Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: July 2013

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Matthew 13,44-46. The 9th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Matthew 13,44-46 3913

9. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 054

Pataleon, physician, Martyr 303.

Johann Sebastian Bach, Kantor, † 1750.

George Frederick Handel, Hymn writer, † 1759

28. Juli 2013

1. Grant to us, Lord, we beseech Thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without Thee, may by Thee be enabled to live according to Thy will (The Book of Common Prayer, 9. Sunday after Trinity). Amen.

2. Jesus said to His disciples: „The reign of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the reign of heaven is like a merchant in search of beautiful pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.“

3. In the immediately previous parable of the sower, Jesus explained that He is the Sower, the field is the world, the good seed are Christians (children of the reign) and the tares are unbelievers (children of the wicked one) (Matthew 13,37-38). In this morning’s parables, the man and the merchant is Jesus, the field is the world and you are the hidden treasure and the beautiful pearl.

4. Finding hidden treasures throughout the world is how God operates. Abraham was living his life in the city of Ur (southeast Iraq, west along the Euphrates where it later meets the Tigris and runs into the Persian Gulf). Yahweh chose this Chaldean from Mesopotamia to be the father of a great nation, Israel, whom He richly blessed with covenants, promises and prophets. Yahweh could have chosen any man from Ur, but He saw Abraham as a hidden treasure whereupon He went and got him. Yahweh found many such beautiful pearls throughout history: Samson, David, Isaiah, Ruth and Mary, to name merely a few. Jesus chose twelve from among His disciples, called them to be His apostles and made them the foundation for His new testament Israel and Church.

5. According to worldly standards, such people were not treasured items. Abraham was a sonless idolater, David was the youngest of Jesse’s sons and Ruth wasn’t even Jewish. Yahweh, nevertheless saw them as invaluable gems that He sought out, found and made His own. They were diamonds in the rough that He cut and polished for His use.

6. Each of you were hidden treasures in the world. Jesus looked high and low in the world to find you. He bought and paid for you. He sold all He had to buy the world so that He could acquire you. Jesus paid your redemption price.

7. „The kingdom of heaven is the work of God in Jesus Christ on behalf of his treasured, faithful people“ (Gibbs). It is and must be His work because as Jesus said: »For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the reign of heaven« (Matthew 5,20). Jesus says here that we cannot enter the reign of heaven on our own merits, by our keeping of the law or by our piety. We cannot make ourselves treasures desired by God. Furthermore, Jesus said: »Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the reign of heaven« (Matthew 19,14). Jesus says here that we enter the reign of heaven just as little children who are the joyous delight of their earthly fathers simply because they are their children, likewise we are the joyous delight of our Heavenly Father simply because we are His dear children.

8. In Jesus’ day there were no banks like we know them today where money could be safely stored. Many people would therefore bury their valuables in the ground so no one could steal them. In Palestinian law, however, an unknown hidden treasure in someone field did not make it the possession of the one who owned the field. The treasure was finder’s keepers, looser’s weepers, but the finder could not just dig up his neighbors field and take the hidden treasure. If you found such a buried treasure, then you had to go to the one who owned the field and buy the field from him. Then, and only then, could you take possession of the hidden treasure that was now buried in your field. This purchase is the called the redemption price.

9. Jesus could not just take possession of us, for He had found us in a foreign field. Originally, the world was His created possession, but the devil had craftily orchestrated a hostile takeover so that he was now the prince of this world. Therefore, Jesus had to redeem the world, regain possession of His fallen creation and legally obtain the rights to all the treasures buried therein.

10. The purchase price was exceedingly high, for the Man must sell everything to buy the field. The Apostle Paul itemizes the price paid by Jesus to buy the world: »though Jesus was in the form of God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be held onto, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a slave, having become the likeness of men; and being found in human nature, He humbled Himself having become obedient to the point of death on a cross« (Philippians 2,6-8). Jesus gladly and willingly paid this ransom price to obtain the world as His. Jesus proclaimed: »the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for everyone« (Matthew 20,28). Jesus explained this ransom price to His disciples, saying: »He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes, be killed and on the third day be raised« (Matthew 16,21). The ransom price has been paid, and the world belongs to Christ, but the world is not enough

, thus every field is now His possession and every hidden treasure or pearl buried there under is Christ’s to find and own.

11. Thus, the reign of heaven is the work of God in Jesus Christ on behalf of His treasured, faithful people (Gibbs). In the eyes of the God of grace, these sinful, imperfect disciples appear as treasure; yes, as pearls (Gibbs)! In the midst of conflict and opposition, trouble and uncertainty, the disciples of Jesus may rest secure in their identity in Him (Gibbs). You will not be forgotten or abandoned, for the one who has sought and found you is also the one who has come to give His all for you (Gibbs).

12. Let us pray. O Christ, all who You find rejoice and are glad in You; assure us of our salvation through You, so we may say continually: „Great is Yahweh who finds hidden treasures in the field!“ 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, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Parables of Atonement and Assurance: Matthew 13:44-46. http://www.mtio.com/articles/bissar54.htm

John 9,1-7. The 8th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

John 9,1-7 3813

8. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 053

Praxedis, Virgin, † 129

21. Juli 2013

1. O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth; we humbly beseech Thee to put away from us all hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable for us (The Book of Common Prayer, 8. Sunday after Trinity). Amen.

2. As Jesus passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him: „Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, so that he was born blind?“ Jesus answered: „It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must perform the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is approaching, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.“ Having said these things, Jesus spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then He anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him: „Go, wash in the pool of Siloam“ (which means „Sent“). So he went and washed and returned seeing.

3. Jesus says that His Christians are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5,13-14). Jesus is the Light of the world, therefore we are salt and light to the world. Jesus exhorts His Christians to let their light shine so that people see those good works and give praise to God the Father (Matthew 5,17). Jesus shone His light upon a blind man, healed him and people praised God for this miraculous good work.

4. Except the Pharisees. They were mad that Jesus did a good work on the Sabbath, the day of rest (9,14). Some of them said Jesus is not from God the Father (9,16) and that He was a sinner (9,24). The Pharisees were concerned about the law, their traditions and legal interpretations. They criticized Jesus for not following their strict precepts. They accused Jesus of forsaking Moses (9,28). The law is clear: Saturday is the day of rest and no work was allowed on that day. Period.

5. Along comes Jesus scattering His salt and shining His light in the dark places. He finds a man born blind, a man stigmatized as a horrible sinner (because God must have surely cursed Him with his ailment as punishment for some vile sin he had committed) and blind. The blind man was separated from God and His grace. That’s what the Pharisees taught. Even Jesus’ disciples buy into that worldview. How often do you lament that you are sick or suffering because God is punishing you for some sin you did? How tortured is your conscience as you fret over those sins. How many of us here today nod our heads in agreement with the Pharisees in their assessment of the blind man through the lens of the law?

6. Jesus has a different worldview. Jesus sees the situation from heaven’s perspective and its lens of the gospel. This man was not born blind because he or his parents had committed some horrible, unforgivable sin. No, this man was born blind so that God could do something wonderful to him. This man was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. This man was born blind so that Jesus could find him, heal him and show him and many others the light of salvation. For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8,28). That is what the Apostle Paul teaches.

7. What Jesus does for this blind man He does for you. He found you like He found the blind man. You were oppressed and condemned by the law and left rotting in the darkness. Jesus seasoned you with His salt and shone His light upon you. Jesus is the Light shining in the darkness, and from His light springs forth thousands upon thousands lights to illuminate the world

. You, and all Christians, are those individual points of light and you guide your neighbor to Christ. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon poet Kynewulf describes Jesus this way: „Hail Morning-Star! Brightest Angel sent to man throughout the earth, and steadfast splendor of the sun, bright above stars! You illumine with Your Light the time of every season

“ (Kynewulf 104-08). Kynewulf is reflecting the light of the Psalmist who proclaims Jesus: »O Yahweh, with You is the fountain of Life; in Your Light we see light

. How precious is Your steadfast love! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They feast on the abundance of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your delights« (Psalm 36,9.7-8).

