Psalm 31,1.2a.5.7-8; Psalm 31,2b.3. Quinquagesima

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Psalm 31,1.2a.5.7-8; Psalm 31,2b.3 1517

Quinquagesima or Estomihi (Sonntag vor der Passionszeit)  022 

Nestor, Bishop at Sida in Pamphylia, Turkey. Martyr 250

26. Februar 2017 

1. О Lord, You are the God who works wonders; make known Your Might among the nations, so that they see Your arm redeem Your Church.  Amen. (Gradual) 

2. Be a Rock of refuge for me, a Strong Fortress to save me! For Your Name’s sake You lead me and guide me; In You, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in Your Righteousness deliver me! Incline Your ear to me; rescue me quickly! Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, Faithful God. I will rejoice and be glad in Your Steadfast Love, because You have seen my affliction; You have known the distress of my soul, and You have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a broad place. 

  3. »Be a Rock of refuge for me, a Strong Fortress to save me! For Your Name’s sake You lead me and guide me;« Psalm 31 is one of several psalms that inspired Luther’s writing of his hymn A Mighty Fortress is our God. This hymn is a song of deliverance and salvation by the hand of Christ. Jesus told His disciples in the Gospels that this deliverance would take place through His rejection, being killed and rising from the grave. His disciples did not receive that teaching with thanksgiving for they thought such an undignified end for the Messiah could not happen. But Jesus patiently taught them that to be lead and guided by Him is to ultimately to be lead to the foot of the cross and guided to the empty tomb three days later. 

4. »In You, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in Your Righteousness deliver me!« The Christian faith teaches at its very core that the refuge of God is at the cross and the tomb. Death and the Grave are shameful in our eyes, and with good reason. No one wants to suffer and die. We want to live healthy and fulfilled lives. But Jesus tells us that what is shameful is most glorious in His Father’s eyes. True righteousness is not earned by doing the works of the law; the Pharisees taught that, and Jesus rejected their teaching. Jesus taught that true righteousness is a gift of grace given to us by God, and that Jesus Himself merited this righteousness for the whole world. Our old Adam with its sinful flesh refuses to receive this grace. We would rather earn God’s favor on our own, with works we devise for ourselves from the law so that we can measure ourselves and monitor our pious progress. Such ideals seep their way into our cultural identity, so that a phrase like God helps those who help themselves is believed by many to actually be a verse in the Bible. 

5. »Incline Your ear to me; rescue me quickly! Into Your hand I commit my spirit;« The Psalmist knows the wicked heart of man and knows that people are quick to fall for the deception of self-righteousness as that espoused by the Pharisees. He thus exhorts God to rescue us from such inward looking platitudes of self-redemption. Left to our own idolatrous religions we would soon discard God from the equation all together, or at the very least relegate Him in silence at the far corner of the room. This is what Peter and the other disciples intended in their rebuke of Jesus when He talked about His death and resurrection. God’s grace is not easily understood, and even the apostles did not comprehend it when Jesus first taught about grace and redemption. The Psalmist thus exhorts us to commend our spirit unto God. 

6. »You have redeemed me, O Lord, Faithful God. I will rejoice and be glad in Your Steadfast Love,« The Psalmist knows that our redemption is alone from God. He redeemed us because one of His Divine attributes is steadfast love. Such love is long-suffering. While Jesus clashed with the Pharisees over their false teaching of self-righteousness by doing the law, Jesus nevertheless loved them and wanted them to see their error and receive the grace He freely wanted to give them. Jesus’ disciples constantly showed an inability to grasp some of His teachings, in part because it went against what many of the rabbis and Pharisees had taught them. Yet Jesus continued to teach them and correct their erroneous thinking. 

7. »Because You have seen my affliction; You have known the distress of my soul.« The gospel actually infuriates people. You would think it would be the exact opposite, but when people who have invested their lives on a philosophy or religion that teaches you must save yourself, hearing that such works merit nothing people may become angry at hearing nothing they do justifies them before God and it calls into question the very core of their beliefs. Such realizations are prone to anger and efforts to justify their beliefs as equally valid to the Christian faith. Such a religious crisis leads to a distress of the soul. 

8. »And You have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a broad place.« The gospel ultimately leads the distressed soul to the rock-solid foundation of the faith. Christ is the Cornerstone of this faith and the mighty fortress built upon Him is a castle built to withstand every assault and distress. Jesus says His Church is just such a fortress: the very gates of hades shall not prevail against His Church (Matthew 16,18). The banner that flies from the Church’s rampart is: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, who was rejected, killed and rose from the dead (Matthew 16,16; Mark 8,31).  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, we begin our journey with You up to Jerusalem; guide our meditations upon Your Passion, so that we see  everything that is written about the You, the Son of Man, by the Prophets has been accomplished.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

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. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Hummel, Horace D. The Word Becoming Flesh. © 1979 by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis.

