Saturday, June 1, 2024

I had the privilege to give the commencement address to one of our booming LCMS high schools here in South County, California: Crean Lutheran High School. I made several faith and culture observations at the commencement on Thursday, May 30, 2024. Here is the manuscript:

Commencement Address for the 2024 Graduands of

Crean Lutheran High School (LCMS), Irvine, CA

Thursday of the Week of Holy Trinity, May 30, 2024

 

Esteemed members of the Crean Lutheran High School board of directors, Executive Director Beavers, Principal Moyer, dedicated and gifted faculty and staff, blessed families and close friends of the graduands, and of course, to the graduands: congratulations and all praise and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ for this auspicious occasion. Amen.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Psalm 118:24: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Our lives are racing. There are real studies which hypothesize that time is accelerating. We are frenzied and the roller coaster is not slowing down. Life is going by at Mach 9. The sense of time passing, and life passing, makes us want to grab all we can as fast as we can. We are like someone in a hot dog eating contest, trying to eat as many hotdogs as we can as fast as we can to win the prize. We embrace carpe diem and all that.

Making the most of the present of course makes sense. After all the wheelhouse of the Enemy is the past and the future, not the present where we find Jesus in the here and now.

Only the unwise live in the past, not holding to what Jesus has done with our past failures, the great causes for our shame, our guilt and self-blame. The devil wants us to live in the past so that the present will not see Christ but be swallowed by defeat even before we get out of the starting blocks.

The Enemy also wants us to live in the future, the great location of the occult. The dark arts that specialize in – again – taking us out of today, so that you will be so busy planning for, anticipating, and looking into tomorrow that you will not see the golden blessings in front of you today.

God wants us to live in the now, because the now is all we really have. It is in time the best time, because in a sense, it is the only real time.

This doesn’t mean that there are not exceptions to the rule: in wisdom we look to the past to be reminded that we have been claimed by God, that He has made us to be His own and He will never break His promise; and in wisdom we look to the future because Christ will come in glory, and He has promised to prepare us to be able to look up to see our salvation drawing near, but outside of these great promises, the past is indeed just that, and the future is not for us to look into.

Instead, we have today, the time that Jesus emphasized as He taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34) Someone might ask if these words of the Lord are not also raising anxiety since He said that we will have trouble today.

But taken in context, that is not a bad thing, because such wisdom means that you are ready for the trouble. You are ready to call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ today and experience – once again – His mighty deliverance.

Marcus Aurelius, the wise Roman emperor, wrote in Meditations: “Begin each day by telling yourself: ‘Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil … [but] none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading.” (45)

We are ready for what the day brings because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13) and because we know that no matter what the day brings – even if it is expressly evil confronting us – God will work good for me as I love God (Romans 8:28) and hold to Jesus. Therefore, today is the day of refinement. Today is the day to be stronger. Today is the day of victory with Christ.

But the Psalmist is speaking more than just about time which is itself created. Before verse 24 of Psalm 118, we see that the Psalmist has an eternal perspective, where there is no time. Verse 1 of Psalm 118: “his steadfast love endures forever!” Verse 2: “His steadfast love endures forever.” Verse 3: “His steadfast love endures forever.” Verse 4: “His steadfast love endures forever.” The Psalmist goes beyond past, present, and future. He is preoccupied with “forever.”

And this is exactly what our world dear graduands does not want you to think about as you go forth into the plans the Lord has for you. You don’t have to be rushed. You don’t have to be in a hurry. Because in Christ you have eternity. When the fastest human being who ever ran went into his sprint, he never ran at 100%, but at about 80% he started, and in a relaxed state, he was able to cover more ground faster than anyone else (Usain Bolt). The world, however, wants you to try to move so quickly that you will neglect what is most important. But there is no hurry graduands because the Lord has given you eternity.

To complement the Psalmist’s preference for eternity over time past, present, and future, he writes at verse 17: “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.”

This almost seems to counter a great segment of conventional wisdom. The great Seneca wrote, “Every day, therefore, should be regulated as if it were the one that brings up the rear, the one that rounds out and completes our lives.” (Letters, 58) It is akin to the famous idea, “Live each day as if it were your last.” If you do, then Seneca adds this delightful insight, “If God adds the morrow we should accept it joyfully. The man who looks for the morrow without worrying over it knows a peaceful independence and a happiness beyond all others. Whoever has said ‘I have lived’ receives a windfall every day he gets up in the morning.” (Letters, 59)

Fair enough, but he probably did not go far enough. Luther goes further:

[When the Psalmist says at Psalm 118:17: “I shall not die, but I shall live…” God is enabling us to say] “Though I die, I die not. Though I suffer, I suffer not. Though I fall. I am not down. Though I am disgraced, I am not dishonored.” (AE 14, 86) That is, God has done something else about the “day” that is today that human reason cannot grasp. But we can grasp through the Holy Spirit.

The Lord gives us amazing help, says Luther. “The dying live; the suffering rejoice; the fallen rise; the disgraced are honored. It is as Christ says, ‘He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live’ (John 11:25).” (AE 14, 86)

There must be more to Psalm 118:24: On this day graduands, this day, and if we are alive tomorrow, we may say again, on this day: “This is the DAY that the LORD has made.” What is the “day”? The day is Christ. Jesus says in John 8:12: “I am the light of the world.”

St. Peter wrote, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19) And who is the Morning Star? Revelation 22:16b: “I am the root and the descendent of David, the bright morning star.”

If you know Christ as your “Day”/your “Morning Star”/your LORD today, then you will always, always, always…no matter what is going on in this world, have cause to rejoice and to be glad in your Day who is Christ who does not count your life by hours, or days, or months, or years, but by eternity.

This truth graduands we need for our future leaders to have.

Too many of our leaders today are living for the money, the power, the success -- all the dressed-up forms of addiction -- that are here today and gone tomorrow. Who will live for what endures? Who will lead in such a way that will truly help our nation and world? Who will have the temerity to look at the false gods of the age in the face and say, “I will not bow down to you, because your promises are lies that fade into oblivion.”

What leaders will live with the power of conscience and conviction that they are immortal souls with God on their side, who will not flinch to do good and bring about the best for our culture to know God again? Who will stand up for the unborn, the newly born, the aged, those with special needs, the homeless, and the despairing? Who will be able to give their lives away, precisely because they are certain that their lives in Christ will never fade?

Today, we need leaders who speak to matters of gender, tomorrow we will need leaders who will speak to matters of technology merging with humanity on a scale we have never imagined. What of the ethics of these things? Netflix just released a movie Atlas and the protagonist has a conversation with advanced super AI. She is human and she claims that she is real. The AI says it is real. She says she has feelings. The AI says it has feelings. She says she is self-conscious with a real identity. The AI says it is self-conscious with a real identity. She says, “But you were programmed.” The AI comes back and says, “So were you, programmed by DNA.” And that is where the dialog stops in the movie. It should have continued, because we can easily identify the programmers of AI, but as for our “Programmer,” He is God. Our internal information points to Him.

Who will speak this way to a world that is ready to bow its head to the next tower of Babel?

I will tell you who. Those who will not live for themselves, but who will live for others (just like Jesus) who have it figured out that on account of Christ, they don’t ever have to be worried about running out of life.

Who will serve a culture that is already marked by depression and anxiety, when jobs that provide a sense of meaning and purpose are replaced by robots?

Who will serve a culture that is ready to bow down to the gods of this age to tell them that the Living God has never changed?

I pray that it will be all of you, graduands. Every single one of you regardless of the field you enter.

I pray that you will know that you:

1.     Are not trapped in the past of regrets, shame, or guilt.

2.     Are not trapped in the future full of worry and anxiety.

3.     See today as the day when Christ comes to you to strengthen you.

4.     To see that the Best “Day,” the eternal Day Jesus, has given you life that is full of eternal time and energy. No entropy here.

5.     And then to take this gift, and turn around and serve this culture, nation, and world with a grace, and a power and liberality of giving that the world has never seen…so that you all will become the new “greatest generation.”

Yes, Jesus said at John 8:12 (as I already mentioned) about Himself, “I am the light of the world,” and then He said also at Matthew 5:14: “YOU are the light of the world.” Go forth graduands and shine with the light of Christ and know a life – indeed an eternal life – that is better than any other life you could possibly live.

Psalm 118:24: “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”


Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Dear Friends,


The "Faith-And" Trilogy has been completed. These books were written with the goal of developing confidence for Christians to walk by faith in Christ. In the first book, Faith That Sees In the Culture, we conduct a survey of biblical dualities and paradoxes to bring clarity to the relationship between faith in Jesus Christ and our lives in relation to the world. In this volume we peer through the lenses of biblical dualities for perfect acuity to see who we are, where we live, when we live, and to whom we speak (just to name some of the dualities). When understanding is grasped in these areas, it is easier to live out faith in the culture.

