High anthropology and the bait and switch gospel

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High anthropology is the tie that binds together nearly every account of religious burnout and disillusionment. It is the foundation of legalistic and oppressive forms of religion, without which they cannot find oxygen. A high anthropology approach to religion devastates. I am speaking mainly about Christianity, but you can encounter instances of it in many traditions. Anytime you hear someone refer to a former religious observance with some form of “I just couldn’t keep it up anymore,” you are in the vicinity of high anthropology.

Dramatic tales of deconversion and denouncement are the

When Cain and Able Meet Again

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SARAH CONDON / 7.17.23

This reflection originally appeared in today’s entry of Daily Grace: The Mockingbird Devotional, Vol. 2:

Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell …

Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. (Gen 4:1-5, 8)

It can be very tempting to read the Old and New Testaments like a before-and-after home makeover: No one understood the space before the designers came in! What’s with the old carpets and wallpaper? Was this even a real house?………………………………………

The Press Conference from the Cross

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From politics to sports, the press conference is generally a scripted affair. There are certain things you mustn’t talk about — namely, religion, sex and especially death. Things run smoothly when a public figure simply stands at a podium and is asked questions about what they could have done better or how best to move forward. The answers are full of catchphrases and conventional jargon about needing to focus on the right things and to “keep doing the hard work.” It is often a one-size-fits-all ordeal where nothing of substance is ever actually said. Every once in a while, however, the veil is lifted and the interaction feels all-too-human. In those times, it can feel as revelatory as a fiery sermon on a sleepy Sunday. 

Two days after a heartbreaking loss to the Miami Heat in the NBA playoffs, Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla was asked how he was coping. What exactly was he doing to stave off the gloom? Was he watching movies or taking long walks? His response was astonishing. “Honestly,” he said, interrupting the reporter before the question was finished, “I met three girls under the age of twenty-one with terminal cancer. Watching a girl dying; and smiling and enjoying being with……………..

Naughty By Nature

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NAUGHTY BY NATURE

Grace abounds precisely where sin abounds.

The author of this page reflects on his experience of attending a concert where he was exposed to moralism and activism from the opening acts. He compares this to the biblical story of Moses and the golden calf, and argues that he prefers the pagan party over the religious law. He then discusses the problem of evil and suffering in the world, and how Paul’s writings in the New Testament offer a critique of moralism and a solution through grace. He concludes by saying that grace is the only antidote to living in an evil world, and that God’s love is shown through the cross of Jesus.

Weird, Out of Touch, Merciless, and Absolutely Essential

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"Weird, Out of Touch, Merciless, and Absolutely Essential"

On first glance, these words may seem like harsh criticisms of the Church. However, a deeper examination reveals that these traits are not only accurate, but are also virtues that make the Church essential to our lives.

How to Win a Rap Battle (With the Devil)

When the Devil Throws Your Sins in Your Face

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There’s a famous scene at the end of 8 Mile, the early 2000s hip-hop drama based on the backstory of Eminem. In a crowded basement, two rival rappers, Papa Doc and Rabbit (played by Eminem), face off in a freestyle contest, both of them trying to tear down the other’s ego in a battle of wits. The key is to reveal the other’s weaknesses. Any material that could be used to discred

We Need Less Goliath and More Bathsheba

I became like God’s child David, whom the Lord pardoned of his adultery and murder. I became like Noah, Abraham, Judah, Aaron, Gideon, and so many more wayward children.

Read the whole article at https://www.1517.org/articles/we-need-less-goliath-and-more-bathsheba-1

hen I was a kid, I roamed the alleys and nearby fields with a pocket full of pebbles and a slingshot in hand. My grandfather had carved me the slingshot from the fork of a mesquite tree. I’d even burned my name into the wood using the sun and a magnifying glass.

As you might expect, my favorite Sunday School story was David and Goliath. In my make-believe world, I was that boy from Bethlehem, and sparrows the Philistine giants. It felt good to be the hero who takes down the foe. I was but a boy. I was new to the world. I loved Bible stories about saints who co………………………………….

The Beautiful Irony Of The Cross

When God Was Numbered With the Transgressors

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In any of the crucifixion narratives in the Gospels, the character that intrigues me most is Pontius Pilate. In many ways, he’s often cast as the villain of the story. He’s the Claude Frollo in this classic tale, with the quiet, unassuming Jesus, of course, standing as our consummate hero. But when you examine Pilate’s activity within the accounts of Jesus’s execution, he’s far more of a complicated figure than we like to remember. Especially according………………………

The Urgent Hope of Unreasonable Mercy (Video)

The grace of God does not wait to be invited by those it comes to save.

David Zahl talk from the January Mbird Orlando Conference:

The Light has Come To Stay

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This reflection originally appeared in Daily Grace: The Mockingbird Devotional, Vol. 2.

“But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. (John 20:17-18)

There is a local legend of a preacher in Jackson, Mississippi. He stood up to offer a word on Easter Sunday, simply leaned into the mic and said, “It’s all true,” then sat down. I have heard people tell this story two ways. Some people talk about that minister like he was a lazy so-and-so with little regard for the pageantry of Easter. Such a day demands a well thought-out sermon befitting the hats, lilies, and plastic eggs! And then there are the people…………..

