Sunday, June 5, 2011

Confusing the Masks of God.

Luther famous described creatures as masks of God (larva Dei).  Above these masks God is hidden; nevertheless God binds himself to be present in these masks in a particular way.  In his mask of the government, family, police, teachers, etc, he binds himself to act as law.  Through Word and sacrament he binds himself to the gospel and promises to work salvation.  This is a slight simplification, since obviously God's grace is expressed in his preservation of the created order through the kingdom of the left, and his judgment is also present in Word and sacrament.  Nevertheless, the basic point is clear: God wills to work salvation in one sphere and not in others.

The overwhelming problem with our culture (and with humanity under the power of sin in general) is that we look for God in the wrong places.  For example, in the political sphere we look for God's salvation.  People (particularly in American politics- rooted in the Reformed tradition) look for God's salvation and grace in politics.  They use religious language to describe their political programs.  They make unreasonable assumptions about the possibilities of the application of God's law and human nature (I have several examples in mind on the left and the right!).  God corrects this misperception though by destroying all these messianic projects.  

Similarly, in the kingdom of the right, people try to approach God according to the law, when he wants to be found as gospel.  The human motive here is not only the idolatrous claim that we can control God with our good works (something present in most world religions), but in a more subtle form of trying to provide moral order.  Most Protestant denominations have this problem.  Most Lutheran have this problem!!!  Though the Church does have a role in teaching morality and clarifying God's law (so that we do not engage in self-chosen works!) its primary role is not to provide moral order.  That is the role of parents- if that doesn't work, the government.  Parents, who's vocation it is to be a law to their children, want to be their friends.  They want "grace" in their relationship with their children and so they burden the church with the role that it was not meant to provide.  They try to inculcate morality by forcing their children through confirmation or whatever.  As a result, the gospel is watered down and people come to view the Church as either as a useful way of getting people to be moral or as an oppressor taking away freedom.  Either option results in idolatry and works righteousness.  Either option looks for God in the wrong places.

12 comments:

  1. So: two kingdoms and three orders of creation. State is on the left; church is on the right. Family belongs solely to the kingdom of the left?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would disagree that family belongs solely to kingdom of the left. I thought the two kingdoms cut through each estate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The kingdom of the right is Word and sacrament, whereby God gives salvation. How does God work salvation through the institutional relationships of parent-child, and husband-wife? These are law relationships.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Can parents not share the gospel with their children?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Let me back up a step. What do you mean by institutional relationships?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Parents do and should share the Gospel with their children, but that is God working through His Word first and foremost, not parents per se.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good point Weslie.

    Steven, yes, of course. But when Lutherans talk about the order of the family they are simply referring to the relationship between husband/wife and child/parent. That institutional relationship, (that is to say, that relationship that is formed on the basis of God's institution and command) is not a manifestation of the gospel. It is a manifestation of God's grace in creation, but not salvation. Furthermore it is regulated and formed on the basis of law.

    When parents share the gospel with their children and read Scripture, that is a manifestation of the institution of the Church for "wherever two or three gather in my name, ..." Luther says this is of course a good thing and that parents should serve as their children's "Bishops and priests." But again, that's the Church.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I agree with what you are saying. This is also true of the church as well, correct? It also has institutional relationships. (Pastors getting paid, rules of conduct for pastors, etc) Do you think it is correct to say that the church is both apart of the kingdom of the left and the right?
    Also Luther says that the church is formed when God gives the promise to Adam that he can eat of any tree and the command that we can not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Is that not the establishment of moral order? Also the family was instituted prior to the fall as well. The state being instituted post fall.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Maybe Bayer says it best when he says that the first estate, the church, pervades the other two estates.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Steven, The family is established prior to the fall. The state is established according to Luther in Genesis 9 with the Noachic covenant-i.e. that mandate to engage in retribution.
    Notice that the command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is something which is Adam and Eve are created in accordance with. Luther states that God gave it to them as a means of expressing their gratitude, not as a legal demand. It was true worship- a channel of their gratitude.
    Pastors do get paid, but that is part of the historically mutable administrative activity of the Church. Church institutions like synods or seminaries and whatnot are part of the kingdom of the left, and not the right. The kingdom of the right is properly the event of the proclamation of the Word and the administration of the sacraments.

    BTW, great Bayer quote. I think that is accurate.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have difficulty comprehending anyone who seeks God through the Law. My prayer is they don't find Him for it would not go well with them if they managed to confront a holy God apart from Christ. Whenever I encounter this approach, my standard question is "have you done enough to stand in the presence of the Lord?" followed by a rereading of Isaiah 6.
    Pax,
    Dennis

    ReplyDelete