate affection, coveting evil, and covetousness which is idolatry, through these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience (vv.5-6). What Paul wants the Colossians to consider is that they’re now representatives of Christ and in being such, certain actions must be refused.[11] To (intentionally) persist in such activities is to incur the wrath of God, says Paul, which is none other than earning the rewards of such chosen behaviors.[12] (Keep in mind that all of the listed actions to avoid are all actions causing violence against someone else and the self, actions that cause oneself to degrade its dignity of humanity and that of another.[13] ,[14]) These “taboo” actions may have defined and described their lives before their encounter and identification with Christ by faith and God’s gift of grace, but now they are antithetical to the new life of the representative of Christ; the Colossians must, even if it takes a while, work against that old Adam who is such a good swimmer.[15] Thus why Paul writes, In which things you, you also once walked when you were living in that [life]. But now you, you take off all these things: wrath, rage, wickedness, blaspheming, abusive language out of your mouth, not lying to one another; stripping off from oneself the old person with its practices and put on [oneself] the new, the one who is being renovated into knowledge according to the image of the one who created them… (vv.7-10).

What does this new, renovated life walking in the identification with and representation of Christ look like for the Colossians in the positive sense of their being raised with Christ? Unity in distinction. [16] Paul writes, where there cannot be “Greek and Jewish”, “circumcision and uncircumcision”, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but all things and in all things Christ (v.11). For those who are yoked to Christ through faith and by God’s grace, there must be no hierarchies and divisions of human beings that relegate some to dignity and others not.[17] Paul has exhorted the Colossian Christians to live in the world in a new way reflecting the economy and politics of their God who so loved the whole world that God became incarnate in Jesus the Christ the one who is the power of all powers and in whom all things of the earth find their life.[18] It’s this incarnated experience that the Colossian Christians are to emulate in their new life[19] oriented toward Christ[20] and empowered by the Holy Spirit. These are to be in the world as Christ was and now is through their witness.[21]

Conclusion

We, like the Colossians, must be reminded that our faith and deeds as Christians in the world are beautiful and messy mixes of the spiritual and temporal; we, like the Colossians, have one foot in the spiritual realm and one in the temporal realm. Where we pray doesn’t mean we won’t act; it just means that our prayers shape and form our actions in the world, in that moment, toward that need. Where we act doesn’t mean we don’t pray, but that we must so that we keep Christ as our goal. Where the world is burning doesn’t mean we should let it because we know that Christ is in control and will one day redeem the whole kit and kaboodle. Rather, knowing that Christ is all in all, we should be that much more motivated to take up our part in the healing and nurturing of our world and the lives of our neighbors.

Do you know what the neatest thing about our faith in Christ is? It’s that it’s eager to work itself out in loving deeds toward the world and for the well-being of our neighbors to the glory of God. Why is this? Because our faith is in the incarnate Word of God, God’s own Son who came as God to be in the world in human flesh to bring God and humanity and the world closer together. Therefore, we get to participate in this mission of God and bring the spiritual realm into the temporal realm by our actions in the world while bringing the temporal realm into the spiritual through our actions by faith in worship and prayer. It is not either/or; it is both/and.

[1] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[2] James D. G. Dunn, The Epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon: A Commentary on the Greek Text, TNIGTC, eds., I. Howard Marshall, W. Ward Gasque, Donald A. Hagner (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 203. “The event of death-and-resurrection was two-sided for Christ himself (2:15); a message of the cross without the resurrection would not be gospel, and a call to embrace the implications of the cross without a call also to embrace the implications of the resurrection would be poor teaching. So here: it was not enough to remind the Colossian recipients of the lifestyle and religious praxis that they no longer do or need follow out; that would have been too much like the ‘Do not’s characteristic of the Colossian Jews’ praxis (2:21). The message of the resurrection has equally positive corollaries for the believer’s daily life, which have to be spelled out to provide a sufficient counterweight to the evident attractiveness of the more traditional Jeish lifestyle…”

[3] Dunn, Colossians, 205. “The consequences for the Christian perspective are thus also clear. If Jesus, the Christ, is so highly favored and acknowledged to be God’s ‘right hand man,’ with all the power and authority to effect God’s will and to protect his own which is implicit in that claim, then Christian life should be entirely oriented by reference to this Christ.”

[4] Dunn, Colossians, 203. 3.1 Change of perspective, “It is the sort of change which follows form complete identification with another person or cause, when the service of that person or cause becomes all-consuming the basic determiner of all priorities, the bubbling spring of a motivation, resolution, and application which perseveres despite even repeated setbacks….What the Pauline gospel offered and emphasized by means of its passive formulations was the promise that the change was not self-contrived but rather enabled and brought about by divine grace, the same divine grace which had raised Jesus form the dead…”

[5] Dunn, Colossians, 205. What is commended here is “…a cast of mind, a settled way of looking at things, a sustained devotion to and enactment of a life cause.”

[6] Dunn, Colossians, 203. “The key factor in this new perspective is the fact that Christ has been raised and exalted…to sit on God’s right in heaven.”

[7] Dunn, Colossians, 206. “They key, once again then, is recognition of the crucial turn of events and transformation of perception of reality effected by Christ’s death and resurrection; it is this Christ-perspective which should mark out the Colossian Christians’ heavenly spirituality and enable them to see through the alternative spirituality of the Colossian philosophy.”

[8] Dunn, Colossians, 206. “The aorist is simply a powerful metaphor for the fact that when they believed in Christ in baptism they were putting their previous way of life to death and having it buried out of sight. Consequently, it should no longer be a factor in their new way of life. They have been freed by that one act to live a quite different kind of life, determined not by their old fears and loyalties but by their new and primary loyalty to Christ and by the enabling which comes from on high…”

[9] Dunn, Colossians, 208. “Despite the present hiddenness of their ‘life,’ which might make their attitudes and actions in their present living somewhat bewildering to onlookers, they could nevertheless be confident that Christ, the focus of their life, would demonstrate to all the rightness of the choice they had made in baptism”

[10] Dunn, Colossians, 207. It’s a real, tangible life, and not a spiritually conceived life disconnected from earth.

[11] Dunn, Colossians, 212. “…the person’s interaction with the wider world as through organs and limbs is what is in view. It was precisely the interaction which had characterized the Colossians’ old way of life which now targeted…”

[12] Dunn, Colossians, 216. “…the wrath take the form of God giving or allowing his human creatures what they want, leaving them to their own devise—the continuing avarice and abuse of sexual relations being its own reward.”

