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We’re Not Yet What We’ll Be, but We’re Rising All the Time in Spirit
"Christ’s parable [Matt 13:24-34] tells of the yeast which the woman mixes in 3 measures of flour until it is all thoroughly and completely leavened and ready for baking. Our new yeast, or leavening agent, is the faith and grace of the Spirit. It does not change the whole lump at once but gently, and gradually, we become like this new leaven and eventually even, a bread of God. Our earthly life, therefore, is not righteousness, but rather growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being, but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished, but it is happening. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being made new and pure in Christ by the Spirit’s work in us".–Luther’s Defense & Explanation of All Articles; c.1521 (my nuanced translation).
Warm greetings; This month’s selection is from Luther’s response to the Pope’s official condemnation of 41—out of Martin’s original 95—theses as heretical and dangerous; these numbers suggest, by-the-way, that they agreed on 57% of Luther’s initial theological questioning—weird, right? That being said, many of Martin’s notions within this passage still read as both challenging and engaging spiritual principles or, as I would suggest that we should make bold to name and claim them, essential central Christian truths. Luther’s take on Matt:13 confesses a God who is with us as well as for us; here is a God who remains actively and relationally present to us throughout our lives in the continued offerings of God’s own grace and mercy and forgiveness and salvation as revealed through the lens of faith within the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ Jesus as God’s Son and our Lord. In this reading the faith we receive in, or perhaps even outside of, baptism from God needs to touch us only once and for a short time because faith is a singular and transformative contact event which sets in motion a slow and lengthy spiritual reaction that runs all through our own lifelong soul journeys. Once the yeast is in the dough it is forever changed and changing. From this view God’s love for us is forever ongoing and our living into the righteousness Christ continually offers remains persistent and present within both our failures and successes as God’s broken people made new daily in faith. There is room for errors in this version of God’s scorecard and they do not detract or abolish God’s ongoing work in, with, and through us all. Faith is the offering that keeps on giving; God’s process isn’t finished yet.
Yours in Christ, Pastor Rich
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