One of the joys, some might say curses, of historical research is that I am constantly discovering figures whose thought is deep and often revolutionary - particularly for their time - but for whatever reason, have been largely overlooked in the grand narratives of our history books. Irenaeus of Lyons, the second century figure who will command the majority of my attention in my dissertation, was one such figure. Most of the major history books rarely mention anyone earlier than Augustine (4th century). (Of course, this was prior to the Da Vinci Code dabocal, where Irenaeus actually comes to play. Even here, however, his thought is much misunderstood and characterized. But I digress.)
A recent figure that has captured me is the 16th century figure Johann von Staupitz. Generally, he is known to scholarship, if he is known at all, as Martin Luther's teacher and confessor. Thus, he is generally referred to as the "frontrunner of the Reformation", a title which completely overlooks the fact that he remained a member of the Roman Catholic Church to his dying day (though he also refused to condemn Luther). Rather, he worked for reform from within the walls of the Church and his theology is, therefore, much more nuanced and subtle than some of the more polemical works from the hands of the Reformers.
One of the primary ways in which his thought was subversive to the Catholic establishment was in his understanding of the union that is effected between Christ and the Christian. Generally speaking, the Catholic Scholasticism dominant in his day viewed the relationship primarily as a marriage between Christ and the Church. This marriage was, consequently, mediated (or appropriated) by the believers through the grace of the sacraments.
Staupitz picks up this marriage analogy (likely originating with Paul) and subtly changes it, emphasizing the union between Christ and each individual Christian. For Staupitz, the union revealed in Paul's marriage analogy was much more intimate and personal than had come to be interpreted by Scholasticism. It was not mediated by the Church or by the sacraments, the grace of God simply came to the human creature because God elected him or her to marry and therefore, pledged himself to him or her.
The vows which Staupitz believes effect this union express this intimate union in a most profound manner. Christ says to the believer:
"Ego accipio te meam,
accipio te mihi,
accipio in me."
("I accept the Christian to me,
I accept the Christian with me,
I accept the Christian into me.")
Staupitz interprets these progressing vows as Christ and the Christian becoming one in flesh, heart and spirit, such that the Christian can now say "I am Christ." As a result of this intimate union, all of the merits of Christ become ours. We now have a right and a title to heaven because we are Christ, not because we have merited it on our own account. Moreover, the sin that was ours is transferred to Christ, who also says in his vow: "I am the Christian." It is these sins that are put to death on the cross.
Finally, Staupitz envisions this marriage as happening at the point of justification. This is again quite different from Scholastic theology, and even from some of the more mystical theologians of the high medieval age, who believed the union with Christ was the result of much spiritual growth and something that one arrived at at the end of his or her journey. Staupitz sees it as a beginning. Christians are joined to Christ when they are justified and this union adheres throughout their life. What confidence should this inspire in us, if we truly believe that "I am Christ."
Most readers will see in this theology a radically Protestant understanding of the relationship between Christ and the Christian. Historically speaking, it was a Catholic understanding. Johann von Staupitz, for this reason, I think could be a starting point for ecumenical discussions. He is a witness to the fact that there is in the Catholic tradition a place for the concerns that the Reformers were raising. Unfortunately, at this point, he is too little known to history to work effectively in this role. We need more historians!
Showing posts with label Marriage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marriage. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
The Sacrament of Marriage
Three years ago today, I stood before the church with my fiance Julie Graff and repeated the sacred marriage vows. Largely due to the influence of J.D. Walt, my pastor from Asbury and the man who was leading us through the vows, I had already begun to think of marriage in terms of a sacrament. The sacraments are "perceptible signs (words and actions) accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1084). In other words, they are an outward sign of an inward grace, those acts or "means of grace" by which we experience the grace of God in a special, tangible manner. Generally speaking, Protestant traditions have limited the sacraments to two, namely Baptism and the Eucharist, as these are the two signifying acts, which were instituted by Christ. The Catholic and Orthodox Churches, following practices of the early church and a strong cohesive tradition, recognize several more, of which marriage is one.