[13] McKnight, Colossians, 293. “…flesh mindedness leads to flesh living, while Spirit mindedness leads to spirit-drenched living…This second group becomes Spiritually wise in their relations of humility and love and harmony…the opposite is the way of discord, violence, and fractures relationships…”

[14] McKnight, Colossians, 304. “If the Roman world’s sexuality as shaped by themes of dominance, status, and indulgence (in all directions), for Paul it was shaped by holiness, love, and fidelity.”

[15] Dunn, Colossians, 213. “Paul and Timoty clearly did not harbor any illusions regarding tie converts. They did not attempt to promote a Christian perspective which was unrelated to the hard realities of daily life. On the contrary, they were all too aware of the pressures which shaped people like the Colossian Christians and which still held a seductive attraction for them. They were concerned that the Colossian believers’ death with Christ, the atrophy of old habits of evil, had not yet worked through the full extent of their bodily relationships.”

[16] Dunn, Colossians, 223. “…it is not so much that the individual categories ‘Greek,’ ‘Jew,’ ‘circumcision,’ and ‘uncircumcision’ are discounted as no longer meaningful; rather it is the way of categorizing humankind into two classes, ‘Greek and Jew,’ ‘circumcision an uncircumcision,’ is no longer appropriate. In contrast, the last to items (‘slave, free’) do not cover the complete range of human status, so we do not have ‘slave and free,’ breaking a parallelism which is a feature of the other two versions.”

[17] Dunn, Colossians, 227. “The point here, then, is once again that Christ has relativized all such distinctions, however fundamental to society, its structure, and its ongoing existence.”

[18] McKnight, Colossians, 299. “This section articulates what the gospel does to the moral life of a believer; participation in the death with Christ slays the flesh and sins that destroy and divide; in fact, it brings the Gentiles—all people (3:11)—into the one family of God alongside Isreal so that Christ ’is all and is in all.’”

[19] Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, TNICNT, ed. Joel B Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 290. “Far from a summons to an un- or other worldliness, these exhortation calls the Colossians to live in the world on the basis of the rule of Christ over all the powers.”

[20] McKnight, Colossians, 29292-293. “To back up now: on the basis of their co-resurrection with Christ, the Colossians are to seek to participate in new-creation life by directing their faith and lordship toward the Christ, who rules all of creation. That rule is not yet visible to all but someday will be…To seek the thing above, then, means to live a life on earth under the resurrected King Jesus as the Lord of all creation, with the implication that Caesar is not their true lord.”

[21] McKnight, Colossians, 291. “…by ‘things above,’ Paul means a way of living constituted not by the stoicheia and skia but by the rule of Christ above, whose rule will become a reality on earth in the future.”

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Return again to Hope and Joy

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[1]

Introduction

For the past few months, an over-arching feeling has pervaded human life: existential fatigue. It doesn’t matter what you believe and theologically hold to or what you don’t; it doesn’t matter what political or philosophical ideology you are aligned with or not; not even your ethical posture in the world can protect you from the pervasive feeling of existential fatigue. We’re exhausted, from head to toe, in every fiber of our being, we are flat-out, 100% exhausted.

I don’t really have a clear and singular answer as to what is causing our existential fatigue, but I have a feeling it has to do with the ever-present fear and anger. It’s exhausting to hate people. It’s exhausting feeling like you are always under threat. It’s exhausting thinking people are out to get you. It’s exhausting to live distrustful, as if everyone is looking to steal something (material and immaterial) from you. It’s exhausting to be shut down, refusing to see the humanity in those whom our local and preferred media sources classify as *the* problem. It’s exhausting because it’s so easy to be led about by the ear and that’s why we’re so exhausted; we’re being pulled every which way, and we’ve forgotten there’s solid ground under our feet and that we have a voice to say ENOUGH.

We’ve lost our hope and joy; we’re practically strangers with curiosity. We’ve sold these down the river because either they feel extravagant right now because everything is on fire or because we’re chasing the carrot of some future oriented hope where our joy rests on the other side of eliminating the problem/s. Rather than expanding our understanding, we’re retracting; rather than asking questions and wondering, we’re curving and curling in like every full stop we use to end our statements.

But hope and joy are fundamental to our Christian walk and journey and only if they are anchored in Christ and not in things of this world (both false promises and false enemies). This is why Paul writes to the church in Colossae, to keep them focused on what is important—the Gospel—because it’s only in the proclamation of Christ—crucified and raised—where they find the source of their hope and joy, where they can dare to become (yet again) curious.

Colossians 1:1-14

Paul begins with the standard greeting[2] letting the church in Colossae know who he is and who is helping to write this letter, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and brother Timothy to the holy and faithful siblings in Christ in Colossae; grace and peace to you from God our father (vv1-2). While Paul didn’t really know the Christians in Colossae, they would’ve been familiar with him[3],[4] and would’ve felt the weight of his authority (his apostolic calling by Christ) behind the lines.[5],[6],[7] (Paul’s authority isn’t in title but is from God by God’s gift of grace in the calling.) Timothy is known to Paul[8] (bff[9]) but not (necessarily) known to the Colossians, thus, we can assume that Timothy had a hand in writing this letter[10] and that’s why he shows up in the greeting.[11] We can also assume that Paul (and Timothy) were eager to include—via writing—the Colossian Christians into their spiritual[12] family of faith by calling them both the holy and faithful ones, siblings.[13] Of more importance for Paul was the goal of using this address to “realign” the Colossians away from the lures and false premises and promises of the kingdom of humanity[14] and back toward God; in other words, remember whose you are, say Paul and Timothy.

Then Paul (and Timothy) write, We are thankful to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we are lovingly praying concerning you, after hearing of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have toward all the holy ones thru the hope that is stored up/held in reserve for you in the heavens… (vv3-6a). Immediately, Paul and Timothy lay out the coming themes of the letter: faith, hope, love[15],[16] and thankfulness,[17] all of which are dependent on the good news which the Colossians heard in the word of truth and that which is present to/in them. In fact, for Paul, hope and the gospel go hand in hand. [18] Hope for Paul, and thus for the Colossians, is about “confidence in God” not in some optimistic outcome.[19] It’s about that which is being held in reserve for the holy, faithful ones by God in heaven rather than saccharine and toxic positivity here on earth.[20] In other words, it’s not about material gain here in the kingdom of humanity (no matter how grand the gain might be); [21] it’s about walking in humility with Christ and with their neighbor (in intentional presence of support and advocacy[22]), growing[23] in character[24],[25] and loving as best they can, as Paul then writes, just as also in all the cosmos it is bearing fruit and growing just as also [in] you, from that day you heard and you recognized the grace of God in truth (v6b).

