Simul, Spirituality, and the Sacraments

The Rev. Andrew Weisner

Simul

Simul.... Simul justus et peccator ... "Simultaneously righteous and a sinner." It is one of the more famous phrases in Lutheranism.1 And the principle, the concept that something can be two things at the same time, is not only a premise of Lutheran anthropology, but an idea that runs through Christian theology prior to Lutheranism, and indeed, is a description of creation.

The Academic Roots of Lutheranism

"The Lutheran Reformation was born in a university." Those words I heard first, as I recall, from Professor (later, Bishop) Michael C.D. McDaniel when I was his student at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC. I remember also being inspired by that statement in a lecture by Dr. Herman Steumpfle when he was president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, and I have heard or read it various other times and places. Indeed, while Martin Luther was a priest and monk, his method of biblical exegesis and theological thinking that blossomed into the Reformation were honed when he was a professor at the University of Wittenberg. His co-laborer in the effort, who wrote several of the foundational documents of Lutheranism, Philip Melanchthon, was a classics professor. Yes, Lutheran theology was born in a university, and since then, Lutheran, and German theology in general, has been characterized as rather "heady stuff." For example, the early Lutheran Reformers gave vital importance to the intellectual exercise of making the "proper distinction" between law and gospel2 and seeking precise theological formulations in the Augustana of 1530, the Apology of 1531, and the Formula of Concord (1577). Consider, too, the later period of "Lutheran Orthodoxy" (or "Lutheran Scholasticism"), featuring Martin Chemnitz, Johann Gerhard, Georg Calixtus, Johannes Quenstedt, among others, who created theological systems no less complex than Peter Lombard's Sentences, Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, or the treatises and expositiones of William of Ockham. And while many of the most famous German intellectuals are known mainly as philosophers -- Kant, Leibnitz, Hegel, Schelling, Schiller, Schlegel their work was not completely divorced from any concept of God. German explication of God and the Christian faith continued through the 19th and 20th centuries through the work of prominent theologians, such as Friedrich Schleiermacher, F.C. Bauer, Albert Schweitzer, Rudolph Otto, Ernst Troeltsch, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Tillich, Ernst Kasemann, Jurgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and many others.

Martin Chemnitz

The point of this list of names is that the intellectual descendants of Martin Luther, who continued his search for the truth undertook this quest through rigorous, exhaustive (and some would say sometimes exhausting) intellectual engagement; a.k.a. "heady stuff." And as a result, Lutheran theology sometimes has been accused of being too "heady," a Christian faith that is all about thinking and intellect – the head rather than the heart. At a recent conference addressing the topic of worship by means of live streaming through the internet, a commentator warned that we must be careful not to form Christians who are "heads on sticks," believers who rely on an intellectual, "heady" kind of Christian faith that is disembodied; a faith that is shaped by sitting at a desk or in an easy-chair and simply watching Christian lectures on a computer. This is far from the fullness of Christian faith. It does not embrace the total person, including the importance of incarnation, i.e., human embodiment, what the broader Christian tradition refers to as spirituality.

We must be careful not to form Christians who are "heads on sticks," believers who rely on an intellectual, "heady" kind of Christian faith that is disembodied.

The Spirit of Life

How did you feel when you got up this morning? Maybe a slight bit of stiffness - a result of a longer-than-usual walk with a friend yesterday? And how did you think-feel about how your body felt? Did you think, "Hmmm, getting old!" or perhaps, did you feel glad, because you are convinced of the adage "with age comes wisdom," and you value wisdom, even if the body gets a little stiff now and again. Then you walked down the steps (your body slightly stiff) and your dog came along to walk beside you and got in your way. What did you think-feel? Did you think, "Dammit, Dog! You nearly made me trip!" or did you think-feel, "I love that old puppy-dog; we've walked many miles together."

You proceeded to your kitchen to make coffee; the coffee jar is nearing empty. What did you think-feel? "Oh no! We are nearly out of coffee, and the price keeps climbing up-up-up! Can I afford to keep drinking it?" (you wonder with a tinge of fear); "what if the price rises to $5 per pound?!" Or did you think-feel, "Well, I need to go to the grocery to get coffee, and that's good because I like going to the grocery." As the morning progresses, you encountered the members of your family in your home. Did you think-feel joy, hope and optimism upon seeing them, or did you have thoughts of fear and uncertainty because of the world and its dangers that they face? On your way to work, you see signs of increasing gas prices; did this make you think about world political crises and feel fear, questioning the cultural and economic future of the world? Once you arrived at work and entered the office area, a radio is turned on broadcasting a news report, describing squabbles between Republicans and Democrats. Did you hear this with a mind and heart of curiosity, wondering what will become of it, or with a feeling of doom, because their disagreements seemed to be getting worse with the passing of years. Did you wonder what's becoming of the country and whether this American experiment in democracy will survive?

These are a very, very few instances of the moments and events in the course of a day which evoke our thoughts and feelings. No less significant are the foundational, always present thoughts and feelings previously developed over the course of years that we carry with us when we approach people and events.

We human beings are more than just our thoughts and emotions. We are more than simply physical sensations and biological, anatomical and chemical actions and reactions. We are all those things, yes; but they are bundled along with that gift that God the Creator gives that enlivens all, the spirit of life. Thus, we are physical (embodied) beings, but also spiritual beings. Here again, we see simul.

We are simultaneously physical, psychological, emotional, thinking, feeling, nous, and spirit, all that makes us individual human beings: remembering the past, anticipating the future, recognizing around us each moment in the present. It is the thoughts and feelings that we carry with us, that fill us, that shape our perspective on life that constitute our spirituality. Spirituality is not simply about how one prays or worships or thinks about church. Spirituality is how we look at, how we go about life; i.e., how we approach, respond to, and interpret our lives in this world. And if spirituality is that all-encompassing, it must include a perspective upon which it is based that informs a person how to make sense of the world. That perspective, that which undergirds one's spirituality (i.e., one's view of the world and oneself in it) we might call one's metaphysics, one's view of what is real. And because a vast history of western philosophy is a story of competing claims as to what is real, then one's own reality is a matter of faith. The Christian faith is a claim as to what is real, how the world came to be and how it continues to operate, as well as what kinds of beings live and move within this reality, this world. These knowledge-claims are based on faith as a way of knowing; and it is this reality that we know through faith upon which, and by which, we determine and make judgments about what is good, true and beautiful in the world.

Spiritual Realities

In this world created by God, one of our faith-based sources, the Bible, informs us that the world was created by God's word and spirit; and that God is word and spirit.3 Thus, there could be, indeed, there are, realities in this world, God's created world, other than just what we see, touch, and physically examine. There are spiritual realities. There are realities that we do not immediately perceive, but are present, and are quite real, nonetheless.

The Singing Stone

Garden in the Woods, Farmingham, MA

For example, have you ever observed stones singing? If not, that does not mean that such a phenomenon could not happen. When some Pharisees rebuked Jesus for some of his followers shouting his praises, he replied, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”4 This comes as the prophet Isaiah (in chapter 55) describes the people of Israel, who have been absent from their homeland for approximately fifty years in exile. If they will return home, says the prophet, they "... shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before [them] shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." Another example of nature breaking out in praise is Psalm 96, which reads, "Tell it out among the nations: 'The LORD is king!' Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea thunder and all that is in it; let the field be joyful and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the LORD when he comes, when he comes to judge the earth."

The prophet Isaiah, the author of Psalm 96, and the Lord Jesus seem to have some common experience or expectation that rocks and stones, mountains and hills, are capable of realities that many people would think impossible, or, at least, we have never experienced. Yet, just because we think we have never experienced it, does not mean that such events -mountains breaking forth into song, trees clapping their hands -- cannot, or never have, happened.

Let us ponder for a moment this description in the Bible: What would it look like for the "earth to be glad”? for the "field to be joyful”? What does - what would - that look like? Can we imagine it? Maybe we have, indeed, actually seen it! And might we have also actually seen (to quote from Ps. 96) "the trees of the wood shout[ing] for joy before the Lord"? ... We may have, and didn't know it.

Let’s take another example from Psalm 98: "Let the rivers clap their hands, and let the hills ring out with joy before the LORD, when he comes to judge the earth. In righteousness shall he judge the world and the peoples with equity."

What does this mean "Let the rivers clap their hands”? I did not know that rivers have hands that will clap! However, could it be that rivers actually have hands of some sort to clap that I don't know about?

Now, one might respond that this language was never intended to be literal! It is simply the language of the Psalms, a language of metaphor and myth. Yes, or could it be that, in a world in which a crucified, dead man has been raised and now is alive in a new life, and is still living in this world, that there is a genuine way that "rivers can clap their hands" and "mountains ring out for joy" - in ways that I (or the rest of us) do not perceive or understand, but despite our lack of recognition or understanding, might happen anyway? And could it be that this language of metaphor and myth describes actual (physical) realities deeper than our ability to grasp or articulate?

Pillar of Fire

The Psalms also remind us of God's mighty works which liberated the Hebrew slaves out of their centuries of bondage in Egypt. Do we wish to consider these historical references in praise of God's actual, mighty, saving work as metaphor and myth? For example, here, from Ps. 78: "Hear my teaching, O my people; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. ....We will recount to generations to come the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the LORD, and the wonderful works he has done. ... He worked marvels in the sight of their forefathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. He split open the sea and let them pass through; he made the waters stand up like walls. He led them with a cloud by day, and all the night through with a glow of fire. He split the hard rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as from the great deep. He brought streams out of the cliff, and the waters gushed out like rivers. ...So he commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven. He rained down manna upon them to eat and gave them grain from heaven. So mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them food enough." While some of us may prefer to say that described, purported realities such as we have never seen (rivers clapping their hands, hills singing for joy) are simply metaphorical and mythical language, not references to actual events, do we want to say the same regarding the power of God operative in moments and events of salvation history, such as described here in Psalm 78?

There are, or course, other references in scripture which describe events that are not at all familiar to our everyday experience, that we would nevertheless vociferously defend. For example, Luke's chapter 1 recounts that the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee to a young virgin named Mary, and he (an angel!) encountered and announced to her that she would conceive and bear a son who would be son of the most high God, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

The world is indeed simul, simultaneously material, physical, tangible, and spiritual and unseen.

Such an event is not, for most of us, a (so-called) "normal" occurrence in our daily material, routines of going up and down the steps, doing physical, the laundry, or jumping in-and-out of the car going to get groceries. Yet, the verity that such a significant, well-known salvation event could have happened in this world, is a claim that most of us would tenaciously embrace. There are at least twenty instances in the New Testament of angels announcing to, protecting, or interacting with humans. These references describe realities that we usually do not see every day, yet, nonetheless, they really happened.

So, how can it be that there is such "cross-over" interaction, an "entrance and exit" between two worlds, e.g., the world of angels making appearances, or the reality of water gushing out of a rock in a hot, dry desert, vis-a-vis our more familiar world of houses, cars, soccer balls, dishwashers, and pets? There is an unseen world, a spiritual world, which is a part of the life and experience of Christian spirituality that connects to, interfaces with, and permeates the physical, material day-today world in which we live. The world is indeed simul, simultaneously material, physical, tangible, and spiritual and unseen. We find attestation to this reality in sacred scripture (as noted above), and in the life of Church throughout history.

The Incarnation

The greatest and most significant simul in the Bible is revealed in the opening of John's gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ... The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.“5 The scriptures provide clear support for this most significant simul:6 that Jesus, was simultaneously fully God and fully human. When this claim came under question and attack during the early centuries of the Church, the Council of Nicaea began a series of synods which clarified the relationship of the man, Jesus the Nazarene carpenter and rabbi, who is also Jesus, the true presence of God in the midst of material, limited, and vulnerable humanity. The almighty, holy, creator God chose to become, in Jesus, a human being; and in doing so, human embodiment became holy in Christ. God was born as a child and grew into a man. He, in Christ, walked upon this soil of the earth; and the ground has been made hallowed. God, i.e., Jesus-God-incarnate, ate and drank; and thereby the acts of eating and drinking have become sacred acts. God - made flesh - had friends; and now friendship has been touched by godliness and is holy. Every aspect of what it is and means to be human has been intimately touched by almighty God through the incarnation, including this world with its air, populated with flora and fauna and wildlife; every aspect of this earth has been touched by the incarnation. All of life is now godly, holy, and sacred.