The second volume Faith That Enages the Culture considers the important task of evangelization but in such a way as to leave programming and marketing devices behind. The emphasis is genuine relational engagement with people while prioitizing the love of Christ when sharing the faith with anyone we might speak to. In this volume I introduce what I refer to as "the engagement triangle," that leads us to a biblical outline for effectively engaging people with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. We begin with Perspective as especially laid out in 1 Peter 3:15, then continue with People and how we connect as taught in 1 Corinthians 9:22, and then finish the triangle with Place as we examine how our unique envirnoment in the culture might serve as a bridge for better communicaton taking St. Paul's example in the Areopagus in Athens, Greece as recorded in Acts 17.

In the third and final book of the series Faith That Shines In the Culture we fortify Christians for celebrating how God shines His light in our everyday vocations/callings in the world since the light of Christ shines upon us through His powerful Word and Sacraments. We step back to consider our daily vocations within the three estates in our lives established by God: the family, the church (local congregations), and the state (the greater society). These are to serve each other and responsible Christian citizenship is to treat all three as both secular and spiritual (sacred). When we do so, we learn to apply the fourth estate which is estate of Christian love (agape sacrificial service) in and through all our calls in the three estates. Here, Christ serves others in and through Christians and we are saved from the temptation to treat our callings as drugery.

Please help me spread the word about the "Faith-And" series.


In Your Service and To Christ's Glory,


Rev. Alfonso Espinosa, Ph.D.








Dear Friends,


Language of course is always in flux and evolving. Case and point is in respect to the word "Christian." The word has taken on a host of possible definitions:

1. It might be held as a synonym for "theism," the belief in a personal God.

2. It might also be used as a word for someone striving for moral integrity and who reveres the ethical teachings of Jesus Christ.

3. It might be a synoymn for civic nationalism especially in the United States, sometimes referred to as a "Christian" nation.

4. It might also be used as another way of claiming to be religious with leanings towards the Holy Bible.

5. It might be a catch-all category for anyone attending a local congregation of a major denomination within Christianity (even if that congregation identifies itself as "non-denominational"). That is, here -- while the actual Christian faith might be offered therein -- there is no guarantee that the attendee actually holds to the Christian faith, but will nevertheless identity him or herself as "Christian."

None of these match historical and orthodox Christianity. That worldview and religious system which rests on the authority of the Sacred Scriptures/the Holy Bible while confessing the divine inspiration and inerrant integrity of its objective truth. Namely, the revelation that the Lord Jesus Christ is the very Son of God -- truly God and truly man -- who lived, was crucified, died, rose from death, and ascended to heaven to lead His Church on earth to know the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and liberation from the power of darkness and the devil. 

In this short volume "A Biblical Response to Liberal Christianity," I discuss the effort of our post-modern culture to distort the meaning of the orthodox Christianity ever since the 17th and 18th century Enlightenment. This movement here dubbed as "liberal" (though the word itself in its original form was in no way derogatory) reflects the particular movement to water down orthodox Christianity and reducing it to sheer subjectivism, relativism, and devoid of the power of God.

The volume is available through Concordia Publishing House.


In Your Service and To Christ's Glory,


Rev. Alfonso Espinosa, Ph.D.






Friday, February 3, 2023

There is a great need to understand the vital relationships in Scripture and Christian theology regarding THE singular call, bestowing grace for people becoming baptized children of God leading to a life marked by a living faith; and furthermore, how this life relates to the several and even many calls (plural) in which the Christian serves the neighbor in the world. Moreover, these take place in specific arenas ordered by God, namely, the Family, the Church, and the State. These estates are complementary and the Christian lives in all three 24/7. In addition, the spiritual estate or the estate of love -- not so much a fourth estate, but the chief, overarching estate -- runs through them all. Every Christian is a priest of God serving the neighbor in love in each unique context of family, church, and state. Love is manifest differently in each estate, but in every case the neighbor is helped and served.

This past weekend I sent the finished manuscript to Concordia Publishing House of my upcoming book to be published this year, 2023.



Thursday, October 7, 2021

Engaging with The Word in Our Changing World

[I presented this paper was presented at the LC-MS Pacific Southwest District Pastor's Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on Tuesday, October 5th 2021] 

Good morning fellow servants of the Lord Jesus! It is good to be here with you! Let me begin by clarifying the words in our title, “Engaging with The Word in Our Changing World.” First, we will look at the word “engaging,” then “with The Word,” and finally, “in Our Changing World.”

When I say “engaging” as I do similarly in the book Faith That Engages the Culture (CPH, 2021), I don’t mean what some disappointed online Amazon shoppers who ordered the book thought I meant: engagement before marriage; thinking my book to be about preparing for holy matrimony. What I do mean is that sharing the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about living in a preoccupation of our self-conscience efforts to make the right pitch, to sell the Gospel correctly, or find a way to manipulate or at least finesse a situation successfully so that the Holy Spirit can finally be effective to change hearts for Jesus Christ. No, I don’t mean that. 

What I do mean is that just as we Lutheran Christians emphasize the Word of God to the extent that we seriously invest in the Word (e.g., how beautiful are the words we borrow from Cramner and the Book of Common Prayer describing our love for the Word of Christ: “Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant us that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.”), that we would also through engagement for the Gospel equally invest in the people with whom we interact and serve in love in the Name of the Lord. 

This means that we get serious about Saint Paul’s missionary strategy to become all things to all people that we may (by God’s work in us) save some by all possible means (1st Corinthians 9:22). This means we strive to know and to apply Godly pity, Godly empathy, and Godly sympathy so that the Gospel we share is received by real human beings in need: that is, in compassion our hearts must extend to those in need; then in empathy, feel – as much as possible – those needs; and then in sympathy to suffer with those we come alongside of to share their burdens as much as we possibly can. From this love, the Holy Spirit sets the stage for receptivity of the saving Gospel. 

“When St. Paul states at verse 19 that he made himself a servant to all, that he might win more of them, Paul was stating his willingness to make personal adjustments for others so that nothing would unnecessarily get in the way of people receiving the Gospel he preached. ‘The changeless Gospel empowers us to sacrifice our own rights, tastes, interests, and preferences so that others might hear the message of Christ in all its power’ (TLSB, p. 1958). What was St. Paul really doing? He ‘showed himself a model of missionary adaptability’ (Lockwood, 1 Corinthians, CPH, 314). This attitude of adaptability imitates what our Savior did for us all: ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich’ (2 Corinthians 8:9). St. Paul had what was an ‘apparently chameleonlike stance in matters of social relationships’ (Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT, Eerdmans, 467). The Early Church theologian Ambrosiaster was magnificent in his observations:

         Did Paul merely pretend to be all things to all men, in the way that flatterers do? No. He was a                 man of God and a doctor of the spirit who could diagnose every pain, and with great diligence he             tended them and sympathized with them all. We all have something or other in common with                 everyone. This empathy is what Paul embodied in dealing with each particular person (Bray, ed.,             1-2 Corinthians, ACCNT, InterVarsity Press, 86).

St. Augustine states flatly that St. Paul wasn’t pretending to be what he was not, but rather, he was showing compassion (Bray, 86). He illustrated, ‘A person who nurses a sick man becomes, in a sense sick himself, not by pretending to have a fever but by thinking sympathetically how he would like to be treated if he were sick himself’ (Bray, 86).” (Faith That Engages the Culture, CPH, 71-72)

That is, engagement makes the other person our focus as much as we are focused on the Gospel we share. We love the person. We at least listen as much as we speak (if not more); we strive to find common ground not to be self-conscious about our good works to and for the other, but rather conscious about the unique person before us for whom Jesus died and rose and who loves this person before us at this very moment – regardless of their ideology, politics, worldview, religion, or lifestyle – as much as me. 

Engaging can be biblically depicted in what I call “the engagement triangle”: 


Biblical engagement begins with the biblical perspective (the first “P” on top of the triangle) described in 1st Peter 3:15. I love sharing this with Christians otherwise intimidated about witnessing because it teaches us that witnessing begins long before we are face-to-face with anybody. The Scripture begins with these words: “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy…”. We begin with the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s honored as we set Him apart in our hearts to reign in our lives, to lead us to face the astounding needs in our changing world, none of which are too hard for Him to handle.

People need to see us as true representatives of the Lord for whom nothing is too hard; for whom nothing is impossible so that nothing will hinder His loving and merciful will intended for all. The world needs this perspective as many of today’s millennials are intentionally planning on either having no children or less children unwilling to subject their potential children to the world we live in today; as climate change (regardless of your politics) is showing up not just where Ida hit, but where it caused a shocking amount of flooding on the east coast, or as climate change has reared its ugly head through “heat domes” that make one pray power grids won’t shut down; where the fires that have destroyed so much in the western region seem to never end; where the liberty in our country has been strained to the point that while the 5th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution invoke due process, lives can nevertheless be wrecked through the unofficial juries of a cancel culture working behind the scenes; where partisan politics is so controversial and impassioned that the orders of family and church take a back-seat to the all-enveloping order of government; where our moral fabric continues to prove the “Durkheim constant” that since there is a limit to the amount of deviant behavior any community can ‘afford to recognize,’ so that as behavior worsens, the Perspective Place Engaging for Christ People 4 community adjusts its standards so that we tolerate more of what used to be reprehensible (Faith That Engages the Culture, CPH, 123). This is the time that the word “pandemic” does not just apply to the virus and its variants, but to many other coinciding issues that can make a pastor’s head swirl when discussing masks and vaccinations with concerned parishioners on both sides of the aisle (whether driven by science variously interpreted and/or politics in all its relativistic glory). And all of this is just the “extra stuff” on top of the everyday and serious issues we all must deal with for ourselves, our families, and our parishioners.

But within the chaos, the basic and visceral issues remain in the human heart: guilt, shame, fear, and anger. The Lord through His Word always keeps it simple for us: get to the heart, always get to the heart. And the heart needs the rest of 1st Peter 3:15. The word ἀπολογίαν here does not have to be weighed down with rhetoric, logic, philosophy, and advanced apologetics, etc., but keep it simple for those we teach: just speak the truth about God for all people through Jesus; and that God deals with the most realistic, practical, relevant need all people know, crave, and thirst for: life. Bring life to people who in our world today have death staring them down.

And we do it in the most radical way (as the last part of 1st Peter 3:15 teaches). For whatever issue we identify contributing to the emotional exhaustion all around us, our way as Christians is not to perpetuate and spread hatred, anger, hostility, angst, but to be gentle and kind to all. And if we are attacked, we have no need to return volley. We can be like our Savior who just took it, and then continued to love (at the same time, we ought never ignore what Jesus said about casting pearls, Matthew 7:6). Such a way is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the way of the martyrs. As for the respect (the last word of 1st Peter 3:15), we respect the Lord as we engage…so that every word and every action toward the one for whom Jesus died truly honors Christ. He is there with us as we engage always. 

Then we go to “people” – the second “P” – as I have already explained in regard in 1st Corinthians 9:22; and then finally, we get to the third “P” which is when we always consider the unique “place” and reckon how any environment influences our engagement for good or for ill as we strive to use the environment to make connections for our testifying to the truth.

That’s what we mean by engaging.

As for “with The Word” (the second part of our title): this is our constant source of strength and energy. Why? For many reasons but for the purpose of our present considerations because it does not change like everything else (thank God! Our most vital resource does not change!). This Word of Christ we handle in great humility and over-flowing confidence, is the unchanging Word of Christ!

        …you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and                 abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass         withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever’ (1 Peter 1:23-25). 

This of course stands in stark contrast to the third part of our title: “our changing world,” but let’s not let this part exert discouragement upon us (in fact, I would argue we have reason rather to be excited, thankful, and energized for the new opportunities given to us for the Gospel of Christ). It’s important to acknowledge change, but not to take it too far at the same time.

When people look upon the world today, the change can feel so overwhelming, that people are easily distracted from The Word. Before you know it, fear and anxiety reign and there is no time for seeking God because we are too busy painting the worse case scenarios in the world. Worst case scenarios take on the characteristics of apocalyptic extremism.

Such extremism always views the current age and even the season within an age to be the worst in the history of humanity. This is what we might refer to as the myth of contemporaneity that marks our contemporary age as the exceptional one especially when it comes to chaos and suffering. D.S. Russell describes the mindset: 

         The social order…seemed to be collapsing around them. The course of of justice was being                     perverted on every side; corruption had entered into business dealings and even into the law                     courts; violence was abroad in the land, and people did not know where to turn for justice and                 security (Prophecy and the Apocalyptic Dream, Hendrickson, 15) 

“Throughout history many people, however, have felt that theirs was the generation like those of Noah and Lot. And they thought so under different conditions and circumstances. It is interesting to consider the various forms of 6 perceived threats spawning apocalyptic anxiety throughout the centuries. For example, after the Christian persecutions under the Roman empire ceased with Constantine (c. 280-337), there was a whole new set of tensions inherent in Rome’s decline and overall instability” (Espinosa, The Apocalyptic Anxiety of American Evangelicalism…., University of Birmingham, 27).

Bottom line: we are tempted by our sin, the world, and the devil to think that we are living in the absolute worst of times. But the fact is, unless this is Satan’s little season (Revelation 20:3) which is impossible for us to know, it is important we guard against despair (in fact, even if it is Satan’s little season, we have cause to rejoice for the strength and endurance the Lord promises to give to His Church against which not even the gates of hell will prevail, Matthew 16:18).

But let’s face it, sometimes it is just living in a season with so much change occurring at once that causes us to feel the strain, and even burn-out as servants of Christ. I heard a statistic that when pastors experience major crises within their congregations, they will seek a new call about 80% of the time. Well, it could be argued that in the last 20 months, all of us have undergone major crises in our congregations. Talk about the occasion for us to play musical chairs within the synod right now. We are reactive people, and sometimes we think the best way to cope with change is to change. It’s human nature: if so much change is cast upon us beyond our control, then we think we can make ourselves feel better by conducting change within our control.

Change is upon us and in heavy doses. Lewis calls our perpetual dealing with change the law of undulation (rising and falling): “[our] nearest approach to constancy is undulation – the repeated return to a level from which [we] repeatedly fall back. It is a series of valleys and peaks.” (Screwtape Letters, 40-41) But what I’m describing now -- especially after 20 months of the pandemic -- is the law of undulation on steroids. 

We are Christians but none of us will disagree with Heraclitus (540-475 B.C.) who said, “All things are in flux” and “You cannot step into the same river twice,” unless we make the exception referring to the river of our Holy Baptism. But in the world, it is change, change, and change, and recently the quality and quantity of that change has felt for many to be overbearing. We can feel the urgency perhaps now more than ever in this prayer from our service of Compline: “Be present, merciful 7 God, and protect us…we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may find our rest in You, through Jesus Christ, our Lord” (LSB, 257).

I think like many of us I’ve been fascinated by the markers our Lord Jesus used to describe the end times (of which we are currently living in of course and have been since the first century), but among those signs, our Savior used the words, “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). This is the second to last sign before the second coming before the last sign of the whole world receiving the Gospel.

What does it look like when “the love of many will grow cold?” I think we’re seeing it in spades. Tanner Garrity for Insidehook (Sept 8th) entitled his piece, “Our Brains Aren’t Built to Handle This Much Bad News.” He begins his writing by stating, “Exhaustion is the enemy of empathy. This far into the pandemic, we’re all struggling to care.” Bingo! He observes, “it feels difficult to look around and find much hope these days, that’s because it is.” Yes! And he remarks while quoting The Atlantic, “the exhaustion that has stemmed from almost 20 months of living amidst a deadly virus has complicated our collective ability to appreciate the misfortune we already live with.” Amen! I think he’s right.

He speaks of the cumulative snowball that “mingles with the rest of the issues in the victim’s life, creating an avalanche.” We often hear the analogy about putting on your oxygen mask first so that you can help the person next to you, but during times like these we’re holding onto our oxygen mask in sheer desperation and exhaustion with no relief in sight. Who knows when we will get around to helping our neighbor? In feeling overwhelmed and as if we are hanging on by a thread, how do I exert enough energy to care for others? It feels like “the love of many [growing] cold.” This is what we are faced with in this new normal. 

And this is what the Church must step up to and minister to. But I’m not standing here before you my fellow pastors to give you a laundry list of what you must do, but I’m starting by talking about what is intended that we begin with for ourselves (that is, the gifts of God for you and me to receive -- every one of my points will come in the way of what is available for you to receive -- and rejoice in), so that we are strong enough to tend to our oxygen and then be very enabled to share it with those we are called to serve. 

We begin Engaging with The Word in Our Changing World by receiving the way the Word would have us view things. This is our first form of engaging with The Word in our changing world. We receive God’s glasses to walk by faith and not by sight. We therefore reject the doom and the gloom. We therefore hold to God working behind the scenes. This is nothing new for Him.

