A Christmas Letter to the folks at 1st Trinity. And anyone else:
Fear no longer! I announce to you good news of great joy for all people. Today in the city of David a savior was born for you. He is Lord Messiah. -Luke 2:10-11
To God's Family at First Trinity:
"Jesus Christ is Lord" reads a small wooden placard on top of the bookshelf in my office. It was given as a gift to me by a close friend when I finished college and went on to seminary in Chicago who was quite happy that I was to become a minister. To be honest, I secretly rolled my eyes when I opened it. The placard, at the time, really wasn't my taste. I thought my friend knew me better than that. Anyway, where would I display such a thing? It didn't really match my rooms décor of rock posters and post-it notes. Little did I know how much that little phrase would shape my life.
Okay, so the word Lord is somewhat archaic. It sounds quite odd in the United States, with all our talk of freedom and democracy. The closest we perhaps come to using such a term outside of the Church is at the first of each month when we come face to face, or check to mailbox, with our landlords. In addition, the title Lord has come under some passionate critique from folks who argue that it is inappropriate to apply such a title to God.
Well, for the record, I like it. In Jesus' time, the title Lord was generally reserved for God, and then the emperor. It was Lord Caesar Augustus who summoned Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem to register for the census in Luke's account of the Christmas story (Luke 2:1). It was one's lord who required a pledge of complete and total allegiance and dedication—often unto death. As lords, the Caesars of Rome often proudly took on the title "son of the gods."
The Lord whom Angels announce and people of faith exalt at Christmastime stands in stark contrast to those competing for our allegiance day in and day out, and those the world would call lords. It's a story of the Son of God born in a less-than-hygienic, mold-encrusted barn, among the poor, the outcast, largely unnoticed by the neighbors going on their merry ways near by.
It is those who confess Christ to be Lord who are called out of everyday busy-ness, to slow down, to see the stars, and to spend time in the mangers, at the edges of society, and with those quite different from themselves. This is where the Lord of the Christian faith is born--not behind the insulation and among the central air of castle walls--but among the vulnerable congregations who gather in unlikely conglomerations, trusting in the promise of the birth of God's Love.
To seek to make this Christ child--or the Christ of the Cross--the Lord of one's life is to radically change how one relates to the universe, to God's good creation and all who are in it. It's a faith that shapes landscapes (Luke 3:5-6), and, in the words of Mary, radically alters our sense of what is important, taking the powerful from their thrones and exulting the lowly (Luke 1:50-53). This child, whose life would be grounded in love and service, and dedicated to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, ultimately ending in his torture and execution because he attributed Lordship to God and God's Kingdom alone, is a child who, with the disciples, the shepherds, and the magi, I am happy to call Lord.
Each week when we sing the Kyrie in worship, "Lord Have Mercy," or greet one another "The Lord is with you," we, in the words of scripture, confess Christ as Lord (Rom 10:9), and we confess Christ our Lord as present, in and among us, while congregations all over the world are doing the same thing at similar times. This is a radical confession, and if taken to heart, is one of the most transformative and life-altering confessions a person might make.
So, I kept the placard. And I display it, if nothing else, as a reminder of what my priories ought to be. If Christ is Lord, love of God and love of neighbor are always the most important and pressing things on my "to-do" list. Hmmm... If only I always remembered such things...
Today in the city of David a savior was born for you. He is Lord Messiah.May we rejoice in the Good News of great joy sung by the lips of Mary and the mouths of angels.
Merry Christmas. Peace on Earth.
Pastor Tom Gaulke
Thoughts and sermons on life and faith active in love, by Rev. Tom Gaulke | Author of An Unpromising Hope (Pickwick, 2021) and Everyday Armageddons (Cascade 2023) | www.tomgaulke.com
Hello Tom Gaulke!
ReplyDeleteYou quoted Romans 10:9 and I want to comment on foregiveness!
(le-havdil) How to live in order to enable the Creator in His loving kindness to provide His foregivness is outlined in Tan’’kh ( the Jewish Bible) ; and was also taught by the first century Ribi Yehoshua from Nazareth (the Mashiakh; the Messiah) (His teachings are found here: Netzarim.)
Tan’’kh – for example Yekhëzqeil (Hezekiel) 18 – promises foregivness to those who do their sincerest to keep the mitzwot (commandments) in Torah. The Creator cannot lie and He does not change (Malakhi 3:6)! According to Tehilim (“Psalms”) 103 the Creator gives His foregivness to those who do their sincerest to keep His berit (“covenant”; the pre-conditions to be included in the berit is according to the Jewish Bible to do ones sincerest to keep Torah).
No human can keep Torah perfectly. There is a provision. Ribi Yehoshua ha-Mashiakh lived and kept Torah with the sincerest of his heart, died innocently and became a sacrifice. Because of this the Creator can give His foregiveness to everyone doing his/her sincerest to keep His instructions found in Torah and to everyone that leaves his/her Torah-transgressions, and starts doing his/her sincerest to keep His instructions found in Torah.
Anders Branderud
On “forgiveness”.
ReplyDeleteA complicated subject, indeed, and something we all desire to have – especially the more we recognize the difference between how we are & how we ought to be when observing the double Love commend, and we want to have it for certain...
Romans certainly is a perfect place to look for this topic. Some think this Pauline letter is about the justification of humans, I think with others that it turns out really is about the righteousness of God, in Christ (e.g. Romans chapter 4, on the justification of forefather Abraham). Hence:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 9:10)
Forgivenness to me is a “second chance” to get it right; in God, the “second chances” are endless – until we get “existence” right. How do I know that? Because we all live forever. How do I know that? Immortality seems deducable just from theoretical physics, but I mainly got it from the fact that “the sun shines on the just & the unjust”, and that He rose again! This point perhaps more fitting for Easter, but, nonetheless! =)
Humbly, please do allow me to entertain the thinking of y’all with a paragraph from my paper on Karl Rahner’s Foundations, before I end my nerdy note on this Christmas Eve day –
Precisely as the result of God’s gratuitous self-giving love, the human being is brought into the realm of existence with an “admission ticket” (160) that never expires, even with our self-destructive deeds. To Rahner, this is where the human being most profoundly experiences God’s salvific and faithful forgiveness – “as the hidden, forgiving and liberating love of God himself, who forgives in that he gives himself [ontologically & unceasingly], because only in this way can there really be forgiveness once and for all.” (131)
Merry Christmas, Pastor Tom! And “GOD BLESSES EVERYONE”! =)
A co-seeker. =)