The Eucharist

"Holy God, mighty Lord, gracious Father, endless is your mercy and eternal your reign. You have filled all creation with light and life, heaven and earth are full of your glory," reads the Eucharistic prayer in the Lutheran Book of Worship, 7 echoing (among other Bible passages) Psalm 19 and Psalm 104.8 Indeed, all of creation, every material aspect, has been blessed by God, has been touched by Him through the incarnation. Further, this physical world interfaces with, and is permeated with spiritual realities, even "angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven.”9 Yet there are certain, specific places where the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, calls us to meet him, and the opening liturgy of this Lutheran Book of Worship section alludes to it: it is the Eucharist.

Lutheran Book of Worship

The sacrament of the altar is, for both Lutherans and the Western catholic tradition, the next great simul. Just as God the Word became flesh in the man Jesus, such that he is fully God and fully human, so the bread and wine of the Eucharistic meal become simultaneously "things" of this world, fully bread and fully the body, the carne, of Jesus. To give us His true grace-filled presence, God the incarnate Word uses actual material reality (the bread and wine), in and with another genuine material reality, His own body and blood. While his presence is not at all merely symbolic, the event and substance of the Eucharistic meal is symbolic of God's simul presence in every aspect of creation. There is no thing or any event of creation or history that is somehow separated from the presence and power of God.

God embraces us with a physical, tangible, and life-sustaining world and simultaneously enfolds us with his spiritual realities. And there are moments when we intentionally, knowingly, and physically touch and take hold of him in the sacrament of the altar.

Taking Hold of Him

We human beings live in a world today filled not only with the glory of God, but simultaneously (simul) connected with the world through the technology of the internet. These connections, while often visible (through a screen), are from "head-to-head," thought-to-thought. Yet, simultaneously, we have feelings attached to those thoughts. And, also simultaneously, we have physical bodies that can (and do) affect our thoughts and feelings. All of this is related to, and interfaced with, spiritual realities. God, using His means and servants who perform His purposes, moves creation along toward His intended glorious fulfillment. As God's creatures (yes, also beloved), we are a part of that movement toward fulfillment, now in this world but simultaneously citizens of another place, a world to come. As we continue this journey, we live and move and have our being.10 We live in a world that is simultaneously profane, fallen and marked by sin, but also holy, created and touched by the incarnate God (simul justus et peccator). God embraces us with a physical, tangible, and life-sustaining world and simultaneously enfolds us with his spiritual realities. And there are moments when we intentionally, knowingly, and physically touch and take hold of him in the sacrament of the altar.

The Rev. Andrew F. Weisner is Pastor of Antioch Lutheran Church, Dallas, North Carolina (North American Lutheran Church)

Endnotes:

1See Paul Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), 242 n.82 on where this formula appears in Luther's writings.

2Philip Melanchthon, Apology to the Augsburg Confession (AP), Art. IV.5; Formula of Concord/ Solid Declaration (FC/SD) Art. V.25, in The Book of Concord, Theodore G. Tappert, trans. and editor (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959).

3Genesis 1:1-2; John 1:1; John 4:24.

4Luke 19:40

5John 1:1-4, 14.

6Cf. Matthew 1:18-23; John 10:30; John 8:58; Colossians 1:15 ff.

7Lutheran Book of Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1978), 69, 89, or 110.

8Ps. 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork;" Ps. 104:25, "O Lord, how manifold are your works! in splendor you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures;" LBW 223, 265.

9Ministers Desk Edition of the Lutheran Book of Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing, 1978), 213.

10Acts of the Apostles 17:28