Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Genesis 1,1. Jubilate

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Genesis 1,1. Jubilate

Genesis 1,1-4a.26-28.31a.2,1-4a 2722

Jubilate 39

Victor the Moor, Martyr at Milan, Italy 303

8. Mai 2022

1. ℣ Make a joyful noise unto God all ye lands:

℟ Sing forth the honor of His Name; make His praise glorious (Psalm 66,1).

O Lord Jesus Christ, the Risen One; may the whole world be joyful for Your resurrection, so that all may have the certainty of the resurrected life for all eternity in Your fellowship. Amen. (Die ganze Welt, Herr Jesu Christ Friedrich Spee 1623 elkg 450,1 2022).

2. »Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.«

3. Moses tells us that God created men and women in His Image and Likeness. This established human beings as the crowning point of creation, and He declared of His creation that it is very good.

4. Creation is no longer very good. Humanity has lost the Image and Likeness of God, for we have lost much our holiness and righteousness (Schmalkald Articles I,10). Humanity is wicked and horrible (Schmalkald Articles I,11). Creation has gone from very good to sin-filled catastrophe. Men and women cannot resolve the corrupt human nature we have inherited from Adam and his sin. Only God can restore fallen humanity, and He does so with an eucatastrophe. It is, however, a long road getting from there to here in the Heilsgeschichte (salvation plan) of God. The Scriptures tell the story of how very good creation has become very evil creation and once more a very good creation — this is God’s Heilsgeschichte (salvation history).

5. Jesus told the apostles on Maundy Thursday: »You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy« (John 16,20). The cost to redeem creation lead to heartache for Jesus’ apostles and disciples. The cost of redemption was suffering and crucifixion. God Himself must enter His creation as a man in order to pay the price of man’s sin. Jesus was sent into this world to purchase our redemption.

6. The Apostle Paul says: »Christ has died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sakes was crucified and was raised. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, then they are a new creation. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself« (2. Corinthians 5,15.17-18). Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of the new creation. The old creation has been rescued from the sin, curse and death that God had subjected it to. Jesus’ resurrection has ushered in the 8. day of creation, that is the everlasting fellowship with God. The new creation basks in this light of forgiveness, salvation and resurrection life. To be a new creation is to be righteous on account of Jesus’ merit, to be forgiven on account of Christ’s merit and to be promised a resurrection on the last day, that day when Jesus returns to usher in the new creation to all the fulness He has for it to enjoy. The fruit of this new creation is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5,22-23). We live in this new creation now as we look forward to its full glory on the last day. Let us walk by faith as this new creation.

7. Christ, our human likeness sharing,

Heaven’s love on earth portrayed;

Christ the Shepherd, tending, caring,

In His death our ransom paid:

Christ the Savior,

Christ the Servant,

Be Your life in us displayed. (Christ, Our Human Likeness Sharing, Timothy Dudley-Smith, b. 1926 lsb 847,1)

This is most certainly true.

9. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Son of the Father, after your glorious resurrection you visited and comforted your sorrowing disciples. We pray, come also to us and to your whole Church, and bring us peace and joy. Set our troubled hearts at rest. Give peace in our times, and enable us always to praise you in your church. O Lord, show your wounds to us and to all sorrowing souls, that we may at all times withstand the enemies of your cross and rejoice in your glorious resurrection. Grant us your Holy Spirit that we may die daily to sin and walk in newness of life. O blessed Easter Prince, grant that in the day when you come again, our bodies may be like your glorious body. Keep us therefore, in the joys and peace of this Easter; with the Father and the Holy Spirit you are praised and highly exalted forever. Amen. (Wilhelm Löhe, Liturgy for Christian Congregations of the Lutheran Faith, Fourth Easter Prayer #20, p. 140; Stratman 42-43).

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.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Genesis 1,1. Jubilate

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