By getting back to God’s view, I would like to pick this so-called avalanche apart and call the deception for what it is. Our changing world is not overwhelming even as it can certainly feel as though it were. And mind you, I am not standing here slipping into positive thinking or the law of attraction. No. In fact, I’m not even denying that some of us may be feeling despair right now. We could be. But there is a Scriptural duality when it comes to despair. St. Paul knew both poles: In 2 nd Corinthians 1:8 he recounted “his own experience with his fellow missionaries: ‘We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.’ If you have ever felt this way, you’re not alone…However, 2nd Corinthians 1:8 is not the last word on the topic of despair. In the same Book of 2nd Corinthians, St. Paul also wrote this: ‘We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair’ (2nd Corinthians 4:8). Both references use the same core word for despair. [But Christians] despair when their eyes of faith are taken off Christ… [and Christians do not despair] as their eyes of faith are kept on Jesus.” (Espinosa, Faith That Sees Through the Culture, CPH, 27, 241-242)

So, we may receive anew the eyes of faith to see that through the crises the Lord is opening new vistas for our growing stronger in our faith than ever before. This catastrophe of a season is intended by God to work for our good. It has been granted us by the mercy of God to bless us in ways that we can’t even imagine. In addressing our current changes and challenges, we are once again returning to our Lutheran theology of the cross. Luther:

God says to us, “Do not grow weary. Do not teach Me, and do not teach yourself. Leave yourself to Me. I will be your Master; I will lead you in the way in which I desire that you should walk. You think that all is lost when it does not work out as you desire. Your thinking is harmful to you, and it hinders Me. It must not work out according to your understanding, but must be superior to your understanding; sink yourself into not-knowing and I will give you My knowledge. Not-knowing is true-knowledge; not knowing where you are going is truly knowing where you are going. To know Me makes you simple. Thus Abraham went out from his fatherland and he knew not whither he went. He committed himself and cast aside his own knowing, and went the true way and reached the right end” (Day By Day We Magnify Thee, 342, quoting Luther from his commentary on The seven penitential Psalms, 1517).

Luther again, “When God wants to strengthen a man’s faith He first weakens it by feigning to break faith with him. He thrusts him into many tribulations and makes him so weary that he is driven to despair and yet He gives him strength to be still and persevere…for God must help such a person. In this way God hides life under death, heaven under hell, wisdom under folly, and grace under sin” (Day By Day We Magnify Thee, 343, quoting Luther from his Sermons from the year 1527).

That’s the theology of the cross.

The first thing we receive to engage ourselves and our people for coping during this time is to receive the Lord’s Word in our changing world to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7); and to insist that God will keep His promise to work good through all of what we are currently facing. He cannot lie. He will keep His promise. Receive these lenses of faith brothers. This is what we know to be true through the theology of the cross. When our Savior was outstretched on the tree of the cross, no one could see how glorious it truly was, no one could see what was really happening: He was crushing Satan’s head and releasing us from the power of our sins. But we see it as we put on the eyes of faith.

Now for the second way for Engaging The Word in our Changing World: Rev. David Fleming wrote an outstanding paper entitled, “Loneliness in the Parsonage (or Pastor’s Home)” and from this paper I share these highlights on what we receive from the LORD to engage with The Word in Our Changing World in respect to the second challenge. The first challenge is despair, the second challenge is related, and yet distinct. This pandemic we are living through has produced with it a pandemic of loneliness and isolation and it has spread to you and me. 

Before the pandemic in 2018, Cigna’s loneliness survey uncovered, “that nearly half of Americans report being lonely and feeling left out. One in four rarely or never felt as though there are people who understand them. Only 18% feel that there are people they can talk to. Generation Z (adults ages 18-22) is the loneliest generation. Studies during the COVID pandemic have indicated increases in isolation…” (Fleming, 1). Related to this is the fact that suicide rates have increased. “In 2021 Japan’s 10 Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, appointed a Minister of Loneliness following the lead of the United Kingdom. In 2018 Prime Minister Theresa May added “Loneliness” to the charge of the under secretary for sport and civil society. Loneliness has the same health impact as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Multiple studies show that loneliness is linked to poorer outcomes from cancer and heart surgery” (Fleming, 1).

Pastors and their wives are no strangers to this threat. It is a significant problem to put it mildly.

“Loneliness is actually quite difficult to define, because it is not directly linked to external causes…Kevin Vost [however] offers this helpful definition: “Loneliness is a product of our God-given human capacity to think and reflect about things. It is defined as a ‘perceived social isolation…’” (Fleming, 2, quotes Kevin Vost, The Catholic Guide to Loneliness…, Sophia Institute Press, 5). 

We are not of course confusing loneliness with holy solitude. Our Lord Jesus taught and demonstrated the importance of solitude for prayer. We all need down time for example for various forms of rest and self-care, but loneliness is exacerbated by three things in particular: “frenetic lives, online interactions, and lack of face-to-face conversation” (Fleming, 5).

Here, we are given the opportunity to RECEIVE the Lord’s gifts of time and relationships in a wholesome and salutary fashion. This is not so much about for us to do, but to guard and protect against the attacks upon us especially during stressful seasons such as the one we’re in. One temptation to say “no” to is the temptation to permit a hectic paced life: 

        We overschedule our days and complain constantly about being too busy… we keep up with                     hundreds of acquaintances but rarely see our best friends; we bombard ourselves with video clips             and emails and instant messages; we even interrupt our interruptions (Fleming, 5, quotes Will                 Schwalbe, Books for Living, Alfred A. Knopf [publisher], 13).

Here, we can address the myth that quality does not need quantity. The truth, however, is that to develop quality time we need to have a generous quantity to facilitate that desired quality. (Fleming, 5)

The second threat towards loneliness is online interactions. We’ve been “hijacked by…dopamine deliveries” (Fleming, 5, quoting Jenni Russell, “Rise of the machines has us tapping into an era of lonely desperation,” The Australian Times, November 22, 2019) “…social media has been designed to get us dependent on ‘likes’ rather than engaged interactions. It breeds and fosters a kind of narcissism that is more interested in how others reward me, than in how I am learning about and serving others.” (Fleming, 5). It’s little wonder therefore that four people can sit down at a table in a restaurant, converse over their course, and then all of them retreat to their mobiles for the rest of the dinner.

The last of the three producers of contemporary loneliness is the lack of face-to-face conversation. Eric Jacobsen “argues that the car windshield, television screen, and smartphone are the three pieces of glass that have exacerbated a lack of belonging in our society” (Fleming, 5, quotes Jacobsen, Three Pieces of Glass: Why We Feel Lonely in a World Mediated by Screens, Brazos Press, xi) 

Recall what we said about what happens when love grows cold. Anthony Esolen in “About Face: On Beauty and the Personal Being of God and Man” (Touchstone 33:1, Jan/Feb 2020, 26-29), “argues that because we’ve lost delight in the Creator, we’ve lost delight in the creation, in mankind, in beauty, and in life around us. So many hide in their man-caves staring at a pixelated world alone in the dark.” (Fleming, 7). This Esolen asserts is “the mark of an exhausted civilization.” (Fleming, 7). 

So, what can we receive in the face of this challenge to Engage with The Word in Our Changing World? Let us first review the wisdom in the Proverbs, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” And here lies the next invitation for you to receive close friends so that you may engage with The Word of Christ in our Changing World that is dying from loneliness and isolation. Be wary of the dopamine injections on social media. Having 40 friends much less 4000 does little for your good (though I am not at all discounting the opportunities for disseminating the Word of Christ on social media, that’s different). But when it comes to combating our loneliness and isolation, let us seek these things instead: 

A fresh commitment to be alone with our Best Friend Jesus Christ. I will confess to you brothers that I am not coming to you with a pious theory, but I am coming to you from the school of hard knocks. In late July and into early August 2020 I 12 experienced a series of panic attacks (it was a terrible experience), but I had to take stock and I was blessed. I had gotten to the point that I believed I was just too busy to daily be substantially in the Word of God and prayer. Well, after the panic attacks the Lord taught me that I was just too busy. Now, the time is non-negotiable. To me the logic is simple: if I have time to sleep, to eat, and to do the most basic things each day, then I most certainly have time for the one thing needful (as our Lord put it in St. Luke’s Gospel 10:42).

Receive the Word through the priority of daily time in the Word of God and prayer. Counter loneliness with holy solitude. I also recommend that while quality spiritual discipline will include quiet to listen and for contemplation, that it ought also confess, sing, and pray audibly so that the Words of our Lord would literally touch our eardrums; that we would feel Jesus touching our ears so that we would receive His Word as clearly and as tangibly as possible. In this daily discipline we keep distinct the important differences between the words “complain” and “lament”. Rev. Dr. Timothy Seals teaches that the Hebrew for “complain” capitulates to stress and anxiety caused by a lack of faith and trust that is destructive and unable to see the possibilities of what God would do through our trials, but “lament” is different. The Hebrew means a superior activity, so that as we observe and keep the Word of God before us (and Dr. Seals explains that lament is described in liturgical structure), we can truly express our burdens to God and as it is prayer, we remember that God will keep His promises. It is honest openness to God that we feel empty, but it is always followed by “But” (as in praying to God, “BUT You are faithful!”) remembering that God who kept His promises will do so again (Bible Study on September 19th 2021, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Claremont, CA).