Paul then credits Epaphras with being the means by whom the Colossians have heard this gospel and (rhetorically) exhorts the Colossians to listen to him,[26] Just as you heard from Epaphras, our beloved, fellow servant, who is faithful on behalf of us, servant of Christ, the one who declared to us your love in the Spirit (vv7-8). Who is Epaphras? A Colossian native and who, considering Colossae’s closeness to Ephesus, (probably) meet Paul in Ephesus.[27] He is the one who let Paul know that there was a burgeoning threat among the Christian Colossians.[28] Paul’s description of Epaphras echoes the themes of love and faith where love is the fruit of the gospel much like hope is its thrust.[29] Here, Paul and Timothy emphasize for this Christian community that their faith in the gospel is the source and foundation of their life in Christ and not dependent on ascribing to renegade philosophies and ideologies and mysticisms of the kingdom of humanity.[30]

It’s on this account Paul returns to the talking about praying for the Colossian Christians, For this reason also, from the day which you heard, we, we do not cease praying and requesting concerning you that you might be made complete in the recognition of the will of [God] in all wisdom and spiritual insight, to live a life worthy of the Lord toward all pleasingness in all work by bearing good fruit and increasing to the recognition of God, in all strength, being made strong according to the strength of the glory of [God] in all constancy and long suffering with grace, being thankful to the Father for the one who makes us sufficient [to be grafted in] of the inheritance of the holy ones in the light (vv9-12). Paul begins by praying for the Colossians to know God’s will that’s not only at work in the cosmos but also in their (individual and corporate) lives.[31] This knowledge is founded in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, savior, died and raised, and the power of the Spirit; it’s their encounter with Christ where the Colossians will grasp the will of God[32] in all wisdom and spiritual insight,[33] and thus come into their own identity formed by what Christ says and not what the world says.[34] In other words, the recognition of the will of God is through being grafted into the vine of God through/by which divine wisdom and insight come spiritually. [35] This is not worldly wisdom; this is the wisdom and insight of the reign of God, and it promises to be in conflict and resist the wisdom and insight of the kingdom of humanity. What will be the fruit of this wisdom and insight from the reign of God? It will create Christians who walk worthily of name, those who bear good fruit and grow in knowing God (thus knowing the neighbor), those who are made strong and resilient, those who respond with constancy and long-suffering in the midst of chaos and tumult, and those who are thankful for Christ and the Spirit. Paul prays that the Colossian Christians become those who can reject the lies and falsehoods, the strawmen and red herrings of the kingdom of humanity, those who can resist the lures and dangling carrots and become the ones who can call out such things for what they are: harbingers of death, division and derision, and existential fatigue.[36]

How does Paul dare to believe such imagery? Because of vv. 13-14, [Christ][37] who ransomed us out from the domination of darkness and exchanged [us] into the reign of the son of the love of [God], in whom we have release/liberation, the pardon of sins. It is not by supra/super-human ability by which the Colossians will resist the lies and falsehoods coming at them and luring them, it’s by their faith in Christ which is the source of both their hope and love: hope that carries them through and love that anchors them on the solid ground of the activity of the divine reign inaugurated in Christ and confirmed by the Holy Spirit.[38] Paul prays for them to become those who know and do.[39]

Conclusion

It’s easy to get wrapped up in all that’s swirling around us. It’s easy to be lured toward simple solutions and easy enemies; it’s the path of least resistance to persecute other people for our problems while refusing to look in the mirror and acknowledge the ways we’ve participated in making these problems our problems to begin with. Being angry is way easier than being patient; blaming is easier than being curious; being indifferent is significantly easier than loving.

And as much as I personally understand how easy this is for human beings who are often dehydrated and burdened with a brain that is better suited for hunter-gatherer epochs, I also know that as Christians we are not off the hook here no matter how easy these things are. We could let this letter to the Colossians be a letter to us; we are being exhorted to remember whose we are and where we live (Christ). We are being reminded that the one in us (the Holy Spirit) is stronger and more capable than any spirit of the age promising quick solutions and quicker comforts. We are being asked to turn our gaze away from our phones, tvs, and loud and emotional pundits more eager for ratings than truth, and look to the one who is the source of love, of grace, of hope. We need to remember that our faith, while not magical nor a solution to the world’s problems, is the firm foundation where we stand and from where we begin to build the solutions ones that value love and not indifference, liberation and not captivity, life and not death.

[1] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[2] Scot McKnight, The Letter to the Colossians, TNICNT, ed. Joel B Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 76-77. “Paul’s letters were longer than ordinary letters of the ancient world. In addition, Paul’s letters have predictable sections, including salutation or greeting, a thanksgiving, and the main body. We ought to remind ourselves that ‘grace and peace’ in Paul’s salutations are, after all, the apostle’s way of saying ‘hello’ or ‘greetings.’”

[3] James D. G. Dunn, The Epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon: A Commentary on the Greek Text, TNIGTC, eds., I. Howard Marshall, W. Ward Gasque, Donald A. Hagner (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 43-44. “At all events, the Colossian recipients of the letter would have no doubt that the Paul named at the head of the letter as the famous/infamous missionary who had brought the message of a Jewish Messian/Christ so effectively to Gentiles.”

[4] McKnight, Colossians, 77. “Paul did not dictate his letters to his secretary, and he probably did not write them out in one sitting. Timothy, in other words, contributed to this letter in content, which is why his name follows and the ‘and.’”

[5] Dunn, Colossians, 44. Whether he wrote it or signed off on it, “…the authority of the apostle lay behind the letter, and that would be sufficient to ensure that the letter was treasured by the Colossians and/or other of the other churches to which the letter was circulated…subsequently to be included in the earliest collection(s) of Pual’s letters.”

[6] Dunn, Colossians, 44. Paul’s claim to apostleship, “…the claim is that his commission and authorization came directly from Christ Jesus. It is as a representative of and spokesman for Christ Jesus, therefore, that Paul would lay claim to a hearing —not simply as spokesman for some agreed tradition or some church council. And for Paul that meant a commission and authorization equal in weight to that of the earliest and most prominent Christian leadership…In other words, the added phrase is not merely a matter of providing fuller identification, as though the name ‘Paul’ was insufficient. It is also and still more a claim to authority and respect.”

[7] McKnight, Colossians, 79. Paul’s use of “apostle” here: “Paul combines the original sense of the twelve apostles…along with the third sense with a prophetic-calling dimension because Paul has been commissioned by Jesus and is a church-planting Gentile missionary. To be called an apostle in tis sense requires that one was an eyewitness of Jesus…that one had a commission from the Lord to represent and speak for him, and that one had performed miracles. Apostles are ranked at the top of the spiritual gifts by Paul…Most important, Paul’s apostleship is described as grace, a gift from God, a theme developed in Col 1:25-27.”

[8] Dunn, Colossians, 47. “Timothy features more frequently in Paul’s letters than any of Paul’s other associates and is given special prominence in several of the greetings…He also served as Paul’s emissary in several delicate negotiations…”

[9] McKnight, Colossians, 81. “Timothy is Paul’s best friend, closest co-worker and associate, and a man about whom we know plenty, even if he is always in the background. Thus, Timothy’s father was a Gentile but his mother a Jew; he was probably converted to following Christ during Pual’ first missionary journey to Lystra, where Timothy surely saw Paul being stoned. Timothy’s mother was a believer…”

[10] McKnight, Colossians, 77. “The letter to the Colossians was written by both Paul and Timothy, which raises the important topic of how letters were written.”

[11] Dunn, Colossians, 47. Timothy is not considered to be essential to the Colossian community, Thus his mention, “…could reinforce the possibility that in this case, of the two authors named, Timothy had in fact greater responsibility for composing the letter than Paul had, with Pual approving the content, adding his persona signature, and named first out of resect…”

[12] Dunn, Colossians, 49. “Their brotherhood was not one of blood relationship, but rather the spiritual bond of the shared experience of believing in Christ Jesus and knowing that they were accepted by and through him.”

[13] Dunn, Colossians, 49. Brothers/faithful “They wished to stress that these Christians, unknow to them personally, were nevertheless brothers just as much as Timothy himself was…It was precisely the Colossians’ continued commitment as brothers, members of the new family gathered around Christ Jesus, that the writers wanted to encourage and sustain…”

[14] Dunn, Colossians, 50. “The crucial feature of the phrase, however, is, as already indicated, that it enabled Paul to realign the identity of the people of God away from questions of ethnic descent and national custom to integration with this Jesus, who, even as Israel’s Messiah, transcended such definitions and concerns…”

[15] Dunn, Colossians, 57. “What Paul and timothy commend here, therefore, is the way in which the Colossians receive the message about Christ …. And committed themselves in trust to the one so proclaimed, making Christ the focus and determinant of their lives form then on…”

[16] McKnight, Colossians, 91-92. “What they heard about was earliest Christianity’s famous triad of faith, love, and hope, beginning here with salvation history’s focal shift…with ‘faith’ in Christ Jesus.”

[17] Dunn, Colossians, 55. “…the themes and language of the thanksgiving are echoed in the rest of the letter…”

[18] Dunn, Colossians, 60. “That the gospel is summed up here in terms of ‘hope’ ….is a reminder of how closely its original eschatological force still clung to the word.”

[19] Dunn, Colossians, 58. Hope here in NT/Colossians/Paul “…the sense here is characteristically Jewish: hope as expectation of good, confidence in God…As such it is closely related to faith, confident trust in God.”

[20] Dunn, Colossians, 61. “…the claim being made is that the good news of Christ Jesus unveils the reality of human destiny in the sure hope that it holds forth…”

[21] Dunn, Colossians, 61. “The implication maybe that the Colossians should hesitate before making too much of the success of their own evangelism, and this prepares for the warning notes that become prominent from 2:8.”

[22] McKnight, Colossians, 93-94. “Since Paul specifies the object of their love—‘for all god’s people’—we see here an expression of ecclesial-shaped commitment to one another in presence, advocacy, and participation in Christoformity. He does not have in mind a general humanitarian benevolence but instead…a devoted commitment to presence, advocacy, protection, provision, and mutual sanctification with other followers of Jesus.”

[23] McKnight, Colossians, 99-100. “Paul’s point concerns the catholicity of the gospel: what the gospel is doing among others in the empire (here ‘throughout the whole world’), it is doing also among them. And what it is doing is ‘bearing fruit’ and ‘growing,’ to actions that describe how God is at work in the world through the church.”

[24] Dunn, Colossians, 62. “…the closeness of the two verses favors the idea of growth in character, but both ideas may be implied—the success of the gospel in producing so many mature and moral people.”

[25] Dunn, Colossians, 62-63. “Either way the verb denotes the experience…as well as the intellectual apprehension of God’s outreaching generosity…as transforming power…”

[26] McKnight, Colossians, 104. “Paul’s words about Epaphras are far less idealistic than they are rhetorical; by labeling him with these terms, Paul presses his case that the Colossians are to listen to Epaphras as an unauthorized minister of the gospel. From a different angle, these terms describe the ideal minister of the gospel.”

[27] Dunn, Colossians, 63. Epaphra “As a native of Colossae…he presumably first encountered Paul and was converted through his preaching during Paul’s long stay in Ephesus…, some 120 miles distant on the coast and directly accessible by road down the Lycus and Meander valleys…”

[28] Dunn, Colossians, 65. “Presumably it was to Epaphras…that Paul owed knowledge of the threatening circumstances at Colossae, to which the main thrust of the letter is directed…”

[29] Dunn, Colossians, 65. “As hope is the main thrust of the gospel (1:5), so love …is its main fruit…It is described more fully as ‘love in (or by) the Spirit’…”

[30] Dunn, Colossians, 68-69. Of the second half of ch. 1: “…very Jewish character of the language…This emphasis on…the Jewish character of the gospel to which the Colossian Christians were committed is unlikely to be accidental. It suggests that Paul an Timothy thought it desirable to emphasize just this fundamental feature of their common faith. The most obvious reason is that the Colossians were confronted by local Jews who were confident of the superiority of their own religious practice and who denigrated the claims of these Gentiles to share in their own Jewish heritage…”

[31] Dunn, Colossians, 69. v.9 “For a theist who believes that God’s active purpose determines the ordering of the world, lies behind events on earth, and shapes their consequences, one of the most desirable objectives must be to know God’s will. The corollary, spelled out in the following phrases, is that such knowledge gives insight into and therefore reassurance regarding what happens (often unexpected in human perspective) and helps direct human conduct to accord with that will. Such desire to know and do God’s will is naturally very Jewish in character…”

[32] Dunn, Colossians, 69-70. Knowledge used to come thru the law “But for Paul in particular there was now a better and surer way of knowing God’s will and of discerning what really mattered: by the personal transformation that flowed from inward renewal…”

[33] Dunn, Colossians, 70-71. “Here, too, the wisdom in particular is understood as given through the law…but it is equally recognized that such wisdom can come only form above….And particularly to be noted is the recognition that wisdom and understanding come only from the Spirit….”