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Psalm 119,89-90.105.114.116.123; Psalm 56,4. Sexagesima

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Psalm 119,89-90a.105.114.116.123; Psalm 56,4 1417

Sexagesimä (2. Sonntag vor der Passionszeit)  021 

Gabinus, Pastor and Martyr 296 

19. Februar 2017 

1. O Christ Jesus, Thou art the Most High over all the earth; be Thou our Light and Life so that enemies know that You alone are God and that Your people are enlightened and enlivened unto salvation and good works.  Amen. (Gradual). 

2. In God, whose Word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. Forever, O Lord, Your Word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your Faithfulness endures to all generations. Your Word is a Lamp to my feet and a Light to my path. You are my Hiding Place and my Shield; I hope in Your Word. Uphold me according to Your Promise, so that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope! My eyes long for Your Salvation and for the fulfillment of Your Righteous Promise. 

3. »In God, whose Word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid.« This verse that begins today’s Introit resounds throughout the Holy Scriptures. In the Scriptures God and His Word are synonymous. Thus St. John the Apostle and Evangelist begins his Gospel by saying: »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. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His Glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth« (John 1,1.4.14). Jesus is this Divine Word made flesh, and what is said about the Word is thus said about Jesus. 

4. »Forever, O Lord, Your Word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your Faithfulness endures to all generations.« Here the Psalmist contrasts God’s faithfulness with our faithlessness. We have inherited this faithlessness from Adam. Our faithlessness often bears fruit in idolatry so that our sins stem from a lack of trust in God’s Providence or outright rebellion against His Will. The image of faithfulness used by the Psalmist is a powerful one. The heavens evoke thoughts of eternity. Every day the sun rises and sets. The moon waxes and wanes through its 29.5-day cycle. We see the bright evening star of Venus. The Big Dipper and other constellations inspire our imagination. The stars and planets have been observed in the heavens by mankind for thousands of years; they are dependable guideposts. Likewise, God’s Word; He is dependable, trustworthy and true. Beginning with Adam and Eve, generation after generation have looked to God’s Word for guidance and hope. 

5. »Your Word is a Lamp to my feet and a Light to my path.« We use a lamp to help us see. We light one so we don’t stumble in the dark. We use one to help us look for something we have lost. Sailors can use Polaris [1] to locate true north. In Revelation, Jesus identifies Himself as the Bright Morning Star [2] (Revelation 22,16); He is our Beacon in the dark that points us northward to our heavenly home. 

6. »You are my Hiding Place and my Shield; I hope in Your Word.« Jesus is likewise our Savior and Defender. As Martin Luther wrote in his hymn: Jesus is our Mighty Fortress and a Trusty Shield who helps us in every time of need that overtakes us (LSB 656,1). Jesus is our Shelter when the world’s tempests assail us with its persecution. He is our Shield who protects us from the fiery arrows of the devil meant to harm us.

7. »Uphold me according to Your Promise, so that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope!« God’s promise is to redeem us from sin, death and hades. Our sin has put us in rebellion against God; the wages of our sin is death and separation from God; hades is the abode for those separated from God. God promised to redeem mankind from sin, to restore us to life after we have died and to unlock the gates of hades so that we are not imprisoned there. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise; He is our Redeemer and Deliverer. 

8. » My eyes long for Your Salvation and for the fulfillment of Your Righteous Promise.« St. Paul once wrote: »For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.« (Philippians 1,21-24). We all face the dilemma the Apostle Paul honestly wrote about. We enjoy living on this earth, but we also long to dwell in heavenly paradise with God, His angels and all the believers who have gone on before us. This temporal life is fraught with despair and hardships while the eternal life is blessed with joy and peace. 

9. Christ is our Beacon and our Light. He is the world’s Savior and no one enters into His Father’s Glory but through His Only Son. Jesus is the very Word who reveals our sin, exhorts us to repent and change our ways, guides us to live lives in conformity to God’s will and assures us that all is forgiven because Jesus Himself has redeemed us. This grace is passively received by faith in Jesus. We walk in His Light, and we are enlightened by His words. We meditate upon His words, and we edified by the life they impart. Jesus Christ is the Morning Star, Splendor of Light Everlasting and Sun of Righteousness who draws near and enlightens those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Voice is the very word of Your Heavenly Father; soften our hardened hearts so that we may receive and believe all that You tell us in the Holy Scriptures.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

[1]  Polaris is found by following the stars at the end of the ladle of the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor). 

[2]  I am the Bright Morning Star; þe ic oþrum earendel. 

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.  

