Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: 1. Corinthians 3,9-15. 12. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

1. Corinthians 3,9-15 4614

12. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 057

Regina, Virgin, Martyr in Burgundy, France ✠ 251

7. September 2014

1. O God, Thou our Foundation that sustains us, Thou our Haven that saves us, we trust You and we worship You, O God, Thou our Love and Life. Instill in us a desire for Your mercy, so that we gratefully receive Your grace for our justification (VELKD, Prayer for 12. Sunday after Trinity § 1). Amen.

2. »For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.«

3. Our Gospel Lection tells us the account of Jesus healing a man born deaf and mute. We see in this miracle that „What God says, God does. The reverse is also true. What God does, God says; His doing is not ambiguous. God’s work is God’s speech. God’s speech is no fleeting breath. It is a most effective breath that creates life, that summons into life“ (Bayer 43). St. Mark the Evangelist reported the response of the crowd: »He has done all things well« (Mark 7,37). Since He has done all things well, then Jesus has also spoken all things well.

4. Thus, the Apostle Paul exhorts us: »Now if anyone builds on the foundation which is Jesus Christ with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – each one’s work will become manifest, for the last day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.« The holy apostles teaches two fundamental doctrines in these three verses of his 1. Epistle to the Corinthians: 1. there is only one foundation, and that foundation is Jesus Christ; 2. use good building materials on this foundation. The apostle speaks here of justification and sanctification.

5. St. Paul teaches that there is only one foundation which survives the test of judgment, and that is the foundation which is Jesus Christ. In another epistle, Paul expounds on that foundation saying that the foundation is the apostolic and prophetic teaching of the old and new testaments with Christ Himself the Cornerstone of that foundation (Ephesians 2,20). Paul says that apostles and prophets proclaimed Christ Jesus for He is the most important stone in the foundation. In any building project you have to get the foundation right. If you build a solid foundation, then you will withstand the forces of nature and time. Consider the pyramids in Egypt: they have stood for thousands of years because their foundation is rock solid. A weak foundation, however, will soon succumb to the tempests of nature. Thus Paul says the only trustworthy foundation that brings the certainty of salvation is the one that is built upon the preaching of the apostles and prophets that is centered upon Christ crucified for sinners. This foundation of redemption is secured by Christ who has redeemed us from sin, death and hell. No force can shake this foundation, not even the forces of Hades (Matthew 16,18). Salvation and justification are only through Jesus, who said: »I Am the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture« (John 10,9); »I Am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades« (Revelation 1,18).

6. „In our modern age, influenced by Pietism and the Enlightenment, our thinking is shaped by what is subjective, by the life of faith, by our inner disposition and motivation, by our inward impulses and the way they are shaped. When we think and live along these lines, sanctification is a matter of personal and individual development and orientation…. But this approach [by means of personal responsibility] is secondary. ‘The Word of God always comes first. After it follows faith; after faith, love; then love does every good work, for … it is the fulfilling of the law’“ (Bayer 58). Paul tells us that there are two types of works: those that are precious and those that are stubble. The good, precious works will survive while the cheaper works will be burned and discarded.

7. Good works are performed in three estates: the Church, the household and in politics (Bayer 60) and sometimes these three estates overlap into each other. In the Church our works revolve around two offices: the episcopacy and the diaconate. The episcopacy is the pastor office with its attending works of preaching and administering the Sacraments. The diaconate is the serving office with its attending works that meet the physical needs of people. THe diaconate can be divided into two additional works: the ecclesiastical works and the temporal works. Ecclesiastical works are spiritual and involve encouraging one another, praying with and for each other, attending worship, singing and learning from the Word through the Scripture readings and the sermons. The temporal works are collecting offerings to fund the paying of salaries, paying the bills for electricity, heat and water, ensuring the preaching of the gospel is upheld, attending to the janitorial tasks of repairs, upkeep and cleanliness and a host of other works that go with have property and a building.