Put another way, lament is what sanctifies our complaint, but without lamenting complaining is empty and the sign of an unraveling faith. Harold Senkbeil: “[Lamentation Psalms] teach us how to file a complaint with God. And complaining isn’t whining; if you’ve ever read your medical records, you’ll know that medical complaints are simply the physical symptoms of your distress. When you go to your doctor, you’re not whining; you’re just explaining where you hurt. You list your complaints because you know your condition should receive attention. It may not go away; some of the symptoms may remain. But you’ve gone to someone who can do something about it.” (Christ and Calamity, Lexham Press, 25)

This is our time to impress upon our people to be in the Word of Christ and prayer. This is the time for spiritual revival and perhaps for developing the strongest spiritual discipline we’ve ever known in our lives, and to bask in the feast of the Word of Christ and prayer that has been given to us for free.

From this, springs the living out of two other marvelous gifts that we may receive. The first one brothers, we’ve allowed to get dusty and kept on the shelf for too long, and this is again for us and for our precious flocks. I’m talking about the gift of Individual Confession and Absolution (Lutheran Service Book, pgs. 292-293). 

As pastors we are in the crosshairs of the Enemy. He tries to lead us for example into “destructive comparisons and attempts to measure up to others. Why should we regard this as a spiritual battle? Because the adversary’s goal is to drive the pastor out of the ministry!” (Confession and Absolution, CTCR 2012, 21) Luther elaborates: “For I know [says Christ] that the devil will harass you severely for My sake, to sadden and weary you, to make you impatient, to induce you to defect, and to make you say: ‘I wish I had never had anything to do with this!’ That is the sentiment of many right now. I myself have been assailed by such aversion and weariness, and the thought has come to me: ‘If I had not begun to do so, I would never again preach another word; I would let everything take whatever course it may.’ … But Christ declares: ‘That is not the right attitude. Do not let the devil, the world, or your own flesh overcome you; but think of how I have loved you and still love you.” (Ibid., 21) 

“The pastor who finds himself under such attack should not wait until he gains the victory over these spiritual foes before availing himself of the benefits of private confession and absolution. On the contrary, he will find in confession and absolution the very allies that can bring support and encouragement as he continues to wage war on these satanic forces. Confessing his failures and acknowledging his helplessness may even bring the pastor to a better understanding of the sources of the anger and discouragement. It will work to restore and strengthen his conviction that all pastors serve their Lord as both recipients and stewards of the Gospel’s absolution, helping him once again to ‘major in’ the things that really are important.” (Ibid., 21) 

And this resource is also for your flock, and it is one that highlights the face-to-face contact that we all yearn for to rise above loneliness and isolation.

Finally, we are also in the position to highlight (if I may be so bold) the forgotten means of grace listed in the Smalcald Articles (The Third Part, Article IV): “…God is superabundantly generous in His grace…Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren. ‘Where two or three are gathered’ (Matthew 18:20) and other such verses [especially Romans 1:12].’” We need to be intentional for receiving the gift of friends. Lewis celebrates the great gift of friends: “…Friendship exhibits a glorious ‘nearness by resemblance’ to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vison to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah’s vision are crying ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ to one another (Isaiah VI, 3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have.” (The Four Loves, 92-93)

These things embolden us to seek out face-to-face contact. This is the season – even with all its restrictions – for us to go out to people, to reach out, to insist on face-to-face contact (something we have more opportunity serving in the Pacific Southwest District). This is what under-shepherds do right? We call, we visit, we get face-to-face. We should receive it for ourselves, face-to-face with a pastor who will care for us; we should do it with our people (face-to-face with them to comfort them and strengthen them); and we should do it with friends (find ways to see each other face-to-face) with our short list of close friends; and with our larger small groups and even through special efforts that address the hardship for some to come to Church right now. If they can’t come to us, we can still often go to them, even if it means gathering in an ally (as one pastor recently told me he did). If we’re too busy to do this, then we are probably just too busy. To get face-to-face is to suddenly see hope in the chaos.

So, what have we covered for our changing world thus far?

First, despair: that tries to convince us that this is the worst of times. Instead, receive God’s lenses to see through the despair and that the Lord is working good. Let us be His willing servants for the best that is yet to come.

Second, loneliness and isolation: that sucks us into frenetic lives, social media, and the avoidance of face-to-face conversation. Instead, receive God’s pastor for you 15 to serve you; serve your people face-to-face, get together in as many ways as possible for friendships to grow even if its in an ally way.

And now our third and last consideration in our changing world: anxiety and anger.

The pandemic has led to a phenomenon that is called a “Great Reassessment.” Heather Long writes for The Washington Post in her article, “Why America has 8.4 million unemployed when there are 10 million job openings” (September 4 2021): “The pandemic and all the anxieties, lockdowns and time at home have changed people. Some want to work remotely forever. Others want to spend more time with family. And others want a more flexible or more meaningful career path. It’s the ‘you only live once’ mentality on steroids. Meanwhile, companies are beefing up automation and redoing entire supply chains and office setups.”

“Resignations are the highest on record – up 13 percent over pre-pandemic levels…There’s a surge in retirements…And there’s been a boost in entrepreneurship that has caused the biggest jump in years in new business applications.” These changes have produced another one: an increase in relocations. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chair from 2006 to 2014 said, “We are reallocating where we want to work and how we want to work. People are trying to figure out what their best options are and where they want to be.” And this has caused new problems. For example, “In recent months, health care workers and educators have quit their jobs at the highest rate on record, stretching back to 2002.”

None of this happens in a vacuum and it hurts. A popular BBQ restaurant in Winter Park, Florida had to shut down after its workforce dwindled to just four employees. The owner said, “Despite paying more than any restaurant I am aware of, no one wants to work.” But that’s not all they said. Listen to the anger: “Damn you pandemic and the political machine for making more appealing to not work than to be an active part of the workforce in our country. It’s pathetic. And it has disastrous results” (Grace Dean, Insider, September 17th 2021). 

Did you catch the connection that the restaurant owner made between the restaurant’s plight and “the political machine”? Beth Ellwood writing for PsyPost wrote her piece entitled, “Multi-country study suggests that the psychological burden of COVID-19 has led to increased political unrest.” It records the results of 16 a survey of residents of the United States, Italy, Denmark, and Hungary. The findings reveal that COVID-19 is “associated with increased antisystemic attitudes and stronger intentions to participate in political violence.” The pandemic has generated “a psychological pathway linking the mental burden of COVID-19 to anti-government attitudes… [and have led to] increased feelings of social marginalization. This marginalization may have led to aggression and rebellion against existing societal structures.”

In FEMA’s Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program, counselors are taught the phases of disasters that run from Pre-Disorder to Impact, followed by a Heroic period of initial response, leading to a sense of stability called “Honeymoon,” but if things don’t get better drops into a valley referred to as “Disillusionment” as we strive towards eventual Reconstruction (FEMA, CCP Trainer’s Guide, Module 5, 11), but it is that “Disillusionment” stage that can drive people crazy. It’s arriving to a sense that “things are under control,” and then the rug is pulled out from under you again. This is about the time nerves get raw and raw nerves often need someone or something to blame.

Of course, the impact can be inward directed. In getting back to our prior consideration of despair, “America’s pandemic of despair shows up most obviously in the mounting number of suicide and suicide attempts. According to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide rates are higher today than at any other time since the Great Depression. Unless one takes into account just how different our world is today, its impossible to grasp what that data point really means. Today, we have emergency rooms, a much better knowledge of poison and poison control, better technologies, and emergency medications like NARCAN. These incredible, life-saving medical interventions mean that a large percentage of patients who attempt suicide survive. But adjusting for these medical advances, we are likely living through the worst suicide crisis in our nation’s history.” (John Stonestreet and Shane Morris, The Church’s Answer to Suicide, Breakpoint: Colson Center, September 7th 2021) 

But what happens when the impact is directed outwardly? We can go into attack mode. Anne Applebaum writing for The Atlantic elaborates on mod justice trampling democratic discourse (her piece is entitled, “The New Puritans,” August 31st 2021). She writes, “Scarlet letters are a thing of the past. Except, of course, they aren’t. Right here in America, right now, it is possible to meet people who have 17 lost everything – jobs, money, friends, colleagues – after violating no laws, and sometimes no workplace rules either. Instead, they have broken (or are accused of having broken) social codes having to do with race, sex, personal behavior, or even acceptable humor, which may not have existed five years ago or maybe five months ago. Some have made egregious errors of judgment. Some have done nothing at all. It is not always easy to tell.” And now, Applebaum reports, “62% of Americans, including a majority of self-described moderates and liberals, are afraid to speak their mind about politics.” She adds, “This is the story of moral panic, of cultural institutions policing or purifying themselves in the face of disapproving crowds. The crowds are no longer literal, as they once were in Salem, but rather online mobs, organized via Twitter, Facebook, or sometimes internal company Slack channels.” Part of her sad conclusion includes, “a profound generational shift has transpired. ‘I think people’s tolerance for discomfort – people’s tolerance for dissonance, for not hearing exactly what they want to hear – has now gone done to zero…Discomfort used to be a term of praise about pedagogy.”

