Memorial Moment: Practical Christianity

Revelation

21:1-11, 22-27

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death." Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. (ESV)

Practical Christianity

Wednesday of Epiphany 3

30 January 2013

While listening to American Public Media's business news show "Marketplace" on the radio, I heard a report on businesses owned and managed by the partnership of husband and wife. In the report husband and wife restaurateurs were featured and the wife in the team spoke of how she and her husband managed the challenges of business life together, "It's not that we're so great, but it's just that we just keep plowing through. Even during the difficult times. And when I can't plow anymore, he does it. And when he can't, I do it, you know. That is really so much strength to run a business with." Right. But it struck me; that is the same strength that could run a family and manage a marriage. What husband and wife business teams have discovered is not just how to run a business, but how to run life, including marriage and family. When one falters the other picks up the slack and vice versa. This is "mere" human wisdom. This is the advice that our mothers should be telling us before we enter marriage or that we should see modeled in our own parents' marriage.

The problem with "mere" human wisdom is that it is not often exhibited in the primary instructors of our culture: media and Hollywood; in which the abnormal and dysfunctional has become the normal and expected. Daniel Patrick Moynihan named this devolution of our culture "defining deviancy down." The results of the onslaught on marriage and family have been disastrous. Now divorce and dysfunction are the new normal. Those who insist on supporting traditional marriage and its cultural concomitants such as marital faithfulness and sexual purity are accused of the only deviancy now. "How dare you advocate for sexual purity and marital faithfulness, you narrow-minded prude!"

The pop term for Moynihan's more elegant phrase is: "Everyone's doing it." And if you aren't, you'd better soon, or you will be left behind by the rush to new lows or crushed by those stampeding over the cliffs of perversity. Now those who defend traditional morality are excoriated and vilified by those who support the new normal (read: "deviance"). Nietzsche has triumphed. The church has a hard road ahead of it where "mere" human wisdom is no longer passed on in our culture and is subverted by the media. She cannot begin to lead the community to a higher order of self-sacrifice when basic morality is dead.

We Christians have that higher life in marriage. It is a gift from God. No marriage can be truly happy without the recognition that it is a gift from God. Here is the greater wisdom. Here is the help when neither husband nor wife can plow any more. Here is the way to take what seems a purgatory and make it an Eden. Here is patience to suffer trouble. Here is the power of the forgiveness of sins in daily life. Often people say, "Pastor, can't you make Christianity more practical?" What's more practical than being able to forgive your spouse in marriage? But often what we mean by more practical has to do with "mere" human wisdom than the divine wisdom of the mercy of God lived out on a daily basis.

Martin Luther

"If you want an undertaking of yours to be blessed and successful, even a temporal undertaking like getting married or staying home or accepting a position, lift up your voice to God, and call upon the One who owns it and who has to grant it. It is no small gift from God to find a wife who is pious and easy to get along with. Then why not ask Him to make it a happy marriage? For your initial desire and your curiosity will not give you either happiness or stability, unless He adds His blessing and success and helps you to bear the occasional troubles. Those who do not do this, therefore, who rush into things on their own as though they did not need God's help, and who do not learn how to make certain allowances get exactly what they deserve. They have sheer purgatory and the torments of hell inside them, and that without any help from the devil. They do not bear their trouble patiently. They have selected only what seems to be just right to them, and they have tried to abolish and annul the article called 'forgiveness of sin.' Therefore their reward is a restless and impatient heart. Thus they have to suffer double trouble and have no thanks for it."

Martin Luther, The Sermon on the Mount, 5.32

Prayer

Lord, keep us faithful to the mere human wisdom that supports basic human morality. Make us quiet but firm defenders of marital faithfulness and sexual purity to our children, friends, and community in both word and deed. Lead us on to the higher wisdom of Your gospel message that we might forgive one another in marriage as You have forgiven us. Amen.

For Tucker Fredenburg, who is in the hospital, that the Lord Jesus would grant him healing

For Diane Garner, that she would recover fully from pneumonia

For all those experiencing the enticement of illicit sexual relations that they might be schooled by the Word of God to direct their desire to the gift of holy marriage

Art: CORREGGIO Nativity Holy Night (1528-30)