#788 An Exemplary Conversation (2)

by Crossings

In Thursday Theology #787, we presented a letter from Pr. Tim Hoyer to Pr. Matt Metevelis in response to Matt’s brief essay on the preacher’s task of presenting Jesus as the ultimate goal. Now, as promised, we bring you Matt’s replies to Tim’s letter.

Matt followed the e-mailer’s stylistic mode of inserting his replies directly into the text of Tim’s original letter. I’ve decided to preserve this format, putting the text of Tim’s letter (from ThTh #787) in italics and square brackets, while putting Matt’s (new) replies in boldface.

Again, we expect you’ll find this exchange edifying, not only for its theological substance but also—perhaps more importantly—for the spirit of Christian brotherhood in which it is carried out.

Peace and Joy,
Carol Braun, for the editorial team



And also with you.


I think we met in the summer of ’06. It is great to hear from you. DDiv student I think I recall?


I recognize the Crossings method. Thanks for the refresher. It must have been amazing to sit in Caemmerer’s classes. The admonition he often made to “preach the blood” which I heard from another one of his students has been ringing in my head for years.


While I agree with the first goal I am suspicious of the theological construction of the second. How is “faith in Jesus working love for others” different from the fides caritate formata, “faith made active in love,” doctrine thrown about by the Counter-Reformation church? Can I be loving without being faithful to Christ? Does faith in Christ make my love better or purer? I work here in a hospice with some of the most loving people on earth, who are convinced Christianity is bunk. How is their love different from mine?


Fair enough—there are plenty of things that Jesus overcomes for us. But he overcomes them by standing in their place. Our sins keep us from God; Jesus takes them to the cross to leave them there to hang (1 Pet 2) so that he can take their place in our hearts.


Absolutely, the trick is sneaking the puck past the goalie of your old Adam so that you hear it.


And lately that’s a good question. People are self-justifiers and don’t see themselves as sinners for the most part. I’ve found that sin now has to be preached in terms of pain—physical, mental, and spiritual.


Jesus is the PERSON who does something for us. When I was first dating my wife I dropped about $100 on her birthday and filled her dorm room with flowers so that she would know how much I cared about her. So, sure, I was the means, but convincing her to have me as part of her life was the goal. Think “happy exchange,” Jesus does everything so that he can have us, not equip us for something else. He must be the “all in all.”


Melanchthon argued that “to know Christ is to know his benefits.” What you are bringing up here are the benefits—as if I said, “Preachers should point to Christ on the cross as if it were a beautiful work of art that will somehow change them.” That you bring this up is understandable, because I think I was unclear on this point. To preach Christ’s benefits as the goal I think is completely acceptable under the confessions. That seems to be what you are concerned about: eternal life, peace with God, forgiveness of sins, etc. All these are the benefits of Christ which must be preached when he is preached. The benefits are the “means” by which Christ is understood, apprehended, and trusted. (Christ is still the goal.)


Amen.

by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for his sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us.”]


You are powerfully articulating Lutheran theology here. Wish I could be as clear. What I was primarily objecting to is Christ preached in such a way that he provides benefits other than the ones you have brilliantly outlined. All the other benefits given by modern preachers work primarily on our wills in the ways Aristotle outlined in his rhetoric. My favorite example is social justice. In most preaching Christ either makes social justice possible, or condemns the old order in a way that calls us to act. In the latter case, it is up to us then to act in a way that makes social justice possible. These kinds of preachers give a benefit of Christ that is not complete. All the benefits of Christ you have outlined are complete in themselves: they do not work on our fallen old will but, rather, they literally create a new heart and will within us. I see such benefits less as goals that Jesus was trying to get us to and more as benefits that we get from our lives being tied up together with his life by his act on the cross.


Jesus dies so that we might have faith in him and not our works. That’s my thesis. I was trying to illustrate the way I constantly see it smudged by the ELCA.


To know Christ is to know his benefits. Not our own desires for spiritual perfection, social justice, or a more “missional church.” HIS benefits!


So glad for the response. It really helped me clarify my ideas. All the best to your ministry.


And to you.
Matt Metevelis
VDMA

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