Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: July 2018

Monday, July 30, 2018

Jeremiah 1,4-10. 9. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Jeremiah 1,4-10 3918

9. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 054

Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, John 11

Olaf I Tryggvason, King of Norway and Apostle to Norway. Martyr 1000

29. Juli 2018

1. О Heavenly Father, who shows to us Your marvelous loving-kindness, teach us to praise You for delivering us from stumbling and death, so that we draw near to You in the light of the living. Amen. (Starck 277)

2. »Now the word of Yahweh approached me, saying: „Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.“ Then I said: „Behold, the Lord who is Yahweh! Alas, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a young man.“ But Yahweh said to me: „Do not say: ‘I am only a a young man’; for you will go to all to whom I send you, and you will speak all that I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares Yahweh.“ Then Yahweh put out His hand and touched my mouth. And Yahweh said to me: „Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. Behold, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pull up and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.“

3. The Prophet Jeremiah lived 600 years before the birth of Jesus. At the time, Judah was in a state of turmoil, for they were surrounded by empires skilled in conquest and able to field many more soldiers than Judah. The Assyrian Empire to their north-northeast, the Babylonian Empire to the east-northeast and Egypt to their southwest were all seeking to extend their dominions. Judah sat at the crossroads to the trade routes between these empires and was the linchpin in exercising political, economic and military control over the entire region. It didn’t take a prophet to see that war was on the horizon; and the dilemma was: do we fight or pick a side and rely on their protection, ah, but which empire to befriend: Assyria, Babylon or Egypt?

4. Jeremiah’s prophetic peers told the Jews not to fear, for the Lord would give them peace, prosperity and providence. These prophets were uttering how they wished things to be for they could not conceive of the Lord forsaking His people and allowing Judah to be conquered by foreign idolaters. So the Lord raised up young Jeremiah to speak His words »to pull up and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, but to also build and to plant.« Jeremiah chastised the false prophets of his time for giving the people false hope. The word of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah was: »You have committed a great evil, O Judah, for you have forsaken the Lord, who is the Fountain of Living Waters, and instead you have hewed out broken cisterns that cannot hold water« (Jeremiah 2,13). Jeremiah’s counsel: the Lord is angry with you; you need to repent and trust in His loving-kindness and mercy.

5. Jeremiah’s admonition to Judah also applies to the Church in the 21. century. At the end of the 1. century, Jesus revealed to John: »I have this against you, Ephesian Christians, that you have abandoned and the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the work you did at first. If not, I will show up and remove your lamp stand from its place, unless you repent« (Revelation 2, 4-5). How many churches, how many Christians, around the world have abandoned Christ? What is their true love? What has replaced Christ in their lives? Idolatry is an easy sin to fall prey to. Whatever we trust or look to is our idol, and idolatry isn’t necessarily rejecting Jesus because idolatry is also keeping Jesus as one of several things we go to when we need help. That is what Judah did. They still worshipped the Lord, but they also worshipped the idols of the nations around them. Surrounded by powerful nations with presumably powerful gods to back them up, Judah was tempted to worship them in an effort to appease them and grant them deliverance. So they worshipped Assyria’s Asshur, Babylon’s Marduk/Bel and Egypt’s Ra, together with Yahweh, to create an insurance policy against warfare and invasion.

6. Have you forsaken the love you once had for Jesus? Has something else, maybe even a lot of things, supplanted Jesus in your life? Who do you serve, and who do you trust?

7. In the midst of rampant idolatry, the Lord promised deliverance: »I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled My inheritance with their abominations« (Jeremiah 16,18). The »double repayment for our iniquity and sin« is not the bitter law with its judgment but the sweet gospel with its justification. To be sure, the temporal consequences of breaking the law are still in force. Fines and sentences are still handed down by earthly judges upon those who murder, steal or purger, but the Divine punishment is commuted. God the Father will not punish us for our sins because He has already punished Jesus for them. The crucified Christ is the double repayment for the sin of the world. Jesus bore the law’s judgment upon sin and sinful humanity. Jesus was forsaken and cursed in our place. His shed blood was the perfect, atoning sacrifice that has cleansed sinful, fallen humanity in full.

