Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: 1. Corinthians 14,1-3.20-25. 2. Trinity

Thursday, June 14, 2018

1. Corinthians 14,1-3.20-25. 2. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

1. Corinthians 14,1-3.20-25 3218

2. Trinitatis 047

Landerich, Bishop of Paris 650

10. Juni 2018

1. О God and Father, our Bountiful Provider, accompany us in all our ways, preserve us from evil and bless our vocation, so that we always experience abundantly your Fatherly faithfulness and grace (Starck 118). Amen.

2. »Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a language speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands Him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. In the law it is written: „By people of strange languages and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to Me, says the Lord“ [Isaiah 28,11]. Thus languages are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. If, therefore, the whole Church gathers together and all speak in languages, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.«

3. In his 1. Epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul expounds upon 2 particular spiritual gifts: prophecy (προφητευητε) and languages (γλωσση). Prophecy is less about foretelling of future events and more about proclaiming a specific action or word of the Lord. The Holy Scriptures, all 66 Books, are prophetic books: they teach and proclaim Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became man, suffered, died and rose again. Languages or dialects refer to the languages spoken and written by people. In Paul’s day there were 3 prominent languages spoken throughout the Roman empire: Latin, Greek and Aramaic. The Old Testament had been translated from Hebrew into Greek 200 years earlier, and all the New Testament was written in Greek. If the gospel was preached in any of these 3 languages, almost anyone living in the Roman Empire could have a basic understanding of the message.

4. As the Roman Empire became a union of 2 halves, with the East using Greek and the West using Latin, so to did the Church. The Orthodox Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire used Greek, and the Catholic Christians in the Western Roman Empire used Latin. Jerome then translated the Bible from Greek into Latin and by Luther’s day this Vulgate became the official language for the Bible in the Western Church; to translate the Scriptures into the local language or dialect was frowned upon or considered a sacrilege. What had once been a spiritual gift had become a burdensome yolk. The average Christian in the West simply did not have a good grasp of Latin; since the hymns, liturgy and preaching were all in Latin, they became merely spectators of the Divine Service rather than participants in it. Thus prophecy, proclaiming Christ, ceased being effective as most people simply didn’t understand what was being preached.

5. Throughout the Medieval Ages there were various calls for Bible translations into the languages of the local people; these were met with varying degrees of success or failure, but the Vulgate remained the king of the translations used and other local translations were rare. In 1297 the Bible was available in French. By 1395, John Wycliffe had translated the entire Bible into English. In the 1400s there were 13 German translations of the Bible. All of these English, French and German Bibles were translations from the Latin Vulgate, which itself was a translation of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. Luther’s translation (1522/34) of the Bible into German was different; he was able to translate from the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures; his translation help standardize German among the Germans, and Tyndale’s translation did the same for the English in 1535. As these Bibles were printed, first the sermons and hymns, then the entire liturgy, transitioned from Latin into the local language of the people.

6. Preaching now reclaimed its role as the chief gift of the Holy Spirit. Hearing the gospel and reading the Scriptures in your own language opens up the treasures in the Word of God to everyone. Paul exhorts us to: »pursue love, and earnestly desire of the spiritual gifts, especially prophecy.« The Holy Spirit has richly blessed His Church with the Scriptures available in almost any language and dialect; He has blessed us with the preached Word of God. To love and honor God is to study His Word, hear it preached and live it in our lives. 20 pages (10,000 words single-spaced) of Holy Scripture can impart the core of the Biblical message to a person; a 5-word sermon of „God forgives you through Jesus.“ strengthens a person to be certain of salvation on account of Christ.

7. The Apostle Paul proclaims: »All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness, so that the child of God may be complete and equipped for every good work« (2. Timothy 3,16-17). The Scriptures are inspired by God (SD IX,12); the Scriptures are clear, sufficient and effective (have the power) to produce faith in Jesus (Romans 1,16). The Scriptures are inerrant; they are not false and deceitful, but they are true and trustworthy (FC Epitome VII,13; LC IV,57; V,76). The Scriptures are the pure, infallible and unchangeable Word of God (Preface, Book of Concord, 10).

8. Holy Scripture is the Word of God, and the word of God is the Holy Scriptures. This Bible tells us about our salvation through Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flash (John 3,14). We put our faith and hope in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; we believe in Him because we have heard His gospel preached to us and read His gospel in the Bible. The Apostle John proclaims: »the Holy Scriptures, the Bible, are written so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we may have a life in His Name« (John 20,31). Thus Martin Luther exhorts us in his Small Catechism to: „not despise preaching and God’s Word, but hold it sacred and gladly here and learn it“ (SC 3. Commandment). Through the preaching of the Word and by reading the Bible we are shown Christ; He is the Theme and Cornerstone of the Holy Scriptures. Let us boast in Christ and gladly receive Him and the blessings He promises as written in His Word. Let us humbly confess that we are poor, miserable sinners who deserve only God’s wrath, and proudly affirm that Christ is our Savior who gives us forgiveness. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Lord, You are our Strength, our Rock, our Fortress and our Deliverer; help us to gratefully receive Your gifts, so that our faith is strengthened and our good works flourish. 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, June 14, 2018

1. Corinthians 14,1-3.20-25. 2. Trinity

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