Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: February 2016

Monday, February 29, 2016

Ephesians 5,1-8. Oculi

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Ephesians 5,1-8 1616

Okuli (3. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 026 „My eyes“

The Nursing Martyrs who died caring for the sick during the Plague at Alexandria, 261-63

28. Februar 2016

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, who has sent Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh, so that He might overcome the devil, and defend us poor sinners against the adversary: We give thanks unto You for Your merciful help, and we beseech You to attend us with Your grace in all temptations, to preserve us from carnal security, and by Your Holy Spirit to keep us in Your Word and Your fear, so that unto the end we may be delivered from the enemy, and obtain eternal salvation, through the same, Your Beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for Oculi).

2. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the reign of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

3. The Apostle Paul tells us: »You are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.« In this, St. Paul is exhorting us to follow Christ Jesus who told us: »No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the reign of God« (Luke 9,62). Luke 9,51 is the great apex in the Gospel according to St. Luke. Prior to verse 51, Luke tells us that Jesus had been teaching, preaching and doing miracles: all of which proclaimed that He is the Son of Man who was sent by God the Father to redeem the world. At verse 51 Jesus’ ministry entered the final stretch; He has set His face toward Jerusalem and journeys up to that holy city. He has put His hand to the plow, is walking up to Jerusalem and He alone is fit for the reign of God. The path Jesus walked ends with His betrayal by Judas Iscariot, His arrest, conviction of sedition against Rome and His execution upon the cross. Most of the apostles and disciples scattered in fear and went into hiding save His mother, a couple of other women and John. When the time had arrived for His apostles and disciples to stand next to Jesus and confess Him boldly and proudly as the Christ, only a few were at Jesus feet silent and sorrowful. Jesus ultimately walked this path alone, and alone He endured His Father’s wrath upon sin and bore our redemption.

4. We will never meet the high, exacting standards of God’s law, but Jesus did. We do not go to the law when our failed attempts at living up to the Christian virtues espoused by the Apostle Paul in his epistle, but we go to God’s gospel that is manifested in Christ Jesus. Striving to be more virtuous Christians does not merit in any way our justification and salvation. We should indeed strive to follow St. Paul’s exhortations with the Holy Spirit’s help to curb our vices and with His guidance to more virtuous, but we must never put any amount of trust in our striving, our virtuous behavior or our cross-bearing as something to be added to our meriting righteousness by Jesus’ sake. The gospel tells us that Jesus is the Faithful Disciple, and He Himself has merited pure righteousness; Jesus freely gives us this righteousness in our Holy Baptism, and we receive this righteousness through faith.

5. The wonderful story that unfolds within the Holy Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation is that the Lord’s people fall into sin and never live up to His strict demands simply stated in the 10 Commandments, but the Lord draws near to His fallen and discouraged people and brings them the gospel of forgiveness that is grounded upon Christ crucified and risen for our justification and salvation. Christian virtue is not about living the good, morally improving life – any philosophy, religion or self-improvement methodology can offer that – but Christian virtue is about Christ, believing in Him whole-heartedly for the forgiveness of sins and rejoicing in the amazing gospel that says you are saved, you are the beloved of the Heavenly Father – not because you have lived up to your Christian potential – but rather because Christ has lived it for you and He gives it to all of us as a free gift. It is a gift that we cannot buy or earn by our merits or virtues, but it is a gift that was earned by Christ so that He alone gives it to us through the Holy Spirit. This is the gospel, and its message is unique in all the world, and we have it by Christ alone for our eternal salvation.

6. Today’s Introit proclaims the virtue of the psalmist who writes: »My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for He will pluck my feet out of the net« (Psalm 25,15). We so easily get entangled in nets. Our disdain for the Commandments and the laxity we have about our sinfulness entangles us in the net of detachment. Our determinedness to be pious and virtuous Christian also entangles us in the net of despair. The more we struggle, the more tightly we get entangled in our nets. A seasoned fisherman knows when cut his losses and just cut his net in order to free all the wriggling fish and add them to his catch. Jesus is just such a Master Fisherman. He finds us either tangled up in our detachment or our despair and He cuts us free and pulls us out of that constricting net. Jesus is the Chief Fisher of men and He has redeemed all mankind to be His. The Apostle Peter writes in his epistle: »You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Jesus who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy« (1. Peter 2,9-10).