My belief in the sacramentality of marriage was being formed by the manner in which I was reading Scripture. I was coming to see, more fully than I ever had before, that the covenant that God formed with humanity, first with Israel through Abraham (Gen. 12.1-3) - more fully explained in the Sinai Covenant (Exod. 20ff) - and with all humanity in Jesus Christ, was portrayed by the writers of Scripture as a marriage covenant. God pledges to his people his enduring faithfulness, not on the basis of any work or merit that his people provide him, but on the simple fact that he loves them and chooses to covenant with them. Thus, the Old Testament speaks in the most intimate of terms of God's love. When Israel goes astray, he is jealous for them. Their apostasy is most often characterized as adultery - Israel plays the whore to other gods. The most stunning depiction of this love is the book of Hosea, where Hosea relentlessly pursues his wife Gomer despite the fact that she is prostituting herself to other men. He finally is forced to buy her back, though she is already rightfully his. And despite her cruel unfaithfulness, Hosea never ceases from his pursuit of her.
The New Testament continues the metaphor referring to the People of God often as the Bride of Christ. Christ is pictured as the Bridegroom who is betrothed to his people in his life, death, and resurrection. The Apostle Paul never speaks of marriage without immediately moving to the relationship of Christ and the Church. The time between Christ's first advent and second advent has been interpreted by many theologians as a time of preparation for the bride. The Church is being sanctified to be fully joined with Christ in the Eschaton. Thus, the preferred image of heaven in the New Testament is a wedding feast.
In marriage, a man and a woman vow to love one another not on the basis of anything that the other can offer but on the basis of unconditional love. This is why the vows say, "for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health". The point is that it is not about what one can do for the other - it is rather the enduring, faithful love for the other that ratifies the covenant. As imperfect humans, we are truly incapable of this kind of love, and this is why marriage often fails, even with the best of intentions. Yet, husbands and wives that stay together, that truly enact the vows they proclaim to one another, witness to a love that is nothing short of divine, for it mirrors the love that our Heavenly Father, our Bridegroom, shows to us. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church so elegantly puts it: "The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath which precedes the wedding feast, the Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church. Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant" (1617).
Of course, this is all good in theory, and on the day of my wedding I could only think in theory because I had never been married. The fact that I have learned over three years is that marriage is hard! It is hard to love for worse, for poorer (ask my wife who has supported us for three years!), and in sickness. The romantic love characterized in the movies is not the prevalent experience of marriage partners - how can it be when one sees all the faults of the other in their rawest sense? The worst things that we do and think cannot be hidden from the other in a true marriage.
And yet I have found that this raw reality of marriage is actually a better sign of the love of God than anything portrayed for us in the movies. For movie love is based on a feeling, and feelings that are strong one day can be just as equally missing the next. Marriage love is based on a covenant, a covenant that does not falter when the other does nothing to deserve love. And in my marriage, I find myself loved and pursued by my wife in times when I am a miserable wretch, when there is absolutely nothing lovable about me. And I'm sure she would say the same. It is the covenant that endures and it is the covenant that makes the feelings of love meaningful.
And isn't that a perfect picture of the love of God? How can God continue to love us and pursue us when we are such miserable people, when we are such a miserable Church? He does because the covenant is based on his love and faithfulness, not on our own. I am immensely thankful, on this 14th of August, that I have a God who loves me so deeply. And I am immensely thankful that I have a wife, a partner in covenant, whose love for me witnesses to the Father's love in a manner that I never could have understood - and probably never fully will. I can only hope that she has the same experience of me.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- for we are members of his body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church." -Ephesians 5:25-32
My belief in the sacramentality of marriage was being formed by the manner in which I was reading Scripture. I was coming to see, more fully than I ever had before, that the covenant that God formed with humanity, first with Israel through Abraham (Gen. 12.1-3) - more fully explained in the Sinai Covenant (Exod. 20ff) - and with all humanity in Jesus Christ, was portrayed by the writers of Scripture as a marriage covenant. God pledges to his people his enduring faithfulness, not on the basis of any work or merit that his people provide him, but on the simple fact that he loves them and chooses to covenant with them. Thus, the Old Testament speaks in the most intimate of terms of God's love. When Israel goes astray, he is jealous for them. Their apostasy is most often characterized as adultery - Israel plays the whore to other gods. The most stunning depiction of this love is the book of Hosea, where Hosea relentlessly pursues his wife Gomer despite the fact that she is prostituting herself to other men. He finally is forced to buy her back, though she is already rightfully his. And despite her cruel unfaithfulness, Hosea never ceases from his pursuit of her.
