Meds and Glory

Ok, so maybe that title is an interesting combination of words... but it is what I intend to write about tonight.

The story from the health center today is exactly what I thought might be the issue. They believe that I had a bacterial infection and just never quite got rid of it. Thus, I am not on amoxicillin for the next ten days. I will let you know after ten days if the meds have done their job.

Now for some theology. One of my classes this term is Lutheran Identity. The class focuses on the Lutheran confessions which means we learn a lot about Lutheran theology. A lot of it isn’t exactly new to me, at least in concept. But some of the details are new and very interesting.

Tonight, I was doing some reading for the class. Right now we’re reading a book about being a theologian of the cross which is what every Christian is to be according to Luther (and I agree with him). It is a somewhat difficult concept to explain and perhaps I will attempt to write an entry about it at some point, but now is not the time. One idea from the reading did strike me and I think I can address that here without having to fully explain what it means to be a theologian of the cross.

The basic idea this all stems from is that we need to realize we cannot possibly do it ourselves. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, we can do to get salvation for ourselves. We also have no “active capacity to humble [ourselves] but only a passive capacity” (On Being a Theologian of the Cross, p. 62). We cannot even humble ourselves, we must be humbled. When I read this, I thought first about the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes... “Blessed are the meek.” It isn’t that the meek are just meek, it is also that they have been made meek. They understand that they cannot possibly do it themselves. They have no pretentions that they are able to “work” their way into heaven. My second thought is that this is the major problem facing most people in our congregations. Our churches are made up of people who are predominantly middle to upper middle class. These are people who have worked hard to get what they have. These are people (myself included) that think they can fix things... we must be made humble.

I then think back to the sermon I preached at my home congregation back in December. I preached about lowliness and Mary’s lowliness. I also preached about my experiences with being made humble. I am constantly humbled in hospital rooms... but it takes that for me to realize often times how much I need God. I easily fall into the notion that I can do it on my own. I think I can claim something for myself, I think I can claim some of my successes. But I realize in those hospital rooms that I can claim nothing. I am nothing and it is only by the grace of God that I am saved... it is only by the grace of God that any of us are saved. Now, if only we can we realize/remember this!

That’s it for tonight I believe.

Kate