✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
1. Corinthians 6,8-14.18-20 4112
8. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 053
Mary, Martha and Lazarus, John 11
Olaf I Tryggvason, King of Norway and Apostle to Norway. Martyr 1000
29. July 2012
1. O Heavenly Father, for whom Jesus is Spokesman, You have spoken to Your people in many times and in various ways upon the mountaintop. Since we are unable as sinners to ascend up to You, You have descended upon us to draw us into Your holy and glorious presence. You give us Your law and gospel so that we are taught by Your Holy Words, and in receiving Your Words we are blessed beyond measure. By the power of the Holy Spirit You dwell in us; we ask You to change our hearts so that we may be humble, merciful, pure in heart, pursuing righteousness and peace, as Jesus, Your Divine Word, promised to make us once on a mountainside. Amen.
2. But you yourselves wrong and defraud﹣even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom 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 idolators, others sexual deviants, still others thieves. Some were all of the above, and more. The Corinthians were sinners. Their deeds bore fruit the truth of this sinfulness.
4. We are no different from our Corinthian brothers and sisters in the faith. We are greedy, revilers and swindlers. We are sinners through and through. We were born sinners, and we will die sinners. The Prophet condemns each one of us: »The person who sins will die« (Ezekiel 18,4). The Apostle Paul tells even worse news: the unrighteous sinner will not inherit the reign of God. You and I are not fit to live in God’s presence.
5. The law reveals us to be sinners and rightly condemns us. The sad lot of men and women is to live as sinners in this wicked world. Paul unfolds or condemnation: »None is righteous, no, not one. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no person will be justified in God’s sight by the works of the law, since the knowledge of sin comes through the law« (Romans 3,10.19-20).
6. Thus far the Word of the Lord, and it has been all bad news for us. God’s holy law condemns us, but His law is not His final Word.
7. God speaks another Word, the word of the gospel, a word of forgiveness. This gospel is the very Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus speaks this gospel to the sinners He encounters during His life. To the idolatrous Samaritan woman, Jesus says: „You are forgiven.“ To the woman caught in adultery, Jesus says: „You are forgiven.“ To the thieving tax collectors, Jesus says: „You are forgiven.“ To the Apostle Peter who reviled Christ at His trial, Jesus says: „You are forgiven.“ To the homosexual, the lesbian, the greedy, the drunkard and the swindler, Jesus says: „You are forgiven.“ To you with your sins, Jesus says: „You are forgiven of all your sins.“ Truly no other word spoken to those ashamed of their sins sounds as sweet. Paul writes it beautifully: »You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God«. And again: »For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord« (Ephesians 5,8). Yet again: »Now the righteousness of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, and all are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus« (Romans 3,21-22.24). Still again: »We have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. And the life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God, who loves us and gave Himself for us« (Galatians 2,20). Thus far justification: We are forgiven and made righteous by the merit of Christ Jesus.
8. Sanctification follows justification. The Apostle Paul exhorts us, saying: »You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body«. The law, which cannot save us, now guides us in holy living. Thus Jesus calls you the salt and light of the world. God does not need your good works. You do not need your good works, but your neighbor needs them. By your holy living, by your good works, you are a blessing to your neighbors. When you love your neighbors and are a help to them, then you are being salt and light to them.
9. Christ declares you to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5,13-14) because He Himself is the Salt and the Light. The Gospels tell how throughout His public ministry Jesus was the Salt and Light to His neighbors. He healed the sick, comforted the distressed and forgave people of their sins. By His crucifixion, Jesus preserved you unto eternal salvation. By His resurrection, Jesus revealed the light of everlasting life with a holy, resurrected body.
10. You are now the salt and light to your neighbors because Jesus is your Salt and Light. You now deliver the gospel of Jesus to your neighbors. Jesus has given you an incredible responsibility to your neighbors. He sends the Holy Spirit to enable you to be the salt and light to your neighbor. Christ is a blessing to you, and you are thus a blessing to others. He gives you His Word which you now pass on to others in whatever situation or trial you find them in.
11. Jesus has taken you, perfectly ordinary people (Martens § 15) to show the world how His grace and forgiveness touches individual lives for the better. Therefore, Jesus doesn’t want you to hide your light under a bushel basket and deny who you are, rather He wants you to let your light shine so that people see Jesus in you. Jesus is a wonderful Lord and a marvelous hope (Martens § 16), and He wants you, His redeemed Christian people, to point the way to Him as the Savior of the world. Amen.
12. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, 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
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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.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Martens, Gottfried. A sermon preached on 2. August 2009 (8. Trinitatis) in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany on Matthew 5,13-16. Copyright © 2011 St. Mary Church in Berlin-Zehlendorf (SELK). All rights reserved. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011.
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