Memorial Moment: Listening for Light

Isaiah 55

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

"Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

"For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."(ESV)

Listening for Light

Thursday of Christmas 1

3 January 2013

Augustine of Hippo has been considered the first modern man because he was the first among the ancients who considered the state of his soul. He reflected upon the state of his own mind, including its guilt, its susceptibility to divine intervention, and the process by which it was enlightened unto eternal life. All these we moderns take for granted. Religious people do this daily. Even persons who think they have no religion are still deeply affected by what we call "psychology" today. Psychology means nothing other than the study of the soul. Moderns have removed the soul from the purview of God, and secularized the study of the soul in contemporary psychology and psychiatry. Freud just took the place of God. Perhaps this was foreshadowed by Augustine's interest in considering the state of his own soul.

As Augustine considered the power of the Word of God to bring enlightenment, he sounds as though he thinks the Word of God is received because the mind has resident in it the enlightenment necessary to recognize the value of the Word of God. Or perhaps he means that the Word of God delivers those particles of light to the mind. Of course, Augustine could only be offering an analogy for the spiritual enlightenment of the human mind when he refers to particles of light. Augustine loves to speculate about such things, even as we might delight in speculating about Augustine's speculation. Theological speculation as fun as it is, must be very reticent and provisional, because it is speaking where God has declined to speak. It must never say, "Thus says the Lord."

Therefore, Lutherans when confronted by the question "How does the Word enlighten the mind?" offer the answer "I don't know." All we can say is that there is an inherent power in the Word of God to deliver the content of its statement and cause the hearer to be confident that the Lord has spoken this Word to him. Why some choose to remain in darkness while others are enlightened we know not (Is 9:2). The evidence is that the Lord's Word does not return to Him empty (Is 55:8-11). How it accomplishes what the Lord sends it to do we don't know. Isaiah simply gives the analogy that the Word of God is like life-giving rain. This is not the same as an explanation of how or why. It just is what it is.

Maybe we should place the working of the Word of God in the category of mystery. God's Word works. How it does so remains a mystery to us. Certainly we can attest to the working itself, for we have received the life-giving Word of God, trusting it as the voice of God Himself which does what it says. Certainly we have received this Word from the teachers whom God sends to us in our churches and Sunday Schools. They are not the owners or originators of the Word, but they deliver what is God's to us. This Word is so powerful that even in the cracked vessels to whom God delivers His Word it does its work nor is it denatured or deprived of its power to enlighten. It makes the foolish wise, the weak powerful, the dead alive, the despairing hopeful, and the sinful clean. How? Why should God tell us how the Word of God does what it says? We should believe that the speech of the almighty God speaks us into wisdom, power, life, hope, and purity. How this gets into the mind or soul doesn't matter because God is addressing us; and miracle of miracles we are listening, listening for the Light.

Augustine of Hippo

"The statement, therefore, which occurs in the gospel, 'The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world' (Jn 1:9), means that no man is enlightened except by that Light of the truth, which is God. No person ought to think that he is enlightened by him to whom he listens as a learner, even if that instructor happens to be not just any great man, but even an angel. For the word of truth is applied to man externally by the ministry of a bodily voice, but yet 'Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth' (1Co 3:7). Man indeed hears the speaker, whether he is a man or an angel, but in order that he may perceive and know that what is said is true, his mind is internally sprinkled with that light which remains forever, and which shines even in darkness (Jn 1:5). But just as the sun is not seen by the blind, although they are clothed as it were with its rays, so is the light of truth not understood by the darkness of folly."

Augustine, On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins and the Baptism of Infants, 1.37

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, You are the Word of God become incarnate of Mary. Speak peace to us that we might know Your Word to us. Give us the comfort of Your truth. Enable us to confess it unto our end and unto the benefit of our neighbor. Amen.

For professional educators, that they would be renewed in their vocation as they begin a new term

For those suffering inclement weather, that the Lord of creation would watch over them keeping them safe

For all doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, that they would serve in their calling with joy and self-sacrifice, seeking the good of those whom they serve

Art: CORREGGIO Nativity Holy Night (1528-30)