Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: May 2012

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Colossians 4,2-4. Rogate Sunday

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Colossians 4,2-4 (5-6) 3012
Rogate (5. Sonntag nach Ostern) 040 weiß
Servatius, Bishop of Tongeren, Belgium † 384
13. May 2012

1. O Lord, from whom all good things do come; Grant us, Your humble servants, that by Your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by Your merciful guiding may perform the same (The Book of Common Prayer 113). Amen.

2. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, so that God may open to us a door for the Word (λόγου), to speak the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison﹣so that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

3. Rogate Sunday encourages us to pray. The Apostle Paul exhorts us to be steadfast in our prayers and thanksgivings to God. There are different types of prayers in the Bible: some are tumultuous in the face of an anguishing tribulation, others are joyous thanksgivings, still others intercessions on behalf of our neighbor (ELKB). The apostle asks the Colossian Church to pray for opportunities to proclaim the Word of God.

4. The apostle told Timothy: »Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke and exhort, with complete patience and teaching« (2. Timothy 4,2). The apostle knew that there is a season of abundance and a season of drought as regards the Word. For a time, the preached Word will prosper, many will come to faith and the Church will gather in a great harvest. At other times, the preached Word will not prosper, many will reject the Word and the Church will struggle to gather in any harvest. The Holy Spirit moves through the preached Word where and when He wills, and many times it seems to be a complete mystery to us.

5. In the 21. century, many places around the world are hostile against the Church and her proclamation. Competing philosophies and religions seek to choke out the Church. The apostle warns that »the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths« (2. Timothy 4,3-4). In the age of instant communication and internet access to all information, our present age is one rife with heresies and false teachings that are quickly disseminated. The task of preaching the Word thus faces a host of challengers which may seem overwhelming.

6. Paul’s exhortation to pray for opportunities to preach the Word is still a necessary exhortation in the 21. century. Jesus promises to hear and answer our prayers. He says: »Ask, and you will receive« (John 16,24). We pray for our borough, that the Holy Spirit would open the door for the gospel. There are many people who have heard the Word, but they have become discouraged and disillusioned. We pray that they hear the Word and return to the Church. There are also many people who have not heard the gospel. We pray that the Holy Spirit use the Word to create faith in their hearts. We pray for our nation. Many of the strengths and values in our culture stem from a deep and rich influence of Christian doctrine and virtues. Many perceive that the very Western culture that owes Christianity so much is now casting aside the Church and her influence. We pray that our nation does not cast aside the Church, but rather that the preached gospel blows from shore to shore as a cool, liberating breeze for those enslaved by the philosophies of this world that devalue humanity and human beings. We pray for the world, that locked doors would be opened to the gospel proclamation. In Paul’s day, he had wanted to go into Bithynia (northwest Turkey), but for a time the Holy Spirit had closed that region to the gospel. Instead, the Holy Spirit had opened up Macedonia to the gospel proclamation. Today, many regions are closed to the gospel throughout Africa, Asia and the Middle East. There are nations in the world where it is illegal to have a Bible and to evangelize. Even in those regions where the door is opened a crack, Christians are still persecuted and martyred. We hear how Palestinian Christians are removed from their houses and deprived of their property. We hear how Coptic Christians in Egypt have their church buildings vandalized or burned down. We pray that the Holy Spirit bust down all the fortified doors and surge through with the gospel of Christ crucified and risen for the consolation of sinners oppressed by inhumane treatment.

7. Jesus promises His apostles: »In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world« (John 16,33). Jesus opens doors closed to the gospel. He liberates those in bondage to sin and other human atrocities. He strengthens faith. Our Victorious Savior has overcome sin, death and the devil. »The Triune God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is One God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all people« (1. Timothy 2,4-6). Our Lord Jesus Christ sends the Holy Spirit to create faith in hardened hearts, to soothe the wrath of oppressive rulers and to uplift those downtrodden by their culture or neighbors.

