Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: 1. Thessalonians 5,14-25. 14th Sunday after Trinity

Monday, September 29, 2014

1. Thessalonians 5,14-25. 14th Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

1. Thessalonians 5,14-25 4814

14. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 059

Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist, Martyr in Hierapolis, Turkey or Ethiopia 60

21. September 2014

1. O God, Thou Bringer of Everlasting Peace, give us Your Spirit of faithfulness and keep us ever mindful of our Holy Baptism so that we daily rejoice as a child and an heir in Your holy family (VELKD, Prayer for 14. Sunday after Trinity § 1). Amen.

2. »And we urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.«

3. This morning’s Gospel pericope mentions Jesus healing ten lepers. These men were physically alienated from both their community and the temple presence of Yahweh. They lived in isolation and the conventional wisdom of the day thought such men were outcasts of Yahweh’s providence, love and mercy. Jesus healed them. He restored them to their community of friends and family, and He restored them to access to God presence and mercy manifested in the temple. They all went straightaway to the temple to be given a physical checkup and declared cured of leprosy by one of the priests. But one man reversed direction and thanked Jesus for what He had done. This man recognized Jesus to be the True Priest who makes people healthy and whole. Jesus told this lone Samaritan whom He had healed that his faith had saved him. The Gospel pericope heard at Austin’s Baptism also speaks of faith: it uses the word „receive“ and speaks of faith as receiving the gifts God gives. Jesus exhorts us to believe in the reign of God like a child believes: with simplicity and full trust. Thus the Apostle Paul writes in his 1. Epistle to the Thessalonians: »Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.«

4. Pay attention to that last verse from St. Paul: »He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.« The apostle emphasizes Jesus’ faithfulness. The apostle does this because he knows that men and women are often faithless. O to be sure, we have good intentions to be faithful, but when trials and temptations weigh heavily upon us, our faithfulness may falter. We live in a world where oaths are violated, promises are broken and trust is betrayed. Perhaps we are not phased by these faithless actions, but in the midst of these chaotic situations the Word of God stands like an immoveable monolith. The Bible speaks of God’s steadfastness. The Psalmist writes: »The works of Yahweh’s hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy« (Psalm 111,7), and the Apostle John writes: »God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness« (1. John 1,8-9).

5. God’s faithfulness is bound to His Word, and His Word is His promise. God promises to forgive your sin, and His Word does what it says. Yahweh said to the Prophet Isaiah: »My Word that goes out from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish that which I purpose, and will succeed in the thing for which I sent it« (Isaiah 55,11). God says to you, through His Word, in your Holy Baptism and in the Lord’s Supper: Ego te absolvo! I absolve you of your sins! These Divine words constitute a reality: God says you are forgiven, and thus you are forgiven (Bayer 53). These words of absolution are a Verbum efficax: an effective, accomplishing Word (Bayer 53).

6. This effective Word was performed again this morning in Austin’s Baptism. Q: What is Baptism? A: Baptism in not just plain water, but it is water connected with God’s command and connected with God’s Word (The Small Catechism). Q: What does Baptism give? A: Baptism works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe what the Word and promises of God declare (The Small Catechism). Luther described it this way: If the gospel is heard as gospel, then the Spirit is there as well and forgives sins; then the Sacrament of Holy Baptism works faith: „If you believe then you will have.“ (Bayer 266). But do not take this to mean you have a „Get out of hell pass“. Baptism does create faith in the one who is baptized, but that faith can be choked out by the world, by others or by the person themselves if such faith is not nourished in the Church by means of the Word and the Sacraments. Baptism is not a guarantee of salvation, but Baptism is the action of God in the life of this person, which continues to have its effect and behind which we can never go (Bayer 269). Thus the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg encourages the following in her Baptismal Rite: Therefore pray, dear parents and God-parents, so that your child will come to his (her) own faith and will be able to rejoice in his (her) own Baptism (Bayer 267).

7. Holy Baptism creates faith and brings us into God’s family, which is the Church. We call the Church the ship of faith, and, unlike the ill-fated Titanic, the Church is unsinkable. However, it can certainly happen that you could go overboard at some time (Bayer 268). But by means of the lifesaver of the Word and faith you are hauled back aboard ever and again into this ship (Bayer 268). If you have fallen out of the Church, you can still be brought back onboard. Jesus and His Church are waiting for you and will welcome you back with open arms. God the Father is merciful and forgiving. »He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.« You are His through Holy Baptism, and you cannot undo your Baptism. His Son bled, died and rose from the dead for you and your salvation. You have His sincere promise that all sin is covered; yes, every single sin is forgiven you. Jesus told the Samaritan: »Your faith has saved you.« These are God’s words, and they are certain words of the reality that now exists between God and you.

8. What the Church proclaims, what Holy Baptism imparts and what the Lord’s Supper gives is simply Jesus Christ. I leave you with one more thing. An old Evangelical-Lutheran hymn summarizes God’s gift to us very succinctly:

God said to His Beloved Son:

It’s time to have compassion.

Then go, Bright Jewel of My crown,

And bring to all salvation.

From sin and sorrow set them free;

Slay bitter death for them that they

May live with You forever (LSB 556,5). Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Faithful God, as a father shows compassion to his children, so You show compassion to those who fear, love and trust You, help us to receive Your Word and Sacraments as the means of grace that they are so that our troubled souls are assured of Your Fatherly love and mercy You have for us. 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 29, 2014

1. Thessalonians 5,14-25. 14th Sunday after Trinity

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