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• Lead Us Not Into Temptation • Seen and Unseen at GIVEN • The Beatitudes W W W. H I G H E RT H I N G S . O R G
/ FA L L / 2010
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Contents T A B L E
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The Beatitudes
By Rev. David P. Scaer Few Gospel passages have been mischaracterized as much as The Beatitudes. Can you inherit the earth if you're just meek enough? See God if you’re just pure enough? Some would say that, but Dr. David Scaer sets the record straight and brings the focus where it should be with these heavy words—on Christ!
The American Revolution
By Rev. Robert Kieselowsky “Going to the mission field“ might make you think of some brave soul heading into deepest, darkest Africa. Bet you never thought of Colonial America as a mission field but the Lutheran church certainly did. It sent Henry Melchior Muhlenberg to work with pastors in Pennsylvania on the cusp of the American Revolution, where he found himself stuck in the middle of a massive moral dilemma. Find out more about this influential pastor as told by Rev. Kieselowsky and let his life serve as an encouragement to you.
So You Want to Be a Wise Guy, Eh?
By Timmothy Heath, Jr. If you watch most reality TV shows, you’ll quickly realize that wisdom is a scarce commodity. It doesn’t seem to be valued much today and those who do seek after it often look for it in all the wrong places. Mr. Heath reveals where true wisdom begins and ends, and the good news is that it’s available to YOU.
10 Teaching a New Song
By Phillip Magness Do you love music and have talents in that area? Well entertain this cool possibility: Maybe your church needs you and what you have to offer. You might even be able to do it without having to earn your “Doctorate in Church Music at the School of Hard Knocks,” where Cantor Magness received his credentials.
12 Christ on Campus
By Rev. Philip Young Nobody was more surprised than Rev.Young after the Nashville conference this summer.To his astonishment, the glory of heaven was revealed at Vanderbilt University, a secular haven, when more than 1,000 Lutheran teens and adults joined together for Divine Service.
20 Sing!
By Rev. Larry Peters Pipes don’t have perfect pitch? Sing like a sick cow? No worries! Sing unto the Lord a new song! Rev. Peters will encourage the most timid among you to wrestle with the words of the hymns in your hearts, even if you don’t utter a sound. You may discover that you want to sing in spite of yourself.
24 Spiriligiosity
By Rev. Jonathan Fisk With pinpoint accuracy, Rev. Fisk zeroes in on today’s false notion of “spirituality.” Are you open-minded or close-minded? Why is “religion“ a bad word in our postmodern culture? Be prepared to get a book’s worth of helpful insight in this article via Rev. Fisk’s pull-no-punches way of communicating Gospel truth.
Volume 10/Number 3 • Fall 2010
26 Speaking Hope to Homosexuals
By Anonymous There’s a high likelihood you know someone who struggles with homosexuality. Maybe it is your own personal battle.The author of this article seeks to equip you to speak Jesus to your friend, who may not know where to go with this agonizing conflict, and handles this complex and sensitive subject with wisdom and grace.
COLUMNS
22 Feasting with Our Lord: The Day of Atonement
By Rev. Thomas C. Messer “Yom Kippur” shows up on calendars every year, but what is it? It’s the Day of Atonement, and Rev. Messer once again shows us how the rich ceremonial laws of the feast pointed forward to Christ. Discover how even the smallest details of this feast find their fulfillment in the Cross.
28 Lead Us Not Into Temptation
By Rev. William M. Cwirla “Don’t eat the forbidden fruit!”Tempting, isn’t it? Hence the need for this 6th Petition of the Lord’s Prayer. If sin weren’t such a delectable choice, we wouldn’t so readily gravitate toward it. Rev. Cwirla artfully reminds us that our arsenal to fight such temptation is overflowing: It is Christ and Him crucified, who perfectly resisted temptation on our behalf!
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Volume 10/Number 3/Fall 2010
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The
Beatitudes By Rev. David P. Scaer
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Blessed are the poor in spirit,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn,for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek,for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful,for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart,for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers,for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3-10)
Rembrandt The Sermon Canvas on panel; 62 x 80 cm. Ca. 1634-36. Berlin, Germäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen.