All this sets people up to respond accordingly: fight or flight. Flight can be as extreme as suicide or at least remaining hidden in that pixelated world alone in the dark we mentioned above, whereas fight ranges from nationalizing the Christian faith that trades loving one’s enemy for demonizing one’s opponent, to sociopathic acts of violence in crowds. 

How do we even begin to engage? 

Earlier I shared the Engagement Triangle that keeps us grounded in the unchanging Word of God for our constantly changing world:


The practical goals of being equipped with the biblical spheres of consideration for sharing the life-giving Gospel are perspective, people, and place. But how do we summarize what the Christian is seeking to do with these?

        1. Perspective invests in the person before us so that we may know their peculiar needs knowing                 that all needs emanate from core sin.

        2. People leads us to find the common ground we might share with that person. 

        3. Place considers how the local culture’s environment might present connections for the Gospel to             be presented.

Today, it feels like it is all about who is right and who is wrong; which side of the ongoing culture war are you on; and whether you are sufficiently prepared to fight for what is right, all the while prepared to tear your opponent apart. We are ready to cancel whatever we perceive wants to cancel us. But here we have a resource in The Word already given us by the Holy Spirit to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5) and instead of returning evil for evil, overcoming evil with good (Romans 12). That resource which is the Word of Christ leads us to also know and to live the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We have no need to fight; no need to be argumentative; and no need to feel threatened. We just don’t have to get sucked into false conflicts. The issues I’ve raised are real and we must treat them seriously, but they are also smokescreens to keep us from ever getting to what is really needed, Jesus, and His gift of life in the face of a culture enamored with death. We can love unconditionally with the love of Christ as we speak the truth in love. 

In the book I talk about the needs, common ground, and connections we have with all people when it comes to science, politics, dehumanization that comes through secularism, sexuality, addiction, and depression, but the principles apply to all issues. 

We constantly receive Jesus Christ through His Word and Sacrament also so that we never have to be overcome by anger and evil. Having received Christ, let us not express the exhaustion and love growing cold that has no hope. Instead, let us go forth with the absolute conviction that the Holy Spirit will always lead us to find some sort of common ground to begin forming a relationship with whomever God puts in front of us. The world doesn’t expect us to even try. It expects us to be angry 19 and militant like everyone else, but our LORD was unfazed even as He stood before Pilate (John 18). 

When St. Paul went before the Areopagus, he was not insulting nor flattering when he observed common ground, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious” (Acts 17:22). St. Paul found a way to connect to them. For crying out loud, he even quoted their poets! Right now, Critical Race Theory (C.R.T.) has a lot of Christians nervous, but don’t let it get you nervous. Instead, find your connection. It is concerned about racism that goes beyond individuals into the very fabric and structure of the institutions within our society. And while you may not agree with much of its analyses or implications even towards Christianity, you and I don’t have to panic, and we can still find areas of common ground and concern when it comes to social justice. 

In the face of despair, join your fellow human being and remember that even we Christians know despair, but hold to the One who holds all who call on His Name. 

In the face of loneliness and isolation, join your fellow human being and remember that we know the LORD who saw this as the first human problem already in paradise before the Fall. 

In the face of anxiety and anger, join your fellow being admitting that we are not immune, but that we don’t have to be because our LORD invites us to cast all our anxieties on him because he cares for us (1st Peter 5:7). And anger? God permits us to be, but without sin (Ephesians 4:26) because by sinning anger would have us deny that Christ bore that sin on Calvary’s cross and covered it with His blood. We just don’t have to be slaves to sin anymore (Romans 6).

Find that common ground. And here’s where we get back to receptivity. The Lord has already provided it. It’s always there for the taking! For the person who might perceive science to be against the faith, then celebrate the common ground that we all operate probabilistically in our daily lives; when it comes to politics, we all want to be protected by our government; when it comes to dehumanization, we all want to be counted as valuable and important, worthy for the pursuit of life and happiness; when it comes to sexuality, we all want to love and to be loved; when it comes to addiction, we all battle shame and lie to ourselves; and when it comes to depression, we are all predisposed at some level to mental illness and the need to be cared for. We can always find common ground. 

And when we do, then we can share the greatest gift the universe has ever known. Here’s the irony: as crazy as things are today and as tempted as we are to jump on that apocalyptic worst of times conclusion I mentioned earlier, our world and culture is dying for – even in its myriad diversity – to be included. Inclusiveness is the great yearning of our time: to belong, to be a part of, not to be left out, and to have a place at the table; and at the end of the day continue to enjoy the gift of life.

Inclusiveness has never been more greatly served than when Jesus Christ did not pour out His blood on the cross of Calvary for a few, or for some, or for many, but when He did it for ALL. God’s love has never proved itself more inclusive. Yes, of course, if we want it then we need to know the exclusive Savior of sin and death. Of course, Law is not forgotten. We need to know our problem before we properly yearn for the solution, but the point is that we have the solution. We have Jesus. In Him, everyone gets their Creator’s love forever. In Him, we find out what is really causing the pain behind our great fears, anxieties, and divisions. In Him, we can engage with the Word of Christ and truly meet the needs of our ever-changing World, with the love and mercy of God that in Christ never changes.

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Two Texts and the Bridge Between

Last May 11th, 2021 I was privileged to speak at a conference entitled, "Reading Two Texts" at Grand Canyon University, Phoenix, AZ. Here is my manuscript:

“Two Texts and the Bridge Between”

“The bridge” between the two texts of Scripture and Culture are the people communicating back and forth. This might be considered a third “text,” and I think it is. People as a distinct component of the triad makes sense. Marty says that culture is “…the sum total of the processes and products by which humans do anything and everything to nature (divine creation).”[1] Here, humans “do” upon culture; and they most certainly “do” upon Scripture for better or worse. Nevertheless, in relation to both Scripture and the culture, people are distinct; they stand between as a bridge.

Scripture reveals an anthropology informing us of the well-known dichotomy or trichotomy (body, spirit, and soul). It also informs us of core sin with its accompanying resistance towards God (and this counts also for the Christian whose flesh gladly forsakes the call to witness, or when we do, gladly judges too harshly those they might be witnessing to). Furthermore, Scripture also teaches that people regardless of their culture are negatively impacted by the demonic, and I think we can say these influences are not exactly the same wherever we go.

Culture, however, also provides an anthropology inclusive of myriad worldviews, experiences, and other subjective lenses. Culture reveals people’s traditions, foods, music, rituals (things we can observe), but also values, beliefs, convictions as to what is real or not real, and of course ultimate allegiances (things we detect  signs about, but don’t actually see). We must discover these through engagement.

Engagement seeks to accomplish getting into the shoes of the person we engage with that we might share the Gospel in unique application to the unique person (while maintaining Scripture’s integrity), but while also breathing in the culture that can both help us to engage if we are reading it, or hinder our engagement if we are not. We must be Christians who love both the Word and people. That means we must be willing – as I argue in the book – “[to] continue mining not only the Word of God but also the people God puts in our lives to engage.”[2]

Thus, I think we should strive to:

1.     Read the TEXT of SACRED SCRIPTURE for the Gospel we bring to others

2.     Read the TEXT of PEOPLE engaging (ourselves and the other person)

3.     Read the TEXT of CULTURE which affects and influences engagement

In the book, I address all three texts in which the word “engages” reflects the Christian engaging the text hopefully with some level of accuracy (seeking a lively and loving back-and-forth with the one for whom Christ died but may yet not know Christ), and of course while also engaging with cultural considerations – visible and invisible – which invariably impact the conversation or as I like to call it the “engagement.” Yes, definitions are vital as Amazon has been selling my book also to people interested in dating and preparing for marriage.

I suggest it could be helpful to see the three components or texts in terms of an “engagement triangle.” Atop the equilateral triangle is PERSPECTIVE, then at the base point to the right is PEOPLE, and then going across to the base point on the left is PLACE.


