Consider a gold-medal athlete. She works hard her whole life, putting in countless hours that others wouldn’t, disciplining herself in a way others won’t. There was something special about her and her effort, and it resulted in fruit we could all see on international television every four years.
But we here at Gloria Dei are not in the business of training Olympic medalists. Frankly, we wouldn’t know where to start. Instead, we are in the business of preaching the Word of God and serving the Risen Christ. In short, we are in the business of training disciples.
So, what is the limit of what we can do? What is the limit of what we can accomplish as a community—and as individuals?
Imagine for a minute that all members of this congregation, of the Alaska Synod, of the ELCA—all global Christians—put in 10 hours a week reading their Bibles. Imagine if every Christian on earth dropped 50 cents a week in the plate. (That would be over 52 billion dollars a year to equip, feed, and heal the world!) Imagine if every member of this global Christian community put in 5 hours a week serving at their local church. (Here’s what it would look like in our little corner of the world: we’d get all the stuff on our honey-do list knocked out double-quick, and we’d still have a line of volunteers out the building! We’d have to think of new ministries to do just so people would have something to work on! Imagine what those new ministries could be…)
That’s a look at the institution, at the body of Christ, at our combined potential. But, at the same time, you have to wonder how the individual’s life would change. I’m now studying my Bible 10 hours a week, giving 50 cents, and serving 5 hours. What’s my new potential? Am I closing in on that gold medal with all this new discipline?
Or am I hurtling toward a glass ceiling, a brick wall?
This is Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. He produced it in the 1520s to help families learn their faith in the home. Look in the Catechism and you’ll find Luther’s simple explanations for the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the 10 Commandments (among other things)—the basic resources of our Christian faith.
Luther wrote this in a day and age when the people were intentionally prevented from knowing about their church, their faith, even their Bible. Everything was published in Latin, so only the professional church leaders could read it. Then the people would just have to sit there and accept whatever the priests and teachers told them. “The Bible says I have to buy 10 crosses to get into heaven? Sounds good! Do you accept traveler’s checks?”
And ol’ Marty Luther wasn’t a fan of this whole system. No, he didn’t like it one bit. In Luther’s opinion, people should have some authority and responsibility for their own faith formation. A person should have access to the tools and pillars of the faith so that they can know what they’re swallowing and do something with it! Luther was making it possible for the people in the pews to participate.
But, lest we get too optimistic about what we can accomplish with these tools, let’s read what Luther wrote about the Apostles’ Creed. He shows us that when we speak the Creed, we are confessing three things: what we believe about (1) God the Father, (2) God the Son Jesus Christ, and (3) God the Holy Spirit. And it’s while explaining the Holy Spirit part of the Creed that Luther makes a radical statement: “I believe that I cannot by my own effort or understanding believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.”
There’s the glass ceiling! I cannot by my own effort or understanding believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.
Ten hours a week of Bible study won’t get me to Jesus; 20 hours won’t. If I spent every waking hour of the day reading scripture, I still could not create faith in a heart that doesn’t have it. I couldn’t learn the love of Jesus; it would still have to be given to me.
And unfortunately, Jesus is gone! He went to Jerusalem and was killed. They put him in the ground and he rose to walk among them. Then he left! He went to God’s new kingdom—no more to speak in our midst, breathe our air, pound our pavement.
According to Jesus, this is supposed to be a good thing! We are supposed to be glad because in His place, God sends the Holy Spirit among us.
Let’s see exactly what we’re getting here. In the beginning we have God and only God. When God is among us, it is as a pillar of fire, or a cloud, or an angelic messenger; but they all represent the one God the Father. Then we lost all that in our midst, but got Jesus. And Jesus told us that in Him we have all the fullness of the Father. We have everything we had, and now more in this new relationship with Jesus.
Now, we lose the figure of Jesus in our midst, and get the Holy Spirit. And Jesus tells us that in the Spirit we have the fullness of God and the fullness of Christ. Again, we have everything we had and now more in this new relationship with the Holy Spirit.
But, how can it be more? What does it look like? It sounds like a bunch of fluffy talk.
Let’s see what Luther has to say. He was not a man prone to fluffy talk. When we last checked in, he told us that, “I cannot by my own effort or understanding believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him.” He now goes on to say, “But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”
Well, there it is. That is more than Jesus could do! Jesus brought the gift, brought the message into the world, and brought the world into this new life—this new creation. But anyone who has heard a single story from the New Testament has seen how enlightened the disciples were; they didn’t understand things for a second. We see how well the world received the call, as they put Christ to death. We see how few people gathered at Christ’s cross when all was said and done.
But now we are told that the Holy Spirit will (and has!) gathered us into a church, called us into a ministry, and enlightened us to receive this impossible faith over and over and over again.
Christ did the dying and rising that saves us; the Holy Spirit makes sure that we actually get the faith, receive the grace, have this church.
We are athletes. We are putting in hours, we are disciplining ourselves and training. Our life is an attempt to develop into something great, something worthy. But, as hard as we might work, we cannot win the ultimate prize.
That does not mean that our efforts and hours are spent for nothing. They are worth a great deal. They improve our lives; they improve the lives of our neighbors; they improve this world. But, in the end, they do not have the power to begin what God began, to save as Christ saves, or to live as the Spirit lives.
Let us give thanks that our glass ceiling is the mere beginning of God’s boundless power! Amen.
Intern Mark Dixon