7. Thus again St. Paul: »For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.« We are heirs of the reign of God and thus live with virtue because the world is still fallen and corrupt. God’s people are to be a light in its darkness. Amen.

8. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Thou Prince of the reign of God, make our Christian light shine bright so that those who are still lost may find the way unto salvation that is only in Thy Light. 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^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Monday, February 22, 2016

Romans 5,1-5. Reminiscere

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Romans 5,1-5 [6-11] 1516

Reminiszere (Remember) 025

Agnes, Virgin, Martyr at Rome, 304

21. Februar 2016

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, grant us, we beseech You, by Your Holy Spirit, so that He may strengthen our hearts and confirm our faith and hope in Your grace and mercy, so that, although we have reason to fear because of our conscience, our sin and our unworthiness, we may nevertheless, with the woman of Canaan, hold fast to Your grace, and in every trial and temptation find You a very present help and refuge. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for the Reminiscere Sunday)

2. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Christ we have also obtained access by faithinto this grace in which we stand, and werejoicein hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

3. The theme for the 2. Sunday in Lent is reminiscere: remember. St. Paul tells us in his Epistle to the Romans to remember: »Since we have been justified by faith, wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Christ we have also obtained access by faithinto this grace in which we stand, and werejoicein hope of the glory of God.«

4. Earlier in his Epistle, St. Paul reminds us that: We are weak. We are godless. We are unrighteous and wicked. We do not merit Divine mercy and love. God’s holy law reveals our sins, our selfish attitudes and our lack of a moral compass; our deserved wages are death.

5. God, however, is not in the business of destroying people, but in saving them. God is not a slayer, but a savior. Our Heavenly Father sent His Only Son to earth not to be the Master, but to be our Doctor. Thus Jesus proclaimed: Those who are healthy have no need of a doctor, but those who are sick do need a doctor (Matthew 9,12) who will cure them.

6. What then is the prescription Jesus gives to dying sinners? Jesus gives us Himself; He suffered, died and rose again to justify us and redeem us. This cure is given out in Holy Baptism, Absolution, the Lord’s Supper and preaching. These means of grace give us Jesus and His righteousness. Faith receives these means and believes: Jesus has redeemed and forgiven me. St. Paul tells us: »Through Christ we have obtained access by faithinto this grace in which we stand, and werejoicein hope of the glory of God.«

7. This grace is not always well-received. In this morning’s Gospel parable Jesus teaches that the tenants of the vineyard rejected it owner, his servants and even his son. They desired to seize the vineyard for themselves and become its owners. Jesus used this parable to explain why the Jewish chief priests, scribes and elders rejected Him. Jesus’ preaching caused them to fear, and their fear lead to anger, and their anger lead to hate, and their hatred of Jesus lead to His suffering at their hands. Instead of Jesus’ gospel leading them to the light of grace, their rejection of His gospel caused them to descend into the darkness of rebellion. Thus Jesus told them: »The Stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone;this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes« (Psalm 118,22-23; Mark 12,10-11).

8. Instead of causing rejection, the gospel should be a cause for rejoicing. The Apostle Paul tells us: »We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.« The gospel is the enlightened path to God’s grace in Jesus Christ. The Stone that many of the Jews rejected has become the Cornerstone of the Gentiles’ Christian faith. Today we remember who Jesus is, what He has done and how He is the Cornerstone of our faith and salvation. Jesus is the path of everlasting life with God and all His host. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Almighty God, who shows Your love for us in that Christ died for us while we were still sinners, send forth the Holy Spirit to nurture our faith so that in all the situations of this life, both the good and the bad, we remain steadfastly grounded upon Christ the Cornerstone and the foundation of the prophets and the apostles laid down for us in Your Holy Scriptures. 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.