 

PERSPECTIVE binds us to the text of Holy Scripture, the living Word of Christ, and I recommend 1st Peter 3:15 as a great launch in consideration of the first text especially as I argue that ἀπολογίαν be unbound to the popular idea in contemporary Christian apologetics often giving the impression that “to give an answer” requires proficiency in philosophy, logic, and rhetoric. Instead, a great way to instill confidence in the royal priest-Christian is to see its basic meaning which is “positive testimony and witness to the truth of the Gospel.”[3] In other words, live a holy life and speak truth about the Savior Jesus Christ which simply asserts in loving fashion that God is for those we engage with on account of His Son, Jesus.

And while all this goes under the rubric of Scriptural perspective, the Christian is greatly equipped here as one-half of the bridge preparing to engage with the other half. The Christian is helped with this 1st Peter 3:15 perspective, because while this text is often treated as the sedes doctrinae of Christian apologetics and while the field is eager to jump into providing a “rational defense” for the faith, it is easy to miss entirely the first part of the verse: “but in your hearts honor Christ the LORD as holy…”.

That is instead of being ready to pounce on someone to demonstrate the faith as compelling (while often confusing the idea “defense” with being defensive), the Christian is led first to a real piety between themselves and God. “Indeed, the Early Church Father Clement of Alexandria in referring to 1 Peter 3:15 wrote, ‘This is just what the Lord’s Prayer says: “Hallowed be your name.”[4] And we all know how Luther treated this in the Catechism.[5] The Venerable Bede elaborated: “What does it mean to sanctify God in your heart if not to love that holiness of his which is beyond understanding, in the innermost depths of your heart? Think what strength to overcome all enemies God gives to those from whose heart his holiness shines forth.”[6]

In all this we are reminded the Sacred TEXT is also a living Word which equips us not only to faithfully speak doctrine but empowers the life of love toward God and the neighbor as it facilitates the convicting, counseling, and comforting conducted by the Holy Spirit. We in the Christian Church today in the U.S. need this particular equipping because the context in which St. Peter wrote was much like ours.

Our cultural milieu, as Peter’s, is an environment not merely post-Christian, but increasingly anti-Christian.[7] Such conditions often inspire a defensive reflex akin to what we see in “Christian” nationalism primed to demonize opponents. This is how the world behaves. The Christian, however, in loving God – living out this holiness Peter describes – demonstrates Christ’s active righteousness as is described (for example) in the Matthean teaching on loving the enemy and praying for those who persecute Christians.

When the Christian does not return evil for evil (1 Peter 3:9) but rather prioritizes loving God and serving neighbor (our true vocation, and the one that runs through all other so-called “vocations”), then the one without Christ might very well become intrigued and wonder, “What causes you to live this way?” or “Why do you take this?” or simply the observation even if while silent, “This one is different.” Doors open for the Gospel under such circumstances. People are always curious about strange things, and it is strange to encounter nowadays a person who has better things to do than complain in a world with so much to complain about. In fact, if we would indeed identify many of the current movements we see in the culture as relating to cultural Marxism, then we are actually being given by God the wonderful opportunity to counter attempts to unmask with the commitment to serve. In this way we are truly salt and light of the world.

Similarly, the Christian who is part of the bridge is greatly impacted by the Scriptural perspective in the latter half of 1 Peter 3:15: “…yet do it with gentleness and respect.” “Too often, Christians talk down to those who don’t know the Gospel. Christians can come off as arrogant people who spend their time judging those they consider to be ‘sinners.’… There are many reasons [however] for the Christian to maintain humility when they engage. One reason is that the Gospel the Christian speaks is the Gospel the Christian needs as much as anyone. In other words, the Christian does not approach the unbeliever as though the unbeliever is the only sinner in the engagement. On the contrary, since the Christian has a front-row seat to their own sin in their own life, the Christian should be convinced that they are the worse sinner between the two.”[8]

“The second reason Christians maintain humility is because we have a high responsibility to get it right for God and for the precious person we are engaging with. This person standing in front of you is someone the King of kings lived, died, and rose for. They were created by God and saved by God. They are invaluable to the Lord. If this is the case, how can the Christian be arrogant during engagement? It should be unheard of.”[9]

“One more reason to be humble (the third reason): There really aren’t just two people in the engagement, but three. The Lord is there. He is in on the engagement. He is there to help lead the Christian, and He is there to help the one without Christ to receive the Gospel in faith (or do whatever needs to be done for that person at that moment in time…)… Bottom line: The Lord is listening to what the Christian is saying and how they are saying it. We are speaking before God. If this does not make the Christian humble in engagement, nothing will.”[10]

Luther says that “when you are challenged and are questioned with regard to your faith, you should not answer with proud words and act defiantly…you should conduct yourself reverently and humbly, as though you were standing before God’s tribunal and had to give an answer there.”[11] The ancient teacher Didymus the Blind may have said it best: “Give…a proper answer and…do so with meekness and in the fear of God. For whoever says anything about God must do so as if God himself were present to hear him.”[12]

Thus far we have considered the text of Scripture preparing the first half of the bridge (vis-à-vis the Christian), but now we need to focus on the bridge in toto.  

First of all, Christians ought always be primed to discover common ground with whomever they speak. No need to look far and wide for this as we all share the universal head and heart problems of humanity. From this common ground there is no deviation. 1 Corinthians 2:14 records the head problem related to what people know (or at least what they are willing to grant they know):[13] “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” Jeremiah 17:9 touches on our subjective experience regarding the stark reality of the human heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” From these, the Christian gains insight about the interaction on the whole bridge:

1.     The natural condition of a person predisposes them to resist accepting the Gospel. In fact, the Scriptures state at 1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.” The Christian should never be surprised or put off by a negative response, and it would be silly to take it personally.

2.     The Christian will remember that the Holy Spirit is calling the shots. HE works when and where He pleases. We are called to be patient. Sometimes, Christians are put to the test: Will we love a person enough not to give up on them? Will we wait for the Holy Spirit to choose the right time?

3.    The Christian will therefore be willing to share the Law and Gospel over and over again without becoming obnoxious or rude toward skepticism, knowing that some people just need more time to come to faith. In this way, Christians show great tolerance in the face of intolerance.[14]

Regardless of the myriad of subjective reactions and responses we might encounter, there is no question that we always have an available connection to whomever we engage. I’m encouraged to keep in mind that we stand by both a narrow and broad understanding of the imago Dei. In the narrow sense of the image of God when our thoughts were God’s thoughts, and when our ways were God’s ways,[15] we are no longer. Sin came into the world and caused us to die in respect to the narrow imago Dei.

The broad sense of the imago Dei, however, has not been lost. It is still there. “It is not that will, feelings, and faculties are lost, but that they are now utterly out of sorts, no longer working in harmony. That is, the imago Dei is not a substance or exceptional trait, it is not a faculty, and it is not to be confused with the soul or the parts of man himself.”[16] With these details in mind, we can now deal with what some people say is a contradiction: “How can you say that the image of God was lost when after the fall [recorded in Genesis 3], Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9 [which obviously are after Genesis 3] refer to people as still being in the image of God?”[17] The distinction between narrow and broad comes to the rescue here.

Johann Gerhard elucidated:

“If the image of God refers to some moral principles which are born in us and with us and which consist in some tiny remnants of the divine image in the mind and will of man, then too with regard to these most minute particles we maintain that the image of God was not utterly lost. In fact, the work of the Law is still written in the hearts of men [Romans 2:15] even of the unregenerate.”[18]

Even while Luther rightly warned of fallen reason as the devil’s prostitute,[19] there is still an inherent point of contact between the Christian and unbeliever both of whom form the bridge:

“Perhaps the classic scriptural example of [this point of contact] is St. Paul at the Areopagus in Acts 17. St. Paul’s use of reason and rationality is painstakingly lucid. It is exciting to see St. Paul appealing to the Athenians’ natural knowledge of God. Though their knowledge is darkened and pluralistic, St. Paul builds upon it by presenting the doctrine of creation and the creator. He goes on to apply the work of the law by correcting the limitations placed on God via temples made by man and images formed by the art and imagination of man, and reasonably shows the superiority of the one raised from the dead.”[20]

“What is described here [in Acts 17] is what I like to refer to as ‘the hook of engagement.’[21] Alister McGrath gives an insightful elaboration on what is already taught about the natural knowledge of God in Romans 1 (observation of creation) and Romans 2 (possession of conscience): “Reason, then, provides an important point of contact for the gospel. Though fallen, reason still possesses the ability to grasp and point, however darkly, toward the reality of God.”[22] Engagement seeks the hook as St. Paul did with the Athenians so that he could then proceed with the only thing that turns people to God: the Gospel of the resurrected Christ.[23]