[34] McKnight, Colossians, 109. “Paul’s prayer is for a kind of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that will lead them into Christ. If the apocalyptic mystics were elitists, the Pauline vision for the church counters each: the truth of the gospel is not esoteric and for elitists, it is based on a relationship with God in Christ and not on passwords, it is for all…and it is all summed in Christ as the truth…”

[35] Dunn, Colossians, 73. v.11 “The sentence runs on with continued emphasis that such fruitful living is wholly dependent on divine enabling. The power of God is a familiar Pauline theme…and prominent in Ephesians…It is also deeply rooted in Jewish thought…”

[36] Dunn, Colossians, 78. “…darkness can be legitimately and authoritatively resisted, as having had its license revoked…Within a unitary kingdom…subjects of the king can reject al other claims to final authority over them….”

[37] Dunn, Colossians, 82. “The one step clearly taken beyond Jewish thinking on forgiveness is the location of forgiveness no longer in the cult, or even simply in directness of prayer to God, but once gain ‘in Christ.’ As particularly in Galatians, it is the possibility of Gentiles being ‘in Christ’ that brings them within the sphere of God’s gracious forgiveness. ‘In Christ’ is the key to all.”

[38] McKnight, Colossians, 113. “The wisdom is Christocentric…and mediated through the Holy Spirit.”

[39] McKnight, Colossians, 114-115. “…sound thinking is to lead to sound living, and while this theory is often claimed, the connection between thought and behavior is not automatic. Many who know do not do, and many who do do not know.”

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Faith’s Descent into Truth

Psalm 8:1,4-5a. Abba God our Governor, how exalted is your Name in all the world! When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses, what is humanity that you should be mindful of them?

Introduction

Human beings love things that are familiar and known, predictable. At the root of this love is our nervous systems: they crave comfort and nothing brings it more comfort than what is known and familiar, safe. Knowing (roughly) what the day will bring, allows us to breathe that sigh of relief even if that daily routine is a bit banal. Getting up, coffee, eating breakfast, getting ready, going to work, coming home, making dinner, watching TV, and then going to bed with a good book, is comforting even if it’s also the reason for midlife crises.

Humans love the familiar, the predictable, the known, so much that we will persist in doing things that hinder our thriving, surviving, and living; and we’ll vehemently reject anything new that threatens our security. There’s a quote about this, “The nervous system prefers a familiar hell to an unknown heaven.” We love the familiar so much, we’ll risk relationships to maintain it, we’ll stake our livelihood on it; we’d even choose death to keep safe.

There’s a problem for Christians here. We don’t worship a God who’s “safe,” “easy to figure out”, and completely “knowable and known.” We don’t worship a God who is static and still (characteristics of death); we worship a God who is dynamic and, on the move—a God who is living! In Genesis 1, we encounter God who is actively pulling things apart to reveal God’s dynamic, life-giving, liberating love: the heavens from themselves, the waters from themselves, the land from the waters, and human beings from one to two. In the gospels we see God willing to become human so God can identify with the human plight, to live and die as one of us and then render death to its own death in Jesus. And in Pentecost, we see God, set out to pursue every last beloved in the coming and sealing divine Holy Spirit. To quote Mr. Beaver from CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, “‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver. ‘Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.’”

So, to follow this God through faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit is to go into the unknown, the “unsafe,” the unfamiliar; it is to be sent forward, the path backward forever sealed off. As John records in his gospel,

John 16:12-15

I still have man things to say to you, said Jesus to his disciples, but you all are not able to endure/to carry [them] right now. But as soon as the Spirit of Truth comes, [the Spirit of Truth] will guide/teach you all into all truth… (vv 12-13b). Our gospel passage is part of the “Farewell Discourses” in the gospel of John. Chapter 16 participates in two different aspects of these “Farewell Discourses”: 1. The disciples’ future in relation to the world; and 2. The disciples’ future in relation to God.[1] Our portion of scripture is in the later of the two aspects mentioned: the disciples’ future in the relation to the world. Jesus is, in 16:12-15, preparing his disciples for the future in respect/relation to God.[2] Jesus tells his disciples know that he is not telling them everything; there is more truth to endure and carry. The knee jerk reaction is to think that Jesus is not disclosing all the pain and suffering these disciples of his will have; that’s not it. He’s already addressed what they will face as they proceed into the world with out him. Here he’s talking about the divine self-disclosure of the truth of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The disciples are not ready to hear what this truth of God is that Jesus knows and the Holy Spirit will proclaim to them. It’s not a psychological unreadiness; it’s an earthly unreadiness; because of where they are, who they are, when they are, how they are, these disciples are not ready to endure any more of the truth than that which they have at that moment.[3] The dynamic truth—the gospel of love, life, and liberation—must not be given before they are ready, otherwise it will fall flat or it will flatten those too weak to bear it. In other words, the disciples need to grow (more!) and as they do grow, by the presence of the Spirit and by faith in Christ, the same Spirit will be the vehicle of more divine self-disclosure.[4]

John’s Jesus continues, for [the Spirit of Truth] will not speak from themself, but [the Spirit of Truth] will speak what they will hear, and that which comes [the Spirit of Truth] will announce/bring back to you (v. 13c-e). Jesus puts some qualifiers on this further divine disclosure the disciples are being prepared for. Whatever truth is to be revealed by the Spirit of Truth will not diverge from God’s mission in the world or depart from the essence of Jesus Christ’s witness to God and his participation in the divine mission. There is something to encounter in the darkness of the future sitting just outside of the material bodies of the disciples, something they cannot prepare for now physically, but can mature toward by faith (trust in God). It is the Spirit of Truth who will illuminate the truth cloaked in the darkness of the future once the disciples are there, and it will also be the voice that summons the disciples into that darkness.[5] Faith will step into the darkness knowing the warm, comforting voice of God, trusting that divine voice, and following the call into more divine disclosure.[6]

And, according to John, That one [the Spirit of Truth] will render me glorious, because [the Spirit of Truth] will receive from me and will announce/bring back word to you all. All things whatever the father has, it is mine; on account of this I spoke that what [the Spirit of Truth] receives from me they will bring back word/announce to you (v 14-15). Whatever truth there is to be revealed in the future, it’s source will be God the Creator and God the Reconciler and announced by God the Sustainer. (Here’s why this is our gospel for Trinity Sunday!). The Spirit of Truth is not going to deliver some brand-new revelation or reveal some new mystery that contradicts God’s self-disclosure in Christ.[7] Concurrently, this truth that is to come that they cannot bear now will not be fabricated by the kingdom of humanity; it will be of and from and conform to the core and essence of the reign of God.[8] The Spirit of Truth will make God’s self-disclosure in Christ real for all those who are to believe; the Spirit of Truth will reveal God’s truth to the community of disciples, and this truth will adhere to the essence of the divine mission of love, life, and liberation in the world…wherever and whenever they are.[9] It will not be an old word, or a word that has ceased to illuminate the future or will it be a summons backward. The word of truth that the Spirit of Truth will hear and bring back to the disciples will be lamp unto their feet, a map forward, a guide through unchartered territory, it will be an otherworldly voice summoning them forward into the new.[10] And this word of truth will be at the center of the community’s proclamation and praxis: the community, ushered into this divine truth will bring Jesus, thus God,[11] close to the oppressed and disenfranchised, those who are forced to live at the boarders and in the badlands of society, hidden away, fearing for their lives, just as Christ did all those many years before them.[12]

Conclusion

While there is a historical and concrete audience for John’s gospel, there is, also, not one. This is my favorite thing about the John’s Gospel: as soon as we take up the text, Jesus’s prayers for and exhortations to the disciples become ours. Thus, as the disciples were summoned into the darkness of the future to behold what the Spirit of Truth will receive and bring back to them, so, too, are we. By the power, love, strength of our Triune God, we are summoned into that which we cannot predict, do not know, and cannot understand (at first). It is our faith in Christ, our union with God, and our empowerment by the Holy Spirit that will be our firm foundation as we proceed into that darkness of the future, it will be our comfort, it will be our warmth, it will be our light. We need not fear what comes, because Jesus has told us that by the Spirit of Truth God and Jesus himself will be there to receive us.

We love going backwards because going backwards is safe, and known, and predictable. We love our routines because they, too, are safe, known, and predictable. We like things to stay the same no matter how much that fixed state means our death. But, as mentioned in the beginning, we worship a Triune God of life—manifold, rich, robust, incredible, indelible, irreplaceable life. And in worshiping this God we get no choice but to embrace the darkness of the unknown, the unsafe, and the unpredictable and fall into the warm lap of Abba God, embraced by our brother Jesus, and enfolded in the heavy blanket of the Holy Spirit.

So today, hear the summons to go forward—as scared as you may be, as angry as you may be, as stubborn as you probably are—and embrace the divine truth being disclosed to you and that participates in God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation in the world on behalf of all God’s beloved.

[1] Rudolf Bultmann, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, trans. GR Beasley-Murray, Gen Ed, RWN Hoare and JK Riches (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971), TOC. Originally published as, Das Evangelium des Johannes (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1964, 1966).

[2] Bultmann, John, 573. “The discourse starts again and the first words show that the subject is not, as it was before, the content of the future—the task and destiny of the disciples—but the future as such. The intention behind the prophecy of the continuance of the revelation, contained in vv. 13-15, is to bring about a state of readiness for the future, and v. 12 prepares the way for this.”

[3] Bultmann, John, 573. “Jesus still has much to say, but the disciples are not yet able to bear it. The words should not be understood psychologically; rather they indicate the essential nature of the case. Readiness for the future is not only demanded by that particular hour, but it describes the very existence of the disciple. The believer has not been taken away from the world…he has a future in it, and must withstand whatever it brings and demands.”

[4] Bultmann, John, 573. “What [the believer] has to go through, however, cannot be anticipated in words, which he could not even put together; the believer can only measure the significance and claims of what he has to undergo when he actually meets it. He anticipates the future in faith, not in foreknowledge. And thus the apparent contradiction between v. 12 and 15.15 is comprehensible: Jesus cannot state all that the future will bring, and yet he has said it all, everything, that is, that makes the believer free and ready for it.”

[5] Bultmann, John, 574. “If the Spirit is at work in the word that is proclaimed in the community, then this word gives faith the power to step out into the darkness of the future, because the future is always illumined afresh by the word.”

[6] Bultmann, John, 574. “Faith will see the ‘truth’ in each case, i.e., it will always be certain of the God who is manifest in the word, precisely because it understands the present in the light of this word. The promise is no different from that in 8.31f.”

[7] Bultmann, John, 575. “It is irrelevant from whom the Spirit hears the word, whether from Jesus or from God; for as v. 15a reminds us, they are one and the same. This means that the Spirit’s word is not something new, to be contrasted with what Jesus said, but that the Spirit only states the latter afresh.”

[8] Bultmann, John, 575. “The statement affirms that the word that is at work in the community really is the word of revelation and not human discourse; i.e. it is like the word that Jesus spoke, which did not come from himself.” And, “The Spirit will not bring new illumination, or disclose new mysteries; on the contrary, in the proclamation effected by him, the word that Jesus spoke continues to be efficacious.”

[9] Bultmann, John, 575. “Rather the meaning of this: the future will not be unveiled in a knowledge imparted before it happens, but it will be illuminated again and again by the word that is at work in the community.”

[10] Bultmann, John, 576. “The word of Jesus is not a collection of doctrines that is in need of supplementation, nor is it a developing principle that will only be unfolded in the history of ideas; as the Spirit’s proclamation it always remains the word spoken into the world from beyond.”

[11] Bultmann, John, 576. “…that the Spirit continues the proclamation of the word of Jesus means that it is the word of God, i.e. revelation.”

[12] Bultmann, John, 576. v. 14 “This is an express statement that the Spirit’s word does not displace or surpass the word of Jesus, as if it were something new. Rather it is the word of Jesus that will be alive in the community’s proclamation; the Spirit will ‘call it to mind’ (14.26). and herein is to be found the completion of Jesus’ glorification.”

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Water and Fire

Psalm 29:1-2, 11 Ascribe to Abba God, you gods, ascribe to Abba God glory and strength. Ascribe to God the glory due God’s Name; worship Abba God in the beauty of holiness. God shall give strength to God’s people; God shall give God’s people the blessing of peace.

Introduction

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had moments in my life where I have felt the heavy blankets of shame, disgrace, and regret. The dastardly thing about these emotions and feelings is that they never tend to stay on the surface, pinned to the exterior of the epidermis. They sink in deep, infecting the heart, mind, soul, the very being of a person. There isn’t enough soap and water hot enough to get at the dirt. There are times when I want to crawl into the shower and stay there, under the hot streams, until I feel clean, hoping beyond hope that the water cascading down, pouring over me would–somehow—penetrate through my flesh and cleanse my heart and mind, my soul and self, washing away these children of malfeasance. In the end, though, it’s just water, it can’t and won’t do the very thing I needed it to do. These are times I need something more than just water, I need divine fire. Under that falling water, I need to remember my confession: please forgive me Lord, a sinner. But I can’t stop there, I must press through that confession and remember this: In the name of Christ, I am Baptized. With Martin Luther, it’s here, in remembering my baptism where I am exposed by my confession and brought through that death into new life, placed deep in the presence of God through the purifying fires of faith in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

John answered and said to the people, “Indeed, I, I baptize you [with] water; but one comes who is stronger than me for whom I am not fit to untie the strap of his sandals. He, he will baptize you with [the] Holy Spirit and fire.” (Lk. 3:16)

In chapter 3, Luke brings us face to face with John. According to the first part of chapter three, John, the son of Zechariah, is going about the region of the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance (vv. 2-3). In v. 7, people are coming to John in the Jordan to be baptized, and he is verbally exposing them and exhorting them to better life lived in the world (vv.7-14). Due to this interaction, the people begin to wonder with excitement that John might be the Messiah (v. 15).

Luke tells us John senses this building excitement and wonder about his role in God’s activity in the world, and quickly nips all speculation in the bud, Indeed, I, I baptize you [with] water; but one comes who is stronger than me whom I am not fit to untie the strap of his sandals. He, he will baptize you with [the] Holy Spirit and fire (v. 16). John makes a clear distinction here between the baptism he offers in the coming reign of God and the one Jesus will offer. His cleanses the outside, Jesus’s will cleanse not only the outside but also the inside. Luke has a couple of objectives in mind by placing these words on John’s tongue. First, at the time of writing, there were factions remaining of those who followed John and those who followed Jesus; for Luke, not even John wants anyone following him because he is one who points to Jesus (his is more prophet[1] than Christ).[2] Here, Luke, through John, places articulated emphasis on the baptism that Jesus will offer as the superior baptism to his water baptism. While both water and fire clean, only fire will purify.[3]

Luke’s second objective: to expose the significant difference between John’s baptism and Jesus’s (it’s not only that one is more powerful). The bigger difference is that one baptism includes receiving something. Where John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance and being washed clean with water (full stop), John does not claim to give anyone anything to fill the now vacant spot washed. But, according to Luke’s John, Jesus does. What is this gift? The Holy Spirit. The believer, the one who is baptized with fire and the Holy Spirit, receives the Holy Spirit in Jesus name via baptism. In other words, John’s baptizands aren’t empowered with anything, they’re just washed clean; Jesus’s are.[4] Those who receive the baptism of Jesus with fire and the Holy Spirit also receive the Holy Spirit and it is this “paraclete” (according to the gospel of John) who exposes and who empowers Jesus’s followers (i.e. through exposure and exhortation, or the growth discussed in the book of Ephesians) into the way of wisdom, love, and truth[5] and will continue to do so long after Jesus ascends.[6]

John then retreats to some rather intimidating imagery of judgment. Who has his winnowing shovel in hand to thoroughly purify his threshing floor and collect the grain into his grainery, but the chaff he will consume entirely [by] unquenchable fire (v. 17). Again, there are two important things being articulated here. The first is the comparison of Jesus and his baptism with fire and the Holy Spirit as an act of judgment,[7] or, what I would call “exposure”. The winnowing shovel is judgment; to winnow is to separate the chaff from the grain. For Luke’s John, Jesus comes with a winnowing shovel to judge by exposing everything to fire (judgment). This winnow shovel language echoes back to what John said at the beginning of the chapter about the axe being laid at the base of the tree to chop down those trees that are fruitless.[8] Thus judgment is clearly and explicitly intended here and no one is escaping divine fire! But, (and second) how Luke relays this winnowing is important: it’s in the past tense; as in: it’s already happened. Return to the imagery with me, one will come with a winnowing shovel and the grain will be collected together while the chaff is burned in the unquenchable fire. Thus, the winnowing has already been done by the time the collecting together of the grain and the burning of the chaff. In other words, for Luke, John has winnowed and Jesus will collect and the left over unusable parts will be burned up. Those who respond positively to John’s call for baptism by water will be the grain that is gathered up by Christ and baptized by him. [9] According to Luke, John is the fork in the road; if you are open to repentance baptism, then you are open to what comes when the Christ shows up. [10]

Then our passage closes with the well told story of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan with John. Here Luke solidifies Jesus’s dual identification with God and with humanity;[11] demonstrating that Jesus is, without need of repentance, in solidarity with humanity’s plight (needing repentance) [12] as well as in solidarity with God’s mission in the world to bring absolution (the purification with fire and the Holy Spirit) to the beloved. As one of the many people in the Jordan, Jesus, too, is baptized; yet, as the one who is God’s son, he is recognized by God as God’s own by the opening of the heavens (v.21), and the Holy Spirit like a dove[13] came down bodily upon him, and a voice out of heaven came about, “You, You are my son; with you I am well-pleased” (v. 22). According to Luke, Jesus is the Son of Humanity and the Son of God, the one through whom God’s redemption comes[14] and through whom humanity will be both restored and represented in the heavenly realms.