T
he most referenced section of the Bible is the Sermon on the Mount, and in these three chapters of Matthew (5-7), the Lord’s Prayer and the Beatitudes are the most widely cited by Christians and non-Christians alike.The Beatitudes derive their name from beati, the Latin word for “blessed.” Taken out of a church context, the Beatitudes are used in ways that do not fit with Jesus’ other teachings. For example,“Blessed are the poor in spirit” has served as a call for a more equitable economic adjustment between rich and poor, and “Blessed are the peacemakers” is found on the walls of the United Nations' headquarters in New York. Christians themselves do not agree on their meaning, and interpretations vary widely from the early post-apostolic church to the present. Since Christ says that He is the content and goal of all the Scriptures (John 5:39; Luke 24:27,44), we should look first for a Christological interpretation of the Beatitudes—these words that introduce Jesus’ first recorded discourse in the New Testament. Since the Beatitudes are presented in the plural, (“Blessed are . . . ”), most scholars hold that Jesus is speaking about His followers. However, a clue calling for adjusting this commonly held view is found in the verse immediately following the Beatitudes—a verse that might be called the "ninth beatitude": "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account.”While this beatitude is similar to the eight Beatitudes, it does not begin with “blessed are,” but with “blessed are you.” Although this change from “they” to “you” might seem insignificant, Jesus is separating Himself from His followers. He makes the distinction sharper when He claims that they will be blessed in their being persecuted on account of Him. Clearly Jesus is putting himself in a distinct category from them.Their suffering for Him will be to their benefit—an astounding claim if Jesus were only a mere human being.This leads us to propose that in their primary sense, the Beatitudes describe Christ first and then believers as they are persecuted for Him. Rather than each beatitude referring to someone different, each has the same point of reference. With the exception of the first and the last beatitudes, each holds out a different promise: Both the poor in spirit and those persecuted for righteousness’ sake are promised the kingdom of heaven.These two verses summarize the Beatitudes as a literary unit.The first beatitude,“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” describes how Jesus became poor by putting aside His prerogatives as God and not using them for His own benefit. In the eighth beatitude His selfimpoverishment before God is seen by us in His accepting persecution, which Matthew later tells us takes place in His being crucified. The “ninth beatitude” — the verse tacked on to the Beatitudes— describes how Christians share in Christ’s life by being persecuted for His sake, and so they share
with Him in the kingdom of the heavens that is realized by His resurrection. There is general agreement that the Beatitudes describe the highest form of moral perfection, even surpassing the Ten Commandments, but there is no agreement on how it can be obtained or who possesses it. In the Middle Ages, the perfection of Beatitudes was sought by taking vows of poverty and celibacy. For some Protestants, the Beatitudes describe how Christians can live holy lives without sinning. Appropriately, people with this belief are called perfectionists. By removing Christ, some hold that by ourselves we can work toward the perfection of the Beatitudes by fulfilling the Law. Others see them as a moral impossibility. Looking at the Scriptures through the lens of the Law and the Gospel, Lutherans tend to see the Beatitudes as impossible challenges. As different as these views are, both agree that the Beatitudes are primarily law. But, if the Beatitudes are understood Christologically—that they first describe Christ and then those who are, by baptism, in Christ—they present a reality that is already ours by faith. Because of Jesus, we are blessed! In the Beatitudes we see the Law as fulfilled in Christ, which is, after all, what the Gospel is.The Beatitudes should be understood, not only theologically in terms of law and gospel, but also as portraits of Christ’s life and death in their immediate context of Matthew’s gospel. It is then will we see ourselves in the Beatitudes, if only dimly, until our resurrection, when Christ’s perfection will be manifest in us. Rev. Dr. David P. Scaer is Chairman of the Systematic Theology Department at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana. He can be reached at dpscaer@juno.com.
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Spiriligiosity By Rev. Jonathan Fisk
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Why
do some people say they are“spiritual”but not“religious”? The short answer: They're lying.They have a religion. It's American Civic Deistic Therapeutic Moralistic Postmodern Philosophy.That's a mouthful! But it just means that your god is whatever you make it to be as long as it's helpful to you. In other words, when people say,“I'm spiritual, but not religious,”they think they're being very original. Spiritualists think they've come up with this idea on their own. They really believe it’s a profound, new step forward in the evolution of religiosity.
