Sorry for the computer problems yesterday. Today I will enter into a run with Tuomo Mannerma - a Finnish Luther scholar. I've quoted him some time ago. This is from another book: "Christ Present in Faith.
In Luther's view, the doctrine of incarnation, a dogma shared by the entire early church, is most closely connected with that of justification. The second person of the Trinity - the Logos, who is born in eternity - "did not regard it as something to be exploited" (Philippians 2:6) to be in the form of God but, out of sheer love, took the form of a slave by becoming a human being. According to Luther, however, the Logos did not take upon himself merely human nature, in a "neutral" form, but precisely the concrete and actual human nature. This really means that Christ really has and bears the sins of all human beings in the human nature he has assumed. Christ is the greatest sinner.
There is nothing that will separate us from the love of God. Nothing!?! Well, not even our humanity. This is a Lord of Life who takes every bit of life seriously. Nothing is left out. Nothing is beyond the justification of all things. The whole human story...that is your story...my story...and the story of every other human, becomes the home of the Lord of Life. There is not distance between us. There is no God far away. There is no reasoning that says "we must do something in order to come closer to our Loving God." Our God, in the flesh, is with us all the way. It may sound odd to hear those words, "Christ is the greatest sinner," but if it is anything short of that, someone is left out and the curse of the law wins and will hound us to death. In the incarnation, we have a God who knows no distance between us. We have a God who doesn't come to test out the water and "get a feel for real human life." We have a God who in Christ, Jesus, is fully one of us - fully within the brokenness of our lives - fully involved in the wholeness of sin that includes all of us. Our God knows and is present in the whole mess and in the midst of that God blesses us - not from some place far away, but from the cold death of Easter Saturday when there is no hope...a place only one with us as us...can know.
Connection: Things can get frustrating...discouraging...hopeless....and yet, our God, never departs from us and our God never asks what more can you do to come closer to me. Rather, today in the middle of our complex and difficult lives, Christ is alive among us - forever - it is the promise.
You alone, O God, never leave our side. You alone, O God, walk with us in all things and you never turn away from us for you have seen and experienced all the corruption of life that so often seems to win the day. We thank you for this day filled with your real presence. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment