The Original Way [Advent 3]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Isaiah 40:1-11

• 1 Corinthians 4:1-5

• St. Matthew 11:2-10

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
                  
Who speaks to us on this third Sunday of the new Church Year, saying,
“Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
 
Thus far from God’s Word, included for us to hear of faith alone, because, as Jesus laments, will there be faith on earth when He returns? For if John, the greatest born among women, must face jail time, then what’s in it for us? 
 
There is a very promising trend, they say, of the younger generations returning to church. Through one statistic or another, American evangelicals are pushing this fact. And its somewhat true and churches are seeing young people coming. Good news. 
 
However, there is always another side to the story. The other side is that there is also a growing trend of young men returning to the pagan gods, the “old” gods as they say. There is an increase in popularity of living off-grid, eating like cavemen, and practicing the “old ways”. 
 
And it makes sense. When you go into the woods and into the fields to find a livelihood, it was the ancients who knew how to live off the land. When your distrust of lying medical professionals reaches a peak, you begin to understand that ancient peoples were able to heal themselves through real food, not from Walmart. When you search for strength and trust in life, you look no further than yourself and how amazing the body is.
 
The mystery of the wilderness, the strength of nature to weather any storm, and the ability to shut out the material world is tempting. Much more than that, the old religions promised fulfillment. If you want to be your strongest, healthiest, peaceful-est self, just follow the people of the land.
 
Now, for the rest of the story…the old gods promise fulfillment, but at what cost? Hard work and sacrifice are not the only things demanded. You will reach a plateau in your self-improvement, because you can only improve so far. But there is a promise beyond that: indulgence. A personalized, self-improvement. And for every instant gratification and lust you can imagine, the price you pay is your soul. 
 
If you want a woman, take her, because you are stronger. If you want someone else’s woman, because you are stronger, no one will tell you no because they don’t want to get killed. If you want to get stronger than just eating beef liver, then drink the blood of powerful men. If your children are weak or get in your way, kill them. That is true pagan ritual.
 
What is best in life? "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!"
 
Who’s to say this way of making yourself stronger is wrong? Odin wills it. They promise no responsibility afterwards, on your part. To the victor go the spoils. To the strong, justice. To the self-anointed, truth.
 
It is the lies that we and our country have told our young men, that drove them to seek out that sort of truth. We labelled our un-masculine propaganda, “just be nice”, as Christian and so they seek out anything but Christian. For if those “christian” rules got them to those lies, of what use are those rules?
 
This was St. John’s temptation. He was the greatest born among women. He was the prophet. He was Elijah to come. He knew what they wanted to hear. He knew they wanted glory and if he just said what they wanted, he could just capitulate and it would be his.
 
He was the greatest, why should he end up in prison? If he is publicly humiliated to that extent, then no one will believe his message. If God allows His prophet to be trampled and defeated in front of everyone, then they will just seek out gods who will give them victory over their enemies.
 
It would be easy to change the story and just say, “What I really meant was…” in order to gain the favor of men. His popularity attracted attention and that attention came with a deal. Change your story and we’ll make sure to take care of you, for we have the power and the glory.
 
John also knew they wanted a martyr. For in order to maintain the power and glory they got for themselves, they needed planned opposition. Thus, St John knew, regardless of whether he claimed to be the Christ or not, he was going to prison. He was going to take the fall. He was going to be their martyr.
 
Is there any mystery, manliness, or life in Christianity? Is not John the shadow of that and Jesus the picture itself? John is uncompromising. He knows what brings in the cash and he refuses. He is not the Christ, not even worthy to untie His sandal. He is not the one to usher a new, jewish era over their enemies, he won’t even wear proper clothes. He will not stand for marriage to be blasphemed and goes to jail over it.
 
For greater than the old gods who demand blood, sexualization, and shame is the God Who is Justice. Jesus bears the insults against John, for they are properly aimed at Him. He is the God Who sends John and all the prophets. He is the God Who set up all of creation to work as it does, and He is the One Who is Coming to bring the wrath to come, raise up children of Abraham, and lay the axe against the tree.
 
Yet, John does go to prison and is beheaded. Jesus does get arrested and is found guilty in a court of law. They are both reeds shaken by the wind, soft-clothed men, and regular, ordinary men. Who cannot break out of the cycle of Empirical lies any more than we can.
 
Jesus brings a new way. As He shows us, the reed bent by the wind stands up again on Easter. The soft clothing of the Christ turns out to be imperishable clothing. The strength of God is found in service, serving sinners the gift of forgiveness. The justice of God turns out to be for everyone, not just the strong. And the Blood of God is what gives strength for immortality.
 
Jesus is the Self-Donating God. Instead of demanding His men to strip away all dignity, morality, and strength to prove their worth, He offers them His own. And He offers it in His soft clothing that is stained with betrayal, torn with suffering, and dripping with blood. 
 
Jesus’s manly Way is the way of the cross. The denial of self. The forsaking of the temptations to lust and greed and pride. Does being able to take those things whenever you want, make you a man? No. And worse than that, they make you someone else’s man. Those things are not the path of a man, but of the devil.
 
It is righteousness that the God of all things demands and it is righteousness that the manly Son of Man offers with His own Body. It is obedience that the God of the wilderness and all places requires of His creatures and it is obedience that the Only-Begotten gives with His life. It is Mercy that marks the Way of this realm, and it is mercy that hangs on the cross for you.
 
Hangs there until the job is done. “Come down from there”, they tempt our Lord. Oh how peaceful it would be! “Drink this”, they coax Him, knowing He is dehydrated to death. “It can all end. Right now. Peace. Just say it. Cry out, mercy”, and the old gods would make everything right again.
 
Can Odin produce such manliness? Can Zeus control himself long enough to reveal such strength? Does Allah have the guts to come down and offer himself in love to those who have sinned against him? I don’t think so.
 
The Way of the cross is the old way, the original way. The way its supposed to be. No amount of self-improvement, self-indulgence, or self-anointing can produce the righteousness of God. He must produce it Himself and He chooses to do it in love. The love that sacrifices Himself for the good of another. That is, all of us.
 
The Way for John is in prison. It is there that he will show the glory of God. How, not even the wind of an executioner’s axe can bend the reed of God’s Will. How not even soft camel hair can clothe a believer in Christ. And that not even the humiliation and death of a prophet of God can mar one ounce of God’s holiness.
 
For His holiness is wrapped up in the promise of salvation and He keeps it. He keeps it even in the face of death, which has no power over Him. Is John ridiculed? Yes. Does that prevent the salvation of God?
 
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Promise of the Lord endures forever. John was adopted into the Word, the Promise of the Almighty and the Promise held fast. John now lives in Christ, out of the reach of those who would harm him any longer. The commendation from God is faith in Christ, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life.
 
When those things are received, then it is that we have made it to the Way. This is why the true Church on earth orbits around the gifts of God which promise such things: Word, Baptism, Sacrament of the Altar, and Absolution. 
 
These are the things of Christ, which no amount of sin can overcome. Sin done to others or sin done to self. They are permanent things. They are universal things. Their power hinges solely on Christ and His life. The promise we find in Word and Sacrament are the Promises made in the flesh and blood of Jesus by His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death.
 
For it takes more of a man to endure, than to yield. It takes more of a man to remain faithful, than to indulge. It takes more of a man to serve, than to be served, because Jesus is among us as the One Who Serves.
 
Challenge the old gods. Stand up to them. Out serve them, out mercy them, out self-control them. Do not overshadow the manliness of faith with a willingness to appease everyone. God’s Word is what is working, not your charisma. Baptism saves, not your improvement. Communion forgives. God wills it. Numbers or no numbers.
 
Amen.
 
 

What makes a theologian? Meditation [Wednesday in Advent 2]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Joshua 1:8-9

• Philippians 4:8-9

• St. Luke 2:15-19

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Who speaks to us this evening from Philippians, saying,

“What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you”

 

One thing all of our readings this evening have in common is the call to find an object. What I mean is, they all talk about the good and the true and good success and marvels, and then the hearers are told to go and find those things. 

 

This book of Law that Joshua is told about which contains strength, courage, and prosperity is written. He is supposed to find it, read it out loud, and act according to it. The just, the pure, and the lovely that St. Paul is preaching about in Philippians, the Christian is told to learn, receive, hear, and see them in St. Paul himself. The shepherds are told to go to Bethlehem, not to look for enlightenment, but to find the baby.

 

Tonight on “How to make a theologian” we discuss meditation. Meditation makes a theologian.

Last week, we discovered that prayer makes a theologian, because through prayer, the believer lays hold of the real Teacher of Scripture, Himself: Jesus Christ. It is not some self-absorbed exercise. 

 

Thus, meditation is also more than just calming the mind. It is also an exercise in both the spiritual and physical realms. Meditatio, our Latin, is grounded in the externum verbum, the external Word. This is evident from the passages in Scripture we have read this evening.

 

What I mean by external is that God is not using us to save ourselves. He is not asking us to dig deep, make ourselves holy, or to be more godly. This would lead to boasting and special treatment, with no use for Jesus and His Work on the cross.

 

Our Confessions put it this way: 

"In these matters, which concern the external, spoken Word, we must hold firmly to the conviction that God gives no one his Spirit or grace except through or with the external Word which comes before. Thus we shall be protected from the enthusiasts-that is, from the spiritualists who boast that they possess the Spirit without and before the Word and who therefore judge, interpret, and twist the Scriptures or spoken Word according to their pleasure" (SA III:VIII:3).

 

Like theology and prayer, meditation is something that everybody does, regardless of its objective. We all take a breather, we all take a step back, we all try to look at the bigger picture. That is, we cannot help but need to meditate on something or another. It is part of what makes us human to search for answers.

 

However, how meditation is usually sold to us is one of two ways. Either you must silence the outside things in order to look deep inside yourself for truth and peace, or you must open yourself to the universe to seek those things. In other words, first ignore God’s external Word in favor of “self”, then seek outside intervention in any other place except God.

 

Through prayer and meditation, Jesus orders those desires in the Truth, by grounding them directly in something outside of themselves. This fact should not be news to the Christian. the One, True God of Holy Scripture is always creating objects. From heaven and earth to us, and every time He interacts with His creation, it is always through objects, through means.

 

Noah’s Ark, the Burning Bush, the Temple, the Prophets. All were created objects that the Lord attached a Promise to. God chooses to do His work, all His work, through means, through tools found in creation.

 

Not just any tools. He doesn’t leave it up to us to discover them or make them. He lays out the tools and also lays out the rules. It is His Word that is to be meditated on. It is His Word that is to be sought out for eternal life. It is His Word alone which grants His Spirit, Who gives faith in Christ Jesus.

 

And although we have His Promise that the Word dwells in us, we are never commanded to seek anything there. We are told specifically what is there, inside us. Filthy rags, crimson transgression, deceit. If our meditating focuses on the inside, we will be dupped and quickly led to evil.

 

And although we have His Promise that the Word is the Creator of all things, we do not have a word from God telling us to seek Him in all things. We are told specifically that the devil and all his angels work lies and murder from the beginning. We are also told that our sinful nature sides with them. So, if our meditating focuses on opening ourselves to the outside, we will be possessed, dupped, and quickly led to evil.

 

Thus, God stands Himself, as Himself. Not as a created object, but the object of faith and works. He is God, three persons in one God. Spirit and now, in the Word made flesh, body and Soul in Jesus Christ. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each Person, with His own thoughts, words, and deeds. 

 

If you want to meditate on the truth, you must contend with the Trinity. This is why we say meditation is grounded in the external Word. There is no meditating apart from or outside of God’s revelation of Himself in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, like prayer, meditation also seeks to lay hold of Jesus Himself.

 

In this way, meditation is also a life to live. To be sure, it is burying yourself in our Lord’s Scripture, as He has given it to us in the Old and New Testaments. But it is also acknowledging that meditations on the Word of Life, bring life. It is reading, hearing, and doing.

 

In Exodus 24, Moses wakes early, prepares for church, and “took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people” (v.7). Joshua, from our Old Testament reading, “There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them” (Joshua 8:35).

 

King Josiah was 8 when he was made king and his people had forgotten God’s Word. So, “He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord” (2 Kings 23:2).

 

Each time, the command is to return to the Book. Hear the Word of the Lord and live, says Jesus (John 5:24). God will not give you His Spirit without His external Word. Without Jesus, the Word of God, and without His revelation in Holy Scriptures, there is no faith, there is no forgiveness of sins, and there is no eternal life.

 

Dr. John Kleinig, a Lutheran pastor and professor in Australia, puts it this way:

“Luther does not envisage the practice of meditation as an inward,

mental activity, but as an outward ritual enactment. As such it was

inspired by the liturgy and derived from the enactment of God's word

publicly in the divine service. God commands the church to preach, read,

hear, sing, and speak His word, so that He could thereby convey and

deliver His Holy Spirit to His people. That external proclamation and

enactment of God's word determines how the student of theology

meditates. Just as the Scriptures are read in the Divine Service, so he

reads them out aloud to himself as he meditates on some part of them.

Just as the psalms are sung there, so he sings them to himself. Just as

God's word is preached there, so he preaches it to himself. Just as God's

word is spoken there, so he hears it addressed personally to himself” (CTQ 66:3:262, July 2002)

 

For the fruit of meditation is preaching and teaching. First we find God’s Law, cold and unmerciful. You may meditate on “You shall not murder” and find only a tyrant god. But true meditation does not let it end there. True meditation finds the fulfillment of “you shall not murder” in the murder of Jesus Christ, Who’s death we proclaim in the eating and drinking of His Body and Blood, until He returns.

 

Unclouded Signs [Advent 2]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

 READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Malachi 4:1-6

• Romans 15:4-13

• St. Luke 21:25-36

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
                  
Who speaks to us on this second Sunday of the new Church Year, saying,

“But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man”

 
In these words, St. Luke does not use the same words as we heard in the parable of the 10 virgins, on Ultimate Sunday: “Watch” and “stay awake”. They are different today, because there is a lot more to “keeping watch”, than just open eyes. 
 
Thus Jesus includes this in His Word to show us the real world He created versus the false world our sin shows us. He wants us to see that it is His Word and His Church which are the Truth and that they will appear weak and insufficient for life. Yet still we should trust in them and memorize our Lord’s teachings, so that we have a foundation for resistance to sin, death, and the devil.
 
With flashing lights to draw our attention, enticing smells, large hits of dopamine, delicious delights, and pleasing sounds to fill all our senses, we are thrown for a loop. We conclude that God has created this wonderful world and so the things in it, all of them, must be part of His plan as well, no matter what they are.
 
This argument has been used on all kinds of things from drugs to sexual immorality. “God made it, so He must want us to use and enjoy!” The devil, the world, and our sinful nature want us asleep at the wheel. They want you drowsy, susceptible, hypnotized which is the opposite of the word Jesus uses in today’s Gospel.
 
Turns out, its not all that hard to hypnotize someone. If you believe John Lennon wrote the greatest song ever in “Imagine”, and then can listen to “So this is Christmas” in the same list, you have been hypnotized. If you think next year’s election is finally going to make you a better person, you’ve been hypnotized. If you believe every spirit, every place that calls itself church, and every person that calls themselves Christian is the same, you’ve been hypnotized.
 
You are easily fooled because you want to be. It is not some flaw in creation, it is our lust for sin. All hypnotic suggestions are accepted because you want them to work, you want them to fix whatever you want fixed with you, and you believe this will finally do it, even if it is going against God’s Word.
 
We will even be fooled by events and signs happening right in front of us. We will become apathetic. There’s a sign in the sun, moon, and stars? Just wait a bit, they’ll go back to normal. The nations are at war? Just send Dennis Rodman and he’ll negotiate peace. Storms at sea? People losing their minds? Just one more minute, one more pill, and one more time and it will go back to normal.
 
It is as St. Peter warned us in his 2nd epistle. Scoffers, in the Last Days, will be following their own sinful desires, preaching, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (v.3-4).
 
Repent. God did not make us wrong, we have gone wrong. We have breathed the thick air of corruption and found it a delight and to be desired to make one wise. Even worse than our own sin in the matter, we are accused of rejecting discipline and the subduing of the flesh, as Jesus commands. 
 
We believe in our sin, that by noticing a pattern or riding out the storm that God will just go away. Hypnotism works, because we want it to work. To undo the hypnotism we need someone Who is not hypnotized, someone not on the inside, but on the outside.
 
So when Jesus comes to undo the hypnotism, He sounds like a madman to us. He has to repeatedly tell the Apostles why He’s here and they still don’t believe Him, even though it is right in front of their eyes. He repeated it so they’d memorize it, it would be imbedded in their brains, and be remembered at the right time.
 
We are confused because the signs of the coming Day of the Lord do not look like we expect. We expect love and peace, calm and restful. Yet Jesus brings swords, upheaval, and alertness. We are not even at liberty to sleep well, or so it seems.
 
So we memorize, not just that our Lord predicted His Cross and Passion, but His doctrine. In the face of the false gods of pornography and excess, we recite, “We should fear love and trust in God above all things”. In front of the false idols that demand all of our time and cash, we recite, “All this He does only out of fatherly divine goodness and mercy”.
 
That is, even though the days grow rougher, we have already been told. We have already been told and given comfort, that these perplexities and fears have been overcome by the Lamb. Not just in the past and not just at the Coming Day, but today. Today you use your catechism, what you have been taught by the Apostles, to undo your hypnosis.
 
By those pure words you have memorized, you see through to the Truth. It is frightening in this world; disasters, wars, and such, but those are not the signs. They are the warnings. The truth of the strength to escape lies in a manger, which does not look to be enough to tackle this world and our sins.
 
Our peace in war comes at the cross. Our relief from fear is given in water, Word, bread, and wine. These are the signs of victory and the signs we are to unhypnotized ourselves with. For amidst the confusion and false flags of perplexity, Jesus offers 4 promises in today’s Gospel.
 
The distress and foreboding simply inaugurate your redemption that is near. The dead fig tree will once again leaf in the coming, eternal summer. God’s Word is forever, thus there is no need to wait for things to go back to “normal”. And the final promise is the strength to stand before the Son of Man. That is the gift of power to be resurrected from the fainting, the sleep, the death that the cares and concerns this world causes.
 
Indeed, the worst the world can do is cause death. But the worst has been overcome by the worst. In His dying, Jesus destroyed death. And if death is defeated, then any and all paths to it have been conquered as well.
 
Thus, the distressing signs of evil and insanity in this world are actually signs of joy and triumph. Not “the end is near”, but Jesus is coming quickly! The sun, moon, and stars sing Re-creation’s song. The nations stress and people faint over free forgiveness. The heavens shake that God draws near to touch the earth with His own Body and Soul.
 
With the birth of Jesus and the coming of His greatest work of salvation on the cross, everything is turned on its head. It appears the world is being turned upside-down, when really it is being righted. It appears as if there is no hope, but in darkness Christ is born and the darkness flees.
 
“So then, brothers” St. Paul preaches in 2 Thessalonians, “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thess 2:15). That is, recite the words and truths Jesus has already taught and throw those in the face of your doubts and fears.
 
Hold fast to pure doctrine, that Jesus is God in the flesh, come to Judge the earth in Love. Heaven and earth passes away, because God loves us and wants us by His side for all eternity. He has come in the manger, He will come at the End of all, and He comes today bringing truth and peace.
 
The proclamation of the pure Gospel is what overcomes this world. Jesus and the faith He gives, overturns this world of sin. The cry of “the bridegroom is near” and He is lying in a manger, wake the sinner from his sleep, his hypnosis, to rise again and stand before the Son of Man.
 
Who then proclaims His own truth: the graves will be opened and no longer will the signs be as though in a mirror dimly. The truth of Jesus shines in Word and Sacrament, just as they did at the Transfiguration, where “Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory” (Lk 9:32).
 
For Jesus had come to them. From St. Matthew “But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’ And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only” (17:7-8).
 
You know the time. It has been taught to you. This world is out of time, but God’s time is eternity. You know the ways of the world and how they will not enter heaven. You have been taught The Way, God’s Way. The way of the Cross in which suffering produces hope.
 
Hope that hopes to be saved. Hope that trust in our dear Lord Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, Who cemented my trust by dying for me and shedding His Blood for me on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.
 
The signs are put in our hearts. That is why it is so important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters. (The Silver Chair)
 
 

What makes a Theologian: Prayer [Wednesday in Advent 1]

--TEXT ONLY :: NO AUDIO --

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Daniel 7:9-14

• 2 Peter 3:3-14

• St. Matthew 25:31-46

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Who speaks to us this evening, saying,

“The Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,’”

 

Another verse is like this one, “Come let us reason together” our Lord says in Isaiah 1:18. You may not be interested in God, but He is interested in you. He is close, He is alive, and He is speaking. And, in such an environment, everyone becomes a theologian.

 

The word “theologian” literally means “God worder” or someone who uses words to talk about God. Many today mistake this for just another academic discipline. That if you have the right words, you are the better scholar with more books, more papers, and more peer reviews.

 

This mistake leads to lies, deceit, and immorality. That is the sort of theology people complain about and call “Christian”, when hypocrites are preaching for themselves and chasing after their own desires. A true theologian is quite different, however

 

This will be our topic for this Advent season: what makes a theologian. On the surface, we have already explained it. What makes a theologian is that God speaks and a man hears Him and begins to live his life according to what he has heard, for better or worse.