8. Jesus is your Life and Light; He is your salvation. Today He exhorts you to be salt and light to the world. A lighthouse exists to give a visible warning to sailors so they do not run aground in inclement weather. A lighthouse alerts ships that they are close to land. Jesus tells all Christians: You are a lighthouse. People are journeying and searching for God’s kingdom. You shine forth the light of Christ showing them that the land of God’s kingdom is close by. Don’t wreck your life by following another savior. Don’t pass by God’s shoreline in the dark of night or the fog of suffering. Ignore the Sirens’ call, as tempting they may be with their philosophies and ideologies, for they, masquerading as angels of the Light, seek to call you away from God’s shoreline. Jesus is close at hand; let me show you where He is and let me tell you about Him. Jesus is found in His church and He died and rose for you as your Savior. By being such a lighthouse you are shining forth the very Light of Christ; you are bringing salvation into their midst. Be the salt and the light; give people Jesus and His gospel. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Your Name is glorious, shine upon us Your loving kindness and faithfulness so that we are certain of Your love and forgiveness toward us. Amen.

Christ crucified and risen for you

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Luke 9,10-17. 7th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Luke 9,10-17 (Matthew 14,13-21; Mark 8,1-10; John 6,1-15) 3713

7. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 052

John Bonaventure, Bishop of Albano, Italy, † 1274

14. Juli 2013

1. Lord of all power and might, who art the Author and Giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of Thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness and of Thy great mercy keep us in the same. Amen.

2. On their return the apostles told Jesus all that they had done. And He took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. When the crowds learned it, they followed Him, and He welcomed them and spoke to them of the reign of God and cured those who had need of healing. Now the day began to wear away, and the Twelve came and said to Him: „Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.“ But Jesus said to them: „You give them something to eat.“ They said: „We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.“ For there were about five thousand men. And Jesus said to His disciples: „Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.“ And they did so, and had them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

3. In the midst of the 5000, Philip crunches the numbers: Jesus, it would take almost seven months of wages to buy food for all these people! A quick consultation with Judas Iscariot, who held the money, would reveal they are woefully short of that amount of financial capital. Andrew notes that a young lad has five loaves of bread and two fish, but that would barely feed Jesus and His apostles, let alone 5000 hungry men. The apostles are at a loss for what to do. They can’t buy the food necessary to feed the crowd; they can’t feed the crowd with the food on hand; they can’t send the crowd home hungry, for that would violate the traditions of hospitality.

4. Jesus takes the little they have to feed the multitudes. He says a table prayer and gives some bread and fish to each of the twelve apostles to distribute among the crowds. There is no way five loaves of bread and two large fish should feed thousands of people, but the loaves and the fish do feed the people. Furthermore, the crowds don’t limit themselves to a few crumbs of bread and a morsel of fish. No, each one takes what they need to eat and be full. The bread and the fish feed the 5000, and when the leftovers are gathered up, lo and behold, each apostle returns with a basketful of bread and fish! A single basket of bread and fish has multiplied into twelve baskets full of broken pieces of bread and fish.

5. Like any miracle, we cannot explain how it occurred. All we can say is that a miracle is God active in His natural creation in a supernatural way. Nature cannot multiply five loaves of bread and two fish into sixty loaves and 24 fish, but God can and does, for He is not bound and limited to the natural order of things. The natural order can only multiply bread and fish by baking more bread and catching more fish, but the supernatural creates more from nothing. This miracle of feeding the 5000 is similar to how the Triune God created the world. God created ex nihilo (from nothing). He created man, beasts and plants in maturity, fully grown and formed. At the moment it was created, the world was ready to do that which God created it to do: plants bore fruit for food, animals breed and man subdued the earth.

