Sunday, December 04, 2005
Sermons and Lessons
INTRODUCTION TO THE AUTHOR
Martin Luther, in his 1516 preface to the Theologia Germanica, observes that only God knows who wrote the book. As best we can discern, it grew out of the fourteenth-century German renewal movement known as ?The Friends of God.? Taking its name from Jesus? words in John 15:15, ?I have called you friends,? this dynamic movement stressed intimacy with God, piety of life, and complete obedience to the commands of Christ.
Written about 1350, the Theologia circulated as a kind of "tract" urging people to experience Christ living and present. In 1516 Martin Luther came upon a short version of it and was so impressed that he immediately wrote a brief introduction and had it printed in Wittenberg. Two years later he found a more extensive copy, gave it a more elaborate introduction, and published it in 1518. Luther said that next to the Bible and St. Augustine, he had never read anything as helpful as the Theologia.
The driving aim of the Theologia is to move our knowledge and experience of God from the "outer person" to the "inner person." It urges us to take quite seriously Jesus? words that out of the heart come the issues of life (Matt. 15:19). Therefore, it brings an important message to us today just as it did to those who lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
EXCERPTS FROM THE THEOLOGIA GERMANICA OF MARTIN LUTHER
1. God Wills This Ordered Life
One says-"and rightly so" that God is above and without rules, measure, and order, yet renders to all things rules, order, measure, and moral integrity.
This should be understood in the following manner: God wills this ordered life. In himself, without the created beings, he cannot have that. For in God, without the relationship to the creature, our human distinctions cannot be made between order and the absence of it, rules for living and lack of them. God, however, has ordained it thus that these structures should be.
For as far as word, work, and deportment are concerned, we always stand in a choice between, on the one hand, rule and righteousness, or, on the other hand, disorder. Now, orderliness and righteousness are better and nobler than the opposite.
2. Sour and Burdensome
Four kinds of people deal with order, command, and rule in four different ways.
Some lead an ordered life neither for God's sake nor out of a particular personal desire, but simply because they are compelled. They do the least possible and it all turns sour and burdensome for them.
A second group observes laws and rules for the sake of reward. That is, people who believe that it is possible to earn the kingdom of heaven and eternal life. They consider that person holy who observes a great many rules. The person who neglects even some little rule, they believe, is lost to the devil. They show great seriousness and diligence in keeping these rules, yet, after a time, it all turns sour and burdensome for them.
The third kind of people are the wicked, false people who think of themselves as perfect and are quick to tell you just how perfect they are. They think that they do not need any rules and laws and, in fact, scoff at any talk about "order."
3. Out of Love
Fourth, we have those who have been illumined by God and guided by the true Light. They do not practice the ordered life in expectation of reward. They do not want to acquire anything with the aid of reward, nor do they hope that they will some day reap some reward because of it. No, they do what they do in the ordered life out of love.
They are not so concerned about the outcome, about how a particular behavior will turn out, how soon, and so on. Their concern is rather that things will work out well, in peace and inner ease. And if sometimes some less important rules have to be neglected, they are not lost in despair.
They know, of course, that order and rectitude are better and nobler than the lack of it. So they want to keep the rules, but they also know that their salvation and happiness are not dependent on the observance of rules. Therefore they are not as anxious as others.
4. Keeping to the Middle
Quite often those in the fourth group are condemned and judged by persons in groups two and three. For instance, the hirelings, also called the ?reward folk? (the second group), say of them that they are too careless and sometimes call them unrighteous. The group consisting of "the free spirits" (the third group) will scoff at them: "They believe vain and silly things."
But the "illumined" (the fourth group) keep to the middle which is the best. For a lover of God is better and more pleasing to God than a hundred thousand hirelings. This also applies to their outward actions.
Note, it is the inner person who receives God?s law, his word, and all his teachings. These show him how to become united with God. Where this happens, the outer person is structured and tutored by the inner person and learns that no outward law or teaching is needed, for human laws and commands belong to the outer person. They are needed when one knows nothing better. Otherwise people would not know what to do, or what not to do, and so become like dogs or cattle.
5. The Soul of Christ Has Two Eyes
Remember how it is written that the soul of Christ has two eyes, a right eye and a left eye. In the beginning, when these eyes were created, Christ's soul turned its right eye toward eternity and the Godhead and therefore immovably beheld and participated in divine Being and divine Wholeness. This vision continued unmoved and unhampered by all vicissitudes, travail, agitation, suffering, torment, agony?tribulations surpassing anything ever experienced in a person's outer life.
