What are you worth?

How many widgets you can make in an hour?

How high a salary you can command?

How many perks you get....private bathroom, personal parking space, important title?

How strong or bright or tall or talented you are?

In a market economy, you are worth whatever you can command from the market.

In the Divine Economy, you are worth the sum total of divine love....just because you are.  

The Good Shepherd will seek for the one lost sheep out of 100 and carry you home.  The landowner will go to the marketplace again and again from sunrise to sunset looking for waiting workers just so no one is overlooked.   The father will stand at his gate and watch for the foolish, profligate, disrespectful son to return.....so he can welcome him and throw a party.

You will never be worth more than you are to your Creator God.  

Jesus lived to give us a concrete example of God's love for all of creation.  Jesus died in total commitment to that love.  Jesus rose to new life in the power of that love.  You are worth exactly that much.

Thanks be to God.

Be sure you understand the rules

God doesn't play by our rules.  We spend a great deal of time trying to wrap our heads around that reality.  We talk about how God's actions 'aren't fair' (see the Prodigal Son, Luke 15).  We side with the wrong character in a parable.  We know that, under no circumstances, would we pick up a wounded stranger and leave him and our credit card at the local Motel 6 until we could return. (Good Samaritan, Luke 10).  We are certain that the guy who buried his one talent in the ground and then returned it to the Master wasn't particularly bright financially, but we don't see this as a failure of any sort.

But God doesn't play by our rules.

Our decisions are driven by the Profit Motive; it certainly drives our economy.  So we hire workers at a rate where they can be paid, and we can have something left over.  A little something for the owner of the property.  A little something to reward their risk.  We make choices so we gain an advantage and protect ourselves.  So, a  little something......or sometimes a great big something......to maintain the distinction between those who own the land and those who just work the land.  When corporations are deciding 'right' policy, they are driven by the profit motive, and individuals aren't far behind.

However Jesus asks, "What does it profit a man if he were to gain his life but lose his soul?"  Apparently, Jesus has a different kind of profit motive in mind.

So when Jesus tells this parable about a landowner who hires day laborers in the marketplace (Matthew 20) we are a little stymied at his actions.  The landowner hires some workers at 6 am and agrees to pay them the agreed upon daily wage.  The 'daily wage' was to be enough to feed a family for a day.  There wasn't any wiggle room in it for the worker.  But the workers were pleased because now they knew that their family would eat today when they got home.

Wonderful.  The landowner goes back to the marketplace again at noon, and 3 pm and again at 5, just before everyone was ready to call it a day.  Again and again, the landowner says, "Come to my vineyard.  Come work in the land I own.  I will pay you what is right."  So, no matter what 'right' might mean, these late in the day workers knew they would get something and so a little food was possible.  What a wonderful, generous landowner!

Except when it was time to get paid, everyone, EVERYONE, got the same daily wage....the 12 hour workers and the 1 hour workers......and guess who wasn't happy about that arrangement?  It just wasn't fair!

Because, you see, you get paid for the work you do.  The more work, the more pay.  Stronger folk get paid more than weak folk.  Young folk get paid more than old folk.  That's the way it works, we cry.

But not in God's world.  Not in God's vineyard.  Not according to God's rules.

God's 'kingdom' is not our kingdom with the rough, uncomfortable edges worn down.  It is a different place.  Different rules.  Different values.  Different decisions.  Either you want to be a part of the Divine Plan or you don't.  Either you want life or you don't.

For what does it profit a man if he gains his life and loses his soul?  That's the God question.

Reformation Monday: Sola Scriptura 2

Now that you have the basics on how the Lutherans read the Bible, we can figure out why Luther made such a big deal about Word Alone.  But it's not as easy as all that........


When Luther spoke about the Word....he was rarely speaking simply about the Bible.  He was speaking about Jesus: who is The Word.  Made Flesh.  Who dwelt among us.  (see John 1).  Jesus is the logos - a Greek word that means 'a means of communicating a meaning'.  When the writer of John uses it s/he means 'the embodiment of a concept'.  It doesn't mean just a 'word;' it is a word that when spoken becomes the thing it signifies.

And even if Jesus is 'just a word' then what word is he?  He is God's word of grace.  In fact, the graciousness of God's love for us, which is made flesh in the person of Jesus, is the key understanding of the Good News for Luther.  Luther said that we are justified by grace through faith and not by any works of our own.  (look up the 3rd chapter of Romans and read from there to begin to grasp where Luther got this).  It is that Word:  grace through faith ...which is the core of the message of God's love for humankind.  So first, The Word is that we are saved by grace through faith.  

The second understanding of The Word is Jesus:  we come to understand God's gracious love through the life, teaching, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus the person, Son of God.  So, second, The Word = Jesus.

#3  The Word is the Bible.  We get to know all of this through the words of the Bible.  The Bible's primary purpose is to transmit this truth:  Jesus is God incarnate demonstrating in word, deed and life and death, the gracious love of God.  We read the Bible with this lens of God's love for us through Jesus.

And in the end, whatever we want to say about God and Jesus, we need to find some support for it within the scripture's message of Divine Love.  Sola Scriptura.  No building our doctrines on the teachings of some scholar and holding them as important as the message of the Bible.  No pronouncements from fallible humans which cannot be understood through the eyes of the Bible.  No human made rituals and traditions have the same authority as the Bible and its witness to God's great love as Creator for all of creation.  No tradition can get in the way of proclaiming God's great love either.

Whew!  It took us a long way to get here, but I think we have the basics.  God is revealed to us through the stories of people of faith, and most perfectly in the person of Jesus.  If you have a God question, go to the scriptures to seek an answer. Sola Scriptura.

More journey than event

When I write about forgiveness I am constrained to consider my own relationship with it.  That is, how am I following my own understandings?  Am I preaching to others while failing to follow myself?  Although this is often an uncomfortable internal conversation, it almost always proves to be a valuable one.

My most recent reflection on the subject led to this:  forgiveness is more journey than it is event.

I believe that it is rare that true or pure forgiveness occurs - complete and full blown - in a particular moment.  It is rare that one can confess and ask for forgiveness while the other receives the confession and offers complete forgiveness all in one moment.  It is rare that you can put a time and a place on a forgiveness event.

Rather, what we thought was forgiveness in the beginning doesn't really mature until time has passed and we have tested out our supposed forgiveness in many different situations.  As we journey down this road called forgiveness we recognize those by-ways where we get stuck, where old attitudes rise up and we re-act rather than respond to the other.  When we think back, we can remember the time and place of the original hurt, and it still hurts; it still matters and we realize that our forgiveness is still a work in progress.

Furthermore, the wounds that we cause one another are not interchangeable.  Some hurt more.  Some have longer term consequences.  Some hurts are inflicted on those we love rather than directly on us.  I might forgive you crashing my car a lot more quickly than if you had an affair with my husband.  I might forgive you undermining me at work more quickly than I would intentional lies to a potential employer which costs me a job.  I might forgive your demands for greater alimony much more easily than I will forgive the abandonment of our child.

Some stuff is REALLY hard to forgive because it was REALLY hurtful and the hurt is too big to swallow, and in truth, will never be forgotten.  So instead, we begin the journey of forgiveness.  We take just one step forward, perhaps we simply commit to eliminating negative comments about the other.  One step.  When we have mastered that one step, we try the next.  Then the next.  Then the next.

Don't fool yourself.  The steps count.  They move you towards a place which is more healthy for you and your soul; it is more healthy for the community around you, and in time, it will prove more healthy for the (not completely) forgiven other party.  When anger and resentment and jealousy are removed from the equation, however slowly, the world is a better place.

Forgiveness increases the grace quotient in the world, and that, my friends, is never a bad thing.

Forgiveness: simple but not easy.

Jesus talks about forgiveness.  He tells a parable that has commentators tied up in knots.  He challenges believers to do math.  In the end, it was a tough week in the gospel of Matthew (18.21-35)

Forgiveness is a tough topic because forgiveness is tough for humans.  It's tough because forgiveness is only necessary when harm has been done.......nasty words, physical wounds, relationship scars, etc. etc.  If it didn't cause wounds, then it probably doesn't need to be forgiven, you simply need to be polite.

The primary obstacle to forgiveness is pride.  That gives us a second hint as to why this is such a challenging demand of the faith......yet there it is, forgiving others is an expectation of our faith.  Love your enemies; pray for those who persecute you; forgive others.

But the whole process of forgiveness cannot take the first step unless someone is willing to lay down their pride and admit....I might even say 'confess'.....that they have harmed someone else.  No slight of hand statements about good intentions or possible misunderstandings.  It begins with someone naming the hurt and harm that's occurred. ...and taking responsibility for it.  I am fairly certain that people exist who would rather die than truly admit they were wrong, and their actions caused harm.

I know how hard it is.  It's hard for me too.  It means I must adjust my internal picture of who I am and just what I am capable of doing. In the end, I am 'the kind of person who would....'  You fill in the blank.

It requires that I open myself to scrutiny, and the person doing the scrutiny is someone I already know that I have harmed.  I am offering them the opportunity to hurt me back.  Admitting my wrong and seeking the  forgiveness of another does not come with guarantees and therefore it is fraught with danger.

On the other side, accomplishing successful forgiveness requires that the injured party be willing to lay down their pride as well.  You can't forgive while protecting your privilege to complain; you can't continue with character assassination.    It requires one to release all claims to victimhood and listen with an open heart to the other.  The larger the hurt, the harder this is to do.  For many, it can only be accomplished in smaller stages.

There you stand.  One who has to adjust their self-image, admit their flaws aloud, take responsibility for actions, and one who has to release all claim to the very real hurt that has been caused.  No one wants to do either, but without this kind of truth, no real forgiveness is possible.

It is a simple formula.  It is very, very hard to do.

Yet should you take a chance, should you lay down your pride, lower your defenses and speak the truth you have a chance to experience the wonder of new life being created.  For just like the first day of creation when  the spirit moved over the waters and God said, 'Let there be light'....in that space between victim and perpetrator the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of Life can make a new beginning.

Carved out by truth spoken, that space is the point where two individuals agree that the past is the past and it will no longer color or shape the space between us.  It's not about forgetting; it is about not allowing what has happened to distort what will happen in the days ahead.  It is a new beginning.

I have actually seen it happen just like that.  I have received just such a gift of forgiveness, and I am fairly certain I have managed a couple of times to give that gift to another.  But it has never been easy, and most times it is incomplete and imperfect.  Yet this image of an open space where I am  not afraid of my enemies, where I can meet the other one without distraction and begin to build a new tomorrow, where I can accept the truth about who I am.....this is to be in the presence of the Divine. This is heaven.

Reformation Monday: Sola Scriptura

I find it amusing that Lutherans are known for their 'alone' theology:  Word alone. Faith alone, Grace alone.  We who do 'both and' theology also have 3 distinct 'alones' to guide our way.

So let's look at Sola Scriptura:  Word Alone.  As simple as the phrase is, it is a complex concept.  Luther was NOT saying that anybody reading the plain words of the Bible could clearly ascertain the message of the Bible from its plain meaning.  [Just like 'we'll have to do lunch sometime' means you can expect an invitation this week.]


#1 Lutherans do not interpret the Bible literally. Luther and Lutherans of the ELCA kind are not literal interpreters of the Bible.  So in the story where Balaam's donkey speaks, we do not think that there truly was a talking ass.  Certainly there is a message in that story, but not that donkeys had a day once when they spoke in comprehensible language.

#2 Not every ancient manuscript which claimed to be speaking God's Word was considered authentic or authoritative. Not everything was included in the official canon (the agreed upon list of writings to be included in the Bible) because church leaders felt they distorted the God story. .  For years in the early church, the list of recognized writings to be included shifted a little back and forth until the canon was closed in the early 400's.  These other writings are called 'extra-textual' by the scholars and can provide some insight into early practice and the evolution of creeds.  One such is The Didache which you can read here Didache text

#3 Lutherans understand the Bible to be the inspired Word of God.  Inspired = Spirit led, but transmitted to us through human agents.  God may be eternal but humans are rooted in time and space.  We are shaped by the culture in which we live, the part of the world where we are born, even our social class and gender.  A simple example of this might be:  a fireman would tell stories in terms of emergencies and fast response and putting out fires.  A 1st century woman would tell her stories from the perspective of birthing and raising children, cooking and sewing.  They are trying to tell us something about this God that they know and who has been revealed to them, but they use the images and experiences that are a part of their lives.

This means that the Bible is tied to particular historic times and cultures and practices.  These practices shape the way in which the God story is told because that is the only way the folks writing it all down know how to tell the story.  The 16 year old girls of Jesus' time were not discussing which college they wanted to attend.  They were about to be married (if not already) and have children.  That's what 16 year old girls did.

So as we read the Bible together and listen for God's voice and God's revelation, we also need to know the context in which the story was written.  A good study Bible will include an introduction to each of the books and helpful notes at the bottom of the pages to help you figure some of this out.  There are lots of books published by Augsburg Fortress to help you figure it out.

This figuring out process is best done in a community: a group discussion where lots of questions are raised and multiple points of view expressed.....because God continues to speak to us today, sending the Spirit to guide our study and open new insights.  It is easy to see that an eternal God who speaks through an unchanging script from an ancient time can have multiple interpretations - and all those readings are skewed by our own time and place.

Ahhhhh!  I will never understand the Bible!  Not true, but it is a journey that requires time, patience and attentiveness to what is said, what is not said, who speaks, who is silent, and......my own prejudices that I bring into the mix.

The good news is, it's just loads of fun to explore and consider and break open in new ways.  Even with a bit of higher education on the subject, I am continually fed by the new and insightful readings of my study partners.

All of that, and guess what?  We haven't really gotten to Sola Scriptura yet.  But there were a few basics we needed first.  Watch this space for more Reformation Monday posts on reading the Bible.