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Hebrews 4,14-16. Invocavit

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Hebrews 4,14-16 1416

Invokavit (1. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 024 „He will call“

Valentine, Bishop of Iteramna (Terni, Italy), Martyr 269

Cyril and Methodius, Apostles of the Slavs, 9^th c.

14. Februar 2016

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, inasmuch as the adversary doth continually afflict us, and as a roaring lion doth walk about, seeking to devour us: We beseech Thee for the sake of the suffering and death of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, to help us by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and to strengthen our hearts by Thy word, that our enemy may not prevail over us, but that we may evermore abide in Thy grace, and be preserved unto everlasting life. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for Invocavit).

2. Since then we have a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

3. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us why The temptation of Jesus is important: »For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.« When Satan tempted Adam, it was to get him to sin by rebelling against God. Satan had the same intent when he tempted Jesus, the Second Adam, to rebel against His Father’s will.

4. His method of temptation is the same. To Eve: Did God really say? To Jesus: If you are the Son of God? This is a means to create doubt, and once doubt is present then the possibility is real yield to the tempting question and rebel against God. The Devil is shrewd and he knows how to cause rebellion. He got Adam to sin shortly after his creation so that his son will be passed down to all his ancestors. We are a now all born with original sin as part of our human nature. We are born sinners, and there is nothing we can do to change that. He tempted Jesus after His baptism, before He began His public ministry and after Jesus had been fasting for 40 days. His goal was to derail God’s Heilsgeschichte (salvation history) before it even got rolling.

5. Where the first Adam failed, the Second Adam succeeded. »In every respect Jesus has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.« The failure of the first Adam brought original sin; the victory of the Second Adam brought imputed righteousness. »Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.« Luther tells us how this is applied in our lives: „A Christian’s sin is the same sin and sin as great as that of the unbeliever. To the Christian, however, it is forgiven and not imputed, while to the unbeliever the sin is retained and imputed.... This is not because of a difference between the sins, as though the Christian’s sin were smaller and the unbeliever’s larger, but because of a difference between the persons. For the Christian knows that his sin is forgiven him on account of Christ, who has expiated it by His death. Even though the Christian has sin and commits sin, he remains godly. On the other hand, when the unbeliever commits sin, he remains ungodly. This is the wisdom and the comfort of those who are truly godly, that even if they have sins and commit sins, they know that because of their faith in Christ these sins are not imputed to them“ (Luther 27,76). Luther was expounding upon the Apostle Paul who wrote in his Epistle to the Romans: »There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death« (Romans 8,1-2). Paul declares it as a certainty that Christ is our principal, complete and perfect righteousness [1] (Luther 27,71), and Christ’s righteousness is given us by faith, for this reason righteousness is imputed in us through faith, i.e., it is that by which we are made acceptable to God on account of the imputation and ordinance of God, as Paul says, 187] Rom. 4, 3. 5: Faith is reckoned for righteousness. Although on account of certain persons who point out trivial faults we must say technically: Faith is truly righteousness, because it is obedience to the gospel (Apology ¶ 186-87).

6. Saint Matthew records for us the temptation of Jesus. He shows us that Jesus is obedient to His Heavenly Father. Matthew tells us that Jesus was tempted to:

1. use His own power to serve Himself in time of need,

2. force Him to prove that God will protect Him and

3. worship and serve someone (Gibbs 194-96).

Matthew furthermore tells us that Jesus was and is the Victor over Satan. Matthew proclaims that Jesus’ work rather than Jesus’ example (Gibbs 197). Matthew shows us that Jesus is Victor over Satan on behalf of Israel and ultimately on behalf of all people (Gibbs 198). The Devil tempted Jesus in regards to His identity and what His mission is as God’s Son. Satan wants Jesus to become His own master and serve Himself; Jesus instead remains true as His Father’s Only Begotten Son who obeys His Father’s will and conducts His public ministry to save fallen mankind.

7. Jesus teaches us to know from God’s Word who we are and how that identity as God’s baptized, adopted son or daughter is to be lived out (Gibbs 198). Just as God the Father sent angels to minister to His Son following His temptation, so will He also send us His angels to minister to us after the Devil has tempted and tormented us with his lies and slander. Jesus is victorious over Satan and that means our enemy may not prevail over us, but we evermore abide in His grace and are preserved unto everlasting life. For the Gullert’s Easter hymn Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won beautifully uplifts us with this verse:

Jesus lives! I know full well

Nothing me from Him shall sever.

Neither death nor powers of hell

Part me now from Christ forever.

God will be my sure defense;

This shall be my confidence (LSB 490,4).

Jesus is our Sure Defense. He is our Victor. All that is His is now ours, for He is our Lord and Savior over sin, death and the Devil. Amen.

8. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Thou Son of God, You appeared to destroy the works of the Devil so that we may live our lives certain of our ultimate victory over his temptations and everlasting life in Your Divine presences. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

[1] capitalis, rotundus et perfectus

Thursday, February 11, 2016

2. Peter 1,2-11. Aschermittwoch

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

2. Peter 1,2-11 1316

Aschermittwoch 023

Silas, Fellow worker of St. Peter and St. Paul, Bishop of Corinth, Martyr 50

Scholastica, Virgin, sister of Benedict of Nursia, Italy

10. Februar 2016

1. O Almighty and Everlasting God, who hates nothing that You have made and does forgive the sins of all those who are repentant: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, so that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of You, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness. Amen.

2. Our sermon text for this evening, dear brothers and sisters, is from the 2. Epistle of St. Peter where the holy apostle writes: ²May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ³His Divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us toHis own glory and excellence,⁴by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the Divine Nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵For this very reason, diligently supplement your faith with virtue,and virtue with knowledge, ⁶and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷and godliness with brotherly love (φιλαδελφιαν), and brotherly love (φιλαδελφια) with unconditional love (αγαπην). ⁸For if these qualitiesare yours and are increasing, then they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰Therefore, brothers and sisters,be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is our text.

3. Lent begins with ashes – the symbol of death and complete destruction – and thus, Lent begins with our recognition that one day we will become ashes. Hopefully for all of us, such will happen after decades and centuries of our body moldering and decaying in its grave, for the alternative is that we are turned to ashes in an instant by a fire or other such extreme tragedy. Ashes are the end result of God’s wrath and punishment upon sin and sinners. The curse of sin is death, and the after death comes the decay of the physical body until there are only ashes left. Even worse, after a millennia not even the ashes are left, unless you happen to be a mummified pharaoh. Where are Adam’s ashes? Abraham’s? Isaac’s? Jacob’s? Such patriarchs don’t even have ashes of their bodies anymore because so much time has passed that even their bodily ashes have broken down to molecules and atoms that have been reabsorbed by the ground and reprocessed elsewhere in nature. Ashes. They are the product of the 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics: Energy spontaneously tends to flow only from being concentrated in one place to becoming diffused or dispersed and spread out. This is called entropy. Practically, this law is shown in the following example: A hot frying pan cools down when it is taken off the kitchen stove. Its thermal energy, which is „heat“, flows out to the cooler room air. The opposite never happens. British scientist and author C.P. Snow has an excellent way of remembering this law: „You cannot break even. You cannot return to the same energy state, because there is always an increase in disorder; entropy always increases.“ This is the theme of Ash Wednesday and Lent.

4. Yahweh’s law is damning. To Adam and Eve: if you eat from the forbidden tree, then you will die. To sinners: the life of the sinner will die. We live in a world that is ruled by the 2. Law of Thermodynamics: sinners die; nature trembles with natural disasters; creation breaks down. The 2. Law of Thermodynamics is the result of this fallen world on account of man’s sin and Yahweh’s curse upon that sin. Yes, our end result is ashes, disorder, and entropy. O we can deny it, we can ignore it, but the results of sinful entropy surround us and press upon us every single day. The liturgy of our (Gottesdienst) Divine Service pounds this horrible truth home every Sunday when we confess that everyone of us is a „poor, miserable sinner“. Our sins offend God and justly deserve His earthly and eternal punishment. Perhaps we have specific sins in mind when we make confession. Perhaps we just throw up our hands and say: „I cannot remember all my sins, I just know I am a filthy sinner and I cast my entire sinful body and soul before God in repentance of all I have done, spoken, or thought that has been sinful. “

5. How do we know we are sinful? God’s holy law reveals our sinfulness. The Ten Commandments pierce our conscience, and we feel guilty. The commandments tell us that we are subject to the law of entropy and that one day we will become ashes. The law, however, does not grant us the remission of our sins. The law only reveals that we are sinful, that God is angry at us, and He threatens to punish us for our wickedness.

6. Let’s be honest, though. Many try to use the law to earn their way to Jesus and salvation. Many will use Lent and the things they give up for the next forty days as ways to work their way into Jesus’ favor. Others will turn to other religions or philosophies, all of which are religions of law that tell you what you must do to get into God’s good graces.

7. The law only reveals that we are sinful, that God is angry at us, and He threatens to punish us for our wickedness. The law shipwrecks our lives. Yahweh gave us the law with the intention that His law is supposed to finally take us to the feet of Christ. Well what does Christ then do with us who have been tossed and churned by the law and cast upon the shore at the feet of Jesus. Does Jesus pick us up and give us more laws to follow so that we might join Him in Paradise? Certainly not! Jesus takes those who have been beaten and battered by the law, their sinfulness, and the curse upon sin and gives them the gospel.

8. Jesus tells us: „You have been beaten up by the law, and you are afraid of what awaits you when you die and your body turns to ashes, but do not fear, I will overturn death and entropy. You will live with me forever!“ Jesus accomplishes this for us and the entire world, and He accomplished it when He suffered and died on the cross in ransom payment for our sins, and He secured it when He triumphed over death when He Himself rose from death unto life, and not just any life, but eternal life never to die again. Jesus gives us these gospel gifts freely and we simply receive Jesus and His promise by faith.

9. Ash Wednesday and the liturgical season of Lent, then, is about Christ, His death, and His resurrection. The Apostle Peter says great things are born from faith in Christ. »For this very reason, diligently supplement your faith with virtue,and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly love, and brotherly love with unconditional love« (1,5-7). Here the holy apostle exhorts us to give evidence of our Christian faith with good works (Luther 155). „Since such a great blessing has been given to you through faith so that you truly have everything that is God, he wants to say, add to this … that is, let your faith break forth before the people, in order that it may be helpful, busy, powerful, and active, and may do many works and not remain sluggish and sterile. You have a good inheritance and a good field. But see to it that you do not let thistles or weeds grow in it“ (Luther 155).

10. This is but to be like Christ. Faith sprouts good works just as an apple tree produces apples. Both the faith and the works are God’s power working in us which He has freely and graciously given to us. The gospel, therefore, is the opposite of the law of entropy. Rather than breaking down and becoming ashes, the gospel overturns entropy. Death leads to decay and ashes, but Jesus overcame death; He did not decay and His body did not rot away for centuries in a grave. Jesus arose in resurrected life and in doing so He has overcome entropy. Tonight it is Ash Wednesday but on the last day it will become Everlasting Life Wednesday when Christ raises each person up to life, some for eternal torment in hell, and others for everlasting life in heaven.

11. Faith and the works that flow from faith are the beginning of Yahweh’s removal of the curse from creation, and when the curse is finally and fully removed, then the 2. Law of Thermodynamics will cease to be a law for entropy will not exist in the new heavens and the new earth. The beginning of this new creation begins with Ash Wednesday and Lent, for in this liturgical season we acknowledge our sinfulness and repent of our sinfulness, once again take up our cross, the cross that Jesus will bear, and journey with Him to Calvary, His crucifixion, and ultimately His resurrection. And in following Jesus as the Christ, we know and believe that the ashes on our forehead that symbolize our mortality and humiliation will on the last day symbolize our immortality and glory that we have through Christ Jesus alone.

12. We may not see the healing of the damage, but the sin can be forgiven, its dominion broken. Sin can no longer destroy us; it can no more destroy us than it can destroy Christ. He has answered for it all. You are free from the sting of death, free from the condemnation of the law, and free from the law of entropy, for in Christ Jesus ashes are raised up to new life with a physical body. Amen.