6. In the feeding of the 5000 we see God’s providence in all its glory. Prior to the feeding, Jesus had preached on the reign of God and healed those who were sick. Now late in the afternoon, Jesus feeds the crowds with food. John records that Jesus is the Bread of Life. Jesus taught further about this after He had fed the 5000, saying: »The Bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the Bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of It and not die. I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. And the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh« (John 6:33.35.40.48-51).

7. The reign of God is about the Living Bread coming down from heaven to give life to the world. In the old testament Jesus sent Israel manna from heaven to feed them as they traveled from Egypt to the land promised to Abraham. Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years before they entered the Promised Land, and Jesus feed them every one of those 14,600 days with bread. In the new testament Jesus feeds His people. This is simply His Divine providence upon His creation as its Creator. Like Israel of old, we complain about our sustenance or doubt Jesus will provide for us. Jesus knows that our flesh is weak and that we are prone to doubt His providential care. Jesus says to us: »Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. Instead, seek His reign, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the reign of God« (Luke 12,22.24.27-29.31-32). Jesus provides all you need to live in this earthly life.

8. The Gospel according to Luke defines the reign of God as follows: »And Jesus came to Nazareth, and He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read from the Prophet Isaiah: „The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.“ And Jesus said to say to them: „Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.“« (Luke 4,16-19.21). Jesus taught the Nazarenes that the reign of God is in their midst, and that He is that reign of God manifested before them. The feeding of the 5000 is a further manifestation of Jesus as the reign of God.

9. Jesus provides for all our spiritual needs, too. He preached that today is the year of Yahweh’s favor. God the Father is a loving, merciful and gracious God. He shows these Divine attributes by sending His Son to be our Bread of Life. Jesus gives us His very body as our food. He offered up His flesh and blood as the vicarious sacrifice on the cross to be the redemptive price for sin. He has paid the ransom price in full with His very body.

10. The apostles gathered up more bread than they had started with. Such is the way of God’s grace: there is more than enough for what is needed. So it is with the Living Bread: there is more of Jesus than we need. We have many needs in this life and we have sins that weigh us down as an unbearable burden. Just a few crumbs of Jesus are sufficient to provide for our necessities and cover our sins. There is more of Jesus for us. There is a sumptuous banquet spread by our Host that we have access to and that we have not partaken of yet. We will never run short of Jesus. He always has more of Himself to give us, for His love and grace are eternally abundant.

11. Is it any wonder the crowd wanted to crown Jesus as king right there on the outskirts of Bethsaida? They were not going to give Him a choice in this matter, for they intended to force this kingship upon Him (John 6,10). Such is the way of sinful men and women: we try to force Jesus to be what we want Him to be. If we want Him to save us from our politicians, then we make Him our Liberation Jesus. If we want Him to instill traditional and conservative values again in our culture, then we make Him our Morality Jesus. When Jesus refuses to be conformed to our petty images of Him, then sinful mankind rejects Jesus, chases Him from their midst and calls for His crucifixion.

12. The Jewish multitude and the Gentile nations merely want Jesus to be their Bread King. But Jesus’ disciples rightly perceive Him to be the Christ of God (Luke 9,20). We confess Jesus to be the Christ every Divine Service. This means, says Jesus, that: »The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised« (Luke 9,22). The Living Bread gave Himself so that we would eat Him and live forever. Jesus provides for you each day in your earthly life, and He provides for you now and for all eternity the everlasting, heavenly life that He gives you abundantly as a gift. Amen.

13. Let us pray. O Yahweh, our True Light, from the rising of the sun to its setting, we praise Your Name, for You comfort us by Your eternal presence. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Synodical President

The Rev. Matthew Harrison has been re-elected to his second 3-year term of office as the President of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. We give thanks to God for providing us with a president, and we pray that He would bless him in the years ahead as he leads our synod, especially in the convention later in July.

