✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ
Psalm 103,8-12; Psalm 103,13 3617
3. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 048
The Visitation of Mary
Otto, Bishop of Bamberg Germany, † 1139
Otto, Bishop of Bamberg Germany, † 1139
2. Juli 2017
1. О Lord Jesus Christ, Thou who bears our burden, we call upon You to save and redeem us, so that trusting only on You we have redemption and salvation. Amen. (Gradual)
2. As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness. He will not always chide, nor will he keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving-kindness toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.
3. When reading the Bible, we find two sides of God: the Angry God who punishes and the Loving God who forgives. During the 2. century ad a teacher named Marcion (85-160) began preaching that there are two gods in the Bible: the god of the Old Testament who is an angry tyrant that punishes sinners, but the god of the New Testament is the Father of Jesus who is merciful and forgiving. He called the god of the Old Testament the Demiurge and the god of the New Testament the Heavenly Father. He limited his Biblical canon to an edited Gospel according to St. Luke and 10 edited Epistles of St. Paul (minus the pastoral epistles and Hebrews). The Church at Rome soon excommunicated him and the Early Church Fathers likewise condemned Marcion and his heretical teachings, but the spirit of Marcion continues even to this day.
4. Many people summarize the Bible this way: the Old Testament is the law and shows us a God who punishes sinners and the New Testament is the gospel and shows us a God who forgives sinners; this is similar to what Marcion falsely taught and eventually lead him into heresy. In actuality we find both the law and gospel in the Old and New Testaments along with a God who at times punished and other times is merciful. Today’s Introit indeed shows us a Loving God in the Old Testament: »As a father shows compassion to his children, so Yahweh shows compassion to those who fear Him. He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness« At Mount Sinai and the giving of the Mosaic law, Yahweh declares: »I Yahweh your God am a Jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the 3. and 4. generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to the 1000. generation of those who love Me and keep My commandment« (Exodus 20,5-6).
5. God is not a vindictive tyrant nor is He an anything-goes as long as it makes you happy teacher. God is a God of order and laws: there is cause and effect; sinful actions have real consequences that He may chose to visit with addition Divine discipline. God is a God of mercy and love: there is forgiveness and acceptance. » God will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities«
6. When Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple to offer up the sacrifices for a first-born son, Simeon proclaimed: »O Lord, mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of Thy people Israel« (Luke 2,30-32). And our Introit: »For as high as the heaven are above the earth, so great is God’s loving-kindness towards those who fear Him.« John the Baptizer said of his younger cousin: »Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!« (John 1,29). »As a father shows compassion to his children, so Yahweh shows compassion to those who fear Him. He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness« Again our Introit: »As far as the east is from the west, so far does Jesus remove our transgressions from us.«
7. It is no surprise, then, that Jesus declares in this morning’s Gospel pericope: »There will be more joy in heaven over 1 sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who need no repentance« (Luke 15,7). Those who only view God as a strict God of laws and obedience will constantly stumble over this Divine pronouncement. Often in the Gospels, many of the scribes and Pharisees stumbled over Jesus’ teaching. In Luke 15 they were offended that Jesus received tax collectors and sinner; even worse, that He ate with them (Luke 15,1-2)! God wants all to repent and believe in His Son, for there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents (Luke 15,10).
8. Those who only view God as a liberal god who cares not as long as it makes you happy will constantly stumble over His Divine pronouncement: »The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah« (Luke 11,32). Not every thing men and women do is good, right and salutary. Sinful actions are to be repented and abstained from. Jesus exhorts us to love and treat well our neighbors.
9. All this is grounded upon the traits of God the Father: »He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness.« The Apostle John summarizes this succinctly in his Gospel: »For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but He sent Him so that the world shall be saved through Him« (John 3,16-17). His Son, Jesus Christ, has removed our iniquities from us. This is why God wants all people to repent and believe in Jesus, for in Jesus full remission has been made, paid for on the cross and promised eternal life guaranteed upon His resurrection. »To Christ alone, the Eternal King, be glory forever and ever.« Amen.
10. Let us pray. O Lord, Thou art merciful and gracious; teach us to likewise be slow to anger and abounding in loving-kindness to our neighbors, so that they may see in our love Your Divine love and grace thereby calling upon You for salvation. 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.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
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