Ps. 116:5, NIRV
As a child growing up in the Lutheran Church, Lorraine heard much about Martin Luther’s famous struggle for faith—this was especially discussed in Confirmation class. Similarly, one of David’s first jobs in the church was to teach Confirmation in a Lutheran church. (Thus, we had comparable experiences.)
We both learned that
Luther spoke of once having hated the overly demanding, blaming God that had been presented to him in his youth. Bluntly, Luther said that he had “hated the
righteous God who punishes sinners”; he “blasphemously” murmured against this
God. Yet Luther declared that he “beat
importunately” upon scripture (especially Rom. 1:17 ) “ardently desiring” to know what it meant.[1] (See Rom. 1:17 quoted--commented upon--at the end of today's post.)
And then Luther had a
spiritual breakthrough—a breakthrough that led to the Protestant
Reformation. Luther discovered a tender
God in Christ coming among us as a servant (Phil. 2:6-7).[2]
This is a God of Grace—a God who forgives and takes all blame upon himself. (See verses that led to Luther’s spiritual breakthrough: Rom.1:17 ;
3:28 ; 8:1, 32-39.)
Luther said that he felt he had “entered paradise itself through open
gates”[3] when he made the
discovery of a loving, forgiving, Grace-giving God (in essence, a God of
“tender mercies”; Ps. 103:4, MEV, WEB, KJV).
This is a God of Grace—a God who forgives and takes all blame upon himself. (See verses that led to Luther’s spiritual breakthrough: Rom.
In various Confirmation teachings we heard
about Luther’s breakthrough and discovery of Grace. However,
mostly we heard about that discovery in rather technical, left brain, or even
formulaic terms. Verses such as those above
were explained largely in the terms of the legal system. The picture of a court scene was set up. To put it most simply: I am found wanting and guilty, but then at the last minute a Christ of Grace steps in to take my place—to take my sentence upon himself. And surely Luther did set up this scenario.[4] All of this
is indeed found in the biblical record, and we still very much believe this
today.
However, there were also other aspects of Grace that Luther spoke about that we never heard much about. Luther also explained his great rediscovery
of the biblical theme of Grace in terms that included an extra measure of tenderness and intimacy. But we were not privileged to hear thoughts
regarding this. There was a deeply relational side to Luther’s scenario
that was largely omitted in the presentations made to us.
In Luther’s deeply relational explanation Christ
steps in to marry me, to entwine
himself to me, to become one “Kuche” (cake) with me, even to cement himself to me. (Note: at this point words like entwine, cement, and Kuche will
not mean much to the reader, but hopefully we can add meaning to these words as
we go along.) In addition to the court
scene explanation above, there was also that deeply relational side to Luther’s understanding of Christ stepping in at
the last minute for us. This side of
Luther’s explanation built upon spiritual writers who had gone before him.
In the “Introduction” to Luther’s edition of one of his favorite spiritual classics,
Theologia Germanica, Bengt Hoffman writes:
In
the midst of the turmoil of the late Middle Ages and as a reaction against it,
a quiet revival of the spiritual life took place. The “practice of the presence of God” led
many to the discovery that God is indeed not far from any of us. In order to cope with the vicissitudes of
life man [woman] may, in quiet contemplation, draw strength and love from a
higher world. Eternal life, engendering
inner peace, is here and now. This was
the spiritual rediscovery of thousands.
The theological term for experience of divine presence is sapientia experimentalis. Martin Luther used that term. . . .[5]
For Luther “God is close,” Hoffman writes.[6]
God wishes to be in a loving relationship with us, to be a presence in our lives. Thus, Luther spoke of a relationship in which one discovers that God—especially the
incarnated God who intimately joins/marries himself to us in Christ—not only
gave his life for us as an inestimable sign of Love, Grace, and forgiveness but also is
truly present and lovingly, relationally,
consistently with us. This is a loving relationship that makes a huge difference in our day to day
lives.
Speaking further of this relationship, Luther used the metaphor
of a marriage. Preceding Luther there
had been much discussion of “the relationship of Christ with the individual
soul in the transforming union, the ‘spiritual marriage.’”[7] (Note Mt. 2:19 ; Isa. 54: 5; Jer. 31:32.) It is interesting that Luther—who had special regard for St. Bernard of
Clairvaux and his discussion of this “spiritual marriage”[8]— retained and used similar
imagery himself.
