Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Acts 17,22-28a. Jubilate

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Acts 17,22-28a (28b-34) 2814

Jubilate 038 shout with joy

Gangulphus, Martyr in Avallon, France Rome 760

Cyril, ✠ 869 and Methodius, ✠ 885, BB., Missionaries to the Slavs

11. May 2014

1. O Almighty God, who shewest to them that are in error the light of Thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all them that are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion, that they may eschew [avoid] those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer 139).

2. »So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: „Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, so that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; [1] as even some of your own poets have said: „‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ [2] Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.“ Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said: „We will hear you again about this.“ So Paul went out from their midst. But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.«

3. Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel Lection: »I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches.« Jesus here teaches that He is the Source of both our physical and spiritual life. Jesus refers back to Genesis 1 and 2: »God created man in His own Image, in the Image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1,27). Yahweh God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature« (Genesis 2,7). The Apostle Paul also told the Athenian Greeks: »In God we live and move and have our being; as even some of your own poets have said: „For we are indeed His offspring.“«

4. The Holy Scriptures teach that: 1. Yahweh God created mankind, 2. He created us in His Image and Likeness and 3. He created us to be in a relationship with Him. And yet, in spite of Scripture, poets and philosophers who profess a Creator God, many people downplay that God is our Creator or even deny His very existence. This is the old lie used by the devil in the Garden of Eden: you can be like God; yes, you can become your own God, just take the knowledge of good and evil and your eyes will be truly opened. Such knowledge did not give mankind the wisdom that had been promised. Instead, it set us up as adversaries against our Creator. We, the branches, had been severed from the Vine. Separated branches soon whither and die; when we are separated from God we are only fit to to be thrown into the eternal flames of hell and burned.

5. Yet there is the undeniable fact that men and women are created in the Image and Likeness of the Triune God. Hell was created to be the abode of the fallen angels, and as such is not a fit dwelling place for human beings. The Divine Image and Likeness that mankind was originally created in means something to God the Father. You and I are dear to our Heavenly Father’s heart. God’s plan of salvation history (Heilsgeschichte) involves renewal and resurrection.

6. The new, renewed creation is an effect of Christ having been crucified. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation« (Galatians 6,14-15). »Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God« (2 .Corinthians 5,17-19.21). Christ crucified is the vicarious sacrifice for sin, and by His sacrifice all sin has been atoned for. Hell’s gates are torn down, the devil has been defeated and death has lost its sting.

7. This new creation is similar to what we have now, but it will also be radically different. The dead will no longer be dead, for everlasting life is the rule of the day. Again St. Paul: »Christ has been raised from the dead, and He is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man arrived death, by a Man has arrived also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the Image of the Man of heaven« (1. Corinthians 15,20-22.42-44.49). The Image of Jesus is righteousness, sinlessness and eternal life. This Image had been given to Adam and Eve at their creation, but paradise was soon lost; in Christ this Divine Image is given to us again through the waters of Holy Baptism and in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. The Baptismal waters are a life-giving washing of regeneration, and the Paschal bread and wine are the true body and blood of Jesus given and shed for our forgiveness. What had been lost, Christ now brings paradise restored. As John the Apostle reminds us: this renewal and resurrection is not merely about the last day when Christ takes us up to live with Him forever in His presence. The effects of the new creation are in force right now. Christ is the Vine, and we are the branches. „Jesus is what life is about. He is with us, and we are with Him, flesh of flesh, bone of bone. Jesus’ death is the ultimate connection of us and God, for in Him we and God go together. Jesus points His disciples forward to that death as a birth of new life. No Good Friday, no Easter. Or following the arrow of the life that God lives and shares, if Good Friday, then Easter, and if Easter, then Pentecost, and if Pentecost, then on and on past our little death that we have already left behind at Calvary and received in exchange a birth“ (Nagel 130,8).

8. Christ is the Vine, and we are the branches who yield grapes. We are nourished and sustained by Christ, and this yields good works. »You have been saved through faith by grace. And this salvation is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For you are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that you should walk in those good works« (Ephesians 2,8-10). Amen.

9. 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.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

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.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

[1] Circa 600 BC, Epimenides said: „A grave has been fashioned for you, O holy and high one, the lying Cretans, who are all the time liars, vile beasts, idle bellies; but you do not die, for you live and stand eternally, for in you we live and move and have our being.“ The quote comes from his poem Radamanthus and Minos in which he puts the words in the mouth of Minos, the son of Zeus, regarding Cretans who said Zeus had been ripped apart by a bull, buried and is still in his grave.

[2] Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken.

For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.

Even the sea and the harbor are full of this deity.

Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus.

For we are indeed his offspring.

Ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα, τὸν οὐδέποτ' ἄνδρες ἐῶμεν

ἄρρητον· μεσταὶ δὲ Διὸς πᾶσαι μὲν ἀγυιαί,

πᾶσαι δ' ἀνθρώπων ἀγοραί, μεστὴ δὲ θάλασσα

καὶ λιμένες· πάντη δὲ Διὸς κεχρήμεθα πάντες.

τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος εἰμέν. κτλ (Aratus, Phaenomena 1–5).

The poets Aratus and Cleanthus both made the assertion of stanza 5 in 300 BC.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Acts 17,22-28a. Jubilate

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