Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Luke,15,17-32. Laetare

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Luke,15,17-32. Laetare

Luke 15,1-2.17-32 1924

Laetare 28

Caius and Alexander, Martyrs at Apamea in Phrygia, Turkey 279

10. März 2024

1. ℣ Rejoice with Jerusalem and rejoice in her, all you who love her:

℟ Behold, I will flow over her like a river of peace (Isaiah 66,10.12 vul lxx).

O Jesus, our Jesus! how great is You love, which You showed us during our bitter suffering! You are the only-begotten Son of God, the Immaculate Lamb, the Lord of Glory, the Most High, who has never committed any sin; and behold, You yielded to the most shameful death and the greatest suffering for us, who are unrighteous people, sinners and children of death. O how great is Your unspeakable mercy! The Holy One bears our unholiness, the Pious/Perfect One bears our wickedness, the Righteous One bears our unrighteousness, the Innocent One bears our guilt. Amen. (Starck 500 1852; English transl. 77).

2. »And he arose and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him: „Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.“ But the father said to his servants: „Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.“ And they began to celebrate.«

3. »The Parable of the Prodigal Son is the third of three about finding what was lost. They were told by Jesus in response to the scribes and Pharisees who complained that He received and ate with sinners. The Pharisees were strict adherents to the laws of Moses and the traditions of the elders. They avoided sinners: those who did not adhere to the law and traditions as stringently as the Pharisees did. As such, since sinners did not merit their righteousness from keeping the laws and traditions; they were lost. That implied they were unrighteous and condemned to be separated from God.

4. This lostness is personified by the prodigal son. What the son does at the beginning of the parable is utterly despicable and worthy of be ostracized by both his family and the community. He is thoroughly wicked, and he exemplifies each one of us: he is lost and condemned. But the elder son is just as lost and condemned, for he likewise dishonors his father. He has not even attempted to resolve the broken relationship between his father and younger son. Bot the sinners represented by the prodigal son and the Pharisees by the older brother are lost and need to be found. »None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one« (Psalm 14,3; 53,2; 14,1-3; 53,3; Romans 3,10-12). The same is true still today.

5. Rejoice, for Christ searches for such as these who are lost and marginalized. Such were we, but Christ found us and our faith in Him is created and sustained by the Holy Spirit. The lost are found; the sinner is forgiven; the wicked are made righteous. Celebrate, for Christ has brought us into His presence. „It is of the Lord’s mercy that we can call ourselves “His” today and hereafter. Here is our reliance and our certainty, not in our respectability or decent lives or anything of us. It is only in the unfailing mercy of our Shepherd, [who is] so patient and so good“ (Nagel 169).

6. Rejoice! We were lost, but we have been found! Christ has redeemed us back to our Heavenly Father. Whatever it is the has separated one from God has been resolved. „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; AE 21,37).

7. Jesus brings us the same mercy that His Father has for fallen men and women. The Parable of the Prodigal Son teaches the gracious merciful steadfast love the Triune God has for us. We could never come to the point of realizing the Father’s kindness/favor and mercy/grace except through the Lord Christ, who is a mirror of His Father’s heart, without whom we see nothing but an angry and fearful/terrible Judge. Denn wir künden (wie droben verleret) nymer mehr dazu komen, das wir des vaters hulde und gnade erkenneten on durch den HERRN Christum, der ein spiegel ist des veterlichen hertzens, außer welchem wir nichts sehen denn einen zornigen und schrecklichen Richter (WA 30 I, 192, 4). Declaramus enim (ut supra revelatum est) non venientem, agnitam Patris misericordiam et gratiam per Dominum Christum, qui est speculum patris cordis, extra quem nihil nisi iratum et terribilem judicem cernimus. Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ is our Savior! Deo gratias pro Iesu Christo Salvatore nostro.

8. Your protection covers me

From the storms I am free

And from all enemies.

Let Satan be shaking

And the enemy be maddening,

Jesus stands by me.

Even if lightning and thunder deluge,

And sin and hell terrorize me:

Jesus will shield me. (Jesu, meine Freude elkg 543,2 2021 Johann Franck 1653)

This is most certainly true.

9. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

10. Let us pray. O God, the Living God, who has put Thine own eternity in our hearts and hast made us to hunger and thirst after Thee, satisfy, we pray Thee, the instincts which Thou hast implanted in us that we may find Thee in life, and life in Thee. Amen. (Laetare, 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.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Luke,15,17-32. Laetare

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