Bloghardt's Reflector

St. Matthew 19: 4 - Wedding of Mary Bebee & David Walling
Christian Life Assembly, Carrollton,

In the name of Jesus. Amen. It's messy. The Gospel, that is. It's bloody.  It's nasty.  It's not neat. 

Theology in the way of the Gospel is done by confession. We confess what the Lord gives us to confess. Him to us, we back to Him. We “same say” - that's homologein. He speaks, we speak back to Him what He has spoken.

I tell the confirmands, “'Is means is. All means all. I forgive you means I forgive you.” That's the Lord's Supper, Baptism, and Holy Absolution. This is My Body means, “This is My Body.” “All nations” means the Lord baptizes “all nations.” No one is left out. And when He speaks the words, “I forgive you,” those words deliver what they say! Our sins are forgiven. And that is, says the Catechism, “…as valid and certain as if Christ our Lord spoke them Himself. How could they not be? He did, through His men.

That sounds easy, but I guess it isn't really. It's actually hard, messy, and complicated. The Gospel always is. Freedom is messy. What flows from freedom is scary to those in slavery. So, the easiest and most sensible way to deal with such freedom is to bring it under bondage. (Gal. 2:4)

In the Name of Jesus. Amen. My little church had a wonderful organist play for our services during Holy Week. He was amazing! I had never heard our little organ make such wonderful sounds. The walls shook, the people sang with more zeal, it was truly amazing. It was the same organ, but it in the hands of this wonderful musician, it was heavenly.

That's pastors. We are just like my church organ. No pipes, nothing special, sometimes old and out of date. Often times, we need to be replaced with another organ.  Or at least, get a bit of a tune-up.

The One who is doing something special is the Lord. He's playing us. He's using us for the delivery of His Calvary won gifts. He's the Shepherd who lays down His life for His Sheep. He feeds them. He speaks to them – through His men.

Just tools. That's all pastors are. Not special. Not super. No indelible mark. Nothing exceptional. No being a pastor apart from sheep. No sheep without a shepherd. We're just instruments.

We don't make the Word special. We aren't the big deal. The people we serve are – "For the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). And forgiveness certainly isn't made “better” when we deliver it.

Yes, Holy Absolution is unique. The Office of the Keys is unique. Forgiveness between sinners is unique too - it has a human element – an element that is missing when the Office is involved.

Sin. Suffering. Death. Horror. Abuse. Pain. Tearing and ripping through families and people – leaving destruction its wake. Corrupting everyone it touches – defiling them, changing them, damaging them. Sins so horrific that even being exposed to them makes you feel unclean – the images impossible to purge from your memory. Spots that, like with Lady Macbeth, no amount of water will wash out.

How can God allow such things to happen? If He's all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing…why? Where was He during the rape? During the molestation, during the incest, when my husband wasn't faithful – where was God? Was He just missing in action when my husband started abusing me? Did He take a day off when the experimental medication which worked yesterday Medicare won't pay for today? Why did He allow you to get your hopes up that things were going to get better one minute and then let them be destroyed in the next one?

What can be done about such pain? Where is the Light in this kind of darkness? Can these wounds actually heal? These events leave us feeling... well, less human. Or is this what our fallen humanity really is like? Are we to be so worn down by these events that we simply become callous and dead inside?

“Well, He will wipe away every tear from your eyes...” That's nice, it's sweet to talk about everything being better sometime later in heaven. But what about now? What fixes this? What takes away my pain right now? What will just make it stop?