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This article is part of Stephen Paulson’s series on the Psalms.
Five promises were seemingly all those apostles, staring into the sky, had to go on. Five promises that were more than enough.
Paul is thinking of the cross and empty tomb, but the liturgical calendar places us at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, not the end: Jesus standing waist deep in the Jordan River.
Tomorrow Jesus will laugh his way out of the tomb, spit in the face of death, and kick the devil in the throat as he dances to the clapping glee of angelic masses. But today he just rests.
Sunday after Sunday, God’s people appear to have it all together… which makes you wonder why Jesus even continues to come. After all, everything is great among God’s people here.
Since Jesus has done everything we need for salvation, we can focus our works and efforts on serving our neighbor.
For what end does the Law exist? The Law exposes us so that we might find the remedy in the person and work of Jesus.
When Jesus preaches the gospel, he is preaching himself. Jesus’s good news is the good news about himself.
God’s will is not sparkly, flashy, exciting, extraordinary plans for your life—at least not in the Old Adam’s eyes. So, what is the will of God?
The whole Reformation, and the reason for Lutheran theology at all, is to improve preaching.
I know some of us get excited to show that faith and reason are like oil and water, and natural theology is the death of a theologian of the cross. But there’s a bit of nonsense in that. If we teach our people only to suffer (which they will do anyway), and to expect nothing more than suffering, we are sometimes unintentionally teaching them to want less. But Christ is more. His resurrection means there’s more.
We who fall within the Protestant camp of Christianity have longstanding issues with ritual. I get that. Ritual is often abused. Idolatrized. It can easily devolve into a hollow act of religious farce.