1. Corinthians 9,24-27. Septuagesima

1. Corinthians 9,24-27   1324

Septuagesima 21 

Charlemagne, Emperor ✠ 814

28. Januar 2024 

1. ℣ The sorrows of death compassed me: 

℟ The sorrows of hell compass me about (Psalm 116,3). 

O Jesus , whose Passion is fast approaching once more, give us a spirit of devotion that from the throne of heaven You appeared to be our Salvation through the pain You suffered.  Amen. (Pieper 127; English transl. 75). 

2. »Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain the prize. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.« 

3. »The Apostle Paul uses 2 sports examples at the end of chapter 9: sprinting and boxing; both of these events were in the Greek Olympiad which, like the modern Olympics, were held every 4 years in Olympia, Greece from 776 bc - ad 393 – 1200 years, until Emperor Theodosius I banned all pagan sporting events. In 1896 the Olympic Games were revived in Athens. The movie Chariots of Fire  is based on the 1924 Olympics held in Paris; it was the VIII Olympiad, and 1924 was also the first Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France. The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics will be at the same stadium as the 1924 Olympics. 

4. Most scholars affirm that Paul wrote 1. Corinthians from Ephesus during his Third Missionary Journey some time between ad 53-55 (Acts 19,1-20,1). The 201^st Olympiad was in ad 53 and the 202^nd Olympiad was in ad 57. Both had the pankration (a combination of wrestling and boxing with few rules) and the pentathlon (the stadion, long jump, javelin, discus and wrestling); the stadion was a 200m sprint that started the games, it was the standard unit of measuring distance. It was raced in honor of Zeus and the winner was heralded as the fastest man in the world. As the premiere event it was the only one that had a prize awarded. The winner of the stadion would often be immortalized in poems and statues. The winner of the stadion received a wreath of wild olive leaves that grew near Olympia’s temple of Zeus; it symbolized honor and recognition for athletic achievement. Athletes would train 10 months prior to the Olympiad that included renouncing bad habits and other things that were fine in order to prepare for the Games (Lockwood 318). Paul also probably witnessed the Isthmian Games in ad 51 when he was in Corinth; these games were second only to the Olympiad. The Isthmian Games were held every 2 years about 10 miles from Corinth. Its events were sprinting, wrestling, jumping, boxing, javelin and discus. The reward for these games was a wreath of withered celery. Paul used 2 prestigious events from  the Olympiad and Isthmian Games, the pankration and the stadion, as examples of Christian discipline. Like the Greek athletes, Paul exhorts the Corinthians, and all Christians, to train and discipline oneself to win the wreath or crown. 

5. Septuagesima begins a period of preparation for Lent, and announces we are about 70 days (actually 63 days in 2024 with its leap year) before Easter. Paul exhorts us to discipline ourselves, and so today we embark on a 2 months of spiritual training. Let us devote ourselves to reading the Scriptures and prayer. We have the mind of Christ (1. Corinthians 2,16) to make wise, Godly decisions and judgments. Let us set aside our sinful vices, such as sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, strife, rage and envy, and strive for the spiritual virtues of άγάπη (unconditional love), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, which are given to us by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5,19-22). Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5,24). Let us run the life-long race of faith in Christ where upon at our finish we will be crowned with the prize of eternal life (1. Corinthians 5,17). Baptism indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever (Small Catechism, Baptism IV). 

6. Praise be to You, O Yahweh, O God of our fathers, for You are just in everything that You have wrought for us. Εύλογητός ει, κύριε ό θεός των πατέρων ήμων, και αίνετός, ότι δίκαιος ει έπι πασιν, οίς έποίησας ήμιν. Benedictus es Domine Deus patrum nostrorum quia justus es in omnibus, quæ fecisti nobis (Daniel 3,26a.27a apocrypha; 3.4 p.252 esv). We have sinned and gone astray from God’s will (6 p.252 esv), but He brings us back to Him with a contrite heart and a humble spirit (16 p.252 esv). Through His Son, Jesus Christ, by the working of the Holy Spirit within our hearts, we know that the Triune God is the only God who saves and redeems. In Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are new creations. 

7. Each morning God awakens me,

He speaks into my ear to say.

He doesn’t hide Himself from me,

But guides me through the day,

That with His Word I

Welcome the new light.

With the twilight portal nigh

He speaks to me this night.

 (Er weckt mich alle Morgen elkg 694,1 2021 Jochen Klepper 1938 nach Isaiah 50,4-8). 

This is most certainly true. 

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

9. Let us pray. We beseech Thee, O Yahweh, make Thy servants always to join together in seeking Thee with their whole heart, to serve Thee with submissive mind, humbly to implore Thy mercy and perpetually to rejoice in Thy blessings.  Amen. (Septuagesima, Vespers Collect 2. The Daily Office.)

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. 

   Starck, Johann. Tägliches Hand-Buch. Copyright © 1852 Enßlin & Laiblin.

Starck, Johann. Tägliches Handbuch. Franz Pieper, tr. Copyright © 19oo Concordia Publishing House.

   Starck, Johann. Starck’s Prayer Book. Copyright © 2009 Concordia Publishing House.

The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House. 

Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Copyright © 1987 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Lockwood, Gregory J. 1 Corinthians. Copyright © 2000 Concordia Publishing House.