In the Name of Jesus
2. Corinthians 6,1-10 1712
Invokavit (1. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 024 „He will call“
Nestor, Bishop at Sida in Pamphylia, Turkey. Martyr 250
26. February 2012
1. O Lord, our Refuge and Fortress, we live in a world twisted by sin and corrupted by wickedness. We can only blame our own sinful selves for this pathetic state. We are daily in sore need of You to rescue us, and we trust in You alone for You are our Shield and Defender against sin, death and the devil. Amen.
2. Working together with Christ, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For God says: »In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.« [Isaiah 49,8] Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as slaves of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights and hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit and genuine love; by truthful speech and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet we are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.
3. The Church entered the season of Lent this past week on Ash Wednesday. The average person associates Lent with fasting from meat or giving something up, but Lent is more than such pious disciplines. Ash Wednesday begins the Church on the path of Lent with its focus on the suffering and death of Christ that will culminate with Holy Week and the Triduum. On Invocavit Sunday, the First Sunday in Lent, the Gospel Reading shows us how Jesus suffered three temptations from the devil.
4. The Apostle Paul writes in his 2. Epistle to the Corinthians: »In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.« The holy apostle is quoting the Prophet Isaiah, the Holy Gospel describes how Jesus endured temptations as part of His ministry to save us. Lent, then, focuses our attention on Yahweh’s Heilsgeschichte (salvation history). Paul preached the gospel of this salvation throughout the Roman Empire, including the Greek city of Corinth. This proclamation was not easy, for Paul lists the dangers inherent in the apostolic office: great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights and hunger. Such trials attended the apostles as they preached the gospel, but nevertheless the gospel created faith in each location the apostles preached.
5. Lent reminds us that trials and hardships are part and parcel for the Christian life. Our First Reading from Genesis reminds us that our trials began with the fall. »Yahweh God said: „Behold, the man has become like one of Us in knowing good and evil“« (Genesis 3,21). Yahweh had created Adam and Eve with a knowledge of good, for they perfectly knew and did the will of God. They were, however, blissfully ignorant of evil, and that was how God intended it at their creation. Mankind was not ready for the knowledge of evil, but Adam and Eve thought they were wiser than God and took for themselves that knowledge. Mankind had rebelled against Yahweh, yielded up original righteousness for original sin and thus became ensnared to the wily temptations of the devil.
6. In spite of Yahweh’s promise to redeem His fallen creation, Genesis and the rest of the Old Testament unfold one sin after another. Trials afflicted God’s people, temptations seduced them to the dark side of sin and the devil tirelessly worked to thwart Yahweh’s Heilsgeschichte. And yet, Yahweh’s plan to save mankind marched forward with each succeeding patriarchal generation. Then the Apostle Paul describes the fulfillment in his Epistle to the Galatians: »But when the fullness of time had come, God the Father sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we shall receive adoption as sons« (Galatians 4,4-5).
7. Born with human flesh and born under the law put Jesus, the Son of God, in our place complete with trials, hardships and tribulations. Jesus is the Son of God, but He was treated as an imposter and a blasphemer; He is the Word made flesh who dwelt among us, but He was not known as God by many people; Jesus is the Life of the world, but He was crucified, died and was buried; He brought the Heavenly Father’s pure grace and mercy into this fallen world, and yet Jesus’ spirit was sorrowful over the many who rejected the gospel; He is rich, yet Jesus became poor for our sakes; He has all the treasures of heaven, but He set them all aside for a time so as to come to this earth; Jesus was bruised for your iniquities and crushed for your transgressions.
8. In Genesis, the first Adam was from the earth, and Adam disobeyed God the Father; we bear his fallen image of original sin. The second Adam is from heaven, and Jesus obeyed God the Father in all things; we bear bear His Divine image of original righteousness (1. Corinthians 15,47-49). This is why Paul and the other apostles bore the back-breaking hardships of proclaiming the gospel, for they knew the greater joy that is our inheritance in Christ Jesus. »For as by a man came death, so by a man has come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive« (1. Corinthians 15,21-22).
9. Yahweh did not give up on His fallen creation, and He does not give up on you. By the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve tried to become wise like God. This knowledge is imperfect and perverted in mankind. Worldly hardships, wars and devastation have resulted in mankind’s misguided rebellion. But now by the tree of the cross, Jesus gives you the gift of the tree of life, which is eternal life in God’s majestic presence.
10. The gift of Divine knowledge is not something Yahweh wanted to withhold from men and women. Yahweh created Adam and Eve in His Divine image and likeness. He did not want the Divine knowledge taken by mankind in rebellious selfishness as a right to be demanded, but the Triune God wanted to give His Divine knowledge to Adam and Eve as a loving gift to be received by them in loving thankfulness.
11. This gift is given to us in Christ Jesus our Savior. He was born into this earth to suffer hardship. He was tempted as you are, but He did not sin (Hebrews 4,15). He overcame every temptation thrown at Him by the devil, and in overcoming him released us from the the satanic death-grip the devil had on each one of us. So when the world, your fallen flesh and the devil tempt you to sin, turn to Christ who is your Strength. When you fall into sin, immediately turn unto Christ who is your Savior.
12. Behold the fruit of the gospel: »We are treated as impostors, and yet we are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything«. You have this gift in Christ. Amen.
13. O Lord Jesus, You appeared to destroy the works of the devil; send us the Holy Spirit to guide us along Your holy path during Lent so that by traveling with You to the cross we see the joy of eternal life that is Your pure gift to us. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
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