Faith Amidst the Ruins
Psalm 49:1-12
The Folly of Trust in Riches
To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.
1 Hear this, all you peoples;
give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
2 both low and high,
rich and poor together.
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom;
the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
4 I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.
5 Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me,
6 those who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
7 Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life,
there is no price one can give to God for it.
8 For the ransom of life is costly,
and can never suffice,
9 that one should live on forever
and never see the grave.
10 When we look at the wise, they die;
fool and dolt perish together
and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they named lands their own.
12 Mortals cannot abide in their pomp;
they are like the animals that perish.
In 1946 and 1947, after the Second World War, Karl Barth presented some lectures in the ruins of the University of Bonn in Germany. Barth had been fired from his position as a Professor at the University and kicked out of Germany before the war for dissenting against Hitler and the Nazis. Barth had actually preached a sermon that did not mention Hitler by name, but spoke of God’s love for all and the reminder of such love for the Jewish people in particular. Barth sent a copy of the sermon to Hitler. He was fired soon after that.
After the war, he returned to the University and over a series of early mornings presented an outline of Christian faith and belief and theology. The sessions started at 7 am each morning because construction (the roof was missing, etc.) started by 8:30 am.
Currently, in our time of pandemic, two of my favourite speakers and writers (one much easier to understand than the other) are offering an online series of talks in which they discuss the short book that came out of those lectures after the war. Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas are discussing, in these sessions, why the book called “Dogmatics in Outline” might be one of the most important books for consideration of Christian theology.
In their conversation, a note came out that mirrors some of the 49th Psalm, the Psalm for today.
So we have Willimon and Hauerwas talking by Zoom in the midst of a pandemic. We have Barth speaking to people in the ruins of a war. We have the Psalmist saying, no one “should live on forever and never see the grave. When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt they perish together and leave their wealth to others.”
The note was this; Willimon asked Hauerwas about theology amidst the ruins. What can we hear in such times that we might be deaf to otherwise? Here is Hauerwas’ response;
“Theology is training and learning to die.”
Willimon then noted something Hauwerwas said to him previously, that Hauerwas feels sorry for pastors because they are called to minister to people who don’t know that they have to die.
Here we are, in a time which reminds us of our frailty, our mortality, the brevity of our lives. This ought not be somber news, however. It ought to be news that leads us to greater trust and love and gratitude for a God who has defeated death in Christ.
Faith amidst the ruins.
In Him, we live and move and have our being.
