Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: 1. Corinthians 1,26-31. 1. Sunday after Epiphany

Thursday, January 11, 2018

1. Corinthians 1,26-31. 1. Sunday after Epiphany

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

1. Corinthians 1,26-31 0718

1. Sonntag nach Epiphanias 014

Lucian, Pastor in Antioch, Turkey, Martyr 312

7. Januar 2018

1. О Loving Father, our Divine Providence, as You kept Mary, Joseph and Jesus safe from those seeking them harm, so be our Faithful Shepherd and preserve us from wicked machinations, so that we may find peace in Your Providence (Starck 65). Amen.

2. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written: »Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.« (Psalm 34,2; Jeremiah 9,24)

3. Yesterday, the Church celebrated Epiphany: the event that commemorates the arrival of the Magi. Noble Jesus humbled Himself and took into His Divine Person the human body and soul. The Apostle Paul contrasts the Divine with the human in his 1. Epistle to the Corinthians: »Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful and not many were of noble birth.« Human wisdom, power and nobility do not impress God who created the universe from nothing by merely speaking it into existence.

4. Saint Paul further teaches us: »God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; He chose what is weak to shame the strong and He chose what is low, despised and nothing, to bring to nothing things that are.« Time and again in the Holy Scriptures God chooses the opposite of what conventional wisdom expects. The Messianic lineage rarely passed from the oldest son to the next, but more often a younger son received the blessing. God chose a boy to defeat a battle-hardened giant of a soldier who was twice David’s size. Jesus chose for His apostles, not rabbis and Pharisees, but fishermen, a tax collector and other ordinary men. God does this so that no human being might be unduly proud.

5. Our boasting is in Christ. St. Paul tells us: »Because of God we are in Christ Jesus, who appeared to us Wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.« Before John baptized Jesus, he resisted and said: »Jesus, You should be baptizing me« (Matthew 3,14). Jesus responded: »Let it be so now so that you baptize Me, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness« (Matthew 3,15). Then John consented and baptized Jesus in the Jordan (Matthew 3,15). Jesus fulfilled this righteousness by stepping into the Jordan River, received John’s baptism for repentant sinners preparing for the advent of the Christ and declared solidarity with us poor, miserable sinners. In His baptism, we see in Jesus His Divine humility: He does not enter our midst as the Übermensch (Superman) but as the Jedermann (Everyman). Only then do we see the Triune God’s exaltation: »The Holy Spirit descended like a dove and rested on Jesus, and a Voice from heaven declared: This is My Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.« (Matthew 3,16-17) Jesus is one of us. All that is His, Jesus gives to us. His righteousness is our righteousness.

6. King Solomon called the Messiah „the Wisdom of God“. »Listen to Me, the Wisdom of God: blessed are those who keep My ways. For whoever finds Me finds life and favor from the Lord« (Proverbs 8,32.35). Jesus Himself declares that He is the Wisdom of God: »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). The Wisdom of God in Christ is this: God dies on the cross to redeem fallen humanity. Many will stumble over this Wisdom and reject it as foolishness, but Christ crucified is the Wisdom of God’s salvation. On the cross we see Jesus again as the Jedermann (Everyman) as He takes our place under His Father’s judgement and vicariously bears all our sins. The cross stood at the axis of the world, and so each of us can say: I am crucified with Christ. Jesus is exalted on the cross by humbling Himself to crucifixion and death. Divine Wisdom says: You find Life in the crucified, dying Christ.

7. The Apostle Paul also tells us that Jesus »became to us Sanctification«, literally He is the Holy One, as His apostles confessed in the Gospel according to John: »we have believed, and have come to know, that You, Jesus, are the Holy One of God« (John 6,69). Normally, we associate sanctification with holy living, such as living according to the 10 Commandments; both the Gospels and Epistles exhort us to live holy lives guided by the law. In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees taught a strict keeping of the law, for in doing so you will merit your righteousness. Jesus countered that teaching by telling people not to base or trust their righteousness in the keeping of the law; rather, trust in God for your righteousness and live a sanctified life because it is God’s desire for you to do so. This lead the crowds to ask Jesus on one occasion: »What must we do, to be doing the works of God?« This was Jesus’ answer: »This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent« (John 6,28-29). Jesus simply says that true sanctification and holy living begins and ends by believing in Him as the Christ.

8. The apostles preached this Christ, saying: »David says concerning the Christ: I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand so that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For You will not abandon My soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to Me the paths of life; You will make Me full of gladness with Your presence [Psalm 16,8-11]. David foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified« (Acts 2,25-28.31-32.36).

9. God the Father is impressed by Jesus His Son. He is our Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption. He was crucified and risen for us and our salvation. He was victorious over Death and Hades. The Magi recognized the Bright Light this Christ would be and they went to worship Him. Like the Magi, we have arrived here to worship Him, for He is our Light and Life. He associates with us and has washed away our sins. Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, our Good Teacher and our God; let Your Good Spirit lead us on the level ground of faith in You, so that our assurance is grounded only upon You. 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.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Thursday, January 11, 2018

1. Corinthians 1,26-31. 1. Sunday after Epiphany

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