Luther's a Genius!

Greetings to everyone. I know I haven't written in a couple days, but I just discovered I am all of a sudden two weeks behind. So catch up is the name of the game now. It's not that I haven't been keeping up, it's more that the professors gave us an easy first couple of weeks before unleashing the full work load on us. So now the reading begins, and the papers, and tests, and all the fun stuff of graduate school.

Sunday I went to my field work church. I sat in with the youth group led by Pastor after church. I realized I still do not have an overabundance of patience for Junior High kids. I mean it went really well, except for one thing that really got under my skin, but Pastor did a great job of just listening and then kept right on going. We were right in the middle of the discussion talking about some really great stuff, when one kid raised his hand and proceeded to tell how his friend stepped on a plastic toothpick at a party the night before. That unleashed every story all the other kids had about stepping on nails and so on. It was just a huge sidetrack and distraction. So I decided when I am teaching youth group or confirmation, I am going to make a policy. If you interrupt the discussion for something that does not pertain to the discussion in any way, I will assign that student a one page report on how their story that was so important can be related and applied to the topic we are covering due the following Sunday. I mean these kids meet one hour a week to discuss the Bible and God together, they have the other 167 hours a week to talk about everything else. I told this to my friend Aaron and he told me I was being a little harsh and I might not get kids to come to my youth group if I did that. He told me a good leader can allow something like that to happen and calmly move things right back on track where you were. Pastor did get them back on track but it took him a few minutes. I guess this is just one area I am going to have to work on. It mainly bothers me because those kids know they are interrupting but simply just don't care. Then we went to lunch with Pastor like normal, and headed home. I worked Sunday night bar tending. It went well, not quite as many kick backs this time, but still enjoyed a glass of wine and all the cheese one could eat.
Yesterday went well. I had Hebrew readings which was just like always. Then at Pastoral Ministry, we had a guest speaker from Clinical Pastoral Education. It is an awesome program that works with seminary students and chaplains in training on counseling, visitations, and all the areas they feel the seminary does not cover very well. To be fair, we are only required to take one counseling class while we are here. So the guy gave a really great presentation on how they use their curriculum to take your personality, your theology, and your knowledge and skills, and combined them all into Pastoral Competence. It sounded like a great thing, and I truly think it would benefit all pastors to have more training in counseling and clinical care. However, it's another 650 dollars per credit hour and minimum is 16 hours a week. I love how all these programs that will make our pastors better at their jobs are too expensive and time consuming for them to properly take advantage of. Basically in my mind, it would be like telling a lumber yard telling a carpenter, "We have two saws. One is the electric, computer programmed saw. It will make any cut, any angle, on any material at the push of a button. It's a million dollars and you have to wait a year to get it. Or we have this hand saw that will cut any angle you hold it at, and is strong enough to get through almost any material. It's only a thousand dollars and you only have to wait two weeks to get it." Any good carpenter would prefer the best tool available and be best equipped for any job. However, he can't put himself that far into debt and that far behind schedule or he will never make it. That's what this program is. It puts a seminary student already in debt up to his eyebrows deeper in debt and takes more time. But it will better prepare you. I think the only way I would even consider it is if after my vicarage I found out I am just absolutely terrible at counseling and visits. Then I might realize I need this program to be an efficient pastor. However, until I try and find out I need help on vicarage, I am not going to put myself deeper in debt and further behind schedule. Then we had Greek readings. It was such a great class. My Greek is coming back to me pretty fast, and Dr. Gibbs is just an incredible man.  He asked us a question, and when nobody answered, he used a Texas/Hick voice and said, "You boys look like a bunch of cows staring at a new gate."  That was one among many things he said during class that had us laughing out loud.  He is also one of the smartest men ever, but so humble you would never know he is a graduate school professor with his doctorate.  Anything you want to know about the Bible, he could most likely not only tell you the story, but know exactly what book and chapter it is in.  However, he is the first to admit when he doesn't know something for sure.  A few questions that that get asked, he will answer with the fact that he has an idea but isn't sure enough to give to us as an answer.  However, I am certain every one of those questions he goes and looks up and finds out the answer.  He just makes a class like Greek Readings something to actually look forward to versus Dr. Adams who makes Hebrew Readings the most dreaded class all quarter.  

Then last night I went down to the close by coffee house with a few guys to work on homework.  It is a nice little place to listen to some good music, and read a book or do your languages.  I have been enjoying a cup of hot chocolate at nights when I study.  I realize I am changing here.  Some might say for the better, some might say for the worse.  When I read I like to put on my classical musical playlist that I am in love with now, pour a short glass of white wine, and just read.  I made the joke to my friend Aaron the other day, that liking classical, drinking wine, and reading is not Kevin Richter, so I had better go find him.  While I do miss the redneck atmosphere of Sparetime, the towny bar in Seward, and drinking Busch Lite pitchers or John Daily's, I do enjoy my new playlist and single glass of wine too.  I would just really enjoy those two more without the reading part.  But I try to limit my wine nights to one or two a week, so the other nights I put on some good hymns or Glad (A Capella Christian Group), and enjoy a nice mug of hot chocolate.  I had to find something enjoyable to mix with the reading or else I wouldn't do it.  