Martin Marty
writes that in “the biblical script that Luther provided [the marriage
metaphor], the soul could say with the Song of Solomon: ‘My beloved is mine and
I am his’ [2:16 ].”[9] In this regard, Luther wrote that there
“arises the voice of the bridegroom [Mt. 25:6; Jn. 3:29; Rev. 19:7] who says to the soul,
‘I am yours.’ ” And, in return, “comes
the voice of the bride [us!] who answers, “I am yours.’ ”[10]
The important point here is that Luther chose the language and metaphors of a Divine Love Story. We are called to a living, loving relationship. Technical explanations--or those that are based almost exclusively upon the language of the court--hardly capture all the relational depth and sense of loving presence that Luther would wish us to discover. Some of that depth is captured in one of Luther’s phrases about the possibility of our love relationship to God; he spoke of being “‘mit Gott ein Kuche werden’ (to become kneaded into one cake with God).” [11] Or consider lines from one of Luther’s hymns: “For I am thine and thou art mine, / And where I am our lives entwine. . . .” [12] (Especially note the word entwine--we will return to it shortly.)
Charles Taylor writes of the
“hyper-Augustinian juridical-penal framework” of explaining the Grace of God that is sometimes found in Western Christianity[13] (much like it was first explained in those early Confirmation classes). Taylor Taylor
For all the reasons above, seminary professor
Kenneth Vaux said we must rediscover Luther’s agapic language instead of simply focusing exclusively upon
whatever legalistic (or forensic) language
we find in his work.[16] (Agapic
is based on the word agape, which
means charity, the highest love, God’s love.)
We see
that Luther’s deeply relational
explanation of God’s gift of Grace to us includes words like marry, entwine, cement, one cake. Perhaps these words can come to greater
meaning if we compare them to similar relational
words used by Julian of Norwich in her great classic Revelations of Divine Love. We will
pause to examine a lovely theme that runs through Julian’s work (before returning to Luther).
In one sequence Julian explains the "homely" (or "homelike"), "courteous," "tenderness"[17] of God’s love for us by referring frequently to the
word “knit.”[18] The image that emerges in this sequence might
be called the Lover-Weaver imagery of
God. In this we are reminded of the
words of the psalmist: “[Y]ou knit me together in my mother’s womb. . . . [W]hen I was being made in secret,
intricately woven. . . . How weighty to
me are your thoughts, O God!” (Ps. 139: 13-17, NRSV).
In Julian’s imagery she speaks of the creation of—the knitting together of—our souls. Julian sees that from the beginning of time we were intimately “knit” to God’s very soul. In early English understanding the word “knit” can mean to “interlock, interlace, intertwine … weave, or plait together.” [19] In Julian’s imagery we have been woven to God’s own heart and soul from our creation: “[A]nd in our making He knit us and oned us to Himself. . . .” [20]
Then, taking her imagery further, Julian
speaks of Christ coming among us as a servant (Phil. 2:5-8). This is a God who would become even more intimately “knit” to us—to
the point of becoming woven into our very flesh, into our material
existence. Julian sees that although our
souls are knit to God we, nevertheless, are prone to wandering away from God
upon our earthly way—straining or tearing the material fabric, so to
speak. And so the "Incarnation" (Christ’s
coming among us) is about the further step of God becoming knit and woven into
all the earthiness of our existence to be as near to us as possible. Julian tells us Christ “preciously knit” himself to us in our material state in a “knot
[which] is so subtle and so mighty,”[21] much
as the mother is knit to her child with a “subtle . . . mighty” knot. This knitting is not something that happened
only once in time: when Jesus walked the earth.
This subtle knot extends throughout time. The promise “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” remains with us (Mt. 28:20,
NIV; also see Jn. 14:18 ; Heb. 13:8).
Julian is not the only one to express the idea of the knitting, weaving, or entwining of God to us and of us to God. Although imagery may vary the main idea is the interwoven nature of our life in God and God’s further effects to entwine God’s own self into the earthiness of our existence. St. Catherine of Siena tells us Christ came into our world to be “kneaded into the clay of your humanity like one bread.” [22] (Note: a brief aside is that Katie Luther, Martin's able wife was often compared to St. Catherine because of her remarkable combination of faith and service to others.)
Meanwhile, we noted above that Luther spoke of being “‘mit Gott
ein Kuche werden’ (to become kneaded into one cake with God).”
Luther also offered the imagery of Christ the Bridegroom, who
comes to join--intimately marry/cement--himself to us: Like a
spouse “Christ … is fixed and cemented to me and abides in
me.” [23] And we saw that Luther wrote and sang: “For I am
thine and thou art mine, And where I am our lives entwine...”