It's silly, really.There’s no difference between “spirituality” and “religion.”The words mean the same thing. But even though the words aren’t special, people use them as if they are. Sad part is, not only is the idea old, but it's about as profound as Hawaiian shirts are cool. “I'm spiritual,”means,“I have something supernatural-ishy that I believe.”But this“belief”is entirely private. It’s individualistic. My private spirituality might be something I practice religiously, but it’s totally mine.That's what makes it “spiritual.”You don't have to agree.You just can't disagree.Why? Because it's“private”and“up to me.”When someone pipes up, “Well, I'm not religious, I'm just spiritual,”you're supposed to respond,“Great! What's good for you is good for you!”Then you exchange pats on the back and think about how evolved and elite you are—not like those religious Pharisees. “Religion” (said while making a nasty face) is different. It's public.That is, more than one person believes, teaches and confesses it. It's shared and external. External is not private, so spiritualizers think “religion” (public spirituality) is judgmental. It's shared, so it's not really all “mine.”That makes it inauthentic. And that makes it false. “My spirituality” means “my private religion that you can't judge.” Meanwhile,“your religion” means “your external spirituality that I'm allowed to judge because it's not private, and that makes it fake.” This boondoggle is the result of the Enlightenment, a philosophical movement which gifted western civilization with an overwhelming focus on individual persons.This grand reversal of thinking made the meaning of existence no longer God or country but “you.”This “modern” world ran into trouble in the last century when two world wars caused philosophers to decide that, not only are you central, but you’re also totally isolated. Now, individuality goes even further. Modernism thought the universe could be understood by you. But now, postmodernism believes it can only be understood through you.There is one filter: private, individual, personal experience, which usually means something like,“I rock.You don't.” In postmodernism's selfish, judgmental worldview, a person is allowed to be spiritual about a religion, but religion always ruins spirituality. Religion isn't spiritual by itself. Spiritualizers fix religion by bringing private spirituality into it. You have to give it “meaning.” This is hopeless, lame and totally anti-Christian. Christianity is not about you! It's about public faith, public witness, public confession of the Truth, regardless of your personal
experience, filters or feelings. Christianity is agreement, consensus, communion, participation, all in the same thing: the real, once-for-all death and resurrection of Christ, delivered to us in His Word and Sacraments.“Church” means people who assemble around this public delivery of spirituality— the same Words, the same Divine rites for all. Americans shy away from such religiosity. It has boundaries, and our culture assumes that authority and boundaries are bad. Most Americans confess this “private” mythology even though no one can actually live it. For instance, you go at green lights, stop at red lights, and get angry at those who don't! If it's necessary to agree on something silly like which color to stop our cars, you would think we wouldn't want to be off in a private corner trying to figure out if God is real, or if it's okay for me to murder my neighbor and steal his stuff. But “spirituality” and “my religion,” we insist with a vengeance, must be all about 'me.' Therein lies the deception. “I'm spiritual, not religious,” means,“I worship me.” “Spirituality” is the religion of “what I think.” Meanwhile, people like you and me, who have a religion, are told that kind of thing is only for closed-minded people. Funny: The one who worships “what I think” thinks he has an open mind, and tells the ones who worship “what others together confessed” that their minds are closed. Christianity is a public religion received by private faith of the individual. Individual hearts are regenerated by the proclamation of our Lord's forgiveness of our sins. Christian religion is the “free gift” of the private spirituality of the one man, Jesus, publicly given to each individual as we come together to say what we have heard and believed. It is this external “religion” that makes the spirituality work. External is the root of the Good News.There is an objective, outside-ofyou, eternal Man, who is the Son of God, who died and rose for our sins. It wasn't made up by, doesn't depend on, and can't be changed by us. Neither has it left us to our limited, private spiritualizing. Jesus has religiously sought after us, to save us. Private spiritual dreaming will die.The Christian religion is True Spirituality, which can boast of being an everlasting worldview. Rev. Jonathan Fisk serves as pastor at St. John Lutheran Church in Springfield, Pennsylvania. He can be reached at revfisk@gmail.com.
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