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The Script of Our Life: Part Three
Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved. -John 10:1,9
Our culture seems fond of labeling our enemies with names from World War II. The details of that time in history have been mostly forgotten, but derogatory terms like Nazi1, Fascist2, and even jackbooted thug3 have been preserved for our enemies. It seems appropriate, then, to consider an alternative script for Christianity in our day by reflecting on the document written by German Christians in opposition to Nazi ideology.
In the German city of Barmen, Reformed theologian Karl Barth and Lutheran theologian Hans Asmussen drafted a declaration which expressly repudiated the common ideology of their day, reasserting the gospel of Jesus as the heart of the faith:
The Christian Church is the congregation of the brethren in which Jesus Christ acts presently as the Lord in Word and Sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the Church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance.4
Our culture seeks to prove its virtue by committing to and even marching for the ideologically left or right. We are taught to rebuild the dividing walls of hostility broken down by the death of Jesus5 to define good and bad, righteousness and unrighteousness, justice and injustice, according to the latest cultural flashpoint. The grace of God is limited to those who choose the right team.
The Barmen Declaration reminds us that we are all sinners in a sinful world and that our only virtue is in confessing our sins, accepting the forgiveness of Christ, and sharing with others the good news that this same forgiveness is available for them too. This proclamation is the reason the Christian church exists.
Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
We reject the false doctrine, as though the church could and would have to acknowledge as a source of its proclamation, apart from and besides this one Word of God, still other events and powers, figures and truths, as God’s revelation.6
Our cultural conversation has a very different script. Our greatest agitation is about issues that we cannot control. The only way we can make a difference is to give our time to social media pundits, journalists, and intellectuals. The only way change will happen is if we vote for the correct politicians. We are powerless to live virtuously without them.
Meanwhile, we leave personal issues that could have a direct impact unresolved. Our emotions are deeply stoked by the DHS activities in Minneapolis, even if we live hundreds or thousands of miles away and have no problems with the ICE in our community. Given our anger and upset about foreign wars, we have no time for struggling family members, for the homeless people down the road, to clean up the graffiti and trash in our neighborhood. Our life, our relationships, and our community can be a complete mess, but as long as we choose the right political point of view, this strange script validates us as good, insightful, and caring human beings. Whereas in earlier days, we set our hearts at rest by confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness during weekly worship, we now feel like “good people” if we hold the political views of our peer group.
The Barmen Declaration critiques this approach:
We reject the false doctrine, as though the church were permitted to abandon the form of its message and order to its own pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.7
Jesus gives us an alternative. After confession and forgiveness, we are freed to live in a way so beautifully expressed in the Peace Prayer, which features in a previous post:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
We have a choice. Choose the script that declares Christ as the one we hear, trust, and obey in life. This script frees us to share in the grace of God with others, regardless of their political point of view. It will heal our whiplash and lead us on a path that brings true validation, true freedom, and a life that will makegoodhappen. There is a better way to live.
“1930, noun and adjective, from German Nazi, abbreviation of German pronunciation of Nationalsozialist (based on earlier German sozi, popular abbreviation of “socialist”), from Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei “National Socialist German Workers’ Party,” led by Hitler from 1920.” -From Etymology Online
1921, from Italian partito nazionale fascista, the anti-communist political movement organized 1919 under Benito Mussolini (1883-1945); from Italian fascio “group, association,” literally “bundle,” from Latin fasces: “bundle of rods containing an axe with the blade projecting” Carried before a lictor, a superior Roman magistrate, as a symbol of power over life and limb: the sticks symbolized punishment by whipping, the axe-head execution by beheading. -From Etymology Online
“…also jack-boot, 1680s, type of large, strong over-the-knee cavalry boot of 17c.-18c., later a type worn by German military and para-military units in the Nazi period. From jack (n.), though the exact sense here is unclear + boot (n.1). Figurative of military oppression since 1768.” -From Etymology Online.
Barmen Declaration: 8:17.
Ephesians 2:14-16.
Barmen Declaration: 8:11-12.
Barmen Declaration: 8.18.