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Psalm 97
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The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods! Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O LORD. For you, O LORD, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!
(ESV)
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Christ Overcomes Idolatry
The Venerable Bede, Theologian
25 May 2012
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Martin Luther often is extremely negative toward monasticism. However, he was not opposed to the monastic project per se, but rather to all the idolatrous baggage that came along with it. Luther thought that monastic institutions were beneficial for educational purposes. Luther's criticism of the monks was in favor of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. The monasteries had been founded to serve their neighbors. Unfortunately, the monks began to think that their services were beneficial to God; and that through them they merited God's mercy and even God's praise. The transition to a man centered religion was easily made when human works was the focus of the monastic communities.
While it is easy to pooh-pooh medieval monasticism, there is a monastic religion residing in the heart of every human being. We all think that our heavenly Father is eager to receive from us the benefits of our self-chosen works: "Look what I am doing for you, God! Don't you just love it!" Our heavenly Father laughs to scorn those who think that they have something so valuable to offer Him that He so desperately needs. God is not an insecure teenager, always angling for our praise. He does not need His 'self-esteem' propped up by our offerings to Him. It is a risible idea. What is it that you could give God that He wouldn't have, if you didn't give it to Him. The Psalms mock our hubris with the words, "Every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. 'If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine'" (Ps 50:10-12). A God in need of what is ours would not be God. Yet this is the very heart of heresy; to claim that God is pleased with us for our own sakes rather than for the sake of Christ alone. This is the center of every false religion; even those which are claiming to be Christian, but which proclaim that God is rightly glorified in them, their merits, and their works. Therefore not everything claiming to be Christian is.
In fact, the monastic heart is the sin of the flesh, because it seeks ways of placating God outside and beyond the person and work of God's Son. External acts of worship offered to God as a way of placating His wrath and earning His blessing are also playing to the flesh just as sexual sins are. There is nothing more fleshly than to invent self-chosen works and worship and then to claim that such is pleasing to God, who is pleased only in His beloved Son and pleased with us in Him. At least the sexually immoral seldom claim to be doing that which is pleasing to God in their sexual perversity. The self-will and rebellion against God that points to its own glittering works is undone by the self-giving of the eternal God, who offers His most precious treasure unto death for us sinners. External acts of worship offered to God as a way of placating His wrath and earning His blessing is just as much playing to the flesh as sexual sins are. This alone will take us out of ourselves and bring us to God. Truthful Christianity centers on the activity of God in Jesus Christ, rather than our works. Idolatrous worship is overcome only in Christ, who offers Himself to us. | |
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Martin Luther
"The highest religions, along with their sanctity and most ardent devotions, are idolatry because they worship God while excluding Christ as mediator without either the Word or command of God. In the papacy it was held to be the highest spiritual act, when the monks sitting in their monastic cells meditated upon God and His works and when inflamed with the most ardent devotion they knelt, prayed, and contemplated heavenly things, so that they wept for pure joy. In such places there was no thought about women or any other creature, but only the Creator and His wonderful works. However, these things, considered by reason the most spiritual, were works of the flesh, according to Paul. Therefore, every religion by which God is worshipped without His Word and command is idolatry, and the more holy and spiritual they are in appearance the more pernicious and pestilent they are. It turns people away from faith in Christ, causes them to depend upon their own powers, works, and righteousnesses, as is also the case today with the Anabaptists, who are progressing from day to day, but who are showing themselves to be possessed by the devil and bloodthirsty and seditious people.
"Therefore, the poverty, hair shirts, most holy actions, and the rule and the whole life of the Carthusians, whose order is the most rigid, are works of the flesh and the deepest idolatry, because they imagine that they are holy and saved not by Christ, whom they consider a severe judge, but if they observe their own monastic rule. They think about God, Christ, and divine things, not according to the Word of God, but according to their own reason. They think their monastic garb, food laws, and their whole monastic life is holy and pleasing to Christ, but by their ascetic life not only do they hope to please Him, but that God must also repay them for their blessings and righteous acts, etc. Thus their most spiritual considerations, which they dream to be completely unfleshly, are the most impious, because of their ignorance of and contempt for the Word, faith, Christ, etc. By confidence in their own works they wish to wash off sins and to attain to grace and eternal life. Every worship and religion outside of Christ is the worship of idols. In Christ alone is the Father well pleased (Mt 3:17; Mt 17:5). Whoever listens to Him and does this is beloved on account of the Beloved One. For He Himself commands us to believe His Word, to be baptized, etc. and not to choose new forms of worship, etc."
Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians, 5.20
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Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, You desire not the death of a sinner but that all would repent and live. Hear our prayers for those outside the Church. Take away their iniquity, and turn them from idolatry to You, the living and true God. Gather them into Your holy Church to the glory of Your name; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
For Krista Hunt, that she would be granted health and strength in accordance with God's good and gracious will
For all over the road truck drivers, that they would be kept safe in their travels, attentive in their work, and a witness to God's gracious care
For Luke Frisby, who will be receiving the sacrament of entry into the holy church through baptism on Sunday, that he would die and rise again to newness of life
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Art: DUBOIS, Thomas Lamb of God
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 © Scott R. Murray, 2012
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