Christ Is Victorious

Finding Joy in Uncertain Times: A Great Word from Thomas a Kempis

 

I have been preaching a sermon series on Philippians entitled "Finding Joy in Difficult Times" I have been deeply appreciative of the positive and encouraging words of response that I have received from people at West Side and on line listeners (see www.wspc.org sermons). One of the great challenges we have in our North American culture is that we confuse the Christian gift and virtue of JOY with the American pursuit of happiness. Simply stated, Joy and Happiness are not the same thing, although as CS Lewis seems to suggest they can be related. Happiness is soley based on "happenings" (circumstances) while "joy" is a gift given and a virtue practiced despite the circumstances. Thus the Apostle Paul can write a joy-filled letter to the Philippians while incarcerated by the Roman Empire.

This past week, I finished my sermon with a prayer taken from Thomas a Kempis' famous book called THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. I have had many requests for it and so here it is:

My God and my love, you are mine and I am yours. Deepen your love in me, O Lord, that I may learn how joyful it is to serve you. Let your love take hold of me and raise me above myself, that I may be filled with devotion because of your goodness. Then I will sing a song to you of love and worship. I will follow you and my soul will never grow tired of praising you. Let me love you more than myself, and love myself only for your sake. Let me love others in you and for you, as your law of love commands.Through Jesus Christ. Amen

 

Christus Victor according to Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 In a sermon given in late 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached on "Christus Victor". This concept has been a rich theological idea for me in my theological journey as a pastor and professor, as well as a daily follower/disciple of Jesus Christ (thus my blog site being called "Christ is Victorious"). While the genesis of christus victor can be found as early as St. Athanasius, it was St. Anselm who really developed this phrase to describe the person and work of Jesus Christ as the one who has triumphed over sin, death and evil, and in whom we too may have confidence that sin, death and evil has been overcome. It was Karl Barth who (re) discovered this via his study of The Blumhardts (see  http://www.plough.com/topics/Blumhardts.html). Dietrich Bonhoeffer was drawn to it via Karl Barth. In that sermon he preached the following:

"In our lives we don't speak readily of victory. It is too big a word for us. We have suffered too many defeats in our lives; victory has been thwarted again and again by too many weak hours, too many gross sins. But isn't it true that the spirit within us yearns for this word, for the final vicotry over the sin and anxious fear of death in our lives? And now God's word also says nothing to us about victory; it doesn't promise us that we will be victorious over sin and death from now on, on our won; rather, it says with all its might that someone has won this victory and that this person, if we have Him as Lord, will also win the victory over us and for us. It is not we who are victorious, but Jesus."

It is crucial that we rediscover this anew. For some, such talk of CHRISTUS VICTOR sounds all too "triumphalistic" and belongs more to a fading Christendom that to the post Christendom of the 21st Century Western Church. For others, such talk is hijacked to speak of "the victorious Christian life" which becomes nothing more than a revived "health and wealth, happy, clappy" faith can move mountains nonsense being preached by Joel Osteen and others.

But what Anselm, Barth, Bonhoeffer and later Gustav Aulen, meant is exactly this...that Jesus Christ has overcome...has triumphed over...has defeated and destroyed...sin, death and evil---all principalities, powers and authorities---all that stands in opposition to the life-giving purposes of the triune God and the destiny of our humanity in Christ...Again, Bonhoeffer makes the point well:

"It is not we who are victorious, but Jesus!" Amen.

 

We are far too easily pleased...CS Lewis

 In one of the greatest sermons ever preached ("The Weight of Glory") CS Lewis begins by stating that AGAPE LOVE, not selflessness, is the greatest virtue of the Christian faith and that God's desire for us is to be filled with JOY rather than seeking our own desires and pursuing our own agendas, pleasures and enjoyment. He further challenges us to reflect upon the fact that for most of us "it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who want to go on making mud pies in a slum because (s)he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea." Lewis concludes that we as Christians and human beings are "far too easily pleased."

For me this is a great challenge as I desire various things in life but do not want to settle for the good but seek the best that God has in store for me, my family, the Church and the world. It creates witin me what I call a "divine discontent" with the status quo and that which calls me to something greater than what is in my own life, in the church and the world. It is the "weight of glory" which should weigh on every Christian's life and upon every Church that claims to follow Jesus Christ. Do not be too easily pleased with your own life, nor the life of the Church, nor the way of the world. Be filled with the divine discontent which will lead you to live more fully into the glory of God.

Most Recent Sermons at WestSidePres (Seattle) (see 4/15 and 4/22) can be heard at www.wspc.org (Inc. The Parables of Jesus, "Finding Joy in Difficult Times" Philippians Series & What Christ Thinks of the Church, Grace&Gratitude). Regular Posts Follow.

A Thanksgiving Meditation

 

Hear O People of God

 

Living as the People of God

 

Living As The People of God 2_

 

Pentecost-The New Wind of the Holy Spirit

 

The 10 Commandments as a the Way to Freedom

 

Stewardship- No More Needed

 

Joshua- Be Strong and Courageous

 

It Really Is All About Following Jesus

 

I Believe in Jesus Christ
 

(Video Link to Reformation Sunday Sermon Preached at Grace Lutheran Church in Huntington Beach, California pastored by my friend and colleague Rev. Chris Tweitmann who introduces me at the beginning of the video is http://vimeo.com/36052733). Password to view is Burton (case sensitive). Enjoy!

You may also listen to sermons I have preached at West Side Presbyterian Church in West Seattle where I am currently serving as a parish associate (go to sermons at http://www.wspc.org).

I offer these for my blog readers who have requested it. I will continue to post more in the near future. As one who loves preaching, I am humbled and honored everytime the invitation to preach comes to me. I have been blessed to preach to many great congregations through the years and I look forward to what lies ahead in the future.

For me, Karl Barth spoke profoundly to the call of Christian preaching when he wrote:

But, some might say, how can we theologians come to speak God’s Word in our words? Or, some congregation might say, how can we come to hear God’s Word in the words of this or that pastor who has nothing to offer us, or in the words of all pastors, none of whom we trust? … If we expected to hear God's Word more, we would hear it more even in the weak and perverted sermons. The statement that there was nothing in it for me should often read that I was not ready to let anything be said to me. What is needed here is repentance by both pastors and congregations…. This does not mean that congregations must say Yea and Amen to all the words of their reverend pastors. Pastors are sinners. They are unprofitable servants with all their words even though they do all that they are under obligation to do (cf. Luke 17:10). Nevertheless, they are servants of the Most High (cf. Dan. 3:26). They speak in his name. They carry out his commission, which is a reality even today. No matter how well or how badly they do it, this in the presupposition of listening to them…. They know fear and trembling whenever they mount the pulpit. They are crushed by the feeling of being poor human beings who are probably more unworthy than all those who sit before them. Nevertheless, precisely then it is still a matter of God’s Word. The Word of God that they have to proclaim is what judges them, but this does not alter the fact – indeed, it means – that they have to proclaim it. This is the presupposition of their proclaiming it.”

Karl Barth, The Göttingen Dogmatics, Vol. 1, 33-35.