Isaiah 55,10-12. Sexagesima

✠ In the Name of Jesus ✠

Isaiah 55,[6-9]10-12a   1113

Sexagesimä  021 

Blasius, Bishop of Sebaste, Turkey. Martyr 316.
Ansgar, Bishop of Bremen, Archbishop of Hamburg, Apostle to Denmark & Sweden, Patron of Denmark, † 865 

3. February 2013

1. O Most Loving Father, who wills us to give thanks for all things, to dread no thing except the loss of You, and to cast all our cares on You who cares for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which You have manifested unto us in Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord (Book of Common Prayer 165).  Amen. 

2. Seek Yahweh while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to Yahweh, so that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares Yahweh. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so is My Word that goes out from My mouth; it does not return to Me empty, but it accomplishes that which I purpose, and succeeds in the thing for which I sent it. For you go out in joy and are led forth in peace.   

3. Yahweh promises us that His Word goes out and does not return empty, for His Word succeeds in which He sent it. Nevertheless, sinful men and women think they must add to this Word to make it successful. Preachers are especially susceptible to this way of thinking. In the seminary we are taught how to write a sermon and preach it. We had all sorts of minutiae to go through in this learning process: make audio recordings, video recordings, preaching before our classmates, preaching alone in a room and many other such things. Part of this was to make us comfortable standing in a pulpit and preaching, the other aspect was to make our presentation more effective. Some preachers like to tell a bunch of jokes or stories in their sermons. Others like to use object lessons and visual aids. Some preach for 45 minutes and others a mere five minutes. Twenty years ago, one of the common preaching methods was goal, malady and means. One Lutheran pastor took this preaching method so seriously that he demanded that all his associate pastors under him had to preach this way. 

4. All these preparations and techniques have their place in the realm of good communication. Nevertheless, Yahweh tells us through His Prophet Isaiah that what ultimately matters is the Word that is preached. Q: What Word is it that Yahweh wants preached? A: Lutherans highlight the preaching of the law and the gospel. We preach sin and salvation. We point out that all people are sinners in need of a savior and that this savior is Jesus Christ. One wise seminary professor taught us that what we should preach each Sunday is Jesus; give Jesus to your people. Jesus is the Word of God and He is to be preached. 

5. Many Christians in America, however, do not want to hear about Jesus but themselves. The tens of thousands that attend Joel Osteen’s church and the millions who watch him do not tune in to hear about sin and Jesus but how to live a moral life. What Olsteen preaches can be found in your local bookstore in the self-help section or by just following good common sense. His preaching is nothing revolutionary or spectacular. There is certainly nothing scandalous about his preaching. Now, good law preaching is important but the goal of preaching the law is to lead us to the feet of our savior Jesus. 

6. The Apostle Paul, like all the apostles, was a scandalous preacher. He preached about the crucified Christ. »For Christ sent me to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men« (1. Corinthians 1,17-18.22-25). The Apostle Paul preaches against all popular human techniques: he refused to preach with eloquent wisdom, he preached about the crucified Christ as the sign and wisdom of God and he preached God’s foolishness as strength. 

7. Look at who Jesus chose to preach the Word: ordinary men. David was a humble shepherd boy before he was anointed king and a psalmist. John was a priest who dressed like an old-time wilderness prophet. The apostles were fishermen, a tax collector and other ordinary folk. None of them were priests or scribes. Jesus chose women to proclaim His resurrection on Easter. What utter human foolishness to choose women: they were considered unreliable eyewitnesses in 1. century Judea. And yet that is what Jesus did, and what He still does today. He uses human weakness and folly to proclaim His Word. 

8. Paul told the Corinthians: »Now when I arrived in your midst, brothers and sisters, I did not arrive proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God« (1. Corinthians 2,1-5). 

  9. The apostle says the gospel is simply this: Jesus Christ crucified. To the Galatians, Paul said: »I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the Holy Spirit who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel﹣not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one of Christ crucified that we preached to you, let him be damned to hell. For I would have you know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel of Christ crucified that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive the gospel from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ« (Galatians 1,6-8.11-12). 

10. This Divinely-revealed gospel is this: »Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for »The righteous shall live by faith.«« [Habakkuk 2,4] (Galatians 3,11). Paul told the Ephesians: »For by grace you have been saved through faith alone. And this grace is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them« (Ephesians 2,8-10). Finally to the Corinthians, Paul said: »Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love« (1. Corinthians 16,13-14). 

11. This gospel of Christ crucified is the the very Word of Yahweh that is preached and does not return void. This Word has Divine power to take filthy sinners, convert them unto faith in Jesus and make them Christians. This Word is a preaching of law to secure sinners, convicting them of their sin, and this Word is a preaching of the gospel that absolves sinners of their sin. This Word has the power to create righteous people from unholy sinners. This Word has the power to created law abiders from law breakers. This Word has the power to make weak men and women stalwart defenders of the faith who base their speech and actions on love, the love of Christ shown to them and reciprocated to their neighbors in many diverse ways. The preached Word has the power to turn a few stingy, partisan Christians into a mighty host of giving, united Christians who are true stewards of Jesus and His Church. The preached Word does this to us, and by the power of the Holy Spirit His Word does not return from this place, from our lives, void.  Amen. 

12. Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, today we have heard Christ’s voice; help us to have hearts wide open to receive the comfort You bring so that whatever we face in this life we know that we face it with Christ beside us who will see us through for His glory.  Amen. 

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you! 

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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. 

Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1771 Oxford University Press. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.