8. Jesus’ triumph over the world is not some distant, future reality that always seems on the edge of the horizon but never quite materializes. Jesus’ victory, rather, is a real, present victory over the world and those who seek to hinder the proclamation of the gospel. The decisive victory in this millennia-long war fought by Jesus against the devil occurred on the cross. There Jesus paid for all sin and bore mankind’s curse. On the third day Jesus rose from His tomb, and death was powerless to detain Him. Eternal life had triumphed over death (triomphe la vie éternelle!). This victory is yours. Now. Wherever and whenever the gospel of Christ crucified and risen is proclaimed, the Holy Spirit is saving and liberating those oppressed by sin and the world. Many times this salvation and liberation is only grasped by faith as it has not fully been manifested in its fullness. This is the paradoxical now and not yet. The gospel promises us that Jesus is aware of our circumstances, He is proceeding to liberate is, but this may not be fully implemented until His return on the last day when He gathers all His people into the heavenly realm of glory. Until that day, we remain fervent in prayer for ourselves, and our brothers and sisters in the faith around the world, for the manifestation of God’s mercy in our lives and tribulations. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, our Divine Mediator, hear our prayers and answer our petitions so that we may live a peaceful live grounded firmly upon Your glorious resurrection from death and the grave. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

✠

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 © 1549 Cambridge University Press.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.

Acts 16,23-34. Cantate Sunday

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Acts 16,23-34 2912

Kantate (4. Sonntag nach Ostern) 039 weiß

John miraculously survives boiling oil before the Latin Gate at Rome, 95

6. May 2012

1. O Almighty God, who does make the minds of all faithful people to be of one will; grant unto Your people that they may love that which You command, and desire that which You promise; so that among the various and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed upon Your promise, whereas true joys are to be found. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer). Amen.

2. And when they had inflicted many blows upon Paul and Silas, the magistrates threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safe. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice: „Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.“ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said: „Sirs, what must I do to be saved?“ And they said: „Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.“ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

3. The jailer asks: „What must I do to be saved?“ Paul’s answer is: „Believe in Jesus.“ The apostle expands on this in his Epistle to the Romans: »If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ« (Romans 10,9.17). Confessing Jesus as your crucified and risen Savior who is your redeemer from sin, death and hell leads to faith. Those who believe in Christ will be saved. Notice, however, that the Apostle Paul does not say a generic belief in Christ, such as Christ existed or Christ was a prophet and good, moral teacher or some other confession that the world would have no discomfort believing. Rather, Paul says those who believe in the crucified and resurrected Christ will be saved. The resurrection of Christ makes all the difference. The risen Christ is the victor over sin, death and hell. Your sin is forgiven. Your destiny is no longer the perdition of hell. Your death will lead you to eternal life with the Triune God, His angels and all the company of heaven. The risen Christ does this, and none other.

4. It was this very crucified and risen Christ that the Apostle Paul proclaimed to the jailer in Acts 16. In that very instance, a dying jailer, for he was about to end his life, is snatched from death into life. The power of the spoken Word, the preached Word, the Word that gives you Christ and Him crucified and risen, is the word that saves distraught sinners. The apostle preached this gospel; a man and his family heard it, believed it and they were saved.

5. Paul said that: »Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom« (1. Corinthians 1,22). Paul gave this jailer both a sign and wisdom. Paul gave this man and his family true Wisdom, that wisdom that is Jesus the crucified and risen Christ. The Holy Spirit used this proclaimed Word to create faith. Paul then gave this man and his family a sign, yes the sign, which is Holy Baptism. Luke tells us: »that same hour of the night the jailer and all his family were baptized at once.« Why the haste? Why not wait until the next morning? Because Holy Baptism saves a person. The Apostle Peter said it this way: »Baptism now saves you as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ« (1. Peter 3,21).

6. »Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom« (1. Corinthians 1,22). Twenty-first century men and women are no different from first century man, for we still require signs and seek wisdom. Jesus does not hold back either. Jesus gives us signs. We call them Sacraments. Here are your signs: Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and they save you, give you forgiveness and promise everlasting life. Here is your wisdom, the Word, and it proclaims Christ crucified and risen, and it saves you, gives you forgiveness and promises eternal life.

7. What Paul and Silas give this jailer and his family is Gewißheit (certainty). You see, that is what God’s salvation through Jesus is all about. People need certainty. Honestly, we are pretty good at obtaining certainty, and we do so through the law. Often these come in the form of contracts. When you buy a new car, you want assurance that the credit agency will give you the loan needed to purchase the car and the credit agency wants assurances that you will pay them back the loan. So the credit agency and you sign a document that stipulates the terms of the loan so both are satisfied and certain that the agreed upon terms will be carried out.

8. In our earthly affairs, certainty based on the law is enough. When matters turn, however, to spiritual affairs, the law is insufficient to guarantee certainty. We need and desire die Heilsgewißheit (the certainty of salvation), and the law just cannot give us this certainty. Only the gospel gives die Heilsgewißheit to sinners. Jesus is a gracious God who wants you to be certain of your forgiveness and salvation, and this is why He sends the Holy Spirit with the Word and the Sacraments, so that you have die gesegnet Gewißheit (the blessed assurance) of His rich grace and complete redemption. Paul and Silas gave the jailer Jesus. They preached to his family and baptized them. The jailer was given the gospel; he received it, believed it and reveled in it.

9. We have the same Word and Holy Baptism that was given to the jailer and his family. We have the same certainty and assurance of salvation. The jailer and his family rejoiced that they had believed in God. Do you rejoice and revel in the gospel and your faith? If you do not rejoice in your salvation, then you need to stop doubting Jesus’ grace in your life. You need to stop trying to do things that you think will obtain certainty in your salvation.

10. Listen and take comfort in how Martin Luther wrote about die Heilsgewißheit in hymn „Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice“:

Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice,

With exultation springing,

And with united heart and voice

And holy rapture singing,

Proclaim the wonders God has done,

How His right arm the victory won.

What price our ransom cost Him!

To me He said: „Stay close to Me,

I am your rock and castle.

Your ransom I Myself will be;

For you I strive and wrestle.

For I am yours, and you are Mine,

And where I am you may remain;

The foe shall not divide us.“ (LSB 556,1.7)

11. Jesus died and rose again for you, to save you. He gives you the signs and wisdom that gives doubting consciences the assurance of salvation. You have heard His gospel. You are baptized. Receive it, believe it and rejoice in it, for you are saved and forgiven on account of Jesus. Only Jesus. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O risen Christ, all the earth sings the glory of Your Name, we also give You glorious praise and we ask that You take from us our heavy burdens, shoulder them for us, and give us in return Your light burden which is manifested in the reality of Your resurrection, so that we are comforted and rest in the peace of Christian discipleship that teaches us to trust You in all things. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

2. Corinthians 4,16-18. Jubilate Sunday

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

2. Corinthians 4,16-18 2812

Jubilate (3. Sonntag nach Ostern) 038 weiß

Tychicus and Trophimus, disciples of St. Paul. Acts 20,4

29. April 2012

1. O Almighty God, who shows to all people who are in error the light of Your truth, with the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant faithfulness unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion, so that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession of faith, and follow all such things as be agreeable to the same (The Book of Common Prayer). Amen.

2. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer man is utterly corrupt, our inner man is being made new day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

3. In our Gospel today, Jesus describes Himself as the Vine and you as the branches (John 15,5). The Apostle Paul describes this reality with a different image: the outer man and the inner man. As such, all Christians have a dual personality: one is the old flesh or self that is thoroughly and utterly corrupt, and the other is the new flesh or self that is totally and completely holy. Martin Luther phrased Paul’s dual personality order with the phrase: A Christian is a saint and sinner at the same time

(Luther 232).

4. Jesus, Paul and Luther are describing human nature. In the beginning, Yahweh created man and woman in His Divine image and likeness. He created mankind with original righteousness so that Adam and Eve were sinless, perfect and holy. Man, however, sinned and through Adam exchanged original righteousness with original sin. Now every person born is born totally corrupt and separated from Yahweh. Yet in Christ, those who have been baptized have been given a new self, a self that is in the image and likeness of original righteousness. Thus, Christians are engaged in an internal wrestling match between their old and new selves as to whose will shall be done. Paul speaks of it this way: »I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing« (Romans 7,18-19). Luther comments on Paul, saying: „A Christian is righteous and a sinner at the same time, holy and profane, an enemy of God and a child of God“ (Luther 232-33). This is the daily struggle that we as Christians suffer, and as Paul honestly admits, we are more prone to side with the will of our old, sinful flesh and thus perform works of sin and bear wicked, poisonous fruit.

