Sermon: Torn Flesh, Spilled Blood
- At August 30, 2013
- By tjswenson
- In Blog
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost NT Proverbs 25:2-10
ILT Chapel Psalm 131
Brookings, SD Hebrews 13:1-17
August 30, 2013 Luke 14:1-14
“Flesh Torn, Blood Spilled”
Greetings to you on this day that the Lord has made–a day for us to rejoice and be glad. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.” (He. 13:5) One after another the admonitions fall upon your ears: Let brotherly love continue; Remember the imprisoned; Remember those mistreated; Honor the marriage bed; Don’t covet; Be content… There’s enough exhortations here to satisfy any sports coach egging on his team of champions. I can envision Bobby Knight here—the legendary, excitable Indiana basketball coach—gathering his team in a huddle out on floor in front of the bench: pass the ball cleanly… don’t travel… don’t foul… take this shot… grab that rebound… and with joined hands, the team joins in one final group exhortation to one another: “Let’s go!” And go, they do; strong, sweaty bodies pushed to their limit entering the fray once again, contending for the prize… the honor… the distinction… of champion… of possessing the status: number one! And so, the exhortations pile up, heaped upon one another like a grid iron dog pile of players after that fumbled football.
This text is full of body metaphors: hospitality shown to a bodily present stranger… your body in the same place as the prisoner’s body… you and the mistreated sharing the same body… the two bodies of the marriage bed honored as one flesh… bodily contentment, not covetousness… the text is full of body metaphors because your faith is full of a body: the body of Christ… the person of Jesus Christ… your faith is filled with the presence of another so that you don’t fill it with yourself. All these dog piled exhortations are anchored in body metaphors so that you know your faith bodily… physically… a tangible reality… your faith is not an abstract principle waiting for you to fill it up with yourself and the “diverse and strange teachings” of your own or another’s imagining. Your faith is not anchored in a timeless, eternal truth in the mind of God. No, indeed not, your faith is anchored in the historical presence of Jesus Christ who shed his blood within time and outside the gates… sacrificed for you, by you, and in your stead. It doesn’t get much more physical than that: flesh torn and blood spilled.
Years ago l loved the physical sciences… even toyed with becoming an engineer. I took many courses in physics during my college casino years… Newtonian physics… the kind that deals with real objects—solid, tangible, substantial—real objects and their interaction with one another and their environment. This is the physics of rocket ships, satellites, and trips to the moon. That kind of physics is so yesterday. Today’s physics is particle physics… the kind that deals with supposedly real objects—tiny beyond seeing, ephemeral beyond touch, insubstantial to the point of nothingness—supposedly real objects that can only be known by their interaction with each other and their environment. Unlike the objects in Newtonian physics whose reality can be observed and measured directly, the reality of objects in particle physics cannot be observed or measured directly. They can only be known by their effects… the evidence they leave behind. The Large Hadron Collider built in Europe is a city-sized science experiment designed to provoke such particles into existence, measure their effects, and thereby prove they really do exist. This is the physics of Einstein, the Manhattan Project, and Hiroshima.
Years ago… Years ago, say in the days of the writing of this text from Hebrews, its original interlocutors were much like Newtonian physicists—that is, they dealt with a God who really existed… a God who actually came to them in physical, bodily form—solid, tangible, substantial—a real person complete with flesh and blood. So this text is full of body metaphors—fleshy, bound, afflicted, married, and satisfied bodies. The original interlocutors of this text knew the reality of their God. They had a Newtonian faith. This is the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… of Jesus, Paul, and the author of Hebrews… of Luther and all those who take Jesus Christ at his word when he declares: “This is my body” and who then receive torn flesh and spilt blood. That kind of faith you receive from yesterday.
Today’s faith is like particle physics. Its objects—that is, God… Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… its objects may or may not be real but they can be known by their effects. Without the bodily reality of what the faith received from yesterday, without the theophysical reality of God… the presence of God can be only known by religious experience. God without anchor in a body—the body of Christ—comes to be an abstract principle unable to be known directly but only through the evidence left behind. Today’s faith has established extensive institutions, a world-wide religious experiment, designed to pronounce the existence of such divine principles, measure their effect upon the religious participants, and thereby prove gambling online casinos the divine’s existence so they can join in one final group exhortation to one another: “Let’s go!”. This is the faith of the Gnostics and the enthusiasts, of Kant and the Enlightenment, and of all those who take Jesus to enable an experience of their own so-called authentic self. Today’s faith, without the theophysical reality of a bodily present God, remains an abstract principle filled up with yourself, your experience, and the “diverse and strange teachings” of your own or another’s imagining.
Yet, the text is full of body metaphors. This Word of God ringing in your ears will not permit the replacement of yesterday’s faith with today’s faith if such replacement abandons the reality of the body… the body of Jesus Christ, flesh torn and blood spilled—for you, and by you, and in your stead. This Word of God ringing in your ears will not permit the substitution of yesterday’s faith by today’s faith if such substitution abandons the reality of your body… your body bound and afflicted inseparable from the neighbor… your body one flesh in marriage, content and sated with what it receives… your body sacrificed like Christ’s body… for the neighbor, by the neighbor, and in the neighbor’s stead.
This Word of God declares that yesterday’s faith, this day’s faith, and tomorrow’s faith are all one because they share the one body of the one Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, this day, and tomorrow. To imagine this Word of God without a body… without theophysical reality… without torn flesh and spilt blood… is surely a diverse and strange teaching. Yesterday’s faith received by you for faith on this day takes Jesus Christ at his Word and receives his body for the sake of its body.
This Word of God, come today to be your faith in the person of Jesus Christ, rests on his promise: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Only a real person could ever leave you. Only a person who’d really been bound to you can forsake you. No abstract principle can issue forth such a promise, only a real person. Only this God… only your Lord Jesus Christ who has come to be the groom to his bride… the husband to his wife… one flesh on an undefiled marriage bed… only this God is your God… flesh torn and blood spilled for you, and by you, and in your stead… and still he has not left you nor forsaken you…. Yes, indeed, you have a real God! Thanks be to God! Amen
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