Psalm 18,1-2.27.30.35; Daniel 3,2-3. Septuagesima

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Psalm 18,1-2.27.30.35; Daniel 3,2-3 1317

Septuagesimä (3. Sonntag vor der Passionszeit)  020 

Eulalia of Barcelona, Virgin, Martyr 290

Eulalia of Merida, Virgin, Martyr

12. Februar 2017 

1. О Lord, Thou Stronghold for the oppressed in times of trouble; arise, O Lord and prevail for those who put their trust in You, so that we may live and do good to our neighbors in full trust that we are redeemed by Your grace and mercy.  Amen. (Gradual) 

2. Praise be to You, O Lord, O God of our fathers. Because You are just in everything that You have done for us. I love you, O Lord, my Strength. The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress and my Deliverer, my God, my Rock, in whom I take Refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my Stronghold. For You save a humble people, but the arrogant eyes You bring down. As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. You have given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand supported me, and Your gentleness made me great. 

  3. The Prophet Daniel wrote from Babylon: »Praise be to You, O Lord, O God of our fathers. Because You are just in everything that You have done for us.« Daniel, although he was blessed to be the archmage of King Nebuchadnezzar’s court magi, was nevertheless one of the many Jews taken into Babylonian captivity many years earlier. This captivity was the Lord’s judgment upon unfaithful Judah. The Lord’s chosen people had broken the Mosaic covenant they had agreed to a thousand years earlier at Sinai. The Jews worshipped idols along side of the Lord. Their idolatry led to a host of immoral vices, including dishonoring widows and children, unjust courts and even child sacrifices to Moloch, who was one of the chief Canaanite gods. The Lord, however, was long-suffering with His people. He sent Prophets to call the ten northern tribes of Israel back to Him, but in 721 bc He sent Assyria to conquer and disperse them from the land. The two remaining southern tribes of Judah heeded the Lord’s discipline upon Israel, but they continued to revel in their idolatry even though the Lord sent them prophets and the occasional devout king to draw them back to the Lord alone. So the Lord raised up Babylon in 587 bc who conquered Jerusalem, looted the temple and took the best and brightest Jewish men and women to Babylon. In all this, Daniel proclaimed that God was just in His judgment upon Judah. 

4. Daniel was not only wise but also a proficient exegete of the Holy Scriptures. He knew from the Psalms: »The Lord is my Strength, my Rock, my Fortress and my Deliverer.« that Judah’s Babylonian Captivity would not last forever. He declared: »In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus [538 bc], by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, 70 years« (Daniel 9,1-2). Our God is a God who rules by justice. He punishes His people for a time on account of their rebellion against Him, but He always restores them for He is a just and righteous God, as the Introit assures us today: »My God, my Rock, in whom I take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my Stronghold.« 

5. »For You save a humble people, but the arrogant eyes You bring down.« Repenting of sin is an act of humility, whereas refusing to acknowledge sin is an act of arrogance. Our liturgy contains the Rite of Confession and Absolution whereby we confess our sins before God and hear His absolution of forgiveness proclaimed to us. Judah’s judgment of Babylonian Captivity is meant to serve as an example for us that we recognize and repent of our sin before God punishes us. 

6. We never need fear God’s wrath, for the Psalmist assures us: »As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; He is a Shield for all those who take refuge in Him.« God’s Shield is His own Son Jesus Christ. All who take refuge in Christ will be delivered. Christ is Israel reduced to one, and Israel’s history was all recapitulated and consummated in Him (Hummel 17). Jesus being Israel reduced to one means that He is also Israel who was subjected to captivity as punishment for Israel’s sin. Jesus made Himself nothing in His captivity. Israel’s captivity began with the destruction of the temple and the deportation of thousands of people; Darius decreed that Israel return to their land and be allowed to rebuild their city and its temple. Recall what Jesus told the Pharisees who demanded from Him a sign as to why He has the authority to drive out the animal dealers and the money changers from the temple courtyard: »Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.« (John 2,19) Here Jesus connects the temple with His body. Jesus’ captivity began with His  bodily death and descent into hades; His resurrection from the grave was raising and rebuilding His destroyed body back to life. Jesus promises that He is the first fruits of the resurrection; all who believe in Him will be restored and raised to life everlasting in eternal fellowship with Him and all the heavenly host (1. Corinthians 15,23). In Christ Jesus, we see God the Father’s judgment upon Him for sin and justice through Him in forgiveness and resurrection. 

