✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ
Ephesians 4,22-32 5016
19. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 064
Leodegar, Bishop of Autun, France. Martyr 678
2. Oktober 2016
1. О Mighty and Everlasting God, who by Your Son Jesus Christ did mercifully help the palsied man both in body and soul: We beseech You, for the sake of Your great mercy: Be gracious also unto us; forgive us all our sins and so govern us by Your Holy Spirit, so that we may not be the cause of sickness and other afflictions; keep us in Your fear, and strengthen us by Your grace so that we may escape temporal and eternal wrath and punishment. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for the 19. Sn. n. Trinitatis)
2. Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk leave of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
3. The Apostle Paul exhorts Christians to sanctified living in our Epistle Lection for today. Paul and the apostles taught that redeemed and justified Christians through faith in Jesus are to live Godly lives. They used the Decalogue as a guide for such living.
4. Saint Paul exhorts us to be truthful, not to be angry, to do honest work, to encourage and speak well of others, to be kind, tender-hearted and forgiving. Furthermore, we should be this way not only toward for our friends and fellow Christians but also toward the wicked and unbelievers. Jesus taught in His Beatitudes: »I have not arrived to abolish the Law and the Prophets but rather to fulfill them. Therefore, whoever does the Commandments and teaches them will be called great in the reign of heaven. Love both your neighbor and your enemy, and pray for them« (Matthew 5,17.19.43-44).
5. In Jesus’ and Paul’s day there was no greater example of external righteousness than the Pharisees. These men took the Torah seriously and even went beyond what the law required. Jesus said of them: »Your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. Do and observe whatever the Pharisees tell you, but not the works they do, for they preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens that are hard to bear and place them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move those burdens with their finger. Woe to you Pharisees, you hypocrites! You outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness« (Matthew 5,20; 23,3-4.27-28).
6. The preaching and practice of Christ and the apostles was a sharp contrast to that of the Pharisees. The apostles took the Law and the Prophets seriously too; they believed the Holy Scriptures spoke of the Christ and taught that Jesus is this Christ who fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. They exhort Christians to live righteous lives. They followed Jesus’ strict teaching of the Commandments where He applied them not only to external actions but also included internal thought and desire, and they also proclaimed His gracious promise that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11,30).
7. After the law has accused us of our sin, that same law is also a guide to Godly living. The Holy Spirit uses the law to both reveal sin and guide us righteous living, just as He uses the gospel to pronounce our forgiveness and empower us to live according to God’s will.
8. Luther picks this application of the Commandments with his famous phrase about each Commandment in his Small Catechism „We should fear love and trust God ...“. Luther then proceeds to teach first what we should not do and then what we should do in regards to each Commandment. Christianity takes Godly virtues more seriously than the Pharisees did. All the Epistles exhort virtuous living from Christians. We can summarize this living with love and trust.
9. Jesus told the lawyer that all the Law and Prophets depend on love (Matthew 22,34-40). First we love God, and then we love our neighbor. Are our actions and thoughts born out of love? Then it is virtuous and commendable. If we are unsure or want a second opinion, then we see what Scripture says on it, for Scripture will enlighten us on that which is loving and worthwhile. The Apostle Paul tells us: »Love is patient and kind. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things« (1. Corinthians 13,4.7). This is how Christians are to live.
10. The Law and the Prophets also depend on trust. Jesus exhorts us: »Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me« (John 14,1). Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5,17). He perfectly lived the virtuous life that the Law requires. He did what we cannot perfectly do, in part, on our behalf. The Law and Prophets said God the Father would end the world a savior; Jesus is that promised savior and as the Christ, the Chosen One, He paid the price for sin that the Law demands. We trust and believe that Jesus is the world’s savior, and we perform the works that the Law requires not as a means to merit our forgiveness but as a means to give back to God acts of thankfulness for the gift He freely gives us in His Son. We thus put off our old manner of life with its corrupt and deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new manner of life that is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. May the Holy Spirit enable us to live as people remade in the image and likeness of G, of whom Christ is the first fruits and our Savior and Mentor. Amen.
9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Your steadfast love endures forever; send us the Holy Spirit so that we spread Your steadfast love to our neighbors so that they see and hear of Your love and redemption for them. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
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