But at the same time the left eye of Christ's soul, his other spiritual vision, penetrated the world of created beings and there discerned the distinctions among us, saw which ones were better and which ones were less good, nobler, or less noble. Christ's outward being was structured in accordance with such inner discrimination.
6. When Hanging on the Cross
Thus Christ's inner being, its vision through the soul's right eye, always participated in full measure in the divine nature, in complete bliss and joy.
But the outer person, the left eye of his soul, was involved in a full measure of suffering, distress, and travail. Yet this took place in such a way that the inner, right eye remained unmoved, unimpeded, untouched by all the travail, suffering, and torment that the outer person had to deal with.
It has been said that Christ, when bound to the pillar and beaten and when hanging on the cross, experienced all this in his outer person while the inner person, the soul in its function as the right eye, rested in the same bliss and joy as it did after the Ascension or as it does at this very moment.
By this same token Christ?s outer person, the soul in its function as the left eye, was never impeded or weakened in its discharge of external duties.
7. To Peer into the Eternal
Now, the created soul of man also has two eyes. One represents the power to peer into the eternal. The other gazes into time and the created world, enabling us to distinguish between the lofty and the less lofty, as I said above.
But these two eyes, which are parts of our soul, cannot carry out their functions simultaneously If the soul is looking into eternity through its right eye, the left eye must cease all its undertakings and act as if it were dead. If the left eye were to concentrate on the things of this outer world (that is to say, be absorbed by time and created beings), it would hinder the musing of the right eye.
8. Remaining Within
We should note and know what is the simple truth, namely, that no virtue and no good action, not even the confession that God is good, can make man and his soul virtuous, good, or blissful so long as it occurs outside the soul.
Conversely, the same applies to sin and wickedness. It may be commendable to ask, hear about, and gather information concerning good and holy persons, what they have done and suffered, or how they have lived and how God has worked and willed in and through them.
But it is a hundredfold better that people deeply within themselves learn and understand the what and the how of life. They need to learn what God is working and doing in them and how God wishes to use them and not to use them. Thus the saying is still true: No outgoing was ever so good that a remaining within was not better.
9. Only Wait for God
It should also be pointed out that eternal bliss is rooted in God alone and nothing else. And if people are to be saved, this one and only God must be in their soul.
You may ask: "What is that one thing?" I answer: "It is Goodness or that which comes through to us as Goodness." It is neither this nor that particular good that we may name, know, or manifest, but is all good things and that which is above all good things.
This eternal Good does not have to come into the soul, for It is already there, albeit unrecognized. When we say that we should come into the One or that the One should come into the soul, it is the same as saying that we should seek, feel, and taste it. Since it is one, it follows that unity and singleness is to be preferred to the manifold.
For bliss or blessedness does not come from the wealth of things, but from God. In other words, bliss or blessedness does not depend on any created thing or on a creature's work, but only on God and his works.
Therefore, I should only wait for God and his work and leave aside all creatures with all their works, first of all my own self.
Let me also say this: No great works and wonders God has ever wrought or shall ever do in or through his created world, not even God himself in his goodness, will make me blessed if they remain outside of me. For blessedness is only present to the extent to which it is within me, as a happening, as an inner knowledge, as love, as feeling and taste.
10. The False Light and the True Light
I have briefly mentioned the false light. I would like to say something further about what it is and how it works.
Look, all that is contrary to the true Light belongs to the false light.
It is an essential quality of the true Light that It does not know deceit, is not inspired by will to deceive, and that it cannot itself be deceived.
But the false light is deceived and constantly pulls others into its deceit.
God does not wish to deceive anyone. He cannot desire that someone be deceived. This is consequently true also about the true Light.
Note now, that the true Light is God, is divine; the false light is nature or natural.
As God is the true Light, void of all I and self and all self-indulgence, so, conversely, the mark of the natural creation and the natural false light is to pamper the I, the Me, and its outgrowths.
Man fancies himself to be what he is not. He fancies himself to be God, yet he is only nature, a created being. From within that illusion he begins to claim for himself the traits that are the marks of God.
Mark this: those who are living in the true light, perceive that everything they might desire or elect is nothing compared to that which has always been desired or elected by all crea¬tures in the depth of their being.
This realization leads them to let go of all desire and reliance on worldly things, surrendering themselves completely to God.
Martin Luther, in his 1516 preface to the Theologia Germanica, observes that only God knows who wrote the book. As best we can discern, it grew out of the fourteenth-century German renewal movement known as ?The Friends of God.? Taking its name from Jesus? words in John 15:15, ?I have called you friends,? this dynamic movement stressed intimacy with God, piety of life, and complete obedience to the commands of Christ.
Written about 1350, the Theologia circulated as a kind of "tract" urging people to experience Christ living and present. In 1516 Martin Luther came upon a short version of it and was so impressed that he immediately wrote a brief introduction and had it printed in Wittenberg. Two years later he found a more extensive copy, gave it a more elaborate introduction, and published it in 1518. Luther said that next to the Bible and St. Augustine, he had never read anything as helpful as the Theologia.
The driving aim of the Theologia is to move our knowledge and experience of God from the "outer person" to the "inner person." It urges us to take quite seriously Jesus? words that out of the heart come the issues of life (Matt. 15:19). Therefore, it brings an important message to us today just as it did to those who lived in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
EXCERPTS FROM THE THEOLOGIA GERMANICA OF MARTIN LUTHER
1. God Wills This Ordered Life
One says-"and rightly so" that God is above and without rules, measure, and order, yet renders to all things rules, order, measure, and moral integrity.
This should be understood in the following manner: God wills this ordered life. In himself, without the created beings, he cannot have that. For in God, without the relationship to the creature, our human distinctions cannot be made between order and the absence of it, rules for living and lack of them. God, however, has ordained it thus that these structures should be.
For as far as word, work, and deportment are concerned, we always stand in a choice between, on the one hand, rule and righteousness, or, on the other hand, disorder. Now, orderliness and righteousness are better and nobler than the opposite.
2. Sour and Burdensome
Four kinds of people deal with order, command, and rule in four different ways.
Some lead an ordered life neither for God's sake nor out of a particular personal desire, but simply because they are compelled. They do the least possible and it all turns sour and burdensome for them.
A second group observes laws and rules for the sake of reward. That is, people who believe that it is possible to earn the kingdom of heaven and eternal life. They consider that person holy who observes a great many rules. The person who neglects even some little rule, they believe, is lost to the devil. They show great seriousness and diligence in keeping these rules, yet, after a time, it all turns sour and burdensome for them.
The third kind of people are the wicked, false people who think of themselves as perfect and are quick to tell you just how perfect they are. They think that they do not need any rules and laws and, in fact, scoff at any talk about "order."
3. Out of Love
Fourth, we have those who have been illumined by God and guided by the true Light. They do not practice the ordered life in expectation of reward. They do not want to acquire anything with the aid of reward, nor do they hope that they will some day reap some reward because of it. No, they do what they do in the ordered life out of love.
They are not so concerned about the outcome, about how a particular behavior will turn out, how soon, and so on. Their concern is rather that things will work out well, in peace and inner ease. And if sometimes some less important rules have to be neglected, they are not lost in despair.
They know, of course, that order and rectitude are better and nobler than the lack of it. So they want to keep the rules, but they also know that their salvation and happiness are not dependent on the observance of rules. Therefore they are not as anxious as others.
4. Keeping to the Middle
Quite often those in the fourth group are condemned and judged by persons in groups two and three. For instance, the hirelings, also called the ?reward folk? (the second group), say of them that they are too careless and sometimes call them unrighteous. The group consisting of "the free spirits" (the third group) will scoff at them: "They believe vain and silly things."
But the "illumined" (the fourth group) keep to the middle which is the best. For a lover of God is better and more pleasing to God than a hundred thousand hirelings. This also applies to their outward actions.
Note, it is the inner person who receives God?s law, his word, and all his teachings. These show him how to become united with God. Where this happens, the outer person is structured and tutored by the inner person and learns that no outward law or teaching is needed, for human laws and commands belong to the outer person. They are needed when one knows nothing better. Otherwise people would not know what to do, or what not to do, and so become like dogs or cattle.
5. The Soul of Christ Has Two Eyes
Remember how it is written that the soul of Christ has two eyes, a right eye and a left eye. In the beginning, when these eyes were created, Christ's soul turned its right eye toward eternity and the Godhead and therefore immovably beheld and participated in divine Being and divine Wholeness. This vision continued unmoved and unhampered by all vicissitudes, travail, agitation, suffering, torment, agony?tribulations surpassing anything ever experienced in a person's outer life.