8. This gospel is preached into our ears, planted in our hearts and placed in our mouths by the Word and the Sacraments. „God has given us His sure Word: a word of throwing down and rebuilding. That God ultimately wills to build and plant rather than destroy is seen most clearly in Jesus Christ. ... See God’s Son destroyed on the cross for us. See Him rebuilt on the third day for us“ (Raabe 438). We have the gospel of Christ which we know and believe is the only way to forgiveness and salvation. Christ’s death and resurrection assures us of that forgiveness and salvation.

9. Christ Jesus is the Almighty Son of God, and His gospel has authority. We are built on the foundation of Christ’s gospel, and upon this foundation we will remain secure, forgiven and justified. Let us spread forth this great gospel and let us rejoice in the blessings that the Holy Spirit will bring our way as His holy people through the Word and Sacraments. Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, who rightly bears the praise: „Great is the Lord!“; send us the Holy Spirit with His means of grace, so that we remain glad in You and love Your salvation now in the hour of our need and yonder in Your everlasting reign. 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. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 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.

Thursday, July 26, 2018

1. Corinthians 6,8-14.18-20. 8. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

1. Corinthians 6,8-14.18-20 3818

8. Trinitatis 053

22 Mary Magdalene, ✠ mid to late 1^st c.

22. Juli 2018

1. О God, who protects us under the shadow of Your wings, daily renew us with Your Providence, so that You lead us to the good and pleasant blessings given through Christ Jesus (Starck 147). Amen.

2. »But you yourselves wrong and defraud﹣even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the reign of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the reign of God. And such were you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. „All things are lawful for me,“ but not all things are helpful. „All things are lawful for me,“ but I will not be enslaved by anything. „Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food“﹣and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.«

3. The Apostle Paul does not let any of the Corinthian Christians off the hook. He summarizes the Decalogue, and bluntly states: you were sinners such as these. Some were idolaters, others sexually immoral and still others thieves. The Corinthians were sinners, and their deeds bore the fruit of this sinfulness.

4. Lest we puff ourselves up in pious pride, we are no better or different from our Corinthian brothers and sisters in the faith. We are sinners through and through. We were born sinners and we will die sinners. Perhaps some of the specific sins St. Paul accused of the Corinthians of struck at our conscience too.

5. Saint Paul applied the 10 Commandments, and this law reveals us to be sinners; God’s Commandments condemn us. In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul writes: »No one is righteous, no not one. The Lord speaks to those who are under the law, so that the whole world may be held accountable to God. For no one will be justified in God’s sight by performing the works of the law, since knowledge of sin is revealed through the law« (Romans 3,10.19-20). The Prophet Ezekiel put the final nail in our coffin: »The person who sins will die« (Ezekiel 18,4). God’s holy law condemns us, but His law is not His final Word.

6. God also speaks the Word of the gospel, and the gospel is a word of forgiveness. Jesus speaks this gospel to the sinners He encountered during His public ministry. To the idolatrous Samaritan woman, Jesus said: »you are forgiven.« To the woman caught in adultery: »you are forgiven.« To Mary Magdalene possessed by 7 demons Jesus said: »you are healed.« To thieving tax collectors: »you are forgiven.« To us with our sins: »you are forgiven.« These words of the gospel are words of grace and mercy. St. Paul beautifully describes this Gospel: »You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit of God.« »For at one time we were in the darkness, but now we are the light of the God« (Ephesians 5,8). »Everyone is justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus« (Romans 3,24). »We have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. The life we now live in the flesh we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us« (Galatians 2,20). The apostles declare again and again that we are forgiven and made righteous by the merit of Christ Jesus; this is the doctrine of justification.

7. Sanctification flows from justification. St. Paul exhorts us by teaching: »You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.« The law which reveals our sins and condemns us for those sins also guides us in holy living. Jesus used the image of salt and light in Matthew 5: »You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world« (Matthew 5,13.14). »Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven« (Matthew 5,16). By the good works of our holy living we are a blessing and a help to our neighbors.

8. Christ declares us to be salt and light because He Himself is the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the world. Jesus healed the sick, comforted the distressed and forgave people of their sins. His crucifixion preserves us into eternal salvation; His resurrection reveals the light of everlasting life with a holy and resurrected body.

9. Be helpful to your neighbors. Be kind. Let them see Christ through your good works. If opportunities arise, then tell them about Jesus and the gracious forgiveness we have through Him. Pass on to them what you have learned from the Bible.

10. »Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Be merciful, just as your Heavenly Father is merciful« (Luke 6,27-28.31.36). Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, whose Name is glorious, help us live sanctified lives so that by our works we may show Your loving kindness and Your faithfulness to those who need Your gospel. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Philippians 2,1-4. 7. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Philippians 2,1-4 3718

7. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 052

Stilla, Virgin, of Abenberg, Bavaria ✠ 1158

The Division of the Holy Apostles

Gumbert, Abbot of Ansbach, Bavaria ✠ 790

15. Juli 2018

1. О Lord, our Divine Providence, help us to bear our trials and tribulations, so that we bear them with patience and strength. Amen. (Starck 194)

2. »So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, then complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.«

3. The Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 2 are a balm for those wounded by the selfish pride of the world. In school, at the workplace and in sports many people strive to surpass others up the ladder of success. Our interests often take precedent over the interests of others. We are tempted to sabotage others success and puffed up our own importance. I have a friend who used to work at Amazon, who once told me: in our staff meetings we were encouraged to tear down fellow coworkers. Other friends who worked at a major American manufacturing company told me that in their meetings it was the norm to blame another group for some mistake or failure instead of taking accountability and seeking to solve the issue at hand.

4. These attitudes showcase how depraved our fallen human nature truly is. The Apostle Paul knew this, and he regularly saw such sinfulness in Jewish, Greek and Roman cultures. Paul’s advice to us is: »Look not to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the nature of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be held onto, but deprived Himself of power, taking on the nature of a slave; and being found in the likeness of men, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross. Therefore 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 shall bow, in heaven, upon the earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father« (Philippians 2,4-11).

5. Such apostolic advice strikes against our fallen nature. Thus, one reason Christ humbled Himself for us is because He knew we struggle to humble ourselves for others. He humbled Himself for us, and in our place, in order to redeem us back to God our Father. Jesus does what He says: He puts His Father’s will first and foremost; He performs what we and our sinful nature cannot and will not do. He walked to Jerusalem, to the cross, into death, was buried in a tomb, descended into hell and rose again as our Triumphant Savior. Jesus willingly and lovingly did all this for the world, for us all. He sends the Holy Spirit with this gospel and the gospel creates faith that yields love, unity and humility that Paul exhorts in this epistle.

6. Many examples of this sanctified life are showcased for us in the Holy Scriptures and the history of the Church. For this reason, the Lutheran Church follows the Church tradition of highlighting the lives of Christians as paragons of sanctification. Tomorrow, 16. July, is set aside for Ruth. She was the great-grandmother of King David; she was also a Moabite, which means she was not Jewish, but she was related to the Jews for the Moabites trace their lineage back to Lot, the nephew of Abraham, and Abraham is the father of the Jews. So Ruth, like us, is a Gentile. She was married to 2 Jewish men: her first husband was Mahlon, and after he died she married Boaz, the kinsman of Mahlon.

7. When Mahlon died, his mother, Naomi, decided to return to Bethlehem and she told Ruth to stay in Moab and find a husband among her people. Ruth responded: »Mother Naomi, where you go I will go, and where are you lodge I will lodge; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God« (Ruth 1,16). Ruth confesses her faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; she confesses the Jewish people are her people; their promises are her promises. Her faith and holiness are examples to us even today, 3000 years later. Her great-grandson was David, who became the king of Israel and through him the Messiah descends. St. Matthew lists Ruth in his genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1, 5).

8. Ruth and David trusted in the Lord’s promises; they believed that He would send the Messiah. The Lord had chosen them to be the fore-bearers of His Only Son. Their faith produced the good works they did throughout their lives. They lived such sanctified lives solely on account of the gospel. They are examples for us, and the gospel also produces such faith and works in our lives.

9. The reign of heaven is at hand (Matthew 4,17). Jesus humbled Himself unto death on the cross (Philippians 2,8). God the Father has highly exalted Jesus (Philippians 2,9). »I thank God for your partnership in the gospel, and I am certain that God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the last day of Jesus Christ. May your love abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness which is through Jesus Christ. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit« (Philippians 1,5-6.9-11; 4,23). Amen.