8. In the household there are many works that need to be done. Being a husband, being a wife, being a father, being a mother, attending to finances and bills, upkeep of the home and yard, studying, working, cleaning, caring for our family and neighbors by helping them in their needs and general stewardship of creation. The estates of Church and household overlap a bit for part of our good works involve ensuring we and our family are raised in the Christian faith, exhorting our neighbors to be attentive in Church and inviting our neighbors to join us in Church if they are lax in attendance or have no Church home.

9. There are numerous good works to be done in the political estate. Obviously, we can run for any number of public offices to serve our borough, State or nation. Such consideration for these offices is important because often politicians are stereotyped as pariahs concerned only about government pork, amassing power for themselves and liars. All the more reason for good Christians to hold public office who will be honest, faithful, good stewards of the public treasury and putting the interests of their neighbors when they make decisions. Political offices offer many opportunities to help our neighbors whether it be in direct ways as a politician, a police officer, a firefighter, a crossing guard or some other public works duty. Indirectly the political estate helps the neighbors by ensuring that all are treated fairly and equally, the public services are maintained for the good of all and establishing programs that offer assistance to particular needs in the community. Other works fall under the political estate, such as being an informed voter who actually votes, military service, volunteer organizations, hospital work and other institutions that exist to assist people in their needs.

10. Underpinning this sanctification, the salvation that God imparts today guarantees the approaching consummation of the world on the last day and enables us to experience with sorrow the contradiction between the suffering and sighing creatures of the old world and the creation that is promised, the original world (Bayer 64). „It is difficult for us – influenced as we are by the legacy of Pietism – to think of the world and its history in this way. According to our obstinate misunderstanding, based upon our modern presuppositions, any talk about God’s preservation of creation is hard to relate to talk about the future that we can expect from God, if not totally in contradiction to it. And yet this misunderstanding can be resolved“ (Bayer 64). The key to living in this world lies in the promise of God (Bayer 65). The Lord Jesus Christ speaks and acts; He acts and speaks. Jesus speaks and makes all things new. This begins in our Baptism where the holy Word was spoken over us: „I baptize you in the Name of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.“ That Word brings us into God’s family and justifies us through the merits of Jesus Christ. The old is drowned and the new rises from the baptismal waters. „In the relation of our new nature to the old we do make progress“, for we begin and make some progress in that which shall be perfected on the Last Day (Bayer 65). This progress is the works that we built upon the foundation of Christ and faith in Him. The Apostle Paul tells us that some of these works will survive while others will be burned away. „We do not merit the reign of God by working for it. It has long since been prepared.“ Jesus said: »Inherit the reign prepared for you from the foundation of the world« (Matthew 25,34). „The concept of progress is no longer a salvation concept“ (Bayer 66). We live in a fallen, corrupt and cursed world, but we do not flee from this present world with the dream of hoping for better times in this world’s history (Bayer 67). Rather, we look to the promise of God in Christ Jesus. He lived in this world among us and He overcame the fruit of this fallen, corrupt and cursed world. He saw a deaf man, and He made him healthy and whole. He saw dead Lazarus, and He raised him up to new life. He Himself died, was buried in the grave and descended into Hades, but on the third day Jesus rose from the dead, walked out from His grave and had unlocked the very gates of Hades. Jesus gives us this victory of justification in our Baptism. We believe His words, take comfort in His promise and faith yields the good works of sanctification for the benefit of our neighbors. „The reign of God is not being prepared but has been prepared, while the sons and daughters of the reign are being prepared, not preparing the reign; that is to say, the reign of God merits the children, not the children the reign of God“ (Bayer 76-77). God alone is righteous, and He has given us His very righteousness through His Son Jesus Christ. This is our hope and our faith for it rests upon Christ and His gospel promise to us. Truly, Jesus has done all things well. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You alone are worthy to be blessed and praised at all times, strengthen our faith in You so that we rely upon You alone for salvation and hope in the new creation to arrive at Your second advent. 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.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, September 8, 2014

1. Corinthians 3,9-15. 12. Sunday after Trinity

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