Bosch, Paul

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Knowledge, love, power

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 32Issue 2 Cultural Reception of the Gospel Article 65-1-2008Knowledge, love, powerPaul BoschFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Sermons is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationBosch, Paul (2008) "Knowledge, love, power ," Consensus: Vol. 32 : Iss. 2 , Article 6.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol32/iss2/6Knowledge, Love, PowerPaul BoschPastor (Ret.), Evangelical Lutheran Church in CanadaWaterloo, OntarioText: Ephesians 3: 14-21Here’s a quote for you, from St. Augustine (he’s very quotable, likeLuther): “All truth is from God.”I think that’s liberating, freeing, emancipating to yourconscience. He’s saying that if it’s true, then it’s from God. We don’thave to fear where truth will lead us. If it’s true, then it will lead youto God, not away from God. So in today’s second Reading the Apostle prays for his readers –that was the Ephesians originally, but that’s us today – that we mayhave the power to comprehend the breadth and length and depth ofGod’s mysteries in the Spirit.That’s knowledge. Paul prays knowledge for you. That’s the firstof the Spirit’s gifts: knowledge.Elsewhere Paul says, I want you to grow up in faith, not be likechildren with no discernment, but like grown-ups, full maturity. I callthis specially to your attention because we are living in an age wherea kind of baby-faith is glorified, and where knowledge is feared. Yes,Jesus says we are to enter the Kingdom like little children. But there’sa difference between child-like and childish. The first is good, and thesecond is not-so-good.Take Bible interpretation. Paul wants for you the gift of thepower to comprehend what the Saints have left us in the words of theBible. A big question today, a big problem today, is how you interpretthe Bible. Martin Luther had such a free and liberating view of Bibleinterpretation. He knew what everybody knows who reads the Bible,that you can’t take every word of the Bible with equal seriousness,with equal authority. Your God is a monster if you do that. Somewords in the Bible are simply more authoritative for us, moreimportant for us, than others. So Luther was very free in his owninterpretation of the Bible. He thought the Epistle of James wasn’tvery good: an epistle of straw, he called it. And he thought the Book103Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2008of Esther in the Hebrew Bible is not very useful for faith; it tells agood story but that’s about it. Now, what’s to be our standard, you ask, in ordering some partsof the Bible, prioritizing some parts of the Bible, as more importantthan others? (And everybody does this kind of thing. It’s not justLuther, or Lutherans. Everybody ranks the Bible, one way or another.Yes, everybody thinks some parts of the Bible are more importantthan others.)Luther’s own standard was this: Was Christum treibt. That’sLuther’s native language, German. It means, “What drives Christ toyou?” That’s what’s important in the Bible: What pushes Christforward. What promotes Christ and the love of God as we know it inChrist. Real maturity. And that’s why it’s precious to us. Along with a lot of stuff we can ignore today the Bible holds alsoa message of God’s positive regard for us, a divine disposition ofdelight in the whole creation. That brings me to the second noun here in Paul’s letter to theEphesians: Love. Paul wants us to know the love of Christ thatsurpasses knowledge. Knowledge is important. I don’t think Godwants us to remain babies in faith, but to mature in knowledge. Butknowing the love of God in Jesus is even more important.How about that story in the book Samuel, our first Reading (2Samuel 11: 1-15)? Isn’t David a scoundrel? He’s setting up Uriah,Bathsheba’s husband, to be killed in battle! That’s terrible. Here’s ourhero, David, and he’s acting like the Godfather; he’s no better thanTony Soprano. David is doing a terrible thing here. I don’t see thelove of God in what David is doing. I do hear the love of God in thePsalms that bear David’s name: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall notwant …but not here. David is a villain here. There’s nothing Daviddoes here that’s worthy of our admiration, of being our example.David has to learn the meaning of the love of God.This is last: Paul wants you to be filled with all the fullness of God.Wow! We don’t hear that often enough, not even in Christian churches.Another neat thing Luther says is this: We are to serve as Christsto one another. I am to be a Christ to you. You are to be a Christ to me.We are to be Christs to the world. I’ll put that in even more startlingterms: I am to be Messiah. You are to be Messiah for the world.What else can it mean to be filled with God’s own fullness?That’s what I take it to be, the meaning of the Spirit’s gift to us: that104 Consensushttp://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol32/iss2/6we have God in us. Do you want to see the Messiah? Then just lookat your neighbour in the seat next to you. Or even this: look in themirror.That’s surely part of the meaning of this Meal today: God wantsto get into your molecules. Here’s bread and wine. You eat. Youdrink. You digest. You metabolize. God wants to enter your veryatoms and molecules. Now there are some specific powers, some very distinctiveauthorities, that go along with being Messiah in the world. Forexample: Jews in Jesus’ day believed that certain things wouldhappen only when the Messiah came. When the Messiah came,justice would be achieved for God’s favoured ones: the poor, theleast, the lost, the last. When the Messiah came, women and childrenand gentiles – the uncircumcised! – would be welcomed with meninto God’s favour. When the Messiah came, sins would be forgiven.Only the Messiah could forgive sins. Now here’s Jesus, and he’s saying, I’m doing all that! And I’mgiving my followers the power, the authority, to do all that, too! I’mwelcoming the poor, the outcast, and eating and drinking with them.I’m welcoming women and children and the uncircumcised intoGod’s favour. I’m forgiving sins. And I’m giving my followers thepower, the authority, to do the same.So, for example: the day the Christian Church began to baptizeinstead of circumcise, on that day all the arguments against women’sordination were lost. All the arguments against women’s leadership inthe Church were lost when baptism took the place of circumcision.Now there are a million other implications yet to be worked outamong us if we really believe that we are to serve the world asMessiah as Jesus did, if we really believe we have that power, thatauthority, if we really believe that we are to be filled with the fullnessof God. Among these implications are implications for our worship… which is one reason why I’ve put the Table down here thismorning. But let me leave it there … and suggest that Christians stillhave a lot of homework to do in our wider society, and here at homein our own parish church.Well, I have to quit. Knowledge. Love. Power. Think about these gifts, and aboutwhat they may mean in your life during the rest of the week. And inthe silence that follows.Knowledge, Love, Power 105Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2008

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