Thursday 27 September 2007

In dealing with the topic of the law, here is an interesting quote by Martin Luther and the source of several of the comments from yesterday.



Anyone who wanted to grow rhetorical here could develop these words further: actively, passively, and neutrally. Actively: the Law is a weak and beggarly element because it makes (people) weaker and more beggarly. Passively: because it does not have of itself the power and ability to grant or confer righteousness. And neutrally: of itself it is weakness and poverty, which afflict and trouble the weak and the poor more and more all the time. Trying to be justified through the Law, therefore, is as though someone who is already weak and sick were to ask for some even greater trouble that would kill him completely but meanwhile were to say that he intends to cure his disease by this very means; or as though someone suffering from epilepsy were to catch the plague in addition; or as though a leper were to come to another leper, or a beggar to another beggar, with the aim of giving him assistance and making him rich. As the proverb says, one of these is milking a billy goat and the other is holding the sieve.



Luther does have a way of getting to the point and then pressing it...again...and again. The Law becomes double-trouble as we turn to it as a way to make us better and better. Rather, it brings more heart-ache and more of a disability into our lives. The Law cannot do what it promises. It falls short and when we fall for its promises, we fall down - again. I must admit, I chuckled when Luther notes how strange it is to seek to be justified through the law - "someone who is already weak and sick were to ask for some even greater trouble that would kill him completely but meanwhile were to say that he intends to cure his disease by this very means." And yet, it is such a temptation to cling to more law and more order in order to become the new being in Christ. It is as though we would sooner trust the imposition of law rather than venture into the land of radical mercy and hope and love that we are told is already in, with, and under all we are. We take part in the beginning of a new righteousness by trusting who we are "in Christ" already...not in what we hope we will be able to become by living by the Law - whether it is called a new law or an old one.



Connection: When you find yourself being the kind of person who insists on the way of Law to transform your life...I would suggest we all learn to giggle and smirk and simply call on our God to keep reminding us of whose we are already. It may make the day a bit more real and human and honest and compassionate.



You, O God, hand us a gift for new life and we are free to wander around throughout its entire reality so that we find moments of utter joy that surpass anything the world can offer us. Within that joy...the joy of the angels in Heaven...today really does begin to look and feel different - like hope in the midst of the power of despair. Amen.