Isaiah 43,1-7. 6th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Isaiah 43,1-7 3613

6. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 051

Willibald, Bishop of Eichstätt, Germany, † 786

7. Juli 2013

1. O Heavenly Father, we pray through Your groundless mercy that You will graciously behold us in our Holy Baptism and daily keep us in the blessing of our Christian faith so that by means of this saving flood all who have been born in him from Adam and which they themselves have added thereto may be drowned in them and engulfed, and that they may be sundered from the number of the unbelieving, preserved dry and secure in the holy ark of Christendom, serve Your Name at all times fervent in spirit and joyful in hope, so that with all believers we may be made worthy to attain eternal life according to Your promise through Jesus Christ our Lord (Luther’s Works 53,97). Amen.

2. But now thus says Yahweh, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: „Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I am with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by My Name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.“

3. Jesus gave two promises to His apostles before He ascended to heaven: 1. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me, and 2. I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28,18.20). These are not vain promises, for Jesus was with Israel. The Prophet Isaiah spoke about the destructive nature of waters and rivers, nevertheless Jesus was with His people when they walked through the waters and rescued them from the undertow of the river. Walking through the waters occurs at key times in Israel’s history. In Exodus 14, Yahweh parted the Red Sea so Israel could escape the Egyptian army. Israel passed through safely, but when Pharaoh’s soldiers followed Yahweh unleashed the waters and they drowned the Egyptians. In Joshua 3, Yahweh parted the Jordan River so Israel could enter the Promised Land of Canaan. In both instances, Jesus was among His people and in the midst of the waters so as to keep them safe.

4. Isaiah 43 looks back to these events as evidence of God’s providence, and it also looks ahead to a future and greater fulfillment of God’s divine intervention. Jesus is this greater fulfillment of Isaiah 43. Not only does Jesus protect His people from the destructive forces of nature, but He uses such forces to defend His people from her enemies. Isaiah also saw the day when Yahweh would gather in the dispersed under His providence.

5. Jesus fulfilled this, saying: »For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost« (Luke 19,10). Jesus’ ministry involved healing the sick, fellowshipping with sinners and pronouncing absolution upon the lost whom He found. Jesus accomplished this gathering of the dispersed and lost when He died on the cross for their sins and rose from the grave for their justification. Jesus sent out His apostles to baptize and teach all the nations (Matthew 28,19-20).

6. The apostolic gospel is short and sweet. You were lost, but Jesus found you. You were in exile, but Jesus brought you home. You were tossed about on the story sea of life, but Jesus has calmed the raging storm. You were orphaned, but Jesus adopted you. You had no name, but Jesus gave you His name. You were condemned to hell, but Jesus saved you. This gospel is for both Jews and Gentiles, the righteous and the sinner, the wise and the foolish, the knowledgeable and the uneducated and the rich and the poor. This gospel is for all people and all nations, for Jesus desires to save everyone and thus redeemed everyone. Jesus has redeemed you, called you by name and has declared you to be His (43,1).

7. Jesus has said it, and faith receives His promise. In your Holy Baptism, Yahweh placed His Almighty and Triune Name upon each one of you and has declared you to be His holy child. Christ purchased you to be His very own, and He will do whatever is necessary to ensure that you remain His own.

8. Perhaps you do not remember your Baptism. Maybe you have a certificate and/or photos to commemorate that happy event. The Triune God remembers your Baptism and commemorates it daily in His heart. His holy words were spoken to you and the Baptismal waters washed you clean. He has sent pastors and teachers into your lives who educate you in His Holy Scriptures.

9. Yahweh’s promises are not trifling words, but powerful active words He has connected to His saving deeds (Heilsgeschichte). The Apostle Paul connects your Baptism to Jesus. You were baptized in Christ’s death (Romans 6,3) and baptized in Christ’s resurrection (Romans 6,5). His death and resurrection are deeds with saving power. Christ’s death was the sacrifice for sin and His shed blood redeemed you back to God the Father. His resurrection overturned death, overcame the grave and tore asunder the gates of Hades. Jesus did all this for you, and He gives the benefits of these deeds to you. »So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus« (Romans 6,11).