The Transfiguration in the Garden of Gethsemane

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Every year during Passover week, Jerusalem would be filled with approximately 200,000 Jewish pilgrims. Nearly all of them, like Jesus and his friends and family, would’ve been poor. Throughout that holy week, these hundreds of thousands of pilgrims would gather at table and temple and they would remember. They would remember how they’d once suffered bondage under another empire, and how God had heard their outrage and sent someone to save them.

They would remember how God had promised them, “I will be your God and you will be my People.” Always.

They would remember how with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm God had delivered them from a Caesar called Pharaoh. Passover was a political powder keg, so every year Pontius Pilate would do his damnedest to keep Passover in the past tense. At the beginning of Passover week, Pilate would journey from his seaport home in the west to Jerusalem, escorted by a military triumph, a shock-and-awe storm-trooping parade of horses and chariots and troops armed to the teeth and prisoners bound hand and foot. All of it led by imperial banners that dared as much as declared “Caesar is Lord.”

So when Jesus, at the………………………..

The Calm Before The Storm

Jesus enters with all the pomp of a future King and departs as the butt of the joke.

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What experiences do you have on your bucket list? You know, that list we humans make of those things that we want to do before we die — whether it’s skydiving, seeing that band we’ve always loved (I see you U2), stepping our foot in Fenway Park, traveling abroad, or visiting all 50 states. This next Tuesday I am checking off the bucket-list item at the top of my list. I’m going to the grandest cathedral in American sport, Augusta National, and the Masters tournament. I joked with my Dad on Sunday night when I called to share the good news that there’s the beautiful experience of “telling your dad you’re having a child,” and just a sliver under that it is“telling your dad you’re going to the Masters.”…………….

Hemmed in By Freedom

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Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope… (Zech 9:12)

The year I graduated from high school and entered, according to popular theory anyway, adulthood, was about the time I embarked on my own case study of freedom by moving out of my childhood home and into a college dorm, living among peers instead of with my parents. Navigating, for the first time of my life, the exponential growth of options available to me: sleeping when I wanted (not enough), eating what I wanted (too much), drinking what I wanted (way too much), dating whom I wanted (no comment). This was the same year Mel Gibson dressed as William Wallace and bellowed “FREEDOM!” through some blue-and-white face……………..

The Truth and Beauty of Jesus’ Resurrection

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Above the altar at St. Peter and Paul Church in Weimar, Germany, stands the famous Weimar Altarpiece. Begun by Lucas Cranach the Elder around 1552, and completed by his son, Lucas Cranach the Younger in 1555, this painting is a visual sermon on the doctrine of justification. It is a work of profound Christian theology, and stunning Christ-centered artistry. It is cruciform creativity. It is didactic and delightful. It is a witness, and a work of art. It portrays the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion and does so beautifully.

The gospel writers are doing something similar in their accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, albeit greater than even the greatest works of art. After all, the gospels are divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, and at the same time, a delight to hear and read again and again.

Where's The Next Brick?

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Once there was a great building. Mighty with towers, spiky with spires, a-bubble with domes. Inside it opened into gallery after gallery, vault after echoing vault, so high that human beings who set off across its marble pavements sometimes mistook its roof for the sky and the building for the world itself. And though it showed signs of many styles, and had been built by many different architects over many centuries, it had been………..

Tempted By an Unexpected Evil

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Along time ago in a heavenly court far, far away, God made a cosmic wager with the Devil. God was boasting to the Devil of the faithfulness of his servant Job, who was blameless, upright, and turned away from evil. The Devil was unimpressed, believing Job was faithful because God protected him and blessed him with everything he could ever want. The Devil seemed to have found such an arrangement unsatisfactory, believing t…………………….

LCMS President Harrison de-nounces "disturbing ideologies"

Statement from Pastor Cris:

Over the last few weeks I have mentioned some troubling things, like friends of mine who are active LCMS Pastors have been openly threatened by people online who have “disturbing ideologies.”

This statement from President Harrison addresses some of these issues and gives encouragement in Christ.

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Statement on recent online unchristian teachings

Feb. 21, 2023

Dear friends in Christ,

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, its president, vice-presidents and all 35 district presidents, along with its ministerium and congregations, categorically reject the horrible and racist teachings of the so-called “alt-right” in toto (including white supremacy, Nazism, pro-slavery, anti-interracial marriage, women as property, fascism, death for homosexuals, even genocide).

The Synodical explanation of Luther’s Small Catechism teaches that the Fifth Commandment, “You shall not murder,” includes the prohibition of “hating, despising, or slandering other groups of people (prejudice, racism, and so forth).” The Scriptures agree: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). Every human being is precious to God and as valuable as the very blood of Jesus Christ shed for all, “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).

