A Wartime Prayer for Advent

Alfred Delp, the son of a Lutheran father and Catholic mother, was a young Jesuit priest in Munich during the war and a member of the Kreisau Circle, a Christian resistance movement against the Nazi regime. His sermons and prison writings stand today as powerful and unsentimental reflections on the meaning of Advent in the face of the hubris and despair of the modern age. Here is an excerpt from a devotion he wrote in Berlin's Tegel Prison in December 1944 while awaiting execution:

Let us pray for the openness and willingness to hear the warning prophets of the Lord and to overcome the devastation of life through conversion of heart. Let us not shun and suppress the earnest words of the calling voices, or those who are our executioners today may be our accusers once again tomorrow, because we silenced the truth.

Once again, let us kneel down and pray for keen eyes capable of seeing God's messengers of annunciation, for vigilant hearts wise enough to perceive the words of the promise. The world is more than its burden, and life is more than the sum of its grey days. The golden threads of the genuine reality are already shining through everywhere. Let us know this, and let us, ourselves, be comforting messengers. Hope grows through the one who is himself a person of the hope and promise.

One more time, we want to kneel and pray for faith in life's motherly consecration, in the figure of the blessed woman from Nazareth. Already, today and for always, life is torn away from the cruel and merciless powers. Let us be patient and wait, with an Advent waiting for the hour in which it pleases the Lord to appear anew, even in the night, as fruit and mystery of this time.

Advent is the time of promise, not yet the fulfilment. We are still standing in the middle of it all, in the logical relentlessness and inevitability of destiny. To captive eyes, it still appears that the ultimate throw of the dice indeed will be cast here below in these valleys, on these battlefields, in these camps, and prisons, and cellars. One keeping vigil, though, senses the other powers at work and can await their hour.

The sounds of devastation and destruction, the cries of self-importance and arrogance, the weeping of despair and powerlessness still fill the world. Yet, standing silently, all along the horizon are the eternal realities with their age-old longing. The first gentle light of the glorious abundance to come is already shining above them. From out there, the first sounds are ringing out ... They do not yet form a song or melody - it is all still too far off and only the first announcement and intimation. Still, it is happening. This is today. And tomorrow the angels will relate loudly and jubilantly what has happened, and we will know it and will be blessed if we have believed and trusted in Advent.

Alfred Delp, Advent of the Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings, 1941-1944

The Word as Weapon

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it
(Titus 1:9 ESV)

Luther preaching on the above text:

It is written in the book of Nehemiah that the Jews, in rebuilding Jerusalem, wrought with one hand and with the other held the sword, because of the enemy who sought to hinder their efforts.

Paul in Titus 1:9 carries out this thought in this teaching that a bishop, a pastor, or a preacher, should be mighty in the Holy Scriptures to instruct and admonish, as well as to resist the deniers. Accordingly, we are to make a twofold use of the Word of God: as both bread and weapon; for feeding and for resisting; in peace and in war. With one hand we must build, improve, teach and feed all Christendom; with the other, oppose the devil, the heretics, the world. For where the pasture is not defended, the devil will soon destroy it; he is bitterly opposed to God's Word. 

Let us then, God granting us his grace, so handle the Gospel that not only shall the souls of men be fed, but men shall learn to put on that Gospel as armour and fight their enemies. Thus shall it furnish both pasture and weapons.

Redemptive Violence vs. Redemptive Hope

In his essay “Facing the Myth of Redemptive Violence" theologian Walter Wink sharply contrasts the Babylonian creation story, the Enuma Elish from circa 1250 BC, with the creation story of Genesis and shows how the traditional myth reinforced the violent foundations of many ancient societies:

In the beginning, according to the Babylonian myth, Apsu, the father god, and Tiamat, the mother god, give birth to the gods. But the frolicking of the younger gods makes so much noise that the elder gods resolve to kill them so they can sleep. The younger gods uncover the plot before the elder gods put it into action, and kill Apsu. His wife Tiamat, the Dragon of Chaos, pledges revenge. 

Terrified by Tiamat, the rebel gods turn for salvation to their youngest member, Marduk. He negotiates a steep price: if he succeeds, he must be given chief and undisputed power in the assembly of the gods. Having extorted this promise, he catches Tiamat in a net, drives an evil wind down her throat, shoots an arrow that bursts her distended belly and pierces her heart. He then splits her skull with a club and scatters her blood in out-of-the-way places. He stretches out her corpse full-length, and from it creates the cosmos... 