13. Let us pray. O Heavenly Father, who does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities, do not remember against us our former iniquities and let Your compassion come speedily to meet us. Help us O God of our salvation, so that we may see, believe, and rejoice in the glory of Your Holy and Almighty Name. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

Monday, February 8, 2016

1. Corinthians 13,1-13. Quinquagesima

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

1. Corinthians 13,1-13 1216

Estomihi (Quinquagesima) 022

Richard, King of Wessex, England, father of Walpurga, ✠ at Lucca, Italy 722

7. Februar 2016

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, who did manifest Yourself, with the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of grace at the baptism of Your dear Son, and with Your Voice did direct us to Him who has borne our sins, so that we might receive grace and the remission of sins: keep us, we beseech You, in the true faith; and inasmuch as we have been baptized in accordance with Your command, and the example of Your dear Son, we pray that You strengthen our faith by Your Holy Spirit, and lead us to everlasting life and salvation. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for the Quinquagesima Sunday)

2. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect arrives, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

3. The apostles in today’s Gospel pericope certainly proved the wisdom of Paul’s statement to the Corinthians: »When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully.« The Apostle Peter had rebuked Jesus for telling them that the Christ would suffer, die and rise again. Jesus’ interpretation of the Scriptural prophecies and Messianic expectations were at odds with the conventional wisdom of the day among the Jews. The other apostles agreed with Peter: the Christ would establish His reign and rule in victory, not be condemned and killed by the very religious leaders of Judaism.

4. The gospel that Jesus preaches is a suffering, dying and resurrecting Christ. This was difficult for the apostles to hear. The Christ was prophesied to destroy the enemies of the Lord, not be overcome and killed by those enemies. The apostles didn’t follow Jesus to suffer and die along side of Him; no, they expected princely thrones and places of honor for being the Chosen Ones who had followed Jesus from the beginning of His ministry. Had we been in the apostles’ sandals we would have expected nothing less as well.

5. Jesus proclaims that the gospel involves faithful cross-bearing: »If anyone would go after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it« (Mark 8,34-35). This is not the preaching you will hear from American televangelists. Our Christian airwaves constantly downplay the cross-bearing Christian and hold up the prospering Christian. This is wise salesmanship but it is not the gospel. Yes, in many ways we prosper and are richly blessed by Jesus as His Christian disciples, but the good times don’t always roll. We bear the cross alongside of Jesus. Trials, tribulations, suffering, sickness and even martyrdom are the common lot for Christians here and around the world.

6. The apostles had a good three-year run with Jesus’ public popularity. Their fortunes changed after Good Friday, Easter and Pentecost. They had the great joy of preaching the risen Christ and absolving sinners in His Name, but they also bore their own cross and suffered. Their proclamation was ignored, they were ridiculed and all the apostles save John died as martyrs with the gospel of Christ on their lips.

7. Grace truly is not easily understood. St. Paul’s exhortation in his epistle is a balm for our weary souls: »Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.« The apostles endured hardships and they put their trust in Jesus. Read some time these next fifty days Paul’s hardships he writes of in 2. Corinthians 11. [1] He then proclaims: »But God said to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2. Corinthians 12,9-10).

8. We are strong because of faith, hope and love. Jesus Christ is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12,2). Christ is the Hope of Jews and Gentiles (Romans 15,8). God so loved the world that He gave His Only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3,16). This love is the greatest: Jesus loves us and He proves this by dying on the cross to redeem us back to God and raising us up to new physical, eternal life. Jesus is our Faith, Hope and Love. We believe in Jesus as our Only Savior from sin, death and hades. We hope in His promise to return and raise us up as He has raised Himself up. We love Jesus who first loved us (1. John 4,19)!

9. For whoever is proud of Christ Jesus and of His words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be proud when He arrives in the Glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8,38). »We believe in and hope for this second advent of Jesus. For God, who said: Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies (2. Corinthians 4, 6.8-10).

10. Samuel Crossman’s popular Lenten hymn summarizes this Divine love:

My song is love unknown,

My Savior’s love to me,

Love to the loveless shown

That they might lovely be.

