Both At The Same Time

Our perspective has a lot to do with how we live our Christian life. Today, I got a fresh (Lutheran) perspective… on perspective.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts how becoming acquainted in more detail with mainline Lutheran beliefs and thinking has turned out to be an incredibly wonderful and “freeing” experience. This morning one of our pastors, the Rev. Alison Shane, continued teaching her class on “Fundamentals of the Lutheran Faith” that we lovingly call “Reformation 201”.

Today’s class subject matter was not particularly about the point I’m bringing up; it kind of was said “in passing,” but it struck me and stuck with me. I wanted to get my thoughts “on paper” (metaphorically speaking) because that’s how I process concepts.

I must admit that my Christian perspective has been and can be quite linear. We’re born, we “get saved,” we die, and we go to heaven. It’s all consecutive, and occurs by the numbers (i.e., linear). What I’m learning from mainline Lutherans (I guess I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out on my own) is that God isn’t linear. He’s not limited by time, space, or dimensions of any kind.

With God, everything is in the NOW; it’s only our subservience to the time dimension that makes things appear sequential to us. And that’s what came up today in class.

We often think that when we are “being good” (behaving well), we’re acting “saintly.” And when we are doing less than the standard, we are being "sinners." My past perspective has separated the behaviors (in typical linear fashion), and it has caused no little consternation for me to try and live saintly most of the time. In honesty I pretty much had concluded it was hopeless.

This morning Pastor Alison pointed out that Martin Luther believed, and Lutherans typically believe, that we are both at the same time. When we are saintly while at our best behavior, we are still a sinner. And when we are sinning, we are still a saint. Simply, it’s a step toward a more freeing, non-linear thinking.

As I’ve thought about it through the day (non-linearly, I hope) this totally fits with the Lutheran concept of “saved to serve”. In other words, the provision of salvation by grace through Christ has totally freed us to live out our vocation in service to Him. And as we do so, we’re both saint and sinner at the same time.

Thanks be to God.