✠ 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, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment