that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom...

I would hope that every Lutheran would have more than a passing familiarity with the genius of Luther's Small Catechism (not necessarily including all the added material which supplements Luther's words).  I find his explanations growing more and more profound the more I teach the catechism and the older I get.  Nowhere is that more true than in his answers to the "What does this mean" of the Creed.

There are phrases that literally jump out at you.  "All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me..."  or "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him..." or "not with silver or gold but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death..."

It strikes me though that we are not fully comfortable with some of what Luther says.  We are less comfortable with the parts that deal with our response:  "For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him..." or "that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness..."  We are thankful for all that God does but we resist the idea that we have a duty as Christians to respond with more than thanks and praise.  It is that serve and obey part that we wrestle with.  In the same way, we are delighted in what it has cost God to make us His own but we are not so delighted in the living under Him and serving Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness part.  I speak here not to others but from the perspective of my own stubborn heart and will.

We want to be God's as long as being God's does not conflict with our lifestyle.  We want to belong to the Lord as long as belonging to the Lord does not mean we have to restrain our tongue or restrain our quick judgements of others.  We want to receive what He has to offer us -- born of His sacrificial suffering and death -- but we find it a stretch to aspire to or reach for the saintly lives that befit that identity and calling as the children of God  by baptism and faith.

I speak as a Lutheran and to Lutherans.  Holiness of life, charity in judgement, and knowing when something is neither beneficial nor helpful to say are not our strong points.  I tell myself all the time the same old tired excuses that justify all our failures -- what do you expect, I am still a sinner... I am no worse than others and better than some... we are saved by grace and not by works...

Why is it that the law under the wrong motivation is capable of getting from us more than the Gospel can get using the right motivation?  Now, don't throw all the theology at me here.  This is not a theological question.  It is a question of desire.  Some of us say in the confession "forgive us, renew us and lead us... that we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways to the glory of Your holy name..."  I struggle with the part that follows "forgive us..."  It is the renewal and following part that is uncomfortable to me... It is the delight in His will and the walking in His ways that remains a struggle...

Paul McCain has often lamented that we are too comfortable preaching justification and not so comfortable preaching sanctification.  He gets no argument from me.  I know it not simply as a preacher but as a hearer.  Yet this is the essential weakness that often speaks more loudly than the proclamation of our lips.  We do not aspire to sainthood or, at least, not at the cost of fitting in with the world and its expectations and values.  The desire to live saintly lives and Pharisaism do not go hand in hand.  To be a sinner, forgiven by our gracious God, and content to live within the familiar ruts of our sinfulness is a hypocrisy far greater than forgiven sinners who fail in their high goals and expectations of holiness and righteous living.


While it does not surprise me that Christians divorce, abort, engage in pre- and extra-marital sex, cheat, lie, covet, and consume in equal numbers with the unbelievers, it does surprise me that we are comfortable or that we have found our miserable peace with this contradiction.  I am under no illusions about our success ratio but I also know that there will no success without desire and effort to become the people God has declared us to be.

Just a few thoughts about my own personal struggle to live out what my lips profess....