Week 5 – Personal Pump Out – Lipstick Turd

One thing people don’t know about me is (I am a model train enthusiast!) – UNTRUE.

Redo – One thing people don’t know about me is every year I become more fascinated with Martin Luther.  Three things I discovered about Martin Luther this week are as follows: 1. Darrel Johsnon as a set up for Sermon 5 “Let it Go” positions Abraham as a “powerful illustration of Martin Luther’s definition of faith.” According to Darrel Johnson,  “Faith,” wrote Luther, “is throwing yourself on God.”

I was touched and inspired that Abraham doesn’t set a trap for himself in this “throwing himself of God” scenario.  He willfully steps into deeper risk and potential mayhem with His eyes on His provider.

I felt challenged by the message to acknowledge the distinction between coasting through space and time as a “peace HAVER” and wrecking comfort by entering forbidden lands as a “peace MAKER.”

Two other off topic items about Luther – When I heard the sermon I claimed to the office that Luther was a little high on using a scatological approach to theology  - meaning he liked Mikey jokes. 

I mentioned to team office that I remember in theology class that Luther once wrote, “the pope’s decretals are the devil’s extretals.” Team office kind of agreed with me but at the same time thought I was full of poop.  

I decided to research this comment by my religious studies professor and found an essay on Luther’s (I paraphrase) affection for Mikey chat.

Indeed, according to the 123 page PDF essay I referenced,  Luther did make the comment and furthermore… big surprise to me …. Apparently Luther claims (this is the third of the three things I learned about Luther) that he came up with justification by faith alone while on the toilet. He claims that it came as “knowledge the Holy Spirit gave me on the privy in the tower.” (Quoted in William Manchester, A World Lit only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance Little Brown & Co., 1993, p. 140.)

Point – there is a point – I think Luther’s relish for the raw, robust filth of the Mikey is a great analogy (for me at least) of the wasteland that awaits family and flocks  (using Abraham as an example) when the lover of my soul doesn’t inform my character and fill all roads (good and bad) with the glory and mystery of sacrificial, servant love through today’s lands and tomorrow’s destinations.  

In other words, without the resurrection, the life, the light, & the intimacy of the trinity, space and time for my path is an empty waste.  

I feel more aware of the insidious lipstick turd billboards that beam in my path from the Gomorrah Travel Bureau and the pretty pics from Sodom’s latest issue of Good Housekeeping.  To internalize the deception of affluent advertising a few days before Christmas was painfully refreshing in a “sickness unto death” kind of way J.