5. In the midst of this failure, when the new self yields to the will and desires of the old self, the Apostle Paul boldly proclaims: »We do not lose heart«. Paul knows that Christians are firmly grounded upon Christ. He is the Vine who gives the Christian branches the life-giving nourishment to grow and thrive. Jesus abides in you, and you abide in Him (John 15,4). „We ... teach and comfort an afflicted sinner this way: „Brother, sister, it is impossible for you to become so righteous in this life that your body is as clear and spotless as the sun. You still have spots and wrinkles (Ephesians 5,27), and yet you are holy.“ But you say: „How can I be holy when I have sin and am aware of it?“ „That you feel and acknowledge sin — this is good. Thank God, and do not despair. It is one step toward health when a sick man admits and confesses his disease.“ „But how will I be liberated from sin?“ „Run to Christ, the Physician, who heals the contrite of heart and saves sinners. Believe in Christ. If you believe, then you are righteous, because you attribute to God the glory of being almighty, merciful and truthful. You justify and praise God. In short, you attribute Divinity and everything to Him. And the sin that still remains in you is not imputed but is forgiven for the sake of Christ, in whom you believe and who is perfectly righteous in a formal sense. His righteousness is yours; your sin is His““ (Luther 233).

6. Therefore, this old flesh is a temporary struggle that will eventually yield to the eternal glory of the new flesh, and this suppression of the old self began in your Holy Baptism. „71] The old flesh goes unrestrained in its nature if it is not checked and suppressed by the power of Holy Baptism, for where men and women have become Christians, the old flesh daily decreases until it finally perishes and the new flesh daily increases until it finally thrives. This is simply to be buried with Christ in Holy Baptism, and daily to rise forth again. 75] Repentance, then, is living your Holy Baptism, for repentance is an earnest attack upon the old flesh and entering upon a new life. Therefore, if you live in repentance, then you walk in Holy Baptism, which signifies the new life, and also produces, begins and exercises this new life. 76] For in Holy Baptism grace, the Holy Spirit and the power to suppress the old flesh are given so that the new flesh may come forth and become strong.

　7. 77] Therefore your Holy Baptism abides forever; and even though some one should fall from this Sacrament and sin, nevertheless you always have access to Holy Baptism, so that you may again subdue the old flesh. 79] Repentance, therefore, is nothing else than a return and approach to Holy Baptism, so that you repeat and practice what you began before, but abandoned.

　8. 80] Thus, Holy Baptism is not something past, which you can no longer use after you have fallen again into sin. 83] Rather, Holy Baptism is a great, excellent thing which delivers you from the jaws of the devil and makes you God’s own, suppresses and takes away sin and then daily strengthens the new flesh; Holy Baptism is and remains ever effective until you pass from this estate of temporal misery to eternal glory.

　9. 84] For this reason esteem your Holy Baptism as a daily garment in which you are to walk constantly, so that you may ever be found in the faith and its fruits, so that you suppress the old flesh and grow up in the new. 86] But if you fall away from Holy Baptism, straightaway return to your Holy Baptism. For just as Christ, the Mercy-seat, does not recede from you or forbid you to come to Him again, even though you sin, so all His treasure and gifts also remain. If, therefore, you have once in Holy Baptism obtained forgiveness of sin, this forgiveness will remain every day, as long as you live, that is, as long as you carry the old flesh about your neck“ (Large Catechism, Baptism § 71.75-77.79-80.83-84.86).

10. God the Father is very gracious and giving. He gives you Christ, and Christ gives you the Holy Spirit and Holy Baptism. Receive the gifts of Christ that He freely gives to you through the Church via the Office of the Ministry. Jesus promises: »I am the Vine, and you are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from Me you can do nothing. As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you; abide in My love. I have said these things to you so that My joy may be in you, and so that your joy may be complete« (John 15,5.9.11). Jesus has given you the great gift and Sacrament of Holy Baptism in which you became a child of God, have all your sins cleansed and rise up in the new life of justification, sanctification and the bearing of the good works of faith. In your Holy Baptism, Christ abides in you, and you abide in Christ. In your Holy Baptism, your old flesh was drowned dead and your new flesh arose in those life-giving waters. In your Holy Baptism, you are holy as Christ is holy. In your Holy Baptism, the Triune God promises you an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Christ is risen, and on the last day so too will you. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O risen Christ Jesus, who has conquered evil, preserve the lives of Your baptized people so that in this temporal life we withstand the assaults of this fallen world upon our faith. Amen.