The New Testament continues the metaphor referring to the People of God often as the Bride of Christ. Christ is pictured as the Bridegroom who is betrothed to his people in his life, death, and resurrection. The Apostle Paul never speaks of marriage without immediately moving to the relationship of Christ and the Church. The time between Christ's first advent and second advent has been interpreted by many theologians as a time of preparation for the bride. The Church is being sanctified to be fully joined with Christ in the Eschaton. Thus, the preferred image of heaven in the New Testament is a wedding feast.
In marriage, a man and a woman vow to love one another not on the basis of anything that the other can offer but on the basis of unconditional love. This is why the vows say, "for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health". The point is that it is not about what one can do for the other - it is rather the enduring, faithful love for the other that ratifies the covenant. As imperfect humans, we are truly incapable of this kind of love, and this is why marriage often fails, even with the best of intentions. Yet, husbands and wives that stay together, that truly enact the vows they proclaim to one another, witness to a love that is nothing short of divine, for it mirrors the love that our Heavenly Father, our Bridegroom, shows to us. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church so elegantly puts it: "The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath which precedes the wedding feast, the Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church. Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant" (1617).
Of course, this is all good in theory, and on the day of my wedding I could only think in theory because I had never been married. The fact that I have learned over three years is that marriage is hard! It is hard to love for worse, for poorer (ask my wife who has supported us for three years!), and in sickness. The romantic love characterized in the movies is not the prevalent experience of marriage partners - how can it be when one sees all the faults of the other in their rawest sense? The worst things that we do and think cannot be hidden from the other in a true marriage.
And yet I have found that this raw reality of marriage is actually a better sign of the love of God than anything portrayed for us in the movies. For movie love is based on a feeling, and feelings that are strong one day can be just as equally missing the next. Marriage love is based on a covenant, a covenant that does not falter when the other does nothing to deserve love. And in my marriage, I find myself loved and pursued by my wife in times when I am a miserable wretch, when there is absolutely nothing lovable about me. And I'm sure she would say the same. It is the covenant that endures and it is the covenant that makes the feelings of love meaningful.
And isn't that a perfect picture of the love of God? How can God continue to love us and pursue us when we are such miserable people, when we are such a miserable Church? He does because the covenant is based on his love and faithfulness, not on our own. I am immensely thankful, on this 14th of August, that I have a God who loves me so deeply. And I am immensely thankful that I have a wife, a partner in covenant, whose love for me witnesses to the Father's love in a manner that I never could have understood - and probably never fully will. I can only hope that she has the same experience of me.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- for we are members of his body. 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church." -Ephesians 5:25-32
Thursday, April 12, 2007
A Profound Mystery
I rarely remove my wedding ring these days, not as a sign of my enduring love for my wife (though it certainly is enduring) so much as the perilous fear that I will lose it (the ring that is). And for those of you who know me well, you know that fear is well merited. But I removed my ring today and read, for the first time in awhile, the words etched inside it:
"I have found the one my heart loves."
Though I have always known those words were on the inside of my ring, I was struck anew by their incredible meaning. Not simply because they portray the sweet heart of my wife (who for some reason chose those beautiful words to describe me) but even more so because of where they come from. These are not her words, at least originally. They come from the Song of Songs 3:4. They are, therefore, words embedded in a larger story, a story which, though on the surface is a love poem between a man and his wife, convey the deeper meaning of God's love for his church. The words on my ring come, in the Song of Songs, from the mouth of the woman (who represents the church) in describing her love for her husband (who represents Christ).
The fact that my wife used these words to describe the love of our marriage tells me that her love for me comes under the larger truth of her love for God. She is able to love me because she loves God. This love ought to define all Christian marriage, for we do not (or ought not) marry to fulfill ourselves, but rather to witness to the love of God. This is why the Apostle Paul cannot speak about marriage without referencing Christ. And this is why the Catholic Church holds marriage as a sacrament (incidentally, they are right). But the amazing truth is that this unselfish, charitable love ends up to be the most fulfilling love of all.
"For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church." -Ephesians 5:31-32
"I have found the one my heart loves."
Though I have always known those words were on the inside of my ring, I was struck anew by their incredible meaning. Not simply because they portray the sweet heart of my wife (who for some reason chose those beautiful words to describe me) but even more so because of where they come from. These are not her words, at least originally. They come from the Song of Songs 3:4. They are, therefore, words embedded in a larger story, a story which, though on the surface is a love poem between a man and his wife, convey the deeper meaning of God's love for his church. The words on my ring come, in the Song of Songs, from the mouth of the woman (who represents the church) in describing her love for her husband (who represents Christ).
The fact that my wife used these words to describe the love of our marriage tells me that her love for me comes under the larger truth of her love for God. She is able to love me because she loves God. This love ought to define all Christian marriage, for we do not (or ought not) marry to fulfill ourselves, but rather to witness to the love of God. This is why the Apostle Paul cannot speak about marriage without referencing Christ. And this is why the Catholic Church holds marriage as a sacrament (incidentally, they are right). But the amazing truth is that this unselfish, charitable love ends up to be the most fulfilling love of all.
"For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church." -Ephesians 5:31-32
Thursday, October 26, 2006
This is My Story
Julie, my wife, will celebrate her birthday this Saturday. The other day I was at a card shop looking for that perfect card, which would express my love to her. I came upon a "Wedding" card that had these words written in it: "We live two lives, the second one starts when we are married." Nice sentimentality to be sure - in fact, I almost bought it. But as I reflected on it, I realized that it is profoundly mistaken. The truth is that we live two lives, and the second one starts when you are baptized, or in the words of my favorite theologian, when you "catch up to your baptism." That is, your second life truly begins when you come to saving faith in Christ.
When Julie and I were married, we both were walking with God; therefore, our marriage did not begin a new life, but rather was a glorious continuation (and one of the finest expressions) of our life with God. This truth was our reasoning for choosing Fanny Crosby's hymn "Blessed Assurance" for Julie to walk down the aisle. An odd choice in the eyes of many, but the words beautifully expressed our sentiments that day:
"This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long."
We felt our marriage was part of God's greater story, not only in our lives, but in the Kingdom of God. We felt that God would continue and multiply the good works he had started in each of our lives as we joined together. We wanted the day to be about him, and only about us in so far as our marriage was an expression of his faithfulness. And that is how we have tried to live as a married couple, failing often, but keeping that as our goal.
"This my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long."
As people, our lives change often. We are taken to new places, we start new jobs, we are children, we have children, and the list goes on. But if you are baptized into the community of faith, then these events are all seen as merely parts of the continuous story of God's work in his kingdom. And the story will reach its climax when we depart from this world and are, together with all the saints, married to the lamb. This is why I want "Blessed Assurance" played at my funeral. But this time I will be walking down the aisle, with my wife and others beside me, as we approach Christ, our blessed bridegroom.
When Julie and I were married, we both were walking with God; therefore, our marriage did not begin a new life, but rather was a glorious continuation (and one of the finest expressions) of our life with God. This truth was our reasoning for choosing Fanny Crosby's hymn "Blessed Assurance" for Julie to walk down the aisle. An odd choice in the eyes of many, but the words beautifully expressed our sentiments that day:
"This is my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long."
We felt our marriage was part of God's greater story, not only in our lives, but in the Kingdom of God. We felt that God would continue and multiply the good works he had started in each of our lives as we joined together. We wanted the day to be about him, and only about us in so far as our marriage was an expression of his faithfulness. And that is how we have tried to live as a married couple, failing often, but keeping that as our goal.
"This my story, this is my song. Praising my savior all the day long."
As people, our lives change often. We are taken to new places, we start new jobs, we are children, we have children, and the list goes on. But if you are baptized into the community of faith, then these events are all seen as merely parts of the continuous story of God's work in his kingdom. And the story will reach its climax when we depart from this world and are, together with all the saints, married to the lamb. This is why I want "Blessed Assurance" played at my funeral. But this time I will be walking down the aisle, with my wife and others beside me, as we approach Christ, our blessed bridegroom.
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