What is the Law?

Sometimes we forget the obvious or become so comfortable labeling something what it is not that we no longer notice it at all.  Preaching the problems of this mortal life is not the same thing as preaching the Law.  We have problems.  You bet we do.  Some of those problems are caused by our sins and some are the consequence of living in a sinful world.  But preaching the problems of our individual or communal lives in this day and time is not the same as preaching the Law.  The Law accuses and convicts.  Identifying the problems we face is good and salutary but unless we go the second step of connecting those problems to our sins, the Law has not yet been spoken.

Preaching to "felt needs" or problems has become popular today but for the Lutheran, we must admit that preaching about the problems we face is not the same as preaching God's Law.  We struggle with many things that are wrong in our lives.  Loneliness is epidemic.  Marriages are struggling and failing all around us.  Our economic circumstances confound and conflict us.  The world is not a safe place.  Violence is all around us.  Medical diagnoses threaten our lives and the lives of those whom we love.  These are real problems.  We all feel them and they contribute to the constant anxiety of our lives.  But speaking of these things and identifying them as the sources of our fear and angst is not the same as preaching the Law.

Sadly, the identification of problems as Law in preaching has consequences for the Gospel.  Instead of being the answer of God to sin and its death, the Gospel becomes something rather weak and passive.  God is present with you in your problems.  God wants you to be happy.  God can be called upon in your hour of need.  All of these are true (well, maybe not quite the idea that God's greatest desire for you is your happiness!) but none of these are the Gospel.  The Gospel cannot be removed from the cross where Christ suffered in our place for our sin and from the empty tomb where He rose that we might rise with Him to new and everlasting life.

Preaching can easily become formulaic.  Even Lutherans are not immune.  When we simply identify the problems people have identified and tell them that God is with them, we have not told them a lie or deceived them in any way but we have not quite proclaimed the Gospel to them.  Preaching to the felt needs of the people can often become a simple exercise of identifying what things people are struggling with in their lives and then simply reminding them that they are not alone in their struggles.  It may sound relevant and appear to be successful but it is not preaching God's Word faithfully.  In the end, such preaching does little to help the people and everything to make it easier for them to fall away from Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Perhaps it is better than telling people to fix themselves and their problems on their own but it is not preaching the cross or empty tomb.  It is not preaching Christ.  

Problems can become ways of connecting what is happening in the lives of people to sin, helping them to connect the dots between the troubles of this mortal life and what sin has done to cause these troubles.  Preaching can become a tool through which we connect people to their choices and to the voice of the Law condemning those choices when they are wrong.  But simply identifying problems and reminding people God is with them and working on their behalf to resolve them is to fail in the preaching task.  We might complain about moralism when it replaces preaching faithfully the Word of God but it is no different than preaching a weak idea of sin and what has done to us and a weak idea of what it means for God to love us and send forth His Son to be our Savior and Redeemer.  God is not a silent companion in our lives.  He has something to say.  I guess we would rather not listen.