Theological Thursday

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

Christians believe in a God who entered into the ephemeral and the temporal in the person of Jesus. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus affirmed the teaching of his own Hebraic tradition when he encourages his listeners not to worry, but to trust the God who “arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace.” Life is short, Jesus acknowledges, but the God who cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field will care for us. So we do not have to cling onto our lives or the treasures of this earth. As one commentator notes, “Just prior to his teaching on worrying…Jesus warns his listeners against storing up ephemeral treasure on earth… A central theme of his ministry and enacted in his own life, is that the proper way to respond to the nature of reality is to give away one’s life rather than hold on to it, to open our hands and let things go rather than to close our fist around them.” --Margaret Manning Shull, Slice of Infinity

CELEBRATION OF ALL SAINTS, PART I

"The Lutheran Confessions strongly caution against the invocation of the saints (praying to them), because there is no Word of God commanding it & no promise of God attached to it. In addition, this practice easily leads to the false worship of the saints in place of Christ Jesus. But our confessions commend a threefold honor of the saints, which is rightly exercised to the glory of God & for the strengthening of faith & life in Christ. First, we give thanks to God for giving the saints to His church on earth as servants of His Word & of their neighbors. Second, we consider examples of the Lord's mercy toward the saints who have gone before us, who were called to repentance & received the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ. In them we see His mercy toward us, who are likewise saved by His grace. Last, we honor the saints by imitating their faithful example within their callings & stations in life." --D. Richard Stuckwisch, The Lutheran Witness, Oct. 2019