Law and Gospel

I grew up with the admonition that politeness and courtesy were never optional.  Whether you faced people you despised or were looking across the table at your enemies, the uncommon common virtues of politeness were not to be forgotten.  Maybe it is the perennial niceness of the Swedish culture or the stoic face of the German ancestry, but the truth is I find it hard to preach the Law in full accusatory manner.  Never mind that I am a wimp at heart, would rather have my folks love me, and grew up in an age in which the Law was preached always to us and not to you, the truth is I find it hard to speak the Law with the full weight of its power in personal address to the hearer.  I suspect I am not alone.

On one hand, the Law is silent because people think anything said about sin or any call to repentance or any encouragement to holiness of life and conduct is an attempt to elevate yourself above others.  In particular, the preacher finds out how quickly someone replies to the Law rightly proclaimed by saying "Your not perfect, either."  Well, that goes without saying now doesn't it?  If preachers had to pass a sin test before mounting the pulpit, there would be no preaching.  Even saintly St. Paul lamented loud and often his own sin and unworthiness -- all the while preaching loud and often the Law and calling the people of God to walk worthy.

On the other hand, the Law is unwelcome because people misunderstand the Gospel.  Those who presume that Jesus died so that we would no longer talk about sin or there would no longer be anything called sin have a false idea of the Gospel.  The cross only makes sense if sin is deep enough and powerful enough to keep us from cleaning up our own house and setting ourselves right before the Father.  Otherwise, it is a cruel joke to have Jesus suffer and die only to prove He loves us.  Jesus did not die to silence the Law but to fulfill it.  No longer can anyone claim a righteousness before the Law nor should they.  Christ is our righteousness.  That said, this Gospel does not erase the call to be holy as God is holy.  The call to Christian living has been muted by those who insist God wants us to be happy even if what makes us happy is contrary to His Word.  With this, the Gospel has become less about Jesus than a principle of love, acceptance, and toleration in which we judge no one and nothing wrong (except the things that would keep us from doing what we want).

I will say this.  We tend to preach as preachers and hear as hearers through the lens of our own weakness, pain, and shame.  This is the problem for those who mount the pulpit and this is the problem for those who sit in the pews.  We have selective hearing and we speak selectively.  This is a problem for the Law but it is also a Gospel issue.  Pastors find it hard to preach on sensitive topics that some will take wrongly and people are glad for pastors who shy away from those subjects.  In so doing, however, we blunt the Law AND the Gospel.  Jesus' blood has taken on every sin but if we are not ready to address sin with the blood of Christ, people will still live in bondage to sin.  Pastors need to be set free from their fears of what people might think but the people need to be set free from their sin through the Gospel.  All of this requires and expects that both will be preached honestly and fairly -- not as a recipe for a good sermon but as the text itself addresses and expects.  That is the value of the lectionary.  It forces preachers to take on topics they might rather ignore and to address them honestly.  I would be lying if I did not admit that sometimes I winced after proclaiming the text and then saying "The Gospel of the Lord."  Some of them did not quite sound like happy words.  But the Gospel is not about happiness.  It is always about holiness.  The goal of the preacher matches the goal of Scripture -- not to make us happy but to make us holy through the blood of Christ and to transform our hearts to desire such holiness.  The Spirit's work makes this hit home and turns the sermon from lecture into real preaching.