If you caught Martin Luther at the grocery store, probably in the beer isle, and asked him “if you died tonight, would you go to heaven or hell?” he would look you in the eye and tell you in no uncertain terms that he has no idea and that is his dilemma if not also his angst and then in the same breath and as breathlessly as this run-on sentence is spilling out onto line after line he would tell you with greater certainty what he does know….and that is that he has heard the word of Jesus Christ, born, lived, died and rose again and that that word is simply is too good not to be true and he is going to trust that light over against the darkness of not knowing and not being able to do anything about his ultimate destiny.
I am a believer in that word too. And if you caught me in the beer isle, after asking if you like lager or ale I would tell you I have no idea what will become of me. But I do know this. I have heard the word of Jesus and he is sweetness to my sour soul.
And I will go there. Much like John watching Jesus approach the river Jordan and pointing to Jesus with “behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” I see Jesus and I am going there. The darkness is too deep for me and I have no answer nor can I provide any light. But God does. In Christ Jesus.
The notion that God is a Judge who holds court and decides who is in and who is out is an image we have fabricated out of our own deep sin of thinking we can take our destiny into our own hands by saying “yes” to a proposition about Jesus or others and fabricated out of our own deep despair at knowing we really do let ourselves down and let others down and so too we must be letting God down too.
The bible is at pains to let us know God is Love who holds court to throw us a feast if we but sit down and eat and drink!
Behold! God is not out to get us! God is out to give us….everything…including our future. But we will not have it! And in the case of our ultimate destiny, because we can’t impact that (why? Because we are not God! Only God is in the destiny business! So we are stuck….and do not know!) we are left in the hands of God. What is God going to do with me? I don’t know! But….God knows I do not know and in his love put on “clothes” in Jesus. And it.s really more intense and radical than that. God didn’t become Jesus. God is Jesus.
And even though I don’t know my destiny, and the darkness of not knowing and not being able to be God and determine that destiny is too dark for words, I have seen the light.
I have seen Jesus Christ. And he is my mercy. And I will trust Him and I will trust in Him.
On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther did not go trick or treating and he knew nothing of our “Halloween” but certainly did know that that day was “All Hallows Eve” from which we get our holiday name if not the way we observe the day, but he did go trucking down to the Castle Church on the opposite side of town in Wittenberg and, being the honorable Professor that he was, proposed a debate by posting his proposition publicly on the church doors. The Thesis for his debate numbered 95 and I mean to tell you they stirred up a hornets nest. Luther’s major contribution and the explosion of grace did not come, in my estimation, from the issue of indulgences of which the 95 are so famous. But that posting event and the Guttenberg press aid in distributing the printed document put him on the map. For me, the genius and power of Luther comes in his work on the freedom and bondage of the will….related to the “if you died tonight” discussion above.
As a closing Halloween treat, and no trick, and related to the beer isle discussions, I offer to you some thoughts from Guther Gassmann and Scott Hendrix’ The Lutheran Confessions (1999) from their chapter on “The Christian Life.”
“Luther agreed with Augustine’s decision and held the doctrine of predestination throughout his life. He acknowledged its danger, however. Conceivably you could believe in Christ and still not be saved because you were not predestined. Luther admitted that such speculation had once almost driven him to despair. Fortunately, he had been consoled by his monastic superior and counselor, John von Staupitz, who advised Luther: ‘Why do you torture yourself with these speculations? Look at the wounds of Christ and at the blood that was shed for you. In their light predestination will shine.’ Luther learned from his own experience that predestination, which belonged to the hidden will of God, was secondary to faith in Christ, which was revealed in Scripture as the way to salvation. He then advised others to put the revealed Word of God ahead of speculation: ‘Accept the present promise [of Christ] and predestination, and do not inquire too curiously about the secret counsels of God. If you believe in the revealed God and accept his Word, he will gradually also reveal the hidden God. For “he who sees me also sees the Father” (John 14:9).”
Happy Reformation Day 2010!
Happy Halloween!
