Martin Luther took God seriously. Luther was acutely aware that all of life is lived in the presence of God. For Luther, God was holy, righteous, and jealous. Luther lived in a system that emphasized these attributes of God and demanded penance and satisfaction. It was also a system in which the individual Christian was obligated to do what was in her power to make herself acceptable to this God. I am not entirely sure we have the same holy reverence for the Almighty. In our culture, God has become a cross between a cosmic Barney (“I love you; you love me…”) and an ATM. This cuddly, transactional God does not inspire reverence or awe. I wonder if we have domesticated God. If so, then we are missing the earth-shattering, life-changing good news of the gospel.
Lutherans talk a lot about grace. Grace presupposes that we need it. Grace is a gift. If we can achieve our own marvelous-ness apart from God, who needs grace? If we don’t need God, we miss the wonder of the Creator becoming a creature, of the Infinite becoming finite – all out of love.
This message is excerpted from “’Where’s Lutheran?’” by Elizabeth A. Eaton in the January/February 2017 Gather magazine.
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