Theology is where theory and practice meet By Rolf Jacobson A
fellow named Kurt Lewin once wrote: “There is noth- ing more practical than a good theory.” Now Lewin wasn’t Lutheran. And the psychologist
wasn’t thinking about Lutheran theology when he penned those apt words. But he could have been. Because the thing about theology—especially Lutheran theology—is that it’s where theory and practice meet.
Another way of saying this is that Lutheran theology is for daily life. Lutheran theology is not the province of pointy-headed geeks, thinking incom- prehensible thoughts, in some dusty university office.
Lutheran theology, as Martin Luther himself once wrote, “calls a thing what it is.” And the words that Lutheran theology generates work like a good pair of shoes—they fit comfortably and wear well. Normal people can tie them on, walk around and pound the pavement of daily life in them.
There isn’t space here for a com- prehensive dictionary of Lutheran words, so we’ll settle for some win- dow shopping—a chance to try on a few to get a feel for them.
Justification Justification, n. The keystone to the arch, the hub to the wheel, the north star by which all theological naviga- tion steers—God’s action of estab- lishing and maintaining a relation- ship with sinners.
This is the big one. Get this one right and everything else tends to fall into place. Get this one wrong and you’re pretty much trying to sail across desert sand in a rowboat. The concept of justification starts with the assumption that all of cre- ation is estranged from God. That our relationship with our Creator has been disrupted by the condition called sin. We live in a good but bro- ken creation. We are separated from God and from each other. The question is: What can be done
about this situation? If it were left up to human will-
power, ingenuity and creativity, the answer is: not one blessed thing. You might as well try to drain the Pacific Ocean with an eyedropper. But the good news is that the situ-
ation isn’t left up to us, but rather it has been left to God. And with God, as Jesus says, all things are pos- sible. Through Jesus Christ, God has reached out to the broken world ... and, specifically, God has reached out to you.
The Bible uses many different metaphors to describe justification. We are God’s heirs, God’s children. We have been reconciled to God, redeemed by God, saved by God. We have been born again, we are a new creation. Our guilt and sin are forgiven. And so on. All told, they all amount to this simple good news: God has chosen you.
This is Lutheran word No. 1. And there are a couple of other Lutheran words—or rather Lutheran phrases— that help refine this word: by grace, through faith.
Grace Grace, n. The “serve” in “unde- served,” the “given” in “forgiven”— the love of God free of charge, for any and for all.
Here is the thing. As Clint East-
wood’s character says at the end of the movie Unforgiven: “Deserves got nothing to do with it.”
By grace means that the act of justification depends fully on God and not even one little bit on you. You don’t have to meet God halfway because you can’t be relied upon even for that. Or, to be more precise, God isn’t going to take any chances on your salvation, so God fully and com- pletely reaches out to you. By grace means the undeserving are served with an invitation to the heavenly banquet. By grace means that the unforgiving and the unforgiv- able are forgiven. By grace means that the unloving and unlovable are loved. Grace is what God does for us, precisely because we cannot do it for ourselves. This includes forgiveness, new creation, love and so on. Maybe this old acronym will help: GRACE is God’s Redeeming Actions Concerning Everyone.
Faith Faith, n. The outlet into which the power cord is plugged, the cup into which the wine is poured, the appetite that the bread feeds—the way we receive God’s freely given gifts.
By faith means that the only way you can receive this justifying action of God is by, well, receiving it as a gift. God works through promises. And the only way to receive a prom- ise is to believe it.
And by nature, we are believ-
ers. We believe in promises all day. “I’ll meet you after work.” That is
Jacobson, an ELCA pastor, serves as associate pro- fessor of Old Testament at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. An in-demand speaker, author and teacher, Jacobson edited and contributed to Crazy Talk: A Not- So-Stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms and Crazy Book: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms (
www.augsburgfortress.org).
For a study guide, see page 27. November 2012 21
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