Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Not merely symbolic...
It is no secret that I have become increasingly awed by the power of the Living Word. It is no secret that one of my favorite bits of the Christian Book of Concord teaches that the Living Word has and is able to do all that God is and can do (BOC, LC, IV, 17). I believe I could spend a lifetime trying to take such a wonder in and never quite succeed.
It is no secret that the Living Word calms and soothes me, strengthens and sustains me, even when I am not particularly seeking for it to do so, even when my will is much more inclined to remain dwelt upon the misery and plight of mine rather than who I am in Christ, than the riches God has given me, rather than the work the Holy Spirit is doing in my life each breath that I take.
It is no secret that I feel as if God set down the very words of my heart in the collection of prayers that comprise the Psalter thousands of years before He knit me in my mother's womb. It is no secret that I pray them all the time and crave having others pour them into my ears. It is no secret that if you are looking for something to do for me, to say to me, all you have to do and say is a palm, any psalm.
But, to me, the power of the Living Word, in as much as it is humanly possible to grasp, seems very much a secret to so many of God's children. I mean, I know that pastors are stewards of the mysteries of God, but this is no mystery!
Isaiah 55 promises that the Living Word will not return void and will accomplish its purpose. And, as I have pointed out many a time, the Psalter is chock full of admonition to have the Living Word in our ears, in our mouths, on our tongues, and falling from our lips. Surely, this is because of the power of the Living Word, a power that the Holy Spirit uses to create and sustain faith, to give life, to heal, to forgive, and to sanctify us. But, surprisingly enough, these thoughts are not the ones foremost on my mind.
Thoughts of armor are.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, and against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with the truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
~Ephesians 6:10-20
The ex-evangelical in me still holds this strongest association of this passage with the imagery of spiritual battle painted by Christian Fiction author Frank Peretti. In those swash-buckling spiritual battle adventures, God's victory comes only through the prayers of his saints, which give strength to the angels fighting the devil's forces. If Christians fail to pray, the angels are weak and ineffective, unable to protect God's children or prevent bad things from happening. When Christians begin to pray, then the angels have the moxie to smite the enemy...an enemy which often taunts God's army of angels with how weak and pitiful our prayers are at times. It is all very exciting and even thrilling. A part of you becomes enamored with the idea of giving energy to angels to go out and do God's work and you find yourself stopping to pray as you read the text. My goodness, truly, by the end, you are on fire for the Lord.
SIGH.
Yes, I used to believe such bunk. LOVED those books. Read them over and over and over again. Notice though, who is driving the action: man. Not Jesus. Actually, come to think of it, I am not really remembering any Jesus in the stories.
SIGH.
Now, as I have written before, the authors of the Christian Book of Concord mince no words when it comes to the assaults of our foe. Truly, they paint this very dire picture, repeatedly, of how the devil, the world, and even our flesh fight us, draw us away from God and into death. Luther, of course, does this best, being the bluntest of all writers:
No one can believe how the devil opposes and resists these prayers. He cannot allow anyone to teach or to believe rightly. It hurts him beyond measure to have his lies and abominations exposed, which have been honored under the most fancy, sham uses of the divine name. It hurts him when he himself is disgraced, is driven out of the heart, and has to let a breach be made in his kingdom. Therefore, he chafes and rages as a fierce enemy with all his power and might. He marshals all his subjects and, in addition, enlists the world and our own flesh as his allies. For our flesh is in itself lazy and inclined to evil, even though we have accepted and believe God's Word. The world, however, is perverse and wicked. So he provokes the world against us, fans and stirs the fire, so that he may hinder and drive us back, cause us to fall, and again bring us under his power. Such is all his will, and mind, and thought. He strives for this day and night and never rests a moment. He uses all arts, wiles, ways, and means that he can invent.
