Theological Thursday

The Divine Service

 "Throughout the Divine Service, we may feel peace or anxiety, joy or sadness, excitement or boredom--or even all of the above! What we feel or don't feel, whoever, does not & cannot change the reality o what's happening. The Spirit is present among us, busily at work where He has promised to be:  in the Word, in the Sacrament, wherever two or three are gathered in Christ's name (Matt. 18:20) By His grace, we leave the sanctuary resting in the peace of God, with His Word in our heads & His love in our hearts, equipped & ready to do the good works He has prepared for us.
--Curtis Giese, The Lutheran Witness May 2019

Jars of Clay

In dealing with skeptics, there might be the temptation to overlook the humanity in the Bible. Perhaps it causes embarrassment, or creates fear that Christianity somehow doesn’t ‘work’ in transforming lives. I don’t see it that way at all. In fact, time and again when I have struggled with doubts in my faith, I am reminded of all the human individuals used by God as witnesses to the greatness of God’s love and redemption. It is one of the first things I point out in proclaiming the trustworthiness and faithfulness of the Biblical record, and indeed of Christian faith. For, unlike any other sacred text, as lofty and as grand as their epics might be, or as poetic and beautiful as their text reads, they do not show the full portrait of humanity on display as the Bible does; their heroes are not broken, but elevated humans and demi-gods.

So it seems worth asking: What kind of God, indeed what kind of religion, takes fallen and broken human beings and includes them in the plan of salvation? As the apostle Paul proclaimed of his own ministry; “for God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness, made the light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Cor. 4:6-7).

-- Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity