Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Acts 3,1-10. 12. 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 3,1-10 4218

12. Trinitatis 057

Gebald, hermit near Nürnberg, 8^th or 11^th c.

19. August 2018

1. О Faithful God, Who hears and answers our supplications, do not for sake us when we are sick or suffering but remind us of your Fatherly promise to abide with us, so that we are encouraged by your words: »I will never leave you nor forsake you« [Joshua 1,5]. (Starck 226). Amen.

2. »Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at 3 pm, which is the hour of prayer. And a man crippled from birth was being carried, whom they placed daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said: „Look at us.“ And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said: „I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!“ And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.«

3. First century Jewish society did not have have government programs to help the poor, such as Medicaid and disability payments; instead they had almsgiving, which is giving money or food to the poor. Almsgiving partly derived from a general Middle Eastern philosophy that taught one to care for the neighbor, the stranger and the guest. The 10 Commandments furthermore exhort the Jews, and us, to love our neighbors, and almsgiving is one way of doing good to the neighbor who is poor, sick or infirm.

4. The 1. century Church continued this almsgiving practice. In Acts 6, the Church set aside 7 men to be deacons. The apostles would devote themselves to the pastoral ministry of prayer and the preaching of the Word, while the deacons would be ordained by the apostles to serve tables. The diaconate office soon took up many almsgiving functions, such as making sure the poor were fed, caring for the needs of the destitute and were doctors and nurses to the sick. Hospitals, as we know them, are the result of the Church and her diaconal office. We usually think of the Council of Nicaea in 325 as giving us the Nicene Creed that we confess each Communion Service, but that council also produced practical admonitions, one of which exhorted the construction of a hospital in every town that had a cathedral (Wikipedia). Two of the earliest of these hospitals were built by the physician St. Sampson the Hospitable (d. 530) in Constantinople and another by Basil (330-79), the Bishop of Caesarea, Turkey (Wikipedia).

5. Martin Luther also implemented almsgiving throughout the churches of the Reformation. Several years ago, the noted Lutheran scholar Stephen Ozmet wrote in the New York Times: „Consider Luther’s view on charity and the poor. He made the care of the poor an organized, civic obligation by proposing that a common chest be put in every German town; rather than skimp along with the traditional practice of almsgiving to the needy and deserving native poor, Luther proposed that they receive grants, or loans, from the chest. Each recipient would pledge to repay the borrowed amount after a timely recovery and return to self-sufficiency, thereby taking responsibility for both his neighbors and himself. This was love of one’s neighbor through shared civic responsibility, what the Lutherans still call „faith begetting charity.“ He who receives, recovers and profits from society in a time of need has a moral responsibility to pay society back by acting in turn as a strong citizen who can help fill the common chests and sacrifice for his now needy neighbors, who had once helped him. Such is the sacrificial Lutheran society. In classic Lutheran teaching, the salvation of the believer „by faith alone“ does not curtail the need for constant charitable good works, as ill-informed critics allege. Faith, rather, empowers the believer to act in the world by taking the worry out of his present and future religious life“ (Ozment).

6. Wilhelm Löhe, a 19. century Bavarian Lutheran pastor, established in Neuendettelsau the Deaconess Mother House in 1849 that served as a school to teach deaconesses and as a hospital; it remains a thriving diaconate facility for both men and women, and is one of the largest diaconal institutions in Europe. Löhe wrote this in regards to almsgiving: „The Lutheran Church regards the care of the poor as a duty of the Church, as it was in the times of the Apostles; as still her domain the sick, the pilgrims and the orphans are today her care, as they always have been“ (Löhe 179).

7. At the same time as Löhe, C. F. W. Walter was writing in St. Louis: „A Christian congregation must not appeal to the fact that there are governmental relief funds and poor-houses, which they also support. The Christian congregation should consider it a disgrace to see her poor cared for by a world the government“ (Walther 219). He then mentions Luther’s admonition to establish a specific office of almoner: „Here we see first how our Christian congregations should be organized. They provide for the souls, are occupied with preaching and prayer, but also bring it about that the body is provided for, set up some men who distribute the goods as you have heard“ (Walther 219 to 220).

8. The LCMS formally instituted diaconate programs in 1922. In 1980 Concordia University Chicago began both undergraduate and graduate diaconate degrees. In 2002, both seminaries, St. Louis and Fort Wayne, started graduate level diaconate programs.

9. Consider also many of the earliest hospitals and colleges in colonial America were established by churches, pastors and lay people. „In the United States the traditional hospital is a non-profit hospital, usually sponsored by a religious denomination. One of the earliest of these „almshouses“ was started in 1713 by William Penn in Philadelphia“ (Wikipedia). Interesting how the first American hospitals were called „almshouses“. The 7 Ivy League colleges (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth), plus William and Mary and Rutgers, are the earliest colleges in colonial America, and all 9 of these institutions were closely linked to a particular Christian denomination. Harvard trained Congregationalist (Puritan) and Unitarian ministers. William and Mary was founded to be a College of Divinity, Philosophy and Languages, plus the arts and sciences. Yale was established to train clergy and political leaders. Princeton was founded to train ministers. The University of Pennsylvania was started to train clergy and focus on other colleges of arts and sciences. Columbia was established by the activity of the Church of England. Brown was founded by the Baptists. Rutgers was established to train Dutch Reformed ministers. Dartmouth was founded by a Congregationalist (Puritan) minister.

10. Throughout His public ministry, Jesus preached and cared for those in need. He continues to do so into the 21. century as His Church and His Christians serve their neighbors. The gospel creates faith, faith believes in the crucified and risen Jesus unto salvation and faith bears forth works of mercy. When we help our neighbor we are being a deacon/deaconess for we are serving them. Every time we utilize our talents, abilities or alms, then we are being a merciful servant to our neighbor. Through these acts of mercy, the Holy Spirit brings proof of the validity of the gospel and its power to save men and women, both in body and soul, unto life everlasting.

11. May the Holy Spirit grant each of us opportunities to tell the gospel and help a person in need, thereby assuring them that God indeed does love them, cares for them, has redeemed them and desires their temporal needs be met. May we be servants of that Divine mercy. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Your Name is blessed at all times; send us the Holy Spirit, so that we are empowered by the gospel to give alms for the benefit of our neighbors. 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 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Ozment, Steven. „German Austerity’s Lutheran Core“. New York Times. Saturday 11. August 2012.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, August 20, 2018

Acts 3,1-10. 12. Sunday after Trinity

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