~BOC, LC, III, 62-64
Against such an assault, against such a foe, we have the power of the Living Word:
And what need is there for more words? If I were to list all the profit and fruit God's Word produces, where would I get enough paper and time? The devil is called the master of a thousand arts. But shall we call God's Word, which drives away and brings to nothing this master of a thousand arts with all his arts and power? The Word must indeed be the master of more than a hundred thousand arts. And shall we easily despise such power, profit, strength, and fruit--we, especially, who claim to be pastors and preachers? If so, not only should we have nothing given us to us, but we should also be driven out, baited with dogs, and pelted with dung. We not only need all this every day just as we need our daily bread, but we must also daily use it against the daily and unending attacks and lurking of the devil, the master of a thousand arts.
~BOC, LC, LP, 12-13
I suppose it is because Luther so intimately understood the sin of our flesh, the doubt and despair, as well as the arrogance and independence that he admonishes us to be daily in the Living Word because we are daily in the devil's kingdom:
Let me tell you this, even though you know God's Word perfectly and are already a master in all things: you are daily in the devil's kingdom. He ceases neither day nor night to sneak up on you and to kindle in your heart unbelief and wicked thoughts against these three commandments and all the commandments. Therefore, you must always have God's Word in your heart, upon your lips, and in your ears. But where the heart is idle and the Word does not make a sound, the devil breaks in and has done the damage before we are aware. On the other hand the Word is so effective that whenever it is seriously contemplated, heard, and used, it is bound to never be without fruit. It always awakens new understanding, pleasure, and devoutness and produces a pure heart and pure thoughts. For these words are not lazy or dead, but are creative, living words. And even though no other interest or necessity move us, this truth ought to urge everyone to the Word, because thereby the devil is put to flight and driven away.
~BOC, LC, I, 100-102
So, I wend my way back to Ephesians. For a while now, I have been thinking about how this passage has been taught to me in the past: a) the use of armor and its components are symbolic in nature, mere figurative language used to make a point and b) the point is that God needs us to pray to accomplish His work. Without our faith, His hands are tied.
Though I am not pretending to be the pastor here, I am confident that a true exegesis of the passage could not be further from this errant one. I believe this because I believe that the Living Word is the sole rule and norm of our Confessions. And not a single sentence of our Confessions would lead someone to conclude that God is dependent upon our faith to accomplish His will, His plans and purposes. Nor do I find that the Living Word is presented as merely symbolic in nature, as non-literal.
Yes, Jesus does speak in parables. Yes, God does speak in dreams. Yes, both of these are a use of language that is a vehicle of understanding, a means of drawing parallels that we might grasp the Truth. However, I, the simple sheep, find no words of dreams or parables or any sort of figurative language in Ephesians.
The Living Word is not merely like armor, it is armor. It is Living. It is Active. It is Powerful. These things are not metaphorical. They are actual. The Living Word will repel the devil. The Living Word will shield you from his lies, his deceit. The Living Word will bring light to the darkness, leaving no place for the darkness to remain. These things, again, are not metaphorical. Just as God can and does accomplish these things, so can and does the Living Word.
In John 16, we are told that in this world, we, as believers, will know trouble. Not might, but will. But just as Genesis 3:15 already provides a way out of eternal death for us, Ephesians points out that God has provided the means to protect ourselves from such.
Having this new understanding of the power of Living Word has completely changed how I read Ephesians 6. I see not myself, but Jesus. I see not my own work, but that of the Holy Spirit. And, as such, this particular bit of Living Word has become all the sweeter to me.
Such solace and comfort and confidence we are given.
Such protection.
Such strength.
Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!
