Today's readings are Exodus 25.1-22 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Ex.+25.1-22 ), Luke 5.17-39 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Luke+5.17-39 ), and Exodus 25.23-30.38 ( http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=Ex.+25.23-30.38 ).
I'd like to focus briefly on Jesus' teaching in Luke 5. It is common to find local churches which emphasize teaching. You can go to this church and hear a seminar on fifteen ways to please God with your money. You can go to another church down the street and find seven key elements to spiritual growth. Maybe there's another local church with a Sunday evening series on family relationships. How about the forty Sundays of purpose? Then there's the movement recently that encouraged local churches not to meet on Sunday mornings but rather to do community service projects for a month so as to relate to the community. Churches have studies on this, studies on that, Christian education for all ages, complete with study notebooks. We are probably the culture that spends the most time and money ever in history on education.
In Luke 5 Jesus is teaching people. We don't know the content of his teaching. But people are coming from miles around to hear him. They are hungry for this teaching that Jesus gives. While we don't know much of what Jesus was teaching, we do see in two instances here, verses 20 and 32, Jesus makes his purpose very clear. Jesus is all about forgiving sins. He heals people by forgiving their sins. He restores their relationship with God by forgiving their sins. He celebrates with people as he forgives their sins. The teaching of Jesus clearly has something to do with sin and salvation, and he points over and over again to the idea that we don't know either the depth of our sin or the riches of his forgiveness. We are sick indeed.
In our education-heavy society, have we forgotten the central issue of Christian education? Have we forgotten that Christ crucified for sinners is the heart and center of all our teaching? Have we chosen to consider ourselves the righteous people who can bring healing to other people by telling them the seven habits of spiritually effective business managers? All our striving toward relevance counts for nothing. All indicators are that the only times in history when the Church has grown have been times when God's servants fearlessly proclaim Christ's atoning death for sinners. If we are proclaiming anything else,we are simply marking time. It's doing no good and it is eroding the society's perception of Christ.
Let us rather turn ourselves in desperate obedience to the Christ who died for us. Let us beg him to have mercy on us. Let us be filled with repentance knowing that our Lord and Savior will indeed bring us healing, grace, and forgiveness, provided at his cross. Let us celebrate the redemption Christ has given us through our assembling together, through Word and Sacraments, as we meet from house to house, sharing in one another's needs. Let us bring Jesus to this world. That's what our world needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment