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Psalm 38
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O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning. For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes - it also has gone from me. My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off. Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long. But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth. I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes. But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer. For I said, "Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!" For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me. I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin. But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully. Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good. Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me! Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!
(ESV)
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I Walk In Danger All the Way
Thursday of Pentecost 14
30 August 2012
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Martin Luther set the standard for pastoral care. His pastoral practice was seasoned by deep compassion for those who stumbled under the burden of trials and the world's temptations. Luther was not a dry and demanding academic, but a compassionate and concerned pastor. He recognized that he too was as liable to sin as those who came to him for confession and absolution. He was not above those who suffered with weaknesses, but below them, because he too was flesh of flesh and in God's wisdom He has chosen those who represent Him from among the dregs of humanity to prove the perfection of His grace. The apostle Paul is the paradigm of God's grace in choosing the worst to do the best: 'The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost' (1Ti 1:15). God mocked humanity's much vaunted self-generated holiness, by using these men to proclaim the salvation of sinners like them. Of course, they understand the struggle of sinners; they fight through this struggle every day too.
While traveling recently, I had gone directly from church to the airport and was wearing my clerical collar. I did some shoving trying to get my carryon bag into a tight spot in an overhead luggage bin. Behind me I heard: "Well, he's not so holy" (I suppose the person belonged to a baggage rights group). Although I wasn't sure why my treatment of a bag in an overhead bin proved that I was unholy, I wanted to reply, "Oh, I agree entirely." We do not approach our pastors because they are paragons of virtue, but because the Lord Jesus has placed into their hands the power of proclaiming His forgiveness. Some years ago I helped a parishioner check into a psychiatric hospital. During the admission interview, the admissions counselor went into hysterics at the woeful narrative of self-harm and depression she told. It did not help this dear sheep to hear such a negative reaction to her personal story of trouble. Not surprisingly, she pleaded with me to help her leave the hospital before she was admitted.
Spiritually, none of us is above weakness to sin. Our pastors must never reply with a haughty: "I would never fall into such great shame and vice." Yet pride comes before the fall. If all we see is the splinter in the eye of our neighbor we will never be able to see the logs in our own eyes. Such pride will make us more susceptible to failure, like the person oblivious to the danger around them, thinking they are indestructible, who walks into a dodgy neighborhood and stumbles into a mugging. We cannot ignore the danger around us. As the hymnwriter, Hans Brorson, recognized: "I Walk in Danger All the Way." We all must live by grace, both pastors and people. |
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Martin Luther
"'Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted' (Gal 6:1). This is a grave admonition to those who are crushing with their severity and cruelty, who do not raise up and refresh, those who are fallen. Augustine says, 'There is no sin which one man does, which another also is not able to do.' Because the way is slippery we can easily return to our sin. Therefore if we are proud and forsake the proper order, nothing is easier than that we would fall again. Therefore, rightly someone said in the Lives of the Fathers, when the report was given to him that one of the brothers had fallen into fornication, 'Yesterday, it was him. Today, it could be me.' Therefore, Paul added this serious warning, lest pastors become too hard and unmerciful toward the fallen, that they not measure those who have fallen into sin on the basis of their own sanctity, as the Pharisee did (Lk 18:11), but with motherly love toward them, embrace them, and think this way about them: 'This one is fallen. It can happen that you too are able to fall into so many more dangers and evils than he is. If those who have the proclivity to judge and condemn others would rightly understand their own sins, they would consider the sins of the fallen to be splinters and their own sins to be great logs.
"'Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall' (1Co 10:12). If David, a man so holy and full of faith and the Spirit of God, who possessed the most glorious promises, and who accomplished great things for the Lord, fell into such deep filth, and though at a mature age he still fell into juvenile desire, and afterward so many different kinds of trials, by which he kept God busy, what would make us presume that we could be more constant than he was? God showed us by these examples chiefly our own infirmity, lest we be carried away with ourselves, but rather properly fear. He also shows his own judgment that He is not willing to bear with pride whether toward Himself or toward the brothers. It is not in vain, then that Paul says, 'Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted' (Gal 6:1). Those who are undergoing trials know how necessary this command is. On the other hand, those who have not undergone trials do not understand Paul, because they will not offer mercy to the fallen, as it happened in the papacy when sheer tyranny and cruelty reigned."
Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians, 6.1
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Prayer
Lord Jesus, when I am undergoing trials send me a pastor who cares for me and does not think himself above my weakness. Help him understand this and offer mercy to me. Amen.
For the people suffering under the rains associated with Isaac, that they would be kept safe in the midst of inclement weather
For first responders who are serving in harm's way, that they would be kept safe and that they would be confirmed and blessed in their vocation
For those who teach in our parochial schools, that they would be strengthened and upheld in their vocation
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Art: DÜRER, Albrecht The Adoration of the Trinity (1511)
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 © Scott R. Murray, 2012
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