Today I went to Lutheran Mind this morning.  I want this class to be required for everyone not just Seminary students.  It is not too complicated, I know everyone could get it, and it is something that our church needs to know, but does a terrible job of teaching.  It also proves Luther was a genius, of course it helps the name of the book most recent we are reading is titled The Genius of Luther's Theology, but for good reason.  I will discuss part of our class lecture as my thought for the day.  Then I spent the rest of the day at chapel, lunch, my room, and work.  I laid down to read after lunch and made it a whole two pages before I fell asleep.  I did wake up in time to get some done before I had to go to work.  Now I am doing the rest of my homework and writing this.  I am going to try to slip down to the local bar for karaoke because it's Jeff's birthday and he wants us to all go sing to him.  I told him anyone who wished my singing upon them for their birthday present, must have gotten some really terrible gifts as a kid.  But I will go for a little bit, try to get out of singing, and then come back and go to bed.  

The Lutheran Mind topic today was the two types of righteousness.  Now this is a concept I had been taught a little bit in confirmation I do believe. However, I am pretty sure I have not heard anything about it since then.    If you are looking for some good reading, I would suggest at least the first few chapters if not the whole book of The Genius of Luther's Theology.  It talks about how correct Luther got his idea of two kinds of righteousness.  The book defines being righteous as being the people God envisioned when He created us.  Dr. Beirmann defined it in surfers' usage.  When one surfer says to another surfer, "Dude, that was righteous!"  he is saying you did that exactly how it is meant to be done.  So when we use righteous, it simply means doing exactly what is meant to be done, doing it exactly right.  He also used a car as an example.  A rust bucket that has a stains on the seat, and dents on its body, can still be righteous.  If it starts every time you turn the key, and it always gets you from point A to point B, it does exactly what it was created to do.  It is righteous.  Luther said there are many different types of righteousness.  Political righteousness can be one.  When we pay taxes, obey the law, vote as informed voters, and stay connected to what is going on in our politics, we are functioning as Citizens of a "polis" (Greek word for state), then we are politically righteous.  Academic righteousness exists too.  When we go to class, have done the readings, written our papers, turn them in on time, listen and respect the professor, and study and do well on the tests, we are functioning as students were meant to function.  Now both of these examples fit into active righteousness.  It is righteousness that we control and do ourselves.  When you get into faith, or Christian righteousness it is one hundred percent passive.  This is very unique to Lutheran Doctrine alone.  Most all other denominations and religions would not say that Christian righteousness is completely passive.  Dr. Beirmann went on to explain how most other faiths believe we do indeed receive grace from God, but then we must use that grace given to us to climb the ladder or staircase.  Climbing this staircase is done by our efforts with the help of God's grace, which is why it is not purely passive.  (He used staircase simply so he could say staircase to heaven and chuckle.)  He also went on to explain this is where Catholics came up with the idea of purgatory.  When a Catholic is using the grace he or she receives from God to climb that staircase tying to reach God at the top, but dies halfway up where does that person go?  He was at least climbing so he doesn't deserve to go to hell, but he didn't make it to the top, so he can't go to heaven.  This is where purgatory comes in.  Now he explained purgatory in a way I had never heard before, but it goes right along with what I have heard.  I had always heard purgatory taught at hell's patio.  It's still a terrible place to be, full of pain, suffering, and fire, but not actually hell.  The point of purgatory is you have to finish paying for your sins before you can go to heaven, so this makes sense.  Dr. Beirmann described it as actually going a specific part of hell, only with a release date.  You go there, pay for the rest of your sins, and then when your release date arrives you can go to heaven.  

This is just a side note, but it is really a huge coincident.  The day we talk about purgatory in class, I see my friend who is a Catholic had a Catholic Apologetic video on his Facebook page about purgatory.  When I watched it, I at first got seriously mad.  Then I had to calm myself down and realized that this guy on the video trying to prove purgatory and even my friend who put it up are not to blame.  They are simply defending the faith they have been taught, and they do believe it to be true.  However, I seriously got a physical pain in the pit of my stomach for these guys.  In my mind they are believing a corrupted truth of God.  I even had to text my brother and talk to him about it, and he gave me some really good pointers that helped calm me down, so thanks to him.  However, it still has been bothering me all day that these other faiths think it is up to our own efforts to be saved.  To me this directly takes the glory out of Jesus' death and resurrection.  In my mind I see these other faiths as saying, "well thanks Jesus, I think it's really cool you left heaven to come to earth and take on flesh, be tempted, hated, mocked, beaten, and killed only to prove You are God by rising again.  And  I appreciate Your grace You give me, but I can handle the rest.  I'll use Your grace for an aid, but I'll make the real climb myself."  Again though, they are just defending the faith they have been taught like I am trying to do.  And they believe their faith is pure truth just as I do.  I mean if you don't believe what you believe is true, why would you believe it?  But it was weird that they both happened in the same day.  

