Ephesians 5,8-14. 8. Sunday after Trinity

 ✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Ephesians 5,8-14 3916

8. Sn. n. Trinitatis  053 

Marcellina, Virgin, ✠ 397

17. Juli 2016 

1. О Lord God, Heavenly Father, we most heartily thank You that You have caused us to come to the knowledge of Your Word. We pray: graciously keep us steadfast in this knowledge unto death, so that we may obtain eternal life; send us now ever pious pastors, who faithfully preach Your Word, without offense or false doctrine, and grant them long life. Defend us from all false teachings, and frustrate the counsels of all such as twist Your Word, who come to us in sheep’s clothing, but are inwardly ravening wolves, so that Your true Church may evermore be established among us, and be defended and preserved from such false teachers.  Amen. (Veit Dietrich for 8. Sn. n. Trinitatis). 

2. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says: »Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.« [Isaiah 26,19. 60,1] 

3. The Apostle Paul reminds us in his Epistle to the Romans: »None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. No one does good. There is no fear of God before their eyes« [Romans 3,10-11.12.18]. This is nothing short of being in the darkness, as Paul reminds us today in his epistle: »For at one time you were darkness.« But Paul says we were not merely lost in the darkness, but that we ourselves were darkness; it was our essence and our nature. We hurt ourselves and others. We knew about God and other gods, but God did not dwell within us. The result of this encompassing darkness: »We were dead in our trespasses and sins« [Ephesians 2,1]. 

4. The Prophet Isaiah proclaims: »The people who walked in darkness have seen a Great Light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has Light shone« [Isaiah 9,2]. The Gospel according to John tells us that what the Prophet Isaiah wrote has been fulfilled in Jesus: »In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome It. But to all who did receive Jesus, who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God« [John 1,1.4-5.12-13]. 

5. The Light of God has shone upon us in Christ Jesus. His Light has overcome our darkness. The punishment of the law against sin has been paid. Our sin has been forgiven. We have been redeemed back to God through Jesus’ vicarious sacrifice on the cross. Paul wrote earlier in his epistle: » God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ — by grace we have been saved — and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus« [Ephesians 2,4-6]. 

6. Therefore, we walk as children of the Light of God. Faith in Jesus brings forth good fruits and good works, therefore we should do what God has commanded (Augsburg Confession 6,1). St. Paul gives us some examples of what it means to walk as a child of the Divine Light: speak the truth with your neighbor, don’t remain angry as the day ends, be honest, speak with words that uplift and build up a person, be kind and forgive others (Ephesians 4,23-32). In walking such an enlightened path, we are imitating God and in truth we are walking in love just as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5,1-2). 

7. Paul then quotes the Prophet Isaiah: »Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you« [Isaiah 26,19. 60,1]. On the one hand, this reminds us of the resurrection. Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection, and He promises to raise us up as well on the last day. On the other hand, it also fits with Paul’s image of light. In the depth and death of darkness, the Light that is Christ has shined upon us. The darkness has been dispersed and we are bathed in justifying Light. 

8. An ancient 2. Century Easter Vigil sermon by Bishop Melito of Sardis captures both aspects of the Prophet Isaiah. He writes: „Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am Life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The reign of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.“ 

9. Therefore, dear Christians, lift up your heads, for your Sleeper has awakened (Isaiah 60,1-3; Ephesians 5,14). Christ has risen and He brings with Him a train of captives set free from sin, death and the devil. We rejoice with the psalmist: »For with You, O Lord, is the Fountain of Life; in Your Light do we see light« (Psalm 36,9). Let your light shine forth in faith and love so that through you your neighbors see the Glory of the Light of the Risen Christ.  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, whose Name is glorious, send us out to bear Your Light so that our neighbors may see Your loving kindness and Your faithfulness.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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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.