Song of Solomon 8,6-7 5222
20. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 67
Reformationsfest 78
Marcellus, captain, Martyr in Spain, † 298
30. Oktober 2022
1. ℣ Yahweh , our G, is righteous in all His works which He doeth:
℟ For we obeyed not His Voice (Daniel 9,14b).
O Lord, Your Word does not pass away, for it abides forever; may Your truth abide forver in us so that we are never moved from it but always firmly within Your hands of providence. Amen. (Wohl denen, die da wandeln elkg 632/33 2021, Cornelius Becker 1602).
2. »Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of God. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised.«
3. The great human dilemma since the Fall is to know God’s disposition toward an individual. Is He angry at me, or pleased with me? Our conscience is not a reliable guide because we might mistake God’s opinion of us: He may be angry at us when we think He is pleased, or He may be pleased with us when we think He is angry. It is a matter of our subjective conscience, and that is not an infallible indicator of God’s opinion.
4. Thus the Epistle to the Hebrew begins by stating: »Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the Prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son« (Hebrews 1,1-2a). The Holy Spirit has given and preserved for us the written Scriptures so that we have an objective certainty as to God’s opinion of us. In his Gospel, Matthew tells us that Jesus began His public ministry with these words: »Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand/has drawn near/is in your midst« (Matthew 4,17). Martin Luther unknowingly, at the time, ignited the Reformation in 1517 when he began his 95 Theses with this very verse: Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said paenitentiam agite, &c., willed that the whole life of the faithful to be repentance/penance (1. Thesis).
5. God has judged us to be sinners; the Scriptures teach us this and call us to acknowledge our sinfulness, repent and confess to God. Luther writes in his Small Catechism: Confession has 2 parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven. We confess this in our liturgy:
P I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,
C and You forgave the iniquity of my sin (Psalm 32,5).
6. Luther speaks to whether God is now angry or pleased with us. „So now you have what is pure in heart, which comes from the pure and clear word of God. But what is the reward or what does He promise them? That is, that they shall give thanks to God. A glorious title and a wonderful treasure. But what does God mean? The people have once again said that it is to sit in a cell and look up to heaven and live an easy life, as they have called it and have written many books about it. But this will not be called God’s creation for a long time if you troll with your thoughts and climb up to heaven, as the sophists and our red spirits and great saints want to measure and master God and His word and work with their heads, but that’s it: If you have a true faith that Christ is your Savior, then you will immediately see that you have a gracious God, for faith leads you upward and opens God’s heart and will to you, so that you will see the abundant grace and love of God. That is, to see God rightly, not with the eyes of the flesh (so that no one can see Him in this life), but with the faith that beholds His great kind heart, in which is neither wrath nor displeasure. For he that looks on Him in anger sees Him not rightly, but only a curtain and a covering, even a dark cloud, drawn over His face. But to see His face, as the Scripture says, is to know Him rightly as a gracious, good Father, to whom all good things may be committed, which come only through faith in Christ“ (WA I Sc 32,228.21-38 - 229.1-3).
7. The Cornerstone is Christ. He takes sin seriously. Sin cannot be glossed over or ignored, for it fundamentally effects God’s creation. Sin must be atoned for, and Jesus has paid the debt of our sin. He tells His disciples several times in the Gospels that He must suffer, die and rise again, for this is how He will atone for our sin; He has paid the price with His own body and blood for our forgiveness.
8. Luther says the true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of the glory and the grace of God (62. Thesis). Jesus is our Savior; He has redeemed us; He has merited our forgiveness—that is the gospel!
9. The temptation is to water down this gospel, and it has happened throughout the Church’s history. The Galatians tried to do it in the Apostolic Era; Arius tried to do it in the Early Church; Medieval Catholicism did it as well. Paul refused to water down or alter the gospel: »I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. … We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified« (Galatians 1,6-9; 2,15-16). In response to Arius’ teaching that Jesus was not eternally God, but the first being created by the Father, the bishops gathered at Nicaea replied: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one Substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. In response to Medieval Catholicism that taught people to go to the saints to find relief from their sinful punishments, Martin Luther replied: Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths and hell (94. Thesis).
10. The Church’s response to other gospels is to point to the true gospel which is Christ crucified. The cross is where we find peace, forgiveness and a loving God with a friendly heart. This is the gospel: believe it and trust it, for Christ has redeemed us.
11. Faithful cross, above all other:
One and only noble tree:
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peer may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For a while the ancient rigor
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
Gently on thine arms extend
(Faithful Cross, Above all Other Fortunatus 530-609).
This is most certainly true.
12. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.
13. Let us pray. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, pour out, we beseech Thee, Thy Holy Spirit upon Thy faithful people, keep them steadfast in Thy grace and truth, protect and comfort them in all temptations, defend them against all enemies of Thy Word and bestow upon Christ’s Church Militant Thy saving peace. Amen. (Reformation Day, Matins Collect 1. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.)
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 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2021 Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, Hannover.
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