10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ , from the rising of the sun to it setting, Your Holy Name is to be praised! You provide all our earthly needs, so also remind us that You daily give us all our spiritual needs as well, so that we never forget that You are both our Creator and Redeemer. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

Monday, July 9, 2018

Acts 8,26-39. 6. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Acts 8,26-39 3618

6. Trinitatis 051

Aquila and Priscilla, 52
Kilian, Bishop of Würzburg, Germany, Martyr 688/89

8. Juli 2018

1. О Christ Jesus, our Union with the Heavenly Father, daily remind us that You have clothed us with the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness, so that we take comfort that You are with us always even to the end of the age (Starck 304). Amen.

2. »Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip the Deacon: „Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.“ This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians [ad 25-41], who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip: „Go over and join this chariot.“ So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the Prophet Isaiah and asked: „Do you understand what you are reading?“ And he said: „How can I, unless someone guides me?“ And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: Like a sheep He was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opens not His mouth. In His humiliation justice was denied Him. Who can describe His generation? For His life is taken away from the earth (Isaiah 53,7-8). And the eunuch said to Philip: „About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this: about himself or about someone else?“ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the gospel about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said: „Behold, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?“ And Philip said: „If you believe with all your heart, you may.“ And the eunuch answered and said: „I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.“ And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water: Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

3. The account of Philip and the Ethiopian in Acts 8 is one of many instances why the Prophet Isaiah is often called the Fifth Evangelist and the Book of Isaiah the Fifth Gospel. It is also no coincidence that this Ethiopian royal minister is reading a Jewish Prophet. The Queen of Sheba had visited King Solomon, and a number of Jews fled to Ethiopia when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem in 587 bc. It is no surprise then that this Ethiopian has access to the Old Testament and had knowledge of Jewish customs and culture since there was already a 1000-year tradition with Judaism in Ethiopia.

4. Additionally, Acts 8 occurs in the most unlikeliest of places: Philip is sent to a desert place. No one should be there, but nevertheless that is where the Holy Spirit sends Philip. In this desert place, Philip discovers another unlikely set of circumstances: an African royal minister is there reading the Prophet Isaiah. What are the chances of that happening?

5. The Ethiopian was reading the 53. Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah: »Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned﹣every one﹣to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of My people? And they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush Him; He has put Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt, He sees His offspring; He prolongs His days; the will of the Lord prospers in His hand. Out of the anguish of His life He sees and is satisfied; by his knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, makes everyone to be accounted righteous, and He bears their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with everyone, and He divides the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His life to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He bore the sin of everyone, and makes intercession for the transgressors« (Isaiah 53,1-12).

6. The Ethiopian wants to know who the Prophet Isaiah is talking about in Chapter 53: Is Isaiah referring to himself or someone else? The text of Isaiah is about Jesus, and Acts 8 notes that it is all about Jesus. It is not about five ways to a happier life. You want guides for moral living? Jesus made that pretty simple: love God and love your neighbor. If you need more directions in that, then there are 10 easy-to-remember commandments that explain what it means to love God and love your neighbor.

7. Following the law and obeying the commandments, however, will never earn you everlasting life. Notice that the Ethiopian did not ask: „What must I do to be saved?“ Rather, he confessed: »Behold, here is water! I need to be baptized«. Through reading Isaiah the Prophet and hearing the teaching of Philip the Deacon, the Ethiopian had learned that all depends on what God has done and still does for us. Isaiah pointed to the Suffering Servant, and Philip taught that this Servant is the Christ, who is Jesus. Jesus had suffered and died for the sin of the world and in Holy Baptism the Ethiopian received the grace and gospel that Jesus alone gives.

8. The text was about Jesus in Isaiah 53 and Acts 8. The text is still about Jesus 2000 years later. Jesus has not changed, and neither has the text. If it is about Jesus, then it is about the gospel; and if it is about the gospel, then it is about salvation freely given. Therefore, the Apostle Paul proclaims: You are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6,11).Therefore, Jesus promises: Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28,20). Where Jesus is there is forgiveness, for you, in full, and free. God be praised! Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, You proclaimed our names before our Heavenly Father; help us to proclaim Your Name to our neighbors so that, like the Ethiopian in Acts 8 they may rejoice in the gospel and praise You in the midst of the congregation. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Genesis 12,1-4. 5. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Genesis 12,1-4 3518

5. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 050

Theobald, hermit near Vicenza, Italy, ✠ 1066

Henry Vos and John van den Esschen, Augustinians. Martyrs 1523 in Brussels, Belgium.

First Lutheran martyrs

Catherine Winkworth ✠ 1878 and John Mason Neale ✠ 1866, Hymn writers and Translators

1. Juli 2018

1. О Lord God, our Divine Providence, hold us ever in Your keeping, be with us throughout our life, give us greater love for You and renew our faith in You, so that we may serve You and our neighbors in our daily tasks. Amen. (Starck 163)

2. »Now the Lord said to Abram: „Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.“ So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.«

3. The Holy Scriptures reveal to us that the Lord is a covenant-making God. He delights in making promises to mankind. He takes great joy in blessing His creation

4. In Genesis 12 (2091 bc), the Lord made a covenant with Abraham: »I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.« The Lord fulfilled this covenant when He brought the people of Israel into Canaan 685 years later (1406 bc) under the leadership of Joshua, Moses’ successor

5. Unfortunately, Israel kept breaking this covenant. They took the Lord’s wonderful covenant and try to make it better. Israel reasoned: If the Lord has blessed us in Canaan, then worshiping all the gods in the land will exponentially increase our blessings. Israel’s flawed reasoning led to unforeseen consequences. By worshiping the Canaanite gods, Israel began to accept the morals and values of the Canaanites, that lead to slandering their neighbors, bribing judges for favorable rulings, ignoring widows and abandoning orphans.

6. The Lord sent Israel prophet after prophet calling the people to repent and return to Him. Israel ignored these pleas of the prophets. We are just like Israel. We take advantage of the Lord’s blessings. We seek to gain more from our greed. We hurt our neighbor if it will better our lives. We are sinners; we are condemned by God’s law.

7. Since Israel broke His covenant, the Lord promised to make a new, unbreakable covenant. Since we break his commandments, the Lord promised to keep those commandments. The Prophet Jeremiah proclaimed: »The Lord declares: „Behold, the days are approaching when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be My people. And no longer will each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying: „Know the Lord,“ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more“« (Jeremiah 31,31-34).

8. Jesus Christ is this new covenant that the Lord promised through Jeremiah. The old testament flowed from Joshua; the new testament flows from the New Joshua, who’s name is Jesus. Matthew and Luke trace Jesus’ genealogy back to Abraham. The Patriarch Abraham’s name is great because of his descendant Jesus. Abraham is a blessing for all the families of the earth on account of Jesus. Thus the Apostle Paul explains Genesis 12: »Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification« (Romans 4,22-25). »In Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might be given to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, and you are thus heirs according to the promise« (Galatians 3,14.27.29).

9. Christ Jesus Himself says at His institution of the Lord’s Supper: »The cup poured out is the new testament in My blood« (Luke 22,20). In Christ the Abrahamic covenant is properly fulfilled, and it is a covenant of everlasting salvation and forgiveness. This is a covenant of grace based on Christ’s shed blood and it is a testament of Christ’s steadfast love toward all the families of the earth.

10. This new testament in Christ is an unbreakable testament, for it is not based on us or any action on our part. The new testament is completely grounded upon Christ and His merit. »And by that new testament we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all« (Hebrews 10,10). Christ institutes the Sacrament of the Altar to give out the blessings of His testament. This is the greatness of Christ: His testament is pure gift and pure grace. His testament is all His merit and none of ours. His testament is freely given to us out of love. Christ gives His Church the authority and the privilege to proclaim this testament as the herald of the gospel of full forgiveness and eternal salvation. He gives you, His disciples, the task of sharing this gospel to your neighbors so that they may also experience the blessing of redemption that Christ pours upon all the families of the earth. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Holy Spirit, You have revealed Your righteousness in the sight of the nations; make known to us, through this church, the salvation merited only by Christ alone, so that our hearts are strengthened and our lives are blessed. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, July 30, 2018

Jeremiah 1,4-10. 9. Sunday after Trinity

Thursday, July 26, 2018

1. Corinthians 6,8-14.18-20. 8. Sunday after Trinity

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Philippians 2,1-4. 7. Sunday after Trinity

Monday, July 9, 2018

Acts 8,26-39. 6. Sunday after Trinity

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Genesis 12,1-4. 5. Sunday after Trinity