So, how do we discover such a hook during engagement? Here just as the Christian comes equipped through the SCRIPTURAL text, the Christian will now seek to read the CULTURAL text of which the reason of both parties might relate to. “…the Lord permits us to live in the culture that threatens our faith. We must trust that God knows exactly what He is doing in and through His engaging people. In fact, He has strategically positioned each of us in the culture…Since the Christian lives in the culture, which produces conflict between faith and worldly influences, God permits the Christian to relate to many people who live without Christ in that same culture. If Christians are not in the culture, who will be God’s representatives there? In other words, as God allows Christians to experience conflict with culture, the Christian learns of the very conflicts that block the Gospel for those who are living in the culture without knowledge of the Savior!... When we get to suffer in the culture [alongside the other who also suffers in it], the Lord is at the same time connecting us to those without Christ in the same culture. When culture is shared, we have a God-given segue for engagement.”[24]

When I wrote Faith That Engages the Culture, I wanted to equip our people in the Church on how to conduct the goal of finding common ground especially when topics come up that are oftentimes presented as antithetical to the faith which might derail engagement. But culture always puts us in a position to find common ground – and when I say “always” I mean it -- for example:

1.     When engaging science: The Christian also shares in the benefits of science.

2.   When engaging politics: The Christian shares basic political goals like protection and peace.

3.     When engaging personhood: The Christian has also violated the 5th commandment.

4.     When engaging sexuality: The Christian has also violated the 6th commandment.

5.     When engaging addiction: The Christian is not immune.

6.     When engaging depression: The Christian is not incapable of having mental illnesses.[25]

This is to say that we should place considerable stock in discovering what is important to the person we are engaging with. Luther was looking to the Word and at other people at the same time when in his Treatise on Christian Liberty (The Freedom of a Christian): As he peered at Scripture, he knew he was a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none; and as he peered at people -- having been enlightened through Scripture -- he knew he was a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.[26]

“In Christ, we choose to be ‘subject to all.’ We choose to put others ahead of ourselves. If we are doing it for engagement, however, how important is it that we continue mining not only the Word of God but also the people God puts in our lives to engage? That is, the Christian is to invest in getting to know people with the same vigor they have for getting to know the Word of Christ.”[27]

“A great mistake is made when we prioritize the Word but then assume that we should express it the same way to everyone. This is laziness. While we never change the meaning of Scripture nor ‘accommodate’ people by compromising what Scripture says, we do, however, seek to apply the Scripture in light of the unique person we are engaging.”[28]

How do we invest? The Holy Spirit led St. Paul to answer:

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

And here I would to hypothesize what St. Paul might have added to the text here if he had attended this conference: "To the decentered in post-modernism, I became as one decentered in post-modernism." Lutheran Christians have a segue for connecting as echoed by Dr. Jim Voelz yesterday in reference to the "Newtonian" and "Einsteinian" antinomy: "Lutherans like this." [note: Dr. Jim Voelz explained that the two realms of physics: the Einsteinian that sees reality at the sub-atomic level or what we cannot see with our fleshly eyes AND the Newtonian that corresponds to what we observe and consider plainly empirical might be analogous to our sacred theology in that we know that God's unfathomable grace and monergistic working generates all our lives (including our good works, our confession of faith, etc.) AND our experiential doing/living out of the Christian faith. Which of the two is real and biblical? Both!] is drenched in paradox or as I referred to them in my first book: "dualities" (in Faith That Sees Through the Culture). If cultural marxism is indeed about "unmasking," let it unmask us to find that the most powerful message for true liberation from sin, death and the power of the devil does not lie in revealing sub-conscious oppression and victimization, but in engaging others with the greatest humility towards all people the world has ever known in Jesus Christ. I think we can reach those decentered by embracing "Einstein" be it through provocative possibilities (for example, Hugh Ross's comparison of Christ's two natures to string theory), or by simply keeping in mind that when St. Peter wrote, "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy," that he was describing a simultaneous "Newtonian" and "Einsteinian" view...one must practice piety in very "Newtonian" ways, but the holiness wrought by the Spirit is mysterious and as "Einsteinian" as divine monergism can be. The key is to not get flustered or impatient. Demonstrate that the true God loves to unmask all people and all manipulative agendas so that all would repent. Then, just speak the simple Newtonian real space-time Good News of what Jesus did when He come in the flesh.

During engagement “the goal should be to capitalize on what is the same. We can speak naturally to this since there is instant common ground. On the other hand, we also want to be aware of what is different. We do this not to be agitated by those differences or to judge them, but rather that we might respect them, even if we cannot understand them or agree with them. By highlighting what is the same and respecting what is different, we can begin to build engagement bridges that demonstrate we value and care about the person we are engaging with.”[29]

“When St. Paul states at verse 19 [of 1 Corinthians] that he made himself a servant to all, that he might win more of them, Paul was stating his willingness to make personal adjustments for others so that nothing would unnecessarily get in the way of people receiving the Gospel he preached…What was St. Paul really doing? He “showed himself a model of missionary adaptability.”[30] This attitude of adaptability imitates what our Savior did for us all: ‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich’ (2 Corinthians 8:9). St. Paul had what was an ‘apparently chameleonlike stance in matters of social relationships.’[31]

The Early Church theologian Ambrosiaster was magnificent in his observations:

“Did Paul merely pretend to be all things to all men, in the way that flatterers do? No. He was a man of God and a doctor of the spirit who could diagnose every pain, and with great diligence he tended them and sympathized with them all. We all have something or other in common with everyone. This empathy is what Paul embodied in dealing with each particular person.”[32]

“St. Augustine states flatly that St. Paul wasn’t pretending to be what he was not, but rather, he was showing compassion. He illustrated, ‘A person who nurses a sick man becomes, in a sense sick himself, not by pretending to have a fever but by thinking sympathetically how he would like to be treated if he were sick himself.’”[33]

Indeed, while making it a priority to humbly, gently, and reverently “read” the TEXT of ourselves and those we engage – even if at the end of the day all we can decipher is that both are sin-sick – then may we do it so that the TEXT of the saving Gospel does not hang in the air, but so that it might connect to the TEXT of the culture which God desires to be filled with the light of that same saving Gospel. This is the reason we pursue the bridge: to build it and to read it also as another text so that the two other texts might find salutary complementarity to the glory of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and for the great benefit for all of those for whom Jesus died and rose, anyone and everyone we might engage.



[1] Martin E. Marty, “Articles of War, Articles of Peace: Christianity and Culture,” in Christ and Culture in Dialogue: Constructive Themes and Practical Applications, ed. Angus J. L. Menuge (St. Louis: Concordia Academic Press, 1999), 57.

[2] Alfonso Espinosa, Faith That Engages the Culture, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2021).

[3] The Lutheran Study Bible, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 2155.

[4] Gerald Bray, ed., James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament XI (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 104.

[5] Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2017), 20. Luther taught: “What does this mean?” “God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also.” How is God’s name kept holy?” “God’s name is kept holy when the Word of Christ is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!”

[6] Bray, James, 1-2 Peter, 105.

[7] Espinosa, 56.

[8] Espinosa, 62.

[9] Espinosa, 62-63.

[10] Espinosa, 63.

[11] AE 30:108.

[12] Bray, James, 1-2 Peter, 104.

[13] Romans 1:18 teaches that the unrighteous “suppress the truth;” it is not as though they are unaware of it.

[14] Espinosa, 27.

[15] The fall of man caused the exact opposite condition: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8).

[16] Alfonso Odilon Espinosa, “Apologetics in Pastoral Theology,” in Theologia et Apologia: Essays in Reformation Theology and Its Defense Presented to Rod Rosenbladt, ed. Adam S. Franciso, Lorey D. Mass, and Steven P. Mueller (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007), 325.

[17] Espinosa, Faith That Engages the Culture, 29.

[18] Martin Chemnitz and Johann Gerhard, The Doctrine of Man in Classical Lutheran Theology, ed. Herman A. Preus and Edmund Smits, trans. Mario Colacci et al. (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1962), 38.

[19] Martin Luther, What Luther Says: A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian, comp., Ewald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House), 1161.

[20] Espinosa, “Apologetics in Pastoral Theology,” 322.

[21] Espinosa, Faith That Engages the Culture, 30. I first used this terminology in Theologia et Apologia, page 323, but I use it in a more expansive way here as I am not limiting the idea to apologetics.

[22] Alister E. McGrath, Intelletuals Don’t Need God & Other Modern Myths: Building Bridges to Faith through Apologetics (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993), 37.

[23] Espinosa, 30.

[24] Espinosa, 43-44.

[25] Espinosa, 44-45.

[26] AE 31:344.

[27] Espinosa, 68.

[28] Espinosa, 68.

[29] Espinosa, 69.

[30] Gregory J. Lockwood, 1 Corinthians, Concordia Commentary (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000), 314.

[31] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, rev.ed., The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2014), 467.

[32] Gerald Bray, ed., 1-2 Corinthians, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament VII (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 86.

[33] Bray, 1-2 Corinthians, 86.