1 November 2005

In the past month I focused on material by Tuomo Mannerma and his use of the doctrine of theosis or the "indwelling" of Christ in the community and one another. Today, Richard Jensen brings this discussion into the arena of preaching.

First, he draws out this quote from Mannerma:
(Luther) claims that if the person of Christ and that of the believer are separated from each other in the locus of justification, salvation is still within the framework of the order of the law... When it comes to justification, therefore, if you divide Christ's person from your own, you are in the Law; you remain in it and live in yourself, which means that you are dead in the sight of God and damned by the law.
Jenson then comments:
I am particularly struck by Luther's words "if you divide Christ's person from your own, you are in the Law!" Marking a division between divine agency and human agency leads to a false preaching of the Law. (Theosis & Preaching in Currents, vol. 31.6, p.433)

If we would follow this doctrine of theosis (the indwelling of Christ) there is not merely something done to us in the name of Christ. Rather, the Christ of God is a part of us - an indwelling that not only justifies but brings about the life of the Christ among us. In the discipline of preaching, this would demand that we would speak as though the life that we enter as followers of Jesus would be a life that is a part of Christ being with us. There is no outside action on our behalf and then we are left to go on from there an be a follower of Jesus. I understand it to mean that as I preach, I am to speak of the Christ whose faith becomes my faith and whose life become my life and the life of the congregation because of the power for life that is present as Christ comes among us. Personally, it adds a new dimension to the response in the Eucharistic liturgy, Amen. Come! Lord Jesus! The coming is one that is the life of us. That puts the idea of real presence in the meal in a very new and powerful way.

Connection: When we live within this day as though our Lord is present not merely by what has been done for us for all time but also in the sense of an indwelling for life how is our day shaped?

Your coming among us, O God, is rich with grace and love. Make that richness be a part of what we carry with us as we then move among our neighbors. Mold us by your grace into the presence of your beloved, Jesus, even as we walk through this day. Amen.