In this myth, creation is an act of violence. Marduk murders and dismembers Tiamat, and from her cadaver creates the world. As the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur observes, order is established by means of disorder. Chaos (symbolised by Tiamat) is prior to order (represented by Marduk, high god of Babylon). Evil precedes good. The gods themselves are violent. 

The biblical myth in Genesis 1 is diametrically opposed to all this (Genesis 1, it should be noted, was developed in Babylon during the Jewish captivity there as a direct rebuttal to the Babylonian myth). The Bible portrays a good God who creates a good creation. Chaos does not resist order. Good is prior to evil. Neither evil nor violence is part of the creation, but enter later, as a result of the first couple’s sin and the connivance of the serpent (Genesis 3). A basically good reality is thus corrupted by free decisions reached by creatures. In this far more complex and subtle explanation of the origins of things, violence emerges for the first time as a problem requiring solution.

In the Babylonian myth, however, violence is no problem. It is simply a primordial fact. The simplicity of this story commended it widely, and its basic mythic structure spread as far as Syria, Phoenicia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, Germany, Ireland, India, and China. Typically, a male war god residing in the sky fights a decisive battle with a female divine being, usually depicted as a monster or dragon, residing in the sea or abyss (the feminine element). Having vanquished the original enemy by war and murder, the victor fashions a cosmos from the monster’s corpse. Cosmic order requires the violent suppression of the feminine, and is mirrored in the social order by the subjection of women to men and people to ruler. 

After the world has been created, the story continues, the gods imprisoned by Marduk for siding with Tiamat complain of the poor meal service. Marduk and his father, Ea, therefore execute one of the captive gods, and from his blood Ea creates human beings to be servants to the gods. 

The implications are clear: human beings are created from the blood of a murdered god. Our very origin is violence. Killing is in our genes. Humanity is not the originator of evil, but merely finds evil already present and perpetuates it. Our origins are divine, to be sure, since we are made from a god, but from the blood of an assassinated god. 

Human beings are thus naturally incapable of peaceful coexistence. Order must continually be imposed upon us from on high: men over women, masters over slaves, priests over laity, aristocrats over peasants, rulers over people. Unquestioning obedience is the highest virtue, and order the highest religious value. As Marduk’s representative on earth, the king’s task is to subdue all those enemies who threaten the tranquility that he has established on behalf of the god. The whole cosmos is a state, and the god rules through the king. Politics arises within the divine sphere itself. Salvation is politics: the masses identify with the god of order against the god of chaos, and offer themselves up for the Holy War that imposes order and rule on the peoples round about. 

In short, the Myth of Redemptive Violence is the story of the victory of order over chaos by means of violence. It is the ideology of conquest, the original religion of the status quo. The gods favour those who conquer. Conversely, whoever conquers must have the favour of the gods. The common people exist to perpetuate the advantage that the gods have conferred upon the king, the aristocracy, and the priesthood. 

Religion exists to legitimate power and privilege. Life is combat. Any form of order is preferable to chaos, according to this myth. Ours is neither a perfect nor perfectible world; it is theatre of perpetual conflict in which the prize goes to the strong. Peace through war, security through strength: these are the core convictions that arise from this ancient historical religion, and they form the solid bedrock on which the Domination System is founded in every society.

Societies and cultures founded on this bedrock, whether ancient or modern, are without hope - the powerless subject to the powerful in all things.

The Christian story, however, is built on hope, a “slave revolt in morality" in the words of David Bentley Hart. For as Christ says: “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:43-45 ESV)

Fall of the Rebel Angels

Pieter Bruegel "The Fall of the Rebel Angels", circa 1562

...he it was whose guile,
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
If he opposed, and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.

John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I

From Conflict to Communion

The Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity has recently released a comprehensive report entitled “From Conflict to Communion:  Lutheran-Catholic Common Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017":

In 2017, Lutheran and Catholic Christians will commemorate together the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. Lutherans and Catholics today enjoy a growth in mutual understanding, cooperation and respect. They have come to acknowledge that more unites than divides them:  above all, common faith in the Triune God and the revelation in Jesus Christ, as well as recognition of the basic truths of the doctrine of justification...

What happened in the past cannot be changed but what is remembered of the past and how it is remembered can, with the passage of time, indeed change. Remembrance makes the past present. While the past itself is unalterable, the presence of the past in the present is alterable. In view of 2017, the point is not to tell a different history, but to tell that history differently.

The report gives an overview of the history of Lutheran-Catholic relations and identifies five ecumenical imperatives:

1. Catholics and Lutherans should always begin from the perspective of unity and not from the point of view of division in order to strengthen what is held in common even though the differences are more easily seen and experienced
2. Lutherans and Catholics must let themselves continuously be transformed by the encounter with the other and by the mutual witness of faith
3. Catholics and Lutherans should again commit themselves to seek visible unity, to elaborate together what this means in concrete steps, and to strive repeatedly toward this goal
4. Lutherans and Catholics should jointly rediscover the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ for our time
5. Catholics and Lutherans should witness together to the mercy of God in proclamation and service to the world

Click here to view the report

Christianity in Canada

The 2011 National Household Survey was recently released in Canada. The tables below show key trends in religious affiliation over the last 20 years.

Although the total Christian population has declined only slightly, the share of the population identifying as Christian has dropped by 10% in the last ten years due to immigration and growth in those with no religious affiliation.

Table 1: Religious affiliation - total population

Affiliation	1991 (000)	2001 (000)	2011 (000)	1991 (%)	2001 (%)	2011 (%)
Christian	22,503	22,852	22,103	83%	77%	67%
Muslim	253	580	1,054	1%	2%	3%
Hindu	157	297	498	<1%	1%	2%
Sikh	147	278	455	<1%	1%	1%
Buddhist	163	300	367	<1%	1%	1%
Jewish	318	330	330	1%	1%	1%
No religion	3,397	4,900	7,851	13%	17%	24%
Other	6	102	194	-	<1%	<1%
Total	26,944	29,639	32,852	100%	100%	100%

The second table shows the breakdown of Christian respondents by major denomination:

Table 2: Religious affiliation - Christian denominations

Affiliation	1991 (000)	2001 (000)	2011 (000)	1991 (%)	2001 (%)	2011 (%)
Catholic	12,204	12,793	12,729	54%	56%	58%
United	3,093	2,839	2,008	14%	12%	9%
Anglican	2,188	2,035	1,632	9%	9%	7%
Baptist	663	729	636	3%	3%	3%
Orthodox	387	480	551	2%	2%	2%
Pentecostal	436	369	479	2%	2%	2%
Lutheran	636	607	478	3%	3%	2%
Presbyterian	636	409	472	3%	2%	2%
Other	2,260	2,591	3,118	10%	11%	14%
Total	22,503	22,852	22,103	100%	100%	100%

Catholics significantly outnumber Protestants in Canada due to a large Catholic community in Quebec. Anglicans represent 7% of all Christians in Canada (vs. 28% in Australia), while Lutherans represent 2% (similar to Australia).

Doing the math on same sex marriage

In Australia 53% of adults are living in a registered marriage and 11% are in heterosexual de facto relationships, while less than 0.3% of adults are in a same sex de facto relationship.  Even if all of these couples were to marry they would still represent less than 1% of all marriages. In Canada, a decade after introduction, same sex marriages account for only 0.33% of all marriages.

Given the tiny numbers involved, and the fact that same sex de facto couples effectively already enjoy all the legal benefits of marriage in Australia, the motives behind the current push for “marriage equality" look suspect.

However, even if the definition of civil marriage shifts this does not change the definition of Christian marriage (see my previous post).

The Priesthood of All Believers

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9 ESV)

Luther formulated the doctrine of the “priesthood of all believers" in the early years of the Reformation. In To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520) he wrote that all Christians are equal before God regardless of whether they are clergy or laity:

The Pope, bishops, priests, monks and nuns are called the “spiritual class" while princes, lords, artisans and peasants are called the “secular class". This is a deceptive invention but no one should be concerned, for all Christians are truly of the spiritual class and there is no difference among them except in the work they do... for baptism, the gospel and faith alone make a spiritual and Christian people

Luther also reinforced the view that Christians exist in community and that the power to call individuals to ministry resides in this community:

Because we are all priests of equal standing, no one must push himself forward and take it upon himself, without our consent and election, to do that for which we all have equal authority. For no one dare take upon himself what is common to all without the authority and consent of the community

For a more detailed overview see “The Early Luther on Priesthood of All Believers, Office of the Ministry and Ordination" by Cameron MacKenzie of Concordia Theological Seminary.

Prayer for ANZAC Day

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand, commemorating the landings at Gallipoli in the First World War.  Here is a prayer for the day from the Anglican Prayer Book for Australia:

God of love and liberty,
We bring our thanks today for the peace and security we enjoy,
We remember those who in time of war faithfully serve their country.
We pray for their families, and for ourselves whose freedom was won at such a cost.
Make us a people zealous for peace, and hasten that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither learn war any more.
This we pray in the name of the one who gave his life for the sake of the world: Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.