The
anonymous author of The Epistle of Prayer,
a classic of
English spirituality, writes that “God shall be knitted [to you]
with
the ghostly glue of grace.”[24] (There is some similarity between
Luther’s cement and the idea of “ghostly glue”:
the Holy Spirit’s glue.)
Julian of
Norwich’s Lover-Weaver imagery—and similar imagery
in Luther, St. Catherine, etc.—is of a God who would be tenderly
joined / entwined / knit to us in all
ways: “Can a mother forget the
baby at
her breast and have no compassion on the child she has
borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget
you! See, I have
engraved you on the palms
of my hands . . .” (Isa. 49:15-16, NIV).
In faith, trust, humility, and acknowledgement of our own
fragility and tendency to get lost, we respond to (place our faith
and hope in) such Love and Grace.
We return
once again to Luther to make a comment about his
personal life. Luther married and had six children (four
that survived
to adulthood). Luther is
known for wearing his heart on his sleeve
in
this regard. It is clear that Luther
dearly loved marriage and family
life—his wife Katie and his children. Whenever we get a peek inside
Luther’s
family, there seems to be much tenderness in the relationships.
Not long
before his death Luther was away on a mission and wrote
to his Katie,
calling himself her “old lover.” And shortly after
Luther’s death Katie wrote
in a letter: “For who could not be deeply
grieved and saddened over the loss of
such a dear and precious man
as my husband has been. . . . God knows that when I think of
having lost
him, I can neither talk nor write....”[25]
We can see that Luther understood the importance of tenderness in
family life. We believe he also understood the importance of God's
sacred tenderness in our spiritual lives: that is why Luther kept alive the
marriage metaphor to explain God's/Christ's Grace, search for us, and
oneness with us[26] (an intimate metaphor that he had received from
predecessors). Luther wished to give us "a theology of love."[27] He
wished to pass God's sacred tenderness on to us.
(See our upcoming July post for further discussion of a theology
(See our upcoming July post for further discussion of a theology
of love: "The 'Great Divine Romance of Heaven' for us & its
Frequent Neglect." Also see: "Martin Luther, the Reformation
& God’s Tender Romance [Inclusion or Neglect?]."[28])
* 💗 *
Meditations, prayer/poetry/proverbs of "practicing
the presence of God"
(Also see "Further Understanding of Grace" just before the Notes below):
A Prayer--Leaning into (trusting in) YOU:
“God willeth that we … be ever strong in sure trust, in weal [well-
being] and woe. For He loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that
we love and enjoy Him and mightily trust in Him; and all shall be
well.” (Julian of Norwich) [29]
“Taste and see that the Lord is sweet” (translation of Ps. 34:8 and Martin
Luther's words)."[30]
(Also see the special use of the word "lean" in Prov. 3:5, KJV, NIV;
Ps. 37:3-7, AMPC. And see "Further Understanding of Grace" below.)
* * *
I will 'Cling' (Trust)--a prayer:
(With reflection upon Jn. 6:20, ASV, JB; Ps. 63:8, NIV; Duet. 33:12, CSB.
Also see Rev. 1:13: note Jesus’ golden sash here.) [31]
* * *
“Enchanted, Invisible ‘Guest' (a Meditation)"
(Note: nature has a mysterious way of helping us to “practice
the presence of God” [discussed above]. This is why retreat centers
and church camps are often built in beautiful, natural settings. Luther
himself had a tender attitude toward nature. He said: “If thou couldst
understand a single grain of wheat, thou wouldst die for wonder.”
Luther also believed that God “is everywhere present throughout his
creation as a sustaining and animating force” [R. Bainton].[32])
* * *
An opening to prayer/meditation (using another love imagery for Christ--
“Brother”):
With reflection upon Mt. 28:20; Jn. 6: 29-40; Heb. 2:11; Rom. 8:29;
Mk. 3:34, CEB, NJB, RSV. (Also see "Further Understanding of
Grace" below.)
* * *
And now, a selection that reflects the season and another one of
Luther's surprising emphasis (also introduced above with
butterfly imagery):
“So Simple is the Entrance”
Have you ever listened to music—
perfect music
and watched the raindrops falling down?
The pine trees lift their skirts and dance.
The chimneys form an organ.
The little bird cocks its head—
hops circles to the music.
The heavens chant in mystic tones,
and my heart chants in answer.
So simple is the entrance
to paradise
in music—
so simple is the entrance
when rain
is falling
down!
(For Luther God “is in every creature, inwardly and
outwardly, through and through, over and under, behind
and before, so that nothing can be more inward and hidden
in any creature than God. ‘In him we live, and move, and
have our being.’ Without him is naught. God fills all the
world, but by the world he is not contained. ‘Whither shall
I free from thy presence?…’ ” And yet at the same
time “Nature cannot reveal God [finally, for God is so
much more].” - R. Bainton.) [33]
(Note also that music was another realm where Luther
caught hints of the holy.)
* * *
Further Understanding of Grace--how God makes
people "righteous" ("puts people right") in God's own sight:
Quoting Romans 1:17 (which helped lead to Luther's spiritual
breakthrough--all our merit is a gift of Grace): "For the gospel
reveals how God puts people right with himself ['makes people
righteous in his sight']: it is through faith from beginning to end.
As the scripture says, 'The person who is put right with God
through faith shall live'"; Rom. 1:17, GNT (quoting Hab. 2:4;
insertion, CJB).
We pair this with another verse that helped to set Luther
free (and sets us free through Grace as well): "[God] that spared
not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he
not with him [the Son Jesus] also freely give us all things?";
Romans 8:32, ASV. (This includes forgiveness, Grace, "tender
mercy,"[34] and a fresh new start in a life of faith because of all
that God has done through the Son--who came to be intimate
with us and give all for us. Thus, all is a gift of Grace. Our
part: to embrace and walk in this gift; i.e., to walk in faith.
(Note that in recent years Protestant and Catholic
theologians have signed a Joint Declaration regarding
such understanding of our "justification" before God--
by Grace and "faith from beginning to end" [Rom. 1:17];
thus resolving the old debate that plagued Luther
and started the Reformation.[35] Also see further
understanding of this larger topic in a Lenten post.[36])
* * *
……………………………
Notes:
1. Martin Luther, “Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther’s
Latin Writings,” Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings, ed. John
Dillenberger (Garden City, NY: Anchor, Doubleday & Company,
Inc., 1961), p. 11.
2. Martin Luther, “Two Kinds of Righteousness,” Martin Luther:
Selections From His Writings, p. 90.
3. Martin Luther, “Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther’s Latin
Writings,” Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings, p. 11.
4. For other scriptures Luther loved in regard to this side of Luther’s
thought, see Gal. 2:20, 3:13-14, 4:4-5, 5:4-6; 2 Cor. 5:17-21.
5. Bengt Hoffman, “Introduction” to The Theologia Germanica of
Martin Luther (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), p. 6.
6. Bengt R. Hoffman, Luther and the Mystics (Minneapolis: Augsburg,
1976), p. 163. (Now updated under the title Theology of the
Heart.)
7. Edmund Colledge, O.S.A. and James Walsh, S.J., “Introduction,”
Julian of Norwich: Showings, trans. Edmund Colledge, O.S.A. and
James Walsh, S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, 1978), p. 85. (Also
see the marriage metaphor in various classics written by
women quoted in: “Missing Sacred Tenderness and Missing
Women’s Voices”;
8. Hoffman, Luther and the Mystics, p. 124.
9. Martin Marty, Martin Luther (New York: Penguin Group, Viking,
2004), p. 64.
10. Luther, “Two Kinds of Righteousness,” in Martin Luther:
Selections From His Writings, p. 89. (Also see Note 23.)
11. Quoted in Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, trans. John
W. Harvey (London: Oxford University Press, 1923, 1950),
p. 205, Appendix VI.
12. Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
(New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1950), pp. 66-67 (a
translation of “Dear Christians, One and all Rejoice”).
13. Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, MA: Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 2007), pp. 651, 654.
14. Ibid., pp. 79, 262-263.
15. See Tuomo Mannermaa, “Justification and Theosis in
Luther-Orthodox Perspective” and Simo Peura, “Christ as
Favor and Gift (donum): The Challenge of Luther’s
Understanding of Justification” in Carl E. Braaten and
Understanding of Justification” in Carl E. Braaten and
Robert W. Jenson, eds., Union with Christ: The New Finnish
Interpretation of Luther (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans,
1998), pp. 28, 32, 64, 73. See this volume for theological
discussion of our oneness and union with Christ in Luther’s
thought. (We see Luther stressing both: forensic
explanations and such oneness or marriage.)
16. Dr. Kenneth Vaux, “Faith in Common: Love of One God
and Neighbor,” 10/26/08 class (Reformation Sunday), First
Presbyterian Church, Deerfield, IL (Vaux is Professor of
Theological Ethics at Garrett-Evangelical Theological
Seminary).
17. See Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, ed. Grace
Warrack (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1901, 1949), pp. 102,
189 (Chap. 48, 77). For the translation "homelike," see
Marcelle Thiébaux, The Writings of Medieval Women: An
Anthology (New York: Garland Pub., 1994), pp. 449, 456, 460
(from Revelations of Divine Love, translating Chapter 4, Short
Text and Chapter 60, 68, Long Text).
18. Julian of Norwich Showings: Authoritative Text, Contexts,
Criticism, ed. Denise N. Baker (New York: W. W. Norton & Co.,
2005), pp. 83-90; Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love,
pp. 127-30, 138-9, 142-3 (Chap. 53, 57, 58).
19. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
(Glasgow: Oxford University Press, 1971).
20. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, p. 142
(Chap. 58).
21. Ibid., p. 129 (Chap. 53). (Also see pp. 137-9, Chap. 57).
22. Catherine of Siena: The Dialogue, trans. Suzanne
Noffke, O.P. (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), p. 65.
23. Martin Luther, “Lectures on Galatians 1535,” Luther’s
Works, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan and Walter A. Hansen
(Saint Louis: Concordia, 1963), Vol. 26, pp. 167-168. Also see Luther, “The Freedom of the Christian,” “Two Kinds
of Righteousness,” in Martin Luther: Selections From His
Writings, pp. 60-1, 86-91; and see references to Luther’s
bridegroom/bride imagery: Hoffman, Luther and the Mystics,
pp. 149-50, 155-9, 172-4, 177.
24. From "An Epistle of Prayer" (anonymous) in The Cell of
Self Knowledge, printed by Henry Pepwell, 1521.
25. Rudolf K. Markwald and Marilynn Morris Markwald,
Katharina von Bora: A Reformation Life (Saint Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 2002), p. 176.
26. For further thoughts about this theme see Paul Robert
Sauer, “Mystical Marriage Renewal,” Lutheran Forum, Spring, 2009,
pp. 10-12; also see Hoffman, Luther and the Mystics, pp. 149-50,
155-9, 172-4, 177.
27. Tuomo Mannermaa, “Why Is Luther So Fascinating? Modern
Finnish Luther Research” in Braaten and Jenson, eds., Union
with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther, pp. 3, 13.
28. See "The 'Great Divine Romance of Heaven' for us & its
and "Martin Luther, the Reformation & God’s Tender
Romance (Inclusion or Neglect?)";
http://sacred-tendernessSchristian-tradition.blogspot.com/2017/10/.
29. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, p. 170 (Chap. 68).
(Note: Julian's words are somewhat comparable to Lk. 12:32.)
30. Translation of Ps. 34:8 and Martin Luther in “The Magnificat,”
ed. Thomas S. Kepler, An Anthology of Devotional Literature
(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977), p. 262.
31. Meditations, prayer/poetry/proverbs by Lorraine B. Eshleman.
(Capitalization added to Jn. 6:20 for this selection; also see
Note 29 above.)
32. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther,
pp. 216, 140. (Note that this is very similar to St. Thomas
Aquinas's thought; see Summa Theologica (Pt. I, Q. 8).
33. Ibid., pp. 216-217.
34. See Lk. 1:78, NRSV. Also God's "tender mercy" becomes a
major theme in our blog. See "God's Generous 'Tender Mercies'
(Which We Withhold?)"; https://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2016/07/gods-generous-tender-mercies-which-we.html
35. See "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (1999),"
World Communion of Reformed Churches, 2023; http://wcrc.ch/theology/joint-declaration-on-the-doctrine-of-justification (first based on the work
of Catholic and Lutheran theologians). Also see "Joint Declaration
on the Doctrine of Justification (1999)" discussed at Vatican News,
"Catholics and Lutherans reaffirm commitment to communion,"
The above was also adopted by The World Methodist Council (2006)
and The World Communion of Reformed Churches (2016).
36. See "The 'Divine Romance,' the 'Bride Price,' and the Cross'"; https://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-divine-romance-bride-price-and-cross.html
Love the more personal side of Luther here. See him anew.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know about Luther's good marriage. It's new to me.
ReplyDeleteSo Luther again--I love both posts about him. Great guy for those times.
ReplyDeleteLuther again--don't know much about him. Do you know an easy way to get started with him?
ReplyDeleteMartin Marty wrote "Martin Luther"--very readable!
ReplyDelete