Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Luke 5,1-11. 5. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Luke 5,1-11 3515

5. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 050

Haggai, Prophet, 520 bc

5. Juli 2015

1. O God, Thou the Alpha and the Omega, call us, open our eyes, and stir our heart and soul so that we trust in Your Solace and Life. Amen. (VELKD, Prayer for 5. Sn. n. Trinitatis § 1)

2. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on Him to hear the word of God, Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, and He saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, He asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon: „Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.“ And Simon answered: „Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at Your word I will let down the nets.“ And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying: „Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.“ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon: „Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.“ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

3. Our Gospel pericope this morning concludes with these verses: »And Jesus said to Simon: „Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.“ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.« Jesus had many disciples who followed Him, but The Twelve He had called Himself, and among these Twelve were the four fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James and John, and these Twelve He later anointed as apostles and sent them out to preach the gospel. In Luke 5 Jesus compared preaching the gospel to fishing. In this regard Jesus was comforting His new disciples. These four men knew fishing and they were good at their vocation as fishermen, but preaching the gospel was a new and different vocation for them. They were uncertain and unprepared for this new task, but Jesus assured them that it would be just like fishing: they would cast the net, and they would catch people; they would preach the gospel, and people would believe. Their success at preaching the gospel is grounded upon Jesus.

4. Not only does Jesus promise success in their preaching, but He also teaches them the message to proclaim. Jesus began His ministry by reading in the synagogue of Nazareth from the Prophet Isaiah: »The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news 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.« Then He proclaimed: »Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing« (Luke 4,18-19.21). And again to the crowds: »I must preach the gospel of the reign of God to the towns and synagogues of Judea« (Luke 4,43-44). The gospel Jesus preached was what He preached to the paralytic: »Man, your sins are forgiven you. But so that you Pharisees may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, paralyzed man, rise, pick up your bed and go home« (Luke 5,20.24).

5. The gospel that creates faith and draws people into the Church is the gospel that proclaims Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died and rose to redeem people from their sin, to rescue them from the tribulations of this cursed creation and to bring them unto eternal salvation in the presence of God, His angels and all who proceeded them in the Christian faith. This is the gospel Jesus preached, the apostles preached and pastors ought to preach today. The gospel is grounded upon Jesus and His work of redemption. Jesus’ word goes forth from His mouth, and it does not return unto Him void, but His word accomplishes that which He desires and prospers in the thing to which He sends it (Isaiah 55,11).

6. Christ’s word stands in stark contrast to man’s word. At the end of the 19. century, liberal theologians had exchanged the gospel of forgiveness through Jesus with a social gospel concerned more about curing all the social problems of the world. As the 20. century dawned, they saw their promise of worldwide utopia on the horizon, and then The Great War happened where the „old liberal theology was buried in the mud of the trenches of the first World War. A secularized kingdom of God was not in the cards. And utopian Marxism gives way to Realpolitik. Not much of a future, not much hope, so grab what you can, while you can“ (Nagel 173,6). Our post-modern culture traces its foundation back to the liberalism that bogged down in the trenches of man’s violent warfare against man. Around the world, liberal politics and liberal theologies promise so much, but often fail to deliver when confronted with the reality of a corrupt and immoral world. Peaceful negotiations have not progressed in the past year in both the Ukraine and Palestine, terrorism is emboldened and has stretched forth its violent tentacles throughout the Middle East and attempts to put the entire world in its strangle hold. The words of our politicians ring hollow and detached from the real and serious threats that surround us.

7. Liberal theology with its quest for the historical Jesus because it doubts the veracity of the Four Gospels leads to a wholesale rejection of the miracles and a real resurrected Jesus from the tomb offers no gospel and peace to those dealing with chronic illnesses and the right hand of Grim Reaper ready to take them from the land of the living into the realm of the dead. A prosperity gospel of obtaining your best life now may pleasingly scratch the itching ears of middle class suburbanites but it gives no hope to Middle Eastern Christians kneeling in the sand waiting for ISIS to behead them. A theology that walks hand in hand with American civil religion that says America is a Christian nation and practically views the U.S. Constitution as the 67. book of the Bible is put in a difficult position when that government legislates issues that are contrary to their Christian faith or attempt to silence the right to freedom of religion.

8. The gospel that Jesus and His apostles preached is so much greater than the old, tired liberal theologies that continue to shackle the many parts of the Church. The gospel that should be preached from pulpits is: »Man, woman, your sins are forgiven you« (Luke 5,20). This gospel comforts the sick and dying by promising them one of two things: 1. God’s merciful hand will heal you of your illness, or 2. When you die, you will be in Paradise with Christ and on the last day He will raise you up. This gospel comforts those who are about to be martyred for their Christian faith: Do not fear what you are about to suffer, but be faithful unto death and Jesus will give you the crown of everlasting life. (Revelation 2,10). This gospel comforts the Church when the world turns against them: Jesus has given His Church the word of His Father, and the world hates the Church because she is not of the world. Jesus does not take the Church out of the world, but rather He keeps her from the evil one (John 17,14-16).

9. Early Christian artwork portrayed the Church as the ship of faith. Like a ship, the Church sails upon the waters, braving the tempests, to rescue people who have been shipwrecked by the wind and waves of the world. Luke 5 uses the image of catching people up in Jesus’ gospel net, but a complementary image is to see the Church as the ship that sails into disasters, throws out the life-preserver of the gospel and hauls drowning people into the safety of the Church. In this image the Church and the gospel she proclaims is like the event described in Matthew 14 where Jesus walked on water. When Simon Peter saw the the wind and waves surging around him, he became afraid and began to drown. He cried out for Jesus to save him, and Jesus immediately stretched forth His hand, caught him and brought Peter into the safety of the ship (Matthew 14,30-31). The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonian Christians: »The Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one« (2. Thessalonians 3,3). He does this through the power of His word that is grounded upon His merits. Jesus speaks, and His authority is grounded upon the fact that He was lifted up and cried: »It is accomplished« (John 19,30). „That fact holds through it all. The one who sits on the throne to judge is the same one enthroned on the cross. Jesus’ dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and His kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed“ (Nagel 174,9). His word promises it, secures it and fulfills it. You have been caught up in Jesus’ net and brought into the Church. The ship of faith has sailed to your location, rescued you from the storms and saved your very life. Now you help ensure through your prayers and your offerings that the ship is seaworthy and the nets mended so the Church and her gospel can sail forth and catch more people into the faith of Jesus. Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You have made known Your salvation and have revealed Your righteousness in the sight of the nations so that we receive that gospel for our deliverance. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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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.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Luke 5,1-11. 5. Sunday after Trinity

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