Isaiah 2,1-5.8-10; 3,1-3. Sexagesima

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Isaiah 2,1-5.8-10; 3,1-3               1320

Sexagesima 021

Onesimus, disciple and helper of Paul, Bishop of Byzantium, Martyr at Rome, 90 or 95. 

Philip Melanchthon (birth), Confessor

16. Febuar 2020

1. O Heavenly Father, Your work consoles and liberates, speak Your Word so that both the poor and the powerful hear it, receive it with joy and are comforted in Your mercy. Make us the bearers of Your gracious message. Amen. (VELKD Weekly Prayer for Sexagesima 2020 § 1) 

2. »The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall go, and say: „Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, so that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.“ For out of Zion shall go forth the torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made. So man is humbled, and each one is brought low—do not forgive them! Enter into the rock and hide in the dust

from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of His majesty. For behold, the Lord God of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water; the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.« 

3. Last week we heard Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard, all of whom received a gracious, generous wage regardless of the hours they had put in for the day; in that parable Jesus teaches that all believers will receive the same payment: eternal life with Jesus, the angels and all the saints. In today’s Gospel pericope we hear Jesus’ parable of the sower. The gospel is proclaimed and it falls on different soil with different results; only the good soil yields faith and its rich harvest of good works. 

4. The Prophet Isaiah dealt with a situation where the faithful, the good soil, had become faithless, the bad soil. The fortunes of 8. century bc Judah had taken a turn for the worse. The people had always struggled from generation to generation with the Canaanite idolatry in their midst. David had established the foundation that the king worships the Lord. Unfortunately, 200 years later David’s royal descendants sought the favor of idols rather than the Lord. Isaiah tells us: »Now the people and their king were idolaters. The land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands.« The Prophet Isaiah exhort Judah and her king to repent and return to the Lord. 

  5. The Church has struggled like 8. century Judah throughout our history. Too often the idolatry of the land influences the Church. We are tempted to put our trust in politicians in whom there is no salvation (Psalm 146,3). We are tempted to water down the gospel so that we do not offend the world (Revelation 3,15-17). We are tempted to let the talking points and the latest social crusade dominate the civil discourse rather than engage with the words of the Lord that bring life. 

6. The words of Jesus often trigger the world because Jesus speaks forthrightly and challenges His Church and the world when they have strayed from the wisdom of the Lord. Isaiah told Judah that the Lord is humbling them on account of their idolatry. He commands us not to bow down to nor serve idols, for the Lord our God is a Jealous God visiting the sins of the fathers on the children to the 4. generation of those who hate Him, but showing steadfast mercy upon thousands who love Him and observing His commandments (Exodus 20,5-6). The king and many other people chaffed at this chastisement. It is our fallen human nature to resist the Lord’s discipline, but He disciplines us out of love. Luther once commented on the threat of the Muslim Turks advancement further west toward Vienna: the Turks have been sent by God as a punishment; Christians must bear this burden as a scourge that has been in inflicted by God and which must be borne humbly (Luther 31,235). The Church must always grapple with the tribulations she faces and ask the difficult question: is this sent by the Lord to call us to repentance back to His Word? And if such is the case, the Church must repent, seek the Lord’s forgiveness and faithfully return to Him and His Word. 

7. Sexagesima, along with Lent, is a penitential season that focuses on the repentance of our sins. Luther again exhorts this where he begins his 95 Theses with: our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said repent, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance [Matthew 4,17]. The Church is a beacon for the world; we confess our sins and likewise exhort the world to confess their sins. Isaiah proclaimed: the house of the Lord will be established that is the highest and all the nations will flow to her and many people will go and say: let us go up to the house of God so that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths. 

8. We are the good soil; we have received the gospel and believe. We have faith in Christ; we are the light of the world, and we guide the nations to Christ. Let us focus our attention on the path Jesus walked; it is the path of self denial, sacrifice and salvation. Jesus walks the path of the cross with that humiliation, suffering and death. This is how Jesus saved the world: He became the ransom price and purchased the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus declared: »When I am lifted up from the earth, I will drawl all people to Myself« (John 12,32). 

9. Last week we heard that all who believe in Jesus receive the reward of eternal life; it is a gift that overflows and always satisfies. Today we hear that those who believe are those of the good soil who hear the gospel and receive it with joy. The Lord continues to exhort us to hold fast to Him and His Word. Next week we will hear Jesus teach His apostles that He must suffer, be killed and rise again after 3 days. This is the way of the Lord’s salvation.  Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of Your Father; today we have heard Your Voice, let not our hearts be hardened or troubled, so that in believing in You we reflect Your Light and so guide our neighbors to Your mercy and grace.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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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. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

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

   Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 31: Career of the Reformer: 1. „Explanations of the 95 Theses“. Harold J.  Grimm, Ed. Copyright © 1957 Muhlenberg Press.