Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, March 2, 2020
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
If nothing else is ground into a student’s mind at a Lutheran seminary, it is no doubt the difference between law and gospel. Seminary professors (well, at least mine at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa) like the students to play around with this concept. Also, I believe the professors see, time and again when their graduate students first write papers, that the distinction is more difficult than they imagine.
I think it boils down to the issue that people automatically first gravitate toward thinking about what God wants from us. God, much like a parent expecting a child to clean their room or take out the trash, wants us to do the right thing. Therefore, we imagine God as a heavenly parent, wanting us to do such and such to earn God’s favor.
It’s not our fault, really. Know why? Because the Bible is filled with examples of people stating what God wants and that we’re supposed to do it! The Bible is filled with “LAW,” capital L, A, W.
Jesus, though, turns this on its head. And Martin Luther gave it a little push as well. All in all, I believe that God’s law ultimately only drives us back to God and to perceive the cross. Yes, we try to do the right thing. Sometimes, we succeed. But humanity as a whole is doomed without a savior.
Reading the Psalm in this light allows us to see the cruciform reality of Jesus imprinted in the words of David.
God, drive me to you. Help me to do what is right, and drive me to Christ to see it. Amen.
Italics prayer or question to finish.
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