Funeral of Margaret Thatcher

The funeral of Baroness and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has just concluded at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Here is the final blessing by the Archbishop of Canterbury:

Support us, O Lord, all the day long of this troublous life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over and our work is done. Then, Lord, in your mercy grant us a safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last; through Christ our Lord.

Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you and remain with you this day and always.

For her views on Christianity and politics I strongly recommend her 1978 speech at St. Lawrence Jewry “I Believe" (click here) which is as relevant today as ever.

Additional links:
-  Text of funeral address by the Bishop of London Richard Chartres
-  Full order of service including readings and hymns

Let There Be Light

The Planck space telescope of the European Space Agency has made the most detailed observations yet of the first light in the universe (see full details here).

Elementary particles cooled enough to form hydrogen atoms 380,000 years after creation, rendering the universe transparent to light for the first time.  Amazingly this light still permeates the universe, albeit shifted into the microwave spectrum due to the expansion of space since that time.

This cosmic microwave background represents the most ancient image that will ever be seen, a map that points to the subsequent development of all structure in the universe.

The Reconciliation of All Things

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all
(Romans 11:32 ESV)

Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in the ancient idea of universal salvation.  As a starting point I recommend an essay by Bishop Kallistos Ware, an Orthodox bishop in Great Britain, entitled “Dare We Hope for the Salvation of All?"

Luther did not subscribe to a “universalist" view that all men would definitely be saved, or that there were multiple pathways to God.  At one point he even lectured against a straightforward interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:4 “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth".

On the other hand, Luther holds open the possibility of salvation after death in a letter to Hans Von Rechenberg when he says:

It would be quite a different question whether God can impart faith to some in the hour of death or after death so that these people could be saved through faith.  Who would doubt God's ability to do that?

Above all Luther stressed that salvation, whenever offered, would be through faith in Christ and not through any other means.

I believe that a perspective on this issue in modern context would include the following key points:

1. As Lutherans we do not believe in a predestination to damnation
2. God is an infinitely loving and just God - it follows that his ultimate plan for salvation (which has not been revealed to us and cannot be ascertained by human reasoning) is not arbitrary or unjust
3. It is within the power of God to offer his grace and love to those who have not accepted it during this life - this is a matter for Him alone however it could be a means by which His grace may operate in ways we don't know about
4. Finally, it is through Christ that we are saved - God may continue to extend his grace after death but “the way, the truth and the life" remain the same

In his essay, Bishop Ware points to an alternative to universal salvation called “conditional immortality" which is worth considering:

“I am He who is," says God to Moses at the burning bush in the Septuagint version of Exodus 3:14; “I am the Existing One" (ego eimi ho on). God is Being and Reality, and He is the sole source of all existence. Evil, on the other hand, is in the strict sense non-being and unreality. Evil and sin have no substantive existence, for they are not a “thing  that God has made; they are a distortion of the good, a parasite - not a noun but an adjective...

Existence, then, is good, for it is gift from God; and everything that exists, by the very fact of existing, retains some link with God, who is the only source of existence. From this it follows that nothing that exists can be entirely and utterly evil. To posit something totally evil would be a nonsense, a contradiction in terms; for such a thing would be altogether unreal and could not actually exist. Even the devil, because he exists, still has a continuing relationship with God. Thus where there is existence, there is hope - even for the devil.

A possible conclusion from this line of argument is not universal salvation but conditional immortality. At the end God will indeed be “all in all", not because all rational creatures have been saved but because at a certain point the radically wicked have simply ceased to be. Cut off from God, the unique source of existence, they have lapsed into non-being. At the end-time, that is to say, there will be a resurrection to eternal life, but no resurrection to eternal death; or, rather, there will be resurrection to a death that is final but not continuing, for it will entail annihilation.

This seems to me to resolve many of the issues involved.  As Christians we do not believe in a Manichean universe where good and evil are balanced and offsetting. Rather everything exists in relation to the ultimate good and eventually all things will either be reconciled to God or cease to exist.

Newtown

It saddens me to see how the LCMS President and ultraconservative legalists within the synod have overreacted to the participation of a LCMS minister in a prayer service for the young victims of the Newtown school shooting.

See here for a good response from a former president, who was caught up in a similar controversy when a LCMS minister participated in a prayer service following the September 11 terrorist attacks.