1. Corinthians 6,8-14.18-20. 8. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

1. Corinthians 6,8-14.18-20  3818

8. Trinitatis  053

22 Mary Magdalene, ✠ mid to late 1^st c.

22. Juli 2018 

1. О God, who protects us under the shadow of Your wings, daily renew us with Your Providence, so that You lead us to the good and pleasant blessings given through Christ Jesus (Starck 147).  Amen.  

2. »But you yourselves wrong and defraud﹣even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the reign of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the reign of God. And such were you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. „All things are lawful for me,“ but not all things are helpful. „All things are lawful for me,“ but I will not be enslaved by anything. „Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food“﹣and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.« 

3. The Apostle Paul does not let any of the Corinthian Christians off the hook. He summarizes the Decalogue, and bluntly states: you were sinners such as these. Some were idolaters, others sexually immoral and still others thieves. The Corinthians were sinners, and their deeds bore the fruit of this sinfulness. 

4. Lest we puff ourselves up in pious pride, we are no better or different from our Corinthian brothers and sisters in the faith. We are sinners through and through. We were born sinners and we will die sinners. Perhaps some of the specific sins St. Paul accused of the Corinthians of struck at our conscience too. 

5. Saint Paul applied the 10 Commandments, and this law reveals us to be sinners; God’s Commandments condemn us. In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul writes: »No one is righteous, no not one. The Lord speaks to those who are under the law, so that the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no one will be justified in God’s sight by performing the works of the law, since knowledge of sin is revealed through the law« (Romans 3,10.19-20). The Prophet Ezekiel put the final nail in our coffin: »The person who sins will die« (Ezekiel 18,4). God’s holy law condemns us, but His law is not His final Word. 

6. God also speaks the Word of the gospel, and the gospel is a word of forgiveness. Jesus speaks this gospel to the sinners He encountered during His public ministry. To the idolatrous Samaritan woman, Jesus said: »you are forgiven.« To the woman caught in adultery: »you are forgiven.« To Mary Magdalene possessed by 7 demons Jesus said: »you are healed.« To thieving tax collectors: »you are forgiven.« To us with our sins: »you are forgiven.« These words of the gospel are words of grace and mercy. St. Paul beautifully describes this Gospel: »You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit of God.« »For at one time we were in the darkness, but now we are the light of the God« (Ephesians 5,8). »Everyone is justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus« (Romans 3,24). »We have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. The life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us« (Galatians 2,20). The apostles declare again and again that we are forgiven and made righteous by the merit of Christ Jesus; this is the doctrine of justification. 

7. Sanctification flows from justification. St. Paul exhorts us by teaching: »You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.« The law which reveals our sins and condemns us for those sins also guides us in holy living. Jesus used the image of salt and light in Matthew 5: »You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world« (Matthew 5,13.14). »Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven« (Matthew 5,16). By the good works of our holy living we are a blessing and a help to our neighbors. 

8. Christ declares us to be salt and light because He Himself is the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the world. Jesus healed the sick, comforted the distressed and forgave people of their sins. His crucifixion preserves us into eternal salvation; His resurrection reveals the light of everlasting life with a holy and resurrected body. 

9. Be helpful to your neighbors. Be kind. Let them see Christ through your good works. If opportunities arise, then tell them about Jesus and the gracious forgiveness we have through Him. Pass on to them what you have learned from the Bible.

10. »Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Be merciful, just as your Heavenly Father is merciful« (Luke 6,27-28.31.36).  Amen. 

11. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, whose Name is glorious, help us live sanctified lives so that by our works we may show Your loving kindness and Your faithfulness to those who need Your gospel.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

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 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 4. © 1963 Henry Regnery Co. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.