We were shocked to learn recently that a few members of LCMS congregations have been propagating radical and unchristian “alt-right” views via Twitter and other social media. They are causing local disruption and consternation for their pastors, congregations and district presidents. They have publicly stated that they seek the destruction of the LCMS leadership. They have made serious online threats to individuals and scandalously attacked several faithful LCMS members. Through these social media posts, even our wonderful deaconesses have been threatened and attacked.

This is evil. We condemn it in the name of Christ.

These “alt-right” individuals were at the genesis of a recent controversy surrounding essays accompanying a new publication of Luther’s Large Catechism. This group used that opportunity to produce not only scandalous attacks and widespread falsehoods, but also to promote their own absolutist ideologies.

Anyone trying to sully the reputation of the LCMS based on comments from a small number of online provocateurs does not know the loving, faithful, generous, kind and welcoming Synod that I have met all across the nation. Our people are delighted to gather with sinners of every stripe to receive full and free forgiveness from our crucified Savior and are not represented by these few men with their sinful agenda.

I am not speaking about the individuals who may have expressed theological concerns about the essays published alongside the Catechism. I’m talking about a small number of men who based their opposition upon racist and supremacist ideologies. The former we welcome. The latter we condemn.

The LCMS is a robust Christian community under the absolute authority of the inerrant Scriptures as the very Word of God and bound together in subscription to our Lutheran Confessions. Theological dialogue is good. We have clear processes for registering concerns over published materials, and we encourage such theological critique. The biblical confession of the LCMS on doctrine and life is true and unchangeable.

LCMS congregations agree to uphold our biblical standards. We are not a top-down institution. That said, I will work together with our pastors and district presidents to address this matter wherever it arises among us and reject it. We issue the cry of Jesus: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). We are confident that the same Law and Gospel that broke the hard heart of St. Paul, himself a murderer and blasphemer, can and will do the same today. We are all called to repentance daily. “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Where that call to repentance is not heeded, there must be excommunication.

Of all the things I’ve seen as LCMS president, this is the most bizarre. I am informed that other conservative denominations are experiencing similar challenges. This horrid attack of the devil drives us to be firm in our confession. Our message of Christ the Savior for all, our local and global mission that serves the entire human race with forgiveness and joy stands firmly opposed to Satan and all evil. Our steadfast message of love and biblical fidelity on the cultural issues of marriage, sexuality, race, and life is an assault on the devil and his minions to no end. Our steadfast witness and assistance to our global Lutheran friends has the devil fuming.

Do not be discouraged! Stand firm! Speak of Christ and His Gospel! “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. 1:23). And if Jesus so carried our sins and the sins of the world, though He never sinned, shall we expect not to bear a few splinters of the cross in this age?

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:31–39).

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Matthew C. Harrison
President, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

When Justice is UnJust: The Death of Jesus in First Corinthians

The Article is from When Justice is Unjust: The Death of Jesus in First Corinthians - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

New Testament scholar, John Barclay, on the foolishness of the cross to the Gentiles:

To hail Jesus the crucified as the Christ, the Son of God, was even more an outrage [than the death of Gavius]. If he was executed as a criminal by legitimate authorities, he was rightly degraded to the rank of human trash, and could not possibly be honored, still less associated with the divine. If he was properly to be honored as divine, then one of two conclusions had to be drawn. Either his death was the most monstrous miscarriage of justice … or the whole system of values that made crucifixion a symbol and enactment of abject worthlessness was itself completely worthless, mistaken to the core. Paul takes the latter course. He makes no attempt to exonerate the executioners of Jesus, nor to pass off his crucifixion as a temporary error in the otherwise sound practice of Roman justice […]

If the crucifixion of a Roman citizen is an outrage, for which Cicero wants Verres humiliated and exiled, the crucifixion of the Lord of glory by “the rulers of this age” is the clearest possible indication that this age understands nothing of the divine system of value. The crucifixion is not just a temporary aberration in an otherwise well-functioning system: it is the clearest possible proof that the norms which pass for ‘wisdom’ are completely unable to grasp what God is doing in the world. To read the crucifixion with the eyes of Paul is like reading the systems of justice in the old American South with the eyes of Harper Lee (author of To Kill a Mockingbird): it is to expose a whole system of evaluation, a matrix of norms and judgments that prides itself on its advanced state of civilization, as blind, corrupt, and barbaric, utterly worthless in its judgment of worth.

Quoted from “Crucifixion as Wisdom: Exploring the Ideology of a Disreputable Movement” in The Wisdom and Foolishness of God: First Corinthians in Theological Exploration, (emphasis added).

The Urgency of Grace - Family Relationships [Video]

I Like It, So God Would Too

Egocentrism in Believers’ Estimates of God

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eligion is often seen as a moral compass — it is frequently used by believers as a guide to doing and believing the right thing. People may disagree on social issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and the death penalty and back their opinions by invoking God as the ultimate advocate of their beliefs. But how do people reason about God’s beliefs? In an interesting set of six studies by Nick Epley and colleagues, it was argued that people are remarkably egocentric when asked to infer about God’s beliefs — that is, people seem to draw on their own beliefs about these issues when asked to infer what God’s beli……………………………………..

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