Romans 12,9-16 1225
2. sonntag nach epiphanias 16
Sarah, Matriarch ✠ 2030 bc
Baldwin of Forde ✠ 1190 19. Januar 2025
1. ℣ All the earth worships You:
℟ And sings praises to You, O God. (Psalm 65,4 lxx)
omnis terra adorent te et psallant tibi psalmum dicant nomini tua. (lxx)
omnis terra adoret te et cantet tibi cantet nomini tua. (mas)
O Lord Jesus Christ, Heavenly King! Rule us by Your Spirit, so that the joys of Your birth may increase in us. Hear our prayers. … Accept our offerings, which You Yourself have given us: the gold of our faith, the incense of our prayers and the myrrh of our contrite hearts. Amen. (Loehe 127.128 Liturgy for Christian Congregations 1902)
2. »Let αγαπη love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Φιλαδελφια Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.«
3. The Gospels give us a glimpse of Jesus’ life and ministry that where He interprets the Scriptures and performs miracles. Underlying these are Jesus’ selfless love and humility as Ηe interacts with people. Paul explains that Jesus showed the day to day Christian life by Ηis example of living.
4. Paul’s exhortation is in stark contrast to the desires of our sinful flesh. Selfishness, pride, laziness and loathing are the rotten fruit our sinfulness bears. We see this magnified in our society that is increasingly more polarized as our way versus their way becomes entrenched as our way is right and moral but their way is wrong and immoral. This stride down a slippery slope soon encourages and applauds degenerate thoughts and derogatory name-calling. It shocks no one when such thoughts and words end in violent actions.
5. People will lament this crude disparagement and call for kinder and more respectful interactions. These are fine sentiments, but they offer no means to get to a place where kindness and honor are upheld as virtues. God’s Word sets a high bar, a perfect standard, that we are unable to achieve on our own accord. „[The Apostle] Paul indicates that the law can never make alive, but only kill. Therefore my works, which I do not do according to the laws of popes or human traditions, but according to the law of God, do not justify me in the sight of God; they only establish me as a sinner. They do not placate the wrath of God; they arouse it. They do not achieve righteousness; they remove it“ (AE 26,329-30 Galatians 3,21-22).
6. God’s law prepares us for Christ’s advent. „For having assumed human nature, Christ arrived once for all at one time, abrogated the law with all its effects, and by His death, delivered the entire human race from sin and eternal death“ (AE 26,347). When Jesus returned from His temptations in the wilderness, He began His ministry by preaching: »Repent, and believe in the gospel« (Mark 1,15b). Jesus Himself is this Gospel and He brings this gospel to men and women. Through His selfless love and humility, Jesus comforted the downtrodden, absolved sinners and was charitable to His neighbors – and to each of us. Daily He strengthens us, uplifts our spirit and gives us forgiveness through His Sacrament of the Altar.
7. Christ’s love for us emboldens us to love one another. „Whence Paul says love one another with brotherly affection, that is, be friends, and warm ones too. Do not wait to be loved by another, but leap at yourself, and be the first to begin it. For so will you reap the wages of love also. … Such affection, may grow unchangeable in showing honor to one another. For in this way, that affection is produced, and also when produced abides” (Chrysostom Homily XXI Romans 12,10). Love leads to honor and honor leads to bearing the triumph and tribulations that Christians experience for the fullness of God’s mercies toward us in Christ is limitless, Christ makes us holy leading to eternal life. (Gennadius of Constantinople Catena Romans 12,1 ad 471).
8. Christ, the Son of God, loves the unlovable, saving the sinners and redeeming the rebels by paying the costly ransom price with His own precious blood. With the crucified Christ we see God loving and honoring all the men and women of this world by liberating the world from sin, death and the Devil. From this great act of love and honor we too love and honor our fellow Christian brothers and sisters along with all men and women no matter their ethnicity or creed. For being a beacon of love and honor we show the world how people should live and treat others, and that God Himself loves them and has redeemed them.
9. O Source of Life, we thank You, Lord,
In You, the Living One, we hope for.
You who pierced through Death’s darkest night,
Brought us both victory and life’s light.
(Du Morgenstern, du Licht vom Licht selk 396,2 2021 Richard Adelbert Lipsius 1878)
This is most certainly true.
10. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.
11. Let us pray. O blessed Jesus, who didst dwell in Thy humble home at Nazareth, be with Thy servants in this our home, keep from it all pride, selfishness and impurity that it may be a dwelling place meet for Thy sacred presence; grant us to grow in grace and in the knowledge and love of Thee; guide us throughout our life on earth, comfort us in our troubles, strengthen us in our weakness and bring us at last to Thy home in heaven. Amen. (epiphany ii, 2nd Matins Collect. The Daily Office).
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 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2021 Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, Hannover.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.
The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.
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