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I've finished reading Reuben Swanson's book of sermons,
Bread? or Crumbs? Twenty-eight sermons...360 pages.
Swanson is a Lutheran minister and has done some scholarly work in the field of the Greek New Testament. His form of writing sermons on the page is unusual. It looks like this:
How mysteriously God works.
He breathes into us,
he inspirits us
as the waters of baptism are placed upon our brow
and we come alive in the Spirit.
God inbreathed us
in that moment of time when the waters of baptism
were splashed upon us.
At that moment you and I became a child of Go,
no longer a creature
shaped and molded from dust,
but shaped and molded in the image of our Father God.
He breathes into us,
he inspirits us
as the waters of baptism are placed upon our brow
and we come alive in the Spirit.
God inbreathed us
in that moment of time when the waters of baptism
were splashed upon us.
At that moment you and I became a child of Go,
no longer a creature
shaped and molded from dust,
but shaped and molded in the image of our Father God.
This form gives a poetic feel to the content. He uses good metaphors and similes. As you can see by the quote above, he has a strong Lutheran sense of the objective nature of the sacraments. That is, they don't just symbolize something--they do something. So, when Paul says that in baptism we are put "into" Christ, that's what actually happens. We are re-positioned. We are baptized "into" Christ. That's how we get to be "in" Christ. The Lutherans take baptism quite seriously as the vehicle for salvation, believing that the promise of Christ is actually enacted when the Word and the Water are given according to the promise of Christ. Luther used to say he knew he belonged to God because "I am baptized." He wasn't talking about baptism as some kind of mechanical ritual; he meant that receiving the promise of Christ through baptism, he had actually received the promise. Baptism was for him the objective manifestation of the invisible grace of God in Christ.
When Baptists ask, "Have you had a conversion experience?" -- Lutherans say, "Yes, I had it at my baptism."
We Presbyterians are a little more ambiguous about baptism. Our official statements of faith and our official worship services say that we are washed of sin and born anew in baptism. But many Presbyterians think that sounds too Catholic. We have been influenced by the American pioneer spirit of individualism and evangelicalism. We think we have to have a subjective, personal 'experience.'
But the Lutheran understanding of faith and sacraments says that the objective 'experience' of baptism becomes a subjective experience of grace by our response of faith. Lutherans don't depend upon subjective feelings or subjective experiences. They depend upon the promise of Christ himself--which is made visible in baptism. I like that emphasis on the objectivity of salvation. It is a fact. It is finished. It is made manifest in Word and Water. Faith doesn't depend upon how I feel or what I experience; it is a fact whether or not I feel it or experience it. And the fact is made visible in baptism. There is something hearty and substantial about the Lutheran objectivity of the gospel.
I served as a Lutheran pastor for almost four years--St. Peter Lutheran Church. It was a wonderful experience. I found out that Lutherans have a clearer sense of their tradition than Presbyterians do. They don't complain about hymns that are hard to sing. But they also have that ecclesiastical disease: Wenditwab (We've Never Done It That Way Before).
Anyway, Dr. Swanson's book of sermons (he's in his 90's) was a good read. I doubt that anyone except preachers read books of sermons. I'm happy to say that I didn't go to sleep.
When Baptists ask, "Have you had a conversion experience?" -- Lutherans say, "Yes, I had it at my baptism."
We Presbyterians are a little more ambiguous about baptism. Our official statements of faith and our official worship services say that we are washed of sin and born anew in baptism. But many Presbyterians think that sounds too Catholic. We have been influenced by the American pioneer spirit of individualism and evangelicalism. We think we have to have a subjective, personal 'experience.'
But the Lutheran understanding of faith and sacraments says that the objective 'experience' of baptism becomes a subjective experience of grace by our response of faith. Lutherans don't depend upon subjective feelings or subjective experiences. They depend upon the promise of Christ himself--which is made visible in baptism. I like that emphasis on the objectivity of salvation. It is a fact. It is finished. It is made manifest in Word and Water. Faith doesn't depend upon how I feel or what I experience; it is a fact whether or not I feel it or experience it. And the fact is made visible in baptism. There is something hearty and substantial about the Lutheran objectivity of the gospel.
I served as a Lutheran pastor for almost four years--St. Peter Lutheran Church. It was a wonderful experience. I found out that Lutherans have a clearer sense of their tradition than Presbyterians do. They don't complain about hymns that are hard to sing. But they also have that ecclesiastical disease: Wenditwab (We've Never Done It That Way Before).
Anyway, Dr. Swanson's book of sermons (he's in his 90's) was a good read. I doubt that anyone except preachers read books of sermons. I'm happy to say that I didn't go to sleep.