Oh, who am I

That for my sake

My Lord should take

Frail flesh and die?

Here might I stay and sing,

No story so Divine!

Never was love, dear King,

Never was grief like Thine.

This is my Friend,

In whose sweet praise

I all my days

Could gladly spend! (LSB 430 1.7). Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, who went up to Jerusalem to accomplish everything that is written about the Son of Man by the Prophets, fill us with faith, hope and love so that we remain always and only grounded upon You for our life and salvation. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

[1] this link provides a good outline of those verses: http://www.biblecharts.org/apostlepaulcharts/15%20-%20The%20Sufferings%20of%20Paul.pdf

Monday, February 1, 2016

Hebrews 4,12-13. Sexagesima

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Hebrews 4,12-13 1116

Sexagesimä 021

Vigilius, Bishop of Trent, Italy. Martyr 410

31. Januar 2016

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father: we thank You, that through Your Son Jesus Christ You have sown Your holy word among us: We pray that You will prepare our hearts by Your Holy Spirit, so that we may diligently and reverently hear Your word, keep It in good hearts, and bring forth fruit with patience; and so that we may not incline to sin, but subdue it by Your power and in all persecutions comfort ourselves with Your grace and continual help. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for Sexagesima).

2. For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

3. The Apostle tells us in his epistle this morning that the Word of God is a two-edged sword. One edge is the law, and the other edge is the gospel: both edges pierce our soul and spirit. „The law teaches what is right and pleasing to God, and the law also rebukes everything that is sin and contrary to God’s will“ (Epitome V,3). The law reveals our sinfulness, accuses us of particular sins and exhorts us to repent of our sin to God. Thus when we read and meditate upon the 10 Commandments, we feel guilty because we realize that we do not fear, love and trust God as we should; we also realize that we do not love our neighbors, but often times we harbor thoughts or actual actions of harming them, stealing from them and coveting what they have and we do not. All of the world’s problems stem from men and women’s sinful hatred of God and mankind, and thus sinful actions result from our sinful and fallen nature.

4. We also see in today’s Gospel parable that the law reveals that three of the four types of people who hear the gospel of Jesus will reject it. Some people let the devil snatch the gospel from them without even a struggle. Other people believe the gospel for a while, but then they forsake Jesus and His gospel when trials and tribulations befall them. Then there are people who allow the riches and pleasures of life to divert them from the gospel. The law says that in each instance such people do not really fear, love and trust God and His Word. Their actions betray their intent, and their intent is to remain just as separated from God as they were before they received His gospel. Such people do not bear the good works that God wants from them (Luke 8,12-14).

5. The gospel is the other edge of the Word of God. The gospel teaches what we who have not observed the law, and therefore are condemned by the law, are to believe, namely, that Christ has expiated and made satisfaction for all sins, and has obtained and acquired for us, without any merit of our own, forgiveness of sins and righteousness that avails before God and eternal life (Epitome 5,5). The gospel is simply that Jesus, and only Jesus, is the Savior of the world who has redeemed us by His suffering, death and resurrection, all of which, by the way, are the Divine fulfillment of the law. The law demands that sinners be punished for their sinfulness, and Jesus was punished for our sin in our place. The law says sinners must die, and Jesus died in our place. The gospel promises that because Jesus has been punished and crucified in our place, then we are forgiven and redeemed by His righteous merit. Furthermore, the gospel says that Jesus has saved us and will raise us back up to new life.

6. In today’s Gospel parable the gospel reveals that one of the four types of people who hear the gospel will receive it, believe it and do the good works that the law expects from everyone. They are those who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience (Luke 8,15). Such believers refuse to let the devil take the gospel from them no matter how hard he tries. They also do not let trials and tribulations convince them that God has forsaken them but rather steadfastly trust in God and His promises. Finally, they may have and enjoy the riches and pleasures of this world, but they do not allow them to become an idol for they know that all we have is a blessing from God.