10. Jesus promises that: »The gates of Hades shall not prevail against the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God« (Matthew 16,18.16). This is the confession you were baptized into, the confession that you profess each Sunday in our Divine Service and the confession upon which Christ, through the Holy Spirit, builds His Church. Christ builds His Church upon His words and promises. Christ and His words are the rock and solid ground upon which you stand. »Everyone then who hears these words of [Jesus] and believes them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, the floods rose and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock« (Matthew 7,24-25). Jesus explains it this way: »My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand (John 10,27-28).

11. Jesus promised in the old testament: »Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.« jesus fulfilled this promise in the new testament. He has redeemed you, He has called you by name in Holy Baptism and you are His. No one snatches you from His hands. No one. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Christ, You proclaim our names to the heavenly host and You acclaim us in the halls of heaven; You are with us to the very end of days, and so we will not fear nor falter on the path of faith we walk towards the gates of heaven. Amen.

Christ crucified and risen for you

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Monday, July 1, 2013

Luke 14,25-33. 5th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Luke 14,25-33 3513

5. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 050

Commemoration of St. Paul

30. Juni 2013

1. Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by Thy governance, so that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in all Godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord (The Book of Common Prayer). Amen.

2. Now great crowds accompanied Jesus, and He turned and said to them: „If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying: „This man began to build and was not able to finish.“ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple.“

3. It is not easy to be a Christian disciple in 21. century America, for we live in perilous times and among a pagan culture. The world does not tolerate those who run contrary to its wisdom and correctness. The world does not understand why someone would reject the wonders of the world for the call to be a disciple of Jesus.

4. The call of discipleship, the call to follow Jesus, is a call from our old life of sinful separation from God the Father into a new life of redemptive reunion with God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds. Disciples of Jesus are called „the Church“ from the Greek noun εκκλησια [1] which means „those called out“. In your Holy Baptism, the Triune God called you out of darkness into the Light. The Triune God has adopted you into His family.

5. The Triune God called Abraham out of his country and his family. He promised Abraham a son and the world’s savior. Yahweh called, and Abraham followed. The Son of God called Simon Peter, James and John, and they followed Him. Jesus called Matthew from his tax collecting vocation, and he followed Him. The Triune God called you in Holy Baptism, and you now follow Him.

6. The call to follow Jesus is not without cost. Jesus says His disciples must bear their own cross and follow Him. Jesus says His disciples must renounce everything to follow Him. This cost is nothing less than what Jesus made known to first Abraham and later the apostles. Abraham left hearth and home to follow Yahweh; the fishermen left their boats and nets to follow Jesus. Matthew left his wealthy job and followed the Christ.

7. Dietrich Bonhöffer comments on the cost, when he writes: To follow in Jesus’ steps is something which is void of all content. It gives us no intelligible program for a way of life, no goal or ideal to strive after. It is not a cause which human calculation might deem worthy of our devotion, even the devotion of ourselves. What happens? At the call, Matthew leaves all that he has—but not because he thinks that he might be doing something worth while, but simply for the sake of the call. Otherwise he cannot follow in the steps of Jesus. This act on Matthew’s part has not the slightest value in itself, it is quite devoid of significance and unworthy of consideration. Peter, James and John simply beach their boats and go ahead (Bonhöffer 120).

8. Jesus therefore tells us to count the cost of following Him. We must deny ourselves. „To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only Christ who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is: Christ leads the way, keep close to Him“ (Bonhöffer 195-97). We must bear our own cross. „When Christ calls you, He bids you follow and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time – death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at Christ’s call. Jesus’ summons to the rich young man was calling him to die, because only the man who is dead to his own will can follow Christ. In fact every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts“ (Bonhöffer 199-200).

9. Jesus calls us out of this fallen world into His perfect world. With a new identity comes a new attitude and world view. Our Christian values grate against those of the world we have left behind. For all its lip service to freedom of religion and speech, the corrupt world does not tolerate those who follow the beat of a different Drummer. Christians who protest gay marriage and think such unions are wrong and sinful are called bigots, homophobic and unloving. Such are the tribulations Christians face from the world.