So back to what Dr. Beirmann was getting to was this idea that Lutheran doctrine believes it is purely passive.  However he did state that he believes there is no such thing as Lutheran doctrine.  Now don't make him out to be a heretic until I finish.  He said he doesn't believe there is truly Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran or any denominational doctrines, but there is one true doctrine we are all trying to find.  God created the world, but He created an ordered world.  He had a design and plan.  How God made this world work is the one truth we are all searching for as our doctrine.  Now again, this goes back to we each believe we have found a more true version than the rest, but we are trying for that one true doctrine.  Luther believed he had found a more true version of that doctrine than the rest and I agree with him.  This gets into my saying earlier Luther was a genius.  Luther didn't believe in a staircase that we climbed to get to God.  He discovered this before he nailed his 95 thesis on the church door.  He was so concerned with wither he was good enough for God or not, he was serious wrestling with himself, when he realized there is no way to prove if we are ever actually going up that staircase or not.  How can we prove we are using God's grace and climbing the staircase?  How can we ever know for sure wither we have done enough to get to heaven or if we will spend time in purgatory?  This is where he realized we can never be good enough to make it up to God.  There is not a dang thing about us that makes us good enough to climb the first step, let alone the amount of steps it would take to get to God.  We, as sinners, can not move up.  God knew this, and instead of saying, "try harder and get to Me", He sent His son down to us.  Jesus took flesh, walked this earth, was tempted, mocked, beaten and killed on a cross.  He rose three days later!  Alleluia, this is our Easter Joy!  From that point on God has constantly sent His love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness down to us through the cross.  That is why our Christian or faith righteousness is purely and completely passive.  We do nothing to earn or deserve it, but rather just receive it because we are baptized children of God.  We receive it, soak it up, and live in our Easter Joy!  This is passive righteousness.  Our passive righteousness is our relationship with God. We are righteous in our relationship with Him when we are functioning as He intended us too with Him.  He intended for us to receive His grace, know we are not worthy, and we can do nothing but receive it from Him and then give praise and thanks back to Him.  All the other types of righteousness fall into the active righteousness.    

Once we have received and soaked the grace of God, and go back to our everyday life here on this earth, we then begin to use active righteousness.  This is our political, academic, family, and so on righteousnesses.  These righteousnesses all have to do with our relationships with our neighbors.  We have relationships with all of our family, friends, coworkers, and even our earth and its features, and these relationships fall into active righteousness.  Luther called our passive righteousness (our relationship with God) our vertical righteousness, and our active righteousness (our relationship with all other creations of God) our horizontal righteousness.  This is where "good works" come in to play for Lutherans.  It is not for our vertical righteousness with God we do them, but for our horizontal righteousness for our fellow neighbors that we do them.  We are righteous in our horizontal righteousness when we are the best citizen, husband or wife, father or mother, employee or boss, son or daughter, and neighbor we can be.  This is why we strive to be as good as we can, we strive to do our best, we strive to live a moral life.  It is because we want to be righteous, and need to be righteous in both kinds of righteousness.  We can not have one without the other, and the two compliment each other.  This is what Luther meant by two types of righteousness, and it is why Lutheran's do not believe in purgatory.  Our relationship with God is our purely passive righteousness, and our relationship with all of God's creation is our active righteousness.  I truly hope you were able to follow all of that and it made sense.  If not please call me or email me, because I do not want you to be confused and get the wrong idea from this.  So the next time we are going five miles over the speed limit, or we realize we have had quite a bit to drink but are still thinking one more wont hurt us, or we don't do the chores our spouses or parents ask us to do, remember we want to be righteous and need to live in our active righteousness.  Dr. Beirmann ended the discussion by saying that at the end of everyday we can look at the fact that we probably failed to be perfectly righteous in our active righteousness; however, we remember that we are still forgiven, baptized children of God who receive His grace and mercy and can soak up that passive righteousness and praise Him for the Easter Joy that comforts us each and every day!  All Praise be to Him!

Dear Heavenly Father,

We know that we most certainly do not deserve and are not worthy of Your grace and mercy.  However, You still chose to send Your Son to die and rise again for us.  He died to pay the ultimate and complete price for our sins.  We can rejoice that we are Your baptized children.  Dead to sin through Christ's death on the cross, but alive to Christ through His resurrection.  Now that we have this Easter Joy, let us daily remember to praise and thank you.  Also Lord, let us live a life that is righteous to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  Let us live in Your world as the moral, faithful beings You intended for us to be.  We pray all of this and all other prayers and concerns on our hearts through the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior.  Amen.