 

As always, however, we are interested in the whole truth. Thus, we want what’s beneath the surface, for God not only speaks, but acts. And how God acts, will also determine, how we act. In this truth, it has been said among us that there are three things that make a true theologian. They are Prayer, Meditation, and Trial.

 

For this evening, Prayer, or “oratio” is going to be our topic and you may think that it will be a short night, because we already know about prayer. If you follow any Christian on any media, they will talk about prayer. How you must do it, how its necessary for a relationship, how its required to be a Christian. Then they will tell you how they do it, not necessarily how God does it.

 

How God does it is He speaks and then He acts and He details all this in His Book, the Holy Scriptures. Dr. Luther says this, “the Holy Scriptures constitute a book which turns the wisdom of all other books into foolishness, because not one teaches about eternal life except this one alone. Therefore, you should straightway despair of your reason and understanding. With them you will not attain eternal life, but, on the contrary, your presumptuousness will plunge you and others with you out of heaven (as happened to the devil) into the abyss of hell. But kneel down in your little room [Matt. 6:6] and pray to God with real humility and earnestness, that he through his dear Son may give you his Holy Spirit, who will enlighten you, lead you, and give you understanding.” (AE 34:285-286)

 

So firstly, prayer is speaking back to God what He has already spoken to you. Prayer should be something that changes you. You should not be heading to prayer thinking you can make it what you want or you can make life what you want. Remember what the Lord said about Abraham: shall I hide what I am about to do. 

 

God’s Word is prayer and God’s Action is prayer. We don’t have to make it up. Yet, God’s Word does not speak about us, but Jesus. Thus, secondly, prayer is not us becoming our own teacher, but seeking the True Teacher of the Scriptures, Himself: Jesus. 

 

From Dr. Luther again:

“Thus you see how David keeps praying in Psalm 119:26, “Teach me, Lord, instruct me, lead me, show me,” and many more words like these. Although he well knew and daily heard and read the text of Moses and other books besides, still he wants to lay hold of the real teacher of the Scriptures Himself, so that he may not seize upon them pell-mell with his reason and become his own teacher. For such practice gives rise to factious spirits who allow themselves to nurture the delusion that the Scriptures are subject to them and can be easily grasped with their reason, as if they were Markolf or Aesop’s Fables, for which no Holy Spirit and no prayers are needed.” (AE 34:286)

 

The cross of Jesus is our theology and it teaches. Jesus prays first, we listen and pray second. He gives His words and His prayers to His Church and she repeats in devotion. From this comes the Church’s heart and life in Liturgy. Her hymns and practices become the anchor for this new life. 

 

God’s Word and actions determine and order our thoughts, words, and deeds. We do not get to rearrange things as we see fit and still call them holy. we receive what God gives and how He gives it and conform to that Image. We do not do the changing, rather we are changed by prayer.

 

You may not be interested in theology, but theology is interested in you. In giving us prayer, Jesus directs our humanity towards right doctrine. He takes our sinful nature, which prays to anyone and anything other than the one true God, and gives us proper, true prayer.

 

“Lord, teach us to pray”, was the cry of the Apostles. If they had to learn, you have to learn. You have to learn, because part of prayer is praying against your own heart. You want the heart of prayer, there it is. You must learn to pray against your heart of sin, the devil, and the world. 

 

We must also learn to live that life of repentance and that takes special revelation and help from the Holy Spirit, as well. For Prayer is not just many words, but many actions; a life lived in the Faith Given. And faith chooses to live in Christ and in His Church.

 

Prayer, Oratio, is to lay hold of the real Teacher of Scripture, Himself. True faith lays hold of Christ and leans on Him alone. This, opponents of Scripture cannot understand. For by being given the power of prayer, they believe they now can believe, they can choose good, and they can live a righteous life, using God as their stepping stone.

 

A "true theologian" is someone who understands the difference between law and gospel, discerns God's will through suffering and the cross, and learns through prayer, meditation, and trial. He does not attempt to find God through visible, created things rather only through the suffering of Christ.

 

We should not expect prayer to be any different. In speaking our prayers, we say them out loud, because we not only expect to be changed, but we expect God to act. We speak His Words because they are the words of Life. We speak them because we know they are better than our words and will actually accomplish what they say.

 

Everyone cannot help but be a theologian for we all speak of eternal things: justice, peace, righteousness. A true theologian understands that these Godly things only come from the God Who wishes to give them through His Son, Who teaches us, “Our Father, Who art in heaven…”