✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
2. Corinthians 1,18-22 0318
Rorate Caeli (4. Sunday in Advent) 04
Adam and Eve
24. Dezember 2017
1. O Christ, Thou Precious Ransom, only Hope for sinful mortals, be in our midst, O Savior of the world, for open to Thee are all portals. O Thy beauty let us see, so that anxiously we wait for Thee. Amen. (Starck 51; LSB 350,1).
2. AS surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in Him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him. That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
3. Human beings can be irritatingly fickle. Some of the Corinthian Christians were frustratingly so for the Apostle Paul. In his previous epistle he had informed them of his plans to soon visit them. Unfortunately, those plans were unexpectantly changed and Paul was unable to visit like he had told them. Some of the Corinthians took offense at this and accused Paul, the apostle who had preached to them the gospel before anyone else had, of vacillating and alternating between different intentions and actions. This happens in our fallen world as well: we intend one thing but do another; it may be deliberate or caused by things beyond our control; it can be done with good intentions or to sow discord. Paul says he wanted to visit Corinth but that unforeseen circumstances prevented his visit. 4. Sometimes we single humans attribute to God a likewise vacillating attitude or action: He tells us one thing but does another. Some accuse God of this in regard to His promise to send the Messiah. After mankind’s fall into sin, God promised Eve that from her would be born the Messiah who would overturn mankind’s sin and curse. She thought Cain might be the fulfillment of their promise, but alas things go horribly wrong as Cain murders his younger brother Abel. Fallen humanity plunges deeper and deeper into wickedness so that surely by the time of Noah the Messiah would be born to save humanity from disaster, but alas things get worse and God destroyed the world save Noah and his family. On and on throughout history, when mankind needed the Messiah most, yet He did not appear. Some would argue: clearly God is telling us Yes and No at the same time; He withholds His Messiah even though the human race desperately needs Him. Therefore, God cannot be trusted to fulfill His promise or He simply is incapable of fulfilling His promise. Either way, He is no God, goes their argument. Perhaps some Corinthians were thinking that way too.
5. The Apostle Paul addresses the issue straight on: »The Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, was not Yes and No, but in Christ it is always Yes.« Paul is referring to the promises that God the Father made throughout Scripture to send the Messiah. »All the promises of God find their Yes in Christ.« God had promised Eve, and through her all of humanity, that her offspring will strike the Serpent’s head (Genesis 3,15). St. Luke tells us in his Gospel that Mary’s Son is the fulfillment of this promise: blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by God (Luke 1,45). Luke tells us that there is a direct line from Eve to Mary. This line spans over 4000 years of human history, history that has seen great advances but also horrendous tragedies, heroes who saved the day but also heels who have brought great pain, but throughout hat complex tapestry of human history God weaved His promise to redeem the world beginning with Eve, ending with Mary and along the long and winding road telling people of His promise. Elizabeth knows how great this praise is for she proclaims: Mary, blessed is the fruit of your womb, for as soon as I heard your getting the child in my womb leaped for joy (Luke 1,42.44). Mary herself then sings with praise: The Lord has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, according to the promise He made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever (Luke 1,54-55).
6. Saint Paul proclaims: »When the fullness of time had arrived, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons« (Galatians 4,4-5). This Son is Jesus and He is the Yes, the Fulfillment, of His Father’s promise to redeem and restore fallen humanity.
7. We rejoice because Jesus brings us grace and truth. „The law says: ‘Do this’, and it is never done. Grace says: ‘Believe in Christ’ and everything is already done“ (Heidelberg Thesis 26). Christ is our righteousness, and when we believe in Him we have His righteousness as our own. Jesus imputes His righteousness to us by grace and we receive it by faith. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and we only come to the Father through Him (John 14,6). Jesus is the Truth, and the Truth sets us free (John 8,32).
8. Through Mary, Yahweh blessed all the nations with a savior. This Child, Jesus, is the Son of God; He is both God and man in one person. Thus Mary is rightly honored to be called the θεοτοκος. Everything that happens in today’s pericope is a response to the presence of God in the flesh––the baby inside Mary (Just 75). In four days, we will celebrate this Baby’s birth. In four days it will be a Merry Christmas, for it will be the celebration of the birth of Christ Jesus, who is called the Son of God (Luke 1,35), the Son of Man (Luke 5,24), Immanuel, God is with us (Matthew 1,23), Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9,6), the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5,5), the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22,13). Jesus was born to save all people from their sins (Matthew 1,21), and He has completely and fully redeemed us from our Heavenly Father’s wrath. Amen.
9. Let us pray. O Lord, Thou Song that pleases every human heart, pour out the grace and joy of Your heavenly Verse so that we hear and believe that Jesus is our King and Savior. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
✠
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.
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Starck, Johann Friedrich. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House.
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