Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: 1. Peter 2,2-10. 6. Trinity

Sunday, July 28, 2019

1. Peter 2,2-10. 6. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

1. Peter 2,2-10 4119

6. Sn. n. Trinitatis 051

Pataleon, physician, Martyr 303.

Johann Sebastian Bach, Kantor, ✠ 1750

George Frederick Handel, Hymn writer, ✠ 1759

28. Juli 2019

1. O Holy God, You are our Judge and Redeemer; direct our trust upon Christ Jesus, so that we depend not on our righteousness but His that opens up the reign of heaven for us. Amen. (Matthew 5,20)

2. »Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you draw near to Him, a Living Stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a Stone, a Cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. [Isaiah 28,16] So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe: The Stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone, and A Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offense. [Psalm 118,22; Isaiah 8,14] They stumble because they disobey the Word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.«

3. The Apostle Peter is drawing attention in his epistle to the Prophet Hosea. The people of Israel (the 10 Tribes of the North) had forsaken the Lord for other gods. The Lord had sent them prophets to lead them back to Him, but the people were unrepentant and intransigent in their idolatry. So the Lord told Hosea: »Name your newborn daughter No Mercy (Lo-ruhamah) for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all, but I will have mercy on the house of Judah and I will save them« (Hosea 1,6-7). Then the Lord told Hosea: »Name your newborn son Not My People (Lo-ami), for they are not My people and I am not their God« (Hosea 1,8-9).

4. The The apostle Peter exhorts us to put away all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander (1. Peter 2,1) for such are the wicked fruit of idolatrous or godless people. God hates and detests such wickedness (Proverbs 6,16-19. The curse of the old Adam skulks deeply within our flesh and bones bidding its time to rear up and lead us into idolatry and wickedness. The Apostle Paul summarizes our fallen nature in his epistle to the Romans, where he writes: »I know that nothing good dwells in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. It is sin that dwells within me. Wretched man that I am!« (Romans 7,18-20.24). Therefore the Prophets and the Apostles exhort us in the Holy Scriptures to acknowledge our sinfulness, confess it and ask God to help us live as his righteous children.

5. God through Christ Jesus delivers us from this body of wickedness and death (Romans 7,25). Once we were not a people, but now we are God’s people; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy. For as the Lord spoke to the Prophet Hosea: »I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People: you are My people, and they shall say: you are my God (Hosea 2,23. The apostles proclaim throughout the Gospels and the Epistles that this is the physical manifestation of God the Father’s mercy and love.

6. Jesus is the Cornerstone of God the Father’s Heilsgeschichte (salvation history), and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. For in Christ Jesus we are made righteous, and this righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees who worked to earn it through the keeping of the law. God does not forsake His people, and He shows us His mercy. St. Paul declares: »God is faithful, by whom we were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, for the preaching of the cross is the power of God« (1. Corinthians 1,9.18). Before His Ascension, Jesus promised His disciples: »I am with you always, to the end of the age« (Matthew 28,20). Again the Apostle Paul: »We know that for those who love God all things work together for good« (Romans 8,28); »He will supply every need of ours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus« (Philippians 4,19). God’s Word does not change and His promise is the same for us now and always. Trust in Him, for He has redeemed us and sustains us. Paul says of his suffering: »We felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.« For such strength and endurance we pray for all who suffer, petitioning God to keep them in the faith and to restore His blessing to them. Amen.

7. Let us pray. O Christ, the Cornerstone of our salvation; pour into us the fullness of the Holy Spirit, so that we have the confidence and competence to proclaim You as the Righteous One who shows mercy upon those distraught. 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 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, July 28, 2019

1. Peter 2,2-10. 6. Trinity

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