Conclusion

To be baptized of water, to be cleaned by water is great; to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and God’s divine fire in the name of Christ is the call of anyone who follows Jesus out of that Jordan on that day and every day after that. Something I find interesting here is that this passage speaks not of two different fires but of one. Just like it is one light that illuminates the darkness, sending the darkness to its demise while illuminating that which is in the room; so does the divine fire that comes with the Christ send that existential and spiritual dirt to its demise while rendering the beloved object of that fire new and pure. The very thing that sends me into the hot shower to cleanse from head to toe is obliterated life chaff sent to the unquenchable fire in my confession and my recollection that I am baptized in Christ and with the Holy Spirit. Yet, I, in my flesh and in my soul do not escape that fire, but suffer through it like pottery in a kiln or gold in the refinery; what is left of the fire that surges over and through me is what is collected and stored in the grainery to serve and participate in God’s mission in the world, following after Jesus and walking within the same sand impressions left behind by my savior as he left the water. In my confession and in my need for Christ, I am summoned out of and away from death (chaff) and placed in the heart of God’s love, given new life, and sent forward in liberation renewed by faith and empowered by the Holy Spirit. That which is sentenced to death (my guilt, shame, regret, anything that hinders me from new life) is burned up forever, and that which is sentenced to life abundant (me, myself, and I) are refined and collected up into the grainery to be used by God in the world to God’s glory and the wellbeing of the neighbor, God’s beloved.

We, as God’s beloved, are called to walk through the one fire and to let God take what is chaff and burn it up completely and purify and refine by the baptism of Christ that is with God’s Holy Spirit and fire that which is to be collected as grain. In the event of faith, we, as God’s beloved, are brought into death and through it, finding ourselves resurrected on the other side, purified and made clean, inside and out, to be as Christ in the world, to represent God by word and deed, and to identify with the suffering and plight of our neighbors.

[1] Gonzalez, Luke, 50. “Thus what John is saying is that he is not even worthy to be counted among the lowest servants of the one whose coming he announces…In brief, Luke presents John as perhaps the greatest among the prophets and as the heir to the long line of leaders of Israel who significance was announced in that they were born of barren women; but even so, John cannot even be compared with Jesus.”

[2] Justo L. Gonzalez, Luke, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2010), 50. Luke is emphasizing Jesus over John “This is an important point for Luke, who apparently was writing at time when there were still those who claimed to be followers of John but not of Jesus and such views had spread beyond the confines of Judea to Diaspora Judaism…”

[3] Gonzalez, Luke, 51. “John baptizes with water; but Jesus will baptize ‘with the Hoy Spirit and with fire.’ Both water and fire are purifying agents; but fire is much more potent than water. Water may wash away whatever is unclean; but fire burns it away.”

[4] Gonzalez, Luke, 51. “Thus in Lukan theology there is a difference between a baptism of repentance, which is what John performed, and baptism in the name of Jesus, which is connected with receiving the Holy Spirit. John calls people to repent, and when they do this he baptizes them as a sign that they are cleaned of their former impurity. But Christian baptism, while still employing water, is ‘with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’ It is a cleansing (fire) and empowering (Holy Spirit).”

[5] Ernesto Cardenal, The Gospel in Solentiname, translated by Donald D. Walsh (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2010), 54. “Octavio: ‘The Holy Spirit is Wisdom.’
Julio: ‘It’s love for others.’
Gloria: ‘And the fire is love too.’
Eduardo: ‘Because it gives light and warmth.’
Tere: ‘And also because it purifies.’”

[6] Joel B. Green, “The Gospel of Luke,” The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids): Eerdmans, 1997), 180. “The conjunction of the Holy Spirit and fire in this baptism is puzzling within the context of Luke-Acts. The Holy Spirit has been present repeatedly in 1:5-2:52, where such roles as empowering and guiding were paramount; for Luke thus far the Holy Spirit has been a manifestation of eschatological blessing and an empowering presence critical to God’s redemptive mission. Baptism ‘with the Holy Spirit,’ then, must surely be related to these themes even if other connections of the Spirit with cleansing and purging are also in view. Fire, too, can have this meaning, and it may be that the figure John anticipates will administer s single baptism of refinement and empowerment.”

[7] Gonzalez, Luke, 51. “Furthermore, fire is a sign of impending judgment. John had declared that the axe was now at the root of the tree, so that a fruitless tree would be cut down and burned. Now something similar is said about the coming of Jesus: he comes with a winnowing fork in order to separate the wheat from the chaff, saving the former and burning the latter.”

[8] Gonzalez, Luke, 51. “Furthermore, fire is a sign of impending judgment. John had declared that the axe was now at the root of the tree, so that a fruitless tree would be cut down and burned. Now something similar is said about the coming of Jesus: he comes with a winnowing fork in order to separate the wheat from the chaff, saving the former and burning the latter.”

[9] Green, Luke, 182. “…the language John uses actually presumes that the process of winnowing has already been completed. Consequently, all that remains is to clear the threshing floor, and this is what John pictures. This means that John’s ministry of preparation is itself the winnowing, for his call to repentance set within his message of eschatological judgment required of people that they align themselves with or over against God’s justice. As a consequence, the role of Messiah is portrayed as pronouncing or enacting judgment on the people on the basis of their response to John.”

[10] Green, Luke, 182. “…it is important to realize that John presents his baptismal activity as an anticipation of the Messiah’s; his baptism forces a decision for or against repentance, and this prepare for the Messiah’s work…”

[11] Cardenal, Solentiname, 56. “One of the women said: ‘to give us an example. He didn’t need baptism but we did, and he did it so we would do it when we saw that even he did it.’” And, “Somebody else said: ‘And he could also have done it out of humility. He was with his people, with his group, and he wasn’t going to say: “I don’t need this, you do it, I don’t have any sin.” The others, the Pharisees, might say that, the ones who didn’t follow John. Not Jesus, he goes along with the others.”

[12] Cardenal, Solentiname, 56. “Alejandro: ‘You could also say out of solidarity. So he wouldn’t be separated form the group.’”

[13] Cardenal, Solentiname, 57. “‘It wasn’t that a dove descended, because it doesn’t say that a dove descended but “like a dove.” A dove is a soft and loving little animal. And the Holy Spirit is loving. It was the love of God that descended upon him.’”

[14] Green, Luke, 187. “The purpose of the divine voice in 3:22 is above all that of providing an unimpeachable sanction of Jesus with regard to his identity and mission. Working in concert with the endowment of the Holy Spirit, this divine affirmation presents in its most acute form Jesus’ role as God’s agent of redemption. This accentuates Jesus’ role as God’s representative, the one through whom God’s aim will be further presented and worked out in the story, but it also demonstrates at least in a provisional way the nature of Jesus’ mission by calling attention to the boundaries of his exercise of power.”

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