7. The Introit concludes: »O Lord, You have given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand supported me, and Your gentleness made me great.« Jesus is the Shield of our salvation and He has made us great. Jesus has suffered for us, rose from the dead for us, forgiven us, redeemed us and earned for us eternal life in His presence. »Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends« (John 15,13). Jesus has the greatest love of all for He laid down His life for all the world, redeemed the world back to His Father and this forgiveness is received by faith in Him. He desires that everyone behold Him as their Savior from sin, death and hades, but He will not force and compel anyone to believe in Him. Instead the Holy Spirit works patiently through the proclamation of the gospel to create faith in men and women. This faith is grounded upon the crucified and risen Christ. Grace is undeserved, but Jesus Himself has earned and deserved this grace as the very Son of God. Jesus gives us grace as a free gift that is received in faith. Jesus told His disciples: »So the last will be first, and the first last« (Matthew 20,16). We who were last because we are sinners are now first, because Jesus who is First, the only Son of His Father, became last for our account. Jesus is just in everything that He has done for us; let us rejoice for all the good things we have in Christ.  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, our Merciful Savior, hear our pleas and petitions so that we and all we pray for may be blessed with Your righteousness.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

.

Psalm 97,1-2.6.10-11; Habakkuk 3,4. Last Sunday in Epiphany

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Psalm 97,1-2.6.10b-11; Habakkuk 3,4 1217

Letzter Sonntag nach Epiphanias  019

Jacob (Israel), Patriarch

Agatha, Virgin, Martyr at Catania, Sicily 251 

5. Februar 2017 

1. O Christ Jesus, You are the most handsome of the sons of men; pour out Your grace upon us so that we may recline at Your feet in eternal bliss.  Amen. (Gradual). 

2. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from His hand; and there He veiled His power. The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His Glory. He preserves the lives of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. 

3. Saint Matthew describes Jesus’ Transfiguration with these words: »Jesus was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light« (Matthew 17,2), and our Introit describes the Glory of the Lord with the following image: »His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from His hand; and there He veiled His power.« The Gospels tell us that Jesus often veiled His Divinity and that at specific times He did unveil it with subdued power. The Holy Scriptures tell us that God must veil the fullness of His Glory before us. At Mount Sinai, »Moses said: „Please show me Your Glory.“ And the Lord said: „I will make all My Goodness pass before you, but you cannot see My Face, for man shall not see me and live. Behold, there is a place by Me where you shall stand on the rock, and while My Glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My Back, but My Face shall not be seen“« (Exodus 33,18-23). In his Revelation, St. John described Jesus as: »In the midst of the lamp stands One like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around His chest. The hairs of His head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. But He placed His right hand on me, saying: „Fear not, I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades“« (Revelation 1,13-18). 

4. The Introit continues: »The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!« David once leaped or joy and prayed as the ark of the covenant was brought up to Jerusalem: »Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Yours. Yours is the reign, O Lord, and You are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all. In Your hand are power and might, and in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all« (1. Chronicles 29,11-12). The Apostle Paul praises our Savior with these words: »God has highly exalted Jesus and bestowed on Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father« (Philippians 2,9-11). The Holy Scriptures affirm that God the Father has given all Divine rulership to His Son. 

5. »Clouds and thick darkness are all around Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.« When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai to give Moses the old covenant, the mountain was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire; the whole mountain trembled greatly, and God spoke in thunder (Exodus 19,18-19). Wherever Israel travelled in the wilderness, the Lord went before them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13,21). As Jesus paid for the sin of the world, the sky grew dark at midday and the earth quaked (Matthew27,45.51). Jesus will return upon the clouds and a mighty angelic army following behind Him (Acts 1,9.11; Revelation 1,7; 19,14). 

6. »The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His Glory.« At His first advent, Jesus arrived meek and lowly gently sleeping in a manger pure. At His second advent, Jesus will arrive majestic and lordly eyes aflame riding a white horse sure. At His birth Jesus was called Immanuel and Prince of Peace; at His return He will be called King of kings and Lord of lords. At other advents, Jesus brings His righteousness. At His first advent, Jesus was glorified by His suffering and death; the cross was His throne. At His second advent, Jesus will be glorified by gathering His Church unto Himself; the right hand of His Father is now His throne. At His crucifixion, Jesus made us righteous by vicariously sacrificing Himself for sinful mankind. At His parousia, Jesus will gather His righteous Christians for eternal life with Him in Paradise. 

7. »He preserves the lives of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.« John’s Revelation makes it very clear: Jesus will return to save His Church and to punish all wicked doers who have persecuted His holy bride. Jesus says to His Church: »Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Behold, I am making all things new.« (Revelation 21,3-5). John saw the judgment of the unbelieving, wicked nations: »I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The One seated on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire« (Revelation 19,11.14-15; 20,14). 

8. » Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.« Jesus proclaimed in the Gospel according to John: »I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life« (John 8,12). We have come full circle. Jesus is the Light who Himself is wrapped in the Light of His Divine power and Glory. All who trust in Him have the promise of forgiveness and everlasting life lived in the Light of Jesus’ Glory. St. Paul tells us: »If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says: Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. (Romans 10,9-11.13; Joel 2,32).  Amen. 

9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou Eternal Light and Image of Divine Goodness, shine Your Light upon us, so that in Your Light do we see light and have the fountain of eternal life.  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.