10. „The call of Jesus teaches us that our relation to the world has been built on an illusion. All the time we thought we had enjoyed a direct relation with men and things. This is what had hindered us from faith and obedience. Now we learn that in the most intimate relationships of life, in our kinship with father and mother, brothers and sisters, in married love, and in our duty to the community, direct relationships are impossible. Since the advent of Christ, His followers have no more immediate realities of their own, not in their family relationships nor in the ties with their nation nor in the relationships formed in the process of living. Between father and son, husband and wife, the individual and the nation, stands Christ the Mediator, whether they are able to recognize Him or not. We cannot establish direct contact outside ourselves except through Christ, through His Word, and through our following of Him. To think otherwise is to deceive ourselves“ (Bonhöffer 217-18).

11. We follow Christ to His cross and ours. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved the cross is the power of God. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men« (1. Corinthians 1,18.25). To follow Christ is to set the world as our adversary, but Christ has overcome the world (John 16,33). Thus, the Apostle John proclaims: »For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. Our faith is the victory that has overcome the world. The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world« (1. John 5,4-5).

12. The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian Christians that we apostles and evangelists are only concerned with preaching Christ crucified (1. Corinthians 1,23) and His resurrection (1. Corinthians 15). Paul then observes that preaching Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles (1 Corinthians 1,23). The cross of Christ offends people, for the cross of Christ is the chief sign that salvation is only through Jesus. Christ has placed the cross as a roadblock on the pathway of salvation, and people must either pick up that cross, make it their own and journey onward with Jesus to Calvary or they must turn aside from the Divine plan of salvation, abandon Christ, deny His cross and attempt another path to salvation; but these other paths always lead to damnation and hell. Jesus tells us that if we want to be His disciples, then we must take up His cross and follow Him. This offends people who want the Christian life to be a journey devoid of trials and tribulations.

13. We fail to forsake family for Christ, but Jesus forsook His mother and siblings to preach the gospel and be our Savior. We walk away from the cross and its intense suffering, but Jesus took up the cross as His own, carried it and upon it suffered the wrath of His Father as the sacrificial Lamb who bore the sin of the world and paid for that sin in full with His shed blood. We place our possessions ahead of Christ and are loathe to put into the offering plate our fortunes, but Jesus left behind His carpentry business and often had no place to lay His head during His public ministry (Luke 9,58). Therefore, God the Father is well-pleased with His Son. Since He is well-pleased with Jesus, then He is also well-pleased with us for Jesus stands in our place. Christ and His merit has earned righteousness, justification and sanctification. Christ gives you His merit and righteousness so that you are justified and abounding in good, holy works before God the Father by grace alone. God the Father is favorable to you with His rich and manifold blessings because of Jesus Christ.

14. Christ walked the path of the cross to Calvary. He bids and urges us to follow Him, for the path of the cross, the path to Calvary, leads to Christ’s death as our Redeemer, leads to Christ’s Resurrection as our Eternal Life and finds its destination in the Paradise of God which is the dwelling place of the Triune God, the holy angels and all Christians. Our heavenly home awaits us; come, and follow Jesus there, for He has born the cost. His burden is light, and He shares it with you. Amen.

15. Let us pray. O God the Father, You have made known Your salvation and have revealed Your righteousness in the sight of the nations through Your Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; send Your Holy Spirit to guide us along the path of discipleship so that we do not become overwhelmed with the high cost that discipleship demands from each of us. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

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[1] A gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place in an assembly for the purpose of deliberating.

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Matthew 13,44-46. The 9th Sunday after Trinity

John 9,1-7. The 8th Sunday after Trinity

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Luke 9,10-17. 7th Sunday after Trinity

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Synodical President

Isaiah 43,1-7. 6th Sunday after Trinity

Monday, July 1, 2013

Luke 14,25-33. 5th Sunday after Trinity