7. »No person is hidden from God’s sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.« The two-edged sword of the Bible is sharp. The law says what it meant and meant what it says, it damns everyone of us one hundred percent (The Rev. Matthew Harrison). The gospel promises what it gives and gives what it promises, it saves everyone of us so that we shall live (The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind). The law says: you must pay for your sinfulness; the gospel says: Jesus has paid for your sinfulness. The law exhorts contrition over sin; the gospel promises forgiveness (Augsburg Confession XII,4).

8. The Apostle Paul speaks of this double-edged Word of God in his Epistle to the Romans: »Do we then overthrow the law by faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why righteousness depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written: I have made you the father of many nations. Righteousness will be counted to us who believe in God who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification« (Romans 3,31; 4,15-17.24-25).

9. Jesus teaches in today’s parable that »the good soil are those people who, hearing the Word, believe and bear fruit with patience« (Luke 8,15). If you have faith, then you have the good fruit of works. You love God and your neighbor. By our fallen nature, we are unable to produce this fruit and love, but by the working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds through the power of the gospel He creates our faith in Jesus, strengthens it and nurtures it to produce good fruit.

10. In His Parable of the Sower Jesus teaches that grace is passively received. Jesus Himself went looking for you, found you and sowed the gospel upon your heart. You heard the gospel, and the Holy Spirit created faith in your heart. God has done it all, and we have merely received the gospel as the gift that it is.

11. The parable also teaches that grace is actively rejected. The gospel is not a popular message in the world, and people strive against it. Earlier in the Gospel according to St. Luke Jesus taught that during His public ministry the gospel is preached but everyone tries to force their way into the reign of God apart from the gospel (Luke 16,16). Furthermore, the generation in which Jesus lived mocked the gospel. They accused John the Baptizer of having a demon because he fasted and refrained from alcohol. Then they accused Jesus of being a glutton and a drunkard because He ate, drank and befriended tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7,31-35). Many today reject or ridicule the gospel and those who proclaim it. Our modern culture is enamored with spirituality and tolerance. All roads lead to Rome is the modern understanding of spirituality; all spiritual paths will lead to the same God. Furthermore, we are told to uphold every spiritual belief as equal to all others. So the world views the gospel as just another spiritual message among many other spiritual messages.

12. Jesus teaches that the gospel is the absolute truth: »I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one draws near to God the Father except through Me« (John 14,6). Jesus says there is only one path to God, and that Path is Jesus. He is the Only-begotten Son of God and the Only Word of God. Jesus alone speaks for His Father. The path to God is the path of of the gospel which says Jesus died and rose again for the world so that they are now saved, forgiven and redeemed. No other spiritual path or religion teaches this nor leads to God. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »For by grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not from ourselves, for faith is the gift of God« (Ephesians 2,8). Faith is the gift that Jesus graciously sows among the world. Many will reject the gospel for one reason or another, but some, like us and other Christians, will receive the gospel as a gift and it will germinate in us first as faith and then the fruit of good works will grow on our tree of faith.

13. The Holy Spirit has elected us to eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and Redeemer, who was crucified and resurrected for our forgiveness and thus gives us the gift of eternal life. Faith clings to this Glorious Savior and believes that in Christ and on account of Christ we are elected and saved. Election, salvation, forgiveness and eternal life are all gifts given to us through Christ, for great is our Heavenly Father’s love toward us and abundant is the Holy Spirit’s preservation in the Christian faith so that we endure unto the last day and receive the inheritance given to all who are God’s children through Christ Jesus alone. „May our dear Lord Jesus Christ grant us His grace so that we may diligently hear His Word, retain it in a pure heart and bring forth fruit in patience“ (Luther 293). Amen.

14. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, Thou Voice of God, send forth to us the Holy Spirit so that we do not harden our hearts to Your gospel. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, February 29, 2016

Ephesians 5,1-8. Oculi

Monday, February 22, 2016

Romans 5,1-5. Reminiscere

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Hebrews 4,14-16. Invocavit

Thursday, February 11, 2016

2. Peter 1,2-11. Aschermittwoch

Monday, February 8, 2016

1. Corinthians 13,1-13. Quinquagesima

Monday, February 1, 2016

Hebrews 4,12-13. Sexagesima