Reveling in the Book of Concord...

[A swan song to the Facebook group I tried to start.]

I started this group for the most selfish of reasons: I crave, deeply, interaction with people who either love the Christian Book of Concord or those who are willing to dip their toes in the water and would like a place to share the experience. However, to my nervous, silly self, it seems to me all I have really created is a second place to shout at the wind...something I can do on my own wall. So, I am mostly convinced not to post here anymore, save for the Snippets, since many here are not on my friends list and sharing riches from our Confessions is never a bad thing...to me at least. However, I thought I would post once more. The funny thing is...I do not really have the words to say what I want to say. SIGH.

I was prepping the Snippets posts for the rest of the week and stumbled across something. Friday's entry is so good to me, I wanted to switch to that for the morrow. Only, one of my self-imposed rules is never to do so since most anything I find in the Book of Concord ultimately falls into the category of one of my favorite bits. That being the case, I would be shuffling order non-stop when I set up the week at a time. So, maybe when Friday rolls around, you will check back to read what floated my spiritual boat. That aside, why I am writing now is that something within the quote, in addition to the content of the quote, caught my eye: a Bible verse reference.

Now, if any of you are lovers of the Christian Book of Concord and are familiar with any of the bits I have posted, you might have noticed another self-imposed rule: I do not include scriptural references that are not part of the text. That is because sometimes the ones the editors added simply make no sense to me. And it is because I find them a distracting interruption to reading the sentences themselves, reading the words about the Living Word that I long so much to understand. So, when sharing bits with others, I only include the references from direct quotes.

That said, I wanted to note...again...even though I cannot find the words to actually discuss it...that this most interesting and intriguing, to me, parallel between the reference in this Friday's snippet post, 2 Corinthians 3:16, and John 3:16 and following. 

Yes, the 3:16 leapt out at me. For sure that was the first thing that caught my eye, but it was also the content. By this I mean--and I will surely fumble and stumble and bumble about here--2 Corinthians 3:16 is about how without Jesus, we will never understand the Law (yep, another reference to my beloved Article II of the Augsburg Confession), never understand that we are all sinners and the profundity and enormity of that reality in every facet of our being, every facet of our lives. Only...through Jesus. And with the discussion, you have the metaphor of a veil, the veil being pulled away so that we become enlightened, so that we can see clearly.

A dear friend has been reading aloud John to me, chapter by chapter. After a few chapters, I dared asked him, being a pastor and all, to add an antiphon of John 1:15:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ~John 1:1-5 

So, every day I am savoring this passage, wrapping it around my bruised and terrified heart like a blanket. I also am hanging it before me, wherever I look, like the banns posted of old. A grand announcement to the world, to our foe, and to my own flesh...to me.

Think about John 3:16-21:

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believe in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has already been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hate the light, and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

Come Friday, check out the quote from the Book of Concord. Think about the content about the Law and Jesus' role with the Law as noted in the quote. Read 2 Corinthians 3 and think about the veil and darkness. Then read back over this quote from John 3 and think about the distinction between the Law and Jesus, the Law and the Gospel. Think about the role of the Law and the role of Jesus. And maybe you will tell me if you, too, can draw interesting and intriguing parallels between the two chapter 3s, if you, too, see, almost, the whole of all our doctrine in that one quote.

I revel in the wonder of the ineffable gift God gave the Church, gave me, in the Christian Book of Concord. I revel in the open and free access to our pure doctrine. I wonder at the illumination it gives to the Living Word, both that which is direct and straightforward and that which leaves you leaping about here and there, almost dancing because everything fits, everything has a place, everything is so inextricably interconnected...just as the body is a whole, not merely the sum of its parts.

And I revel in the blessing that despite every attempt of the world, our foe, and even my own flesh, I remain not in darkness. While my eyes might see only pitch black before me, in reality is a shining beacon so bright that not a mote of darkness remains in any corner of the universe. Yes, I see but dimly now. One day, I will not. One day, I will shed all fear and shame and confusion and despair and anguish...because Jesus did not come to judge me. The Law has already done that. Jesus came to remove the veil for me, to open my eyes since I could not do so, that I might stand in the light for all time.

Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!