Thoughts on Resurrection Sunday

Again stepping outside my typical tradition, a friend recently shared portions a work by Gerhard Forde titled On Being a Theologian of the Cross. He writes:

The question for Luther's doctrine of atonement is thus not that of abstract payment to God but rather how God can succeed in giving himself to us so as actually to take away our sin, to destroy the barrier between us and God. This is the reason for the prominence in Luther's thought of 'the happy exchange.'  Christ, through his actual coming, his cross and resurrection, takes away our sinful and lost nature and gives us his sinless and righteous nature. This cannot be an abstract metaphysical transaction. We must, through the cross of Christ, his terrible suffering and death, be actually purchased and won, indeed, killed and made alive. If it is to be a 'happy' exchange, our hearts must be captured by it.

... Christ must be one who has and bears our sins; he must actually become a curse for us to set us free from the curse of the law.

...Yet in the resurrection the divine power overcomes even death, and thus conquers, kills, devours, destroys, buries, and abolishes death, sin, the curse, the law, and all the tyrants.

Wow! Powerful thoughts on this day. And more importantly, powerful actions by our God on our behalf. Thank you, Jesus, for as Forde correctly writes, "The point, however, is that Jesus put himself there willingly."

fly unto God for grace

Tonight, while eating dinner (by myself while traveling on business), I was reading from  Luther's Commentary on Galatians.  He wrote (page 327):

"All the ungodly are utterly ignorant of this knowledge and this cunning. Cain knew it not when he was shut up in the prison of the law and seriously felt his sin. At the first he was without the prison: that is, he felt no terror, although he had now killed his brother; but he dissembled the matter craftily, and thought that God himself was ignorant thereof. ...

He remained still shut up in prison. He joined not the Gospel with the law, but said: “Mine iniquity is greater than can be forgiven.” He only respected the prison, not considering that his sin was revealed unto him to this end, that he should fly unto God for grace. Therefore he despaired and denied God."

That phrase - fly unto God for grace - stopped me in my tracks.  It is a frightening thing to pray, but be that as it may: Lord, please reveal unto me my sin that I might fly unto You for grace!

Wealth - what is your standard?

When Americans - that includes me - think of wealth, our perspective often considers someone up the ladder from us, someone who has more toys, a bigger bank account or 401(k), the boat or nice car, or the cottage out in the country.  But when we step back and re-calibrate our perspective, our view perhaps should change.  Yes, many of us are wealthy (including probably you, since you have access to read this post on some sort of computing device connected to the internet).

There are many statistics out there, such as "If you have sufficient food, decent clothes, live in a house or apartment, and have a reasonably reliable means of transportation, you are among the top 15% of the world’s wealthy." (source:  IRememberThePoor.org)

Or this example, titled "Attention, Protestors: You're Probably Part of the 1%" which states "How much do you need to earn to be among the top 1% of the world? $34,000.  That was the finding World Bank economist Branko Milanovic presented in his 2010 book The Haves and the Have-Nots. Going down the distribution ladder may be just as surprising. To be in the top half of the globe, you need to earn just $1,225 a year. For the top 20%, it's $5,000 per year. Enter the top 10% with $12,000 a year. To be included in the top 0.1% requires an annual income of $70,000." (source: fool.com)  Now, as this article points out, there needs to be various adjustments for location, yet even with these adjustments, it is nearly impossible to argue that we Americans are not extraordinarily wealthy.

Jesus was concerned about this issue 2000 years ago, specifically in regard to the impact of wealth on our very being, our souls.  In my teaching during worship with our church this morning, I touched on the episode in the Gospel according to Luke regarding the rich young ruler.

I have wonder:  how much am I like that young man?  Have I succumbed to the expectations and allure of my culture?  Something to ponder.