But at the same time the left eye of Christ's soul, his other spiritual vision, penetrated the world of created beings and there discerned the distinctions among us, saw which ones were better and which ones were less good, nobler, or less noble. Christ's outward being was structured in accordance with such inner discrimination.
6. When Hanging on the Cross
Thus Christ's inner being, its vision through the soul's right eye, always participated in full measure in the divine nature, in complete bliss and joy.
But the outer person, the left eye of his soul, was involved in a full measure of suffering, distress, and travail. Yet this took place in such a way that the inner, right eye remained unmoved, unimpeded, untouched by all the travail, suffering, and torment that the outer person had to deal with.
It has been said that Christ, when bound to the pillar and beaten and when hanging on the cross, experienced all this in his outer person while the inner person, the soul in its function as the right eye, rested in the same bliss and joy as it did after the Ascension or as it does at this very moment.
By this same token Christ?s outer person, the soul in its function as the left eye, was never impeded or weakened in its discharge of external duties.
7. To Peer into the Eternal
Now, the created soul of man also has two eyes. One represents the power to peer into the eternal. The other gazes into time and the created world, enabling us to distinguish between the lofty and the less lofty, as I said above.
But these two eyes, which are parts of our soul, cannot carry out their functions simultaneously If the soul is looking into eternity through its right eye, the left eye must cease all its undertakings and act as if it were dead. If the left eye were to concentrate on the things of this outer world (that is to say, be absorbed by time and created beings), it would hinder the musing of the right eye.
8. Remaining Within
We should note and know what is the simple truth, namely, that no virtue and no good action, not even the confession that God is good, can make man and his soul virtuous, good, or blissful so long as it occurs outside the soul.
Conversely, the same applies to sin and wickedness. It may be commendable to ask, hear about, and gather information concerning good and holy persons, what they have done and suffered, or how they have lived and how God has worked and willed in and through them.
But it is a hundredfold better that people deeply within themselves learn and understand the what and the how of life. They need to learn what God is working and doing in them and how God wishes to use them and not to use them. Thus the saying is still true: No outgoing was ever so good that a remaining within was not better.
9. Only Wait for God
It should also be pointed out that eternal bliss is rooted in God alone and nothing else. And if people are to be saved, this one and only God must be in their soul.
You may ask: "What is that one thing?" I answer: "It is Goodness or that which comes through to us as Goodness." It is neither this nor that particular good that we may name, know, or manifest, but is all good things and that which is above all good things.
This eternal Good does not have to come into the soul, for It is already there, albeit unrecognized. When we say that we should come into the One or that the One should come into the soul, it is the same as saying that we should seek, feel, and taste it. Since it is one, it follows that unity and singleness is to be preferred to the manifold.
For bliss or blessedness does not come from the wealth of things, but from God. In other words, bliss or blessedness does not depend on any created thing or on a creature's work, but only on God and his works.
Therefore, I should only wait for God and his work and leave aside all creatures with all their works, first of all my own self.
Let me also say this: No great works and wonders God has ever wrought or shall ever do in or through his created world, not even God himself in his goodness, will make me blessed if they remain outside of me. For blessedness is only present to the extent to which it is within me, as a happening, as an inner knowledge, as love, as feeling and taste.
10. The False Light and the True Light
I have briefly mentioned the false light. I would like to say something further about what it is and how it works.
Look, all that is contrary to the true Light belongs to the false light.
It is an essential quality of the true Light that It does not know deceit, is not inspired by will to deceive, and that it cannot itself be deceived.
But the false light is deceived and constantly pulls others into its deceit.
God does not wish to deceive anyone. He cannot desire that someone be deceived. This is consequently true also about the true Light.
Note now, that the true Light is God, is divine; the false light is nature or natural.
As God is the true Light, void of all I and self and all self-indulgence, so, conversely, the mark of the natural creation and the natural false light is to pamper the I, the Me, and its outgrowths.
Man fancies himself to be what he is not. He fancies himself to be God, yet he is only nature, a created being. From within that illusion he begins to claim for himself the traits that are the marks of God.
Mark this: those who are living in the true light, perceive that everything they might desire or elect is nothing compared to that which has always been desired or elected by all crea¬tures in the depth of their being.
This realization leads them to let go of all desire and reliance on worldly things, surrendering themselves completely to God.