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4 comments:
This is one of your top five posts, Myrtle! You are always superb in your insistence and emphasis upon the centrality of God's living Word in the life of the Christian believer. It is interesting (as well as edifying) to see how you are laying aside the baggage with which you were loaded down during your years in evangelicalism, and are now focusing on Christ, who is indeed the "one thing necessary" for all us poor, miserable sinners. I especially liked your brief analysis of Frank Peretti's portrayal of spiritual warfare in "This Present Darkness" and other books. They indeed made for edge-of-your-seat, keep-the-pages-turning reading. However, they were an epic fail because in these early books Peretti took off in some wacky directions Scripture does not go. I may be mistaken, but I believe Peretti has disavowed some of what he presented in those books. Anyway, thank you for an excellent post. You are always a pleasure to read!
I find it interesting how your journey through "evangelical" churches differs from mine. Or maybe, how the messages you heard one way, fell differently on my ears.
And I have read the "darkness" books by Frank Peretti. And I liked them. And what I remember most about them is the way his words helped me picture the assault of the devil upon us, how real it is. I saw it in every day life through his books.
So, although, they may not stand up to doctrine, I wouldn't discount them altogether.
Becky, my dear friend, I have to disagree with you. I believe that the fact that the books are not consistent with the teaching of the Bible, but presented as "Christian" fiction, makes them very dangerous. There is nothing good in false doctrine, which is what they are.
I am glad you have not had the experiences I have had, but I have met many in life and on-line who have and who have fled to the pure doctrine of salvation through grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
What is eerie for me is to read Walther's The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel and see so often how the errant teaching he points out with the reformed and papists pervades the evangelical church.
This danger, though, exists in the Lutheran Church as well. I read an article recently talking about how man turns away from God until Jesus and then God delights in man. It was about a pattern of disobedience and then the faith given to us. The article puzzled me a bit because the focus was more about man's obedience than Jesus. Because of original sin, man's obedience is always going to be moot. We cannot fear and trust and love God without faith given to us. But more bothersome, or perhaps equally bothersome, was the word "then."
Psalm 18, one of the prayers God has given us to pray, tells us that He delights in us. He delights in us. Not He will delight in us. There is no if/then in God's delight. He loves ALL His creation. He wants for ALL men to be saved. His delight is not based on what we can do for Him. In my opinion, I think that single little word hold genuine danger for the reader.
The book we are reading together, for one thing, is teaching me how very, very important language is, how very important specific words can be.
When it comes to the Gospel, when it comes to the message of Christ, specificity is important. And even the smallest of compromise is a real, real danger.
Pastor Brown has this great entry on his blog about this danger. He looks at the profound difference between "for me" and "to me."
Bible study after bible study in state after state, year after year, in the evangelical world was focused on the "to me." What does this mean to me? How can it apply to me? What can I take away from this? What is the life application of this text? All of that is bunk and all of it denies the work of the Holy Spirit and the efficacy of the Cross. All of it is very dangerous.
There can be no compromise in the message of the Gospel.
(cont'd)
For centuries, the Catholic church persecuted its own members, pressuring them into buying indulgences and such, bullying them with their very salvation. That is blunt, but it is reality. There is truth in the metaphor of a slippery slope, in the truth behind the parable that even a little leaven leavens the entire loaf.
I look at the photos I took of the Vatican museum, and I am staggered by the monies collected from parishioners over the centuries to purchase and fund all that. Where is the Gospel in creating such a hoard? Where is the Gospel in continuing to profit from such a hoard? How does maintaining that further the mission of the Church? Are the monies from the museum making their way to the parishes around the world in need? [The Vatican City, which maintains the museums, posted a $30.6 million profit in TY 2010.] Catholic priests in Africa charge for baptisms. So, no, clearly it is not. If the idea is to preserve the art of the world's history, how is that a role a church should take? Why not donate it to the museums of many countries so that more can see it? The work of the Catholic church is much obscured. There is awesome courage and faith to stand against mandating free birth control, but yet what faith is there in charging for baptisms?
Yes, my passion has spilled over here, but I believe this is a very important topic. Words matter. Truth matters. Diluting it with false teaching matters. Even in fiction. Given how our society has evolved into one driven by entertainment...perhaps...it should matter most in fiction.
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