1. Samuel 2,1-8. Easter

1. Samuel 2,1-8 2524

Ostersonntag 35 

Joseph, Patriarch, 1914-1804 bc

Amos, Prophet, 838-759 bc 

31. März 2024

1. ℣ I have arisen and am still with You. Alleluia. Thou hast formed me, and placed Thy hand upon me. Alleluia.

  ℟ Your knowledge of me has become wonderful; I cannot attain it. Alleluia. (Psalm 138,18b.5b.6 vul lxx). 

О our Jesus, let us truly realize the happiness that comes from Your return to life! Let the noble life that is in You be gloriously manifested and break forth in us, so that not only we experience it but others may also see this new life in us. … Since by Your resurrection we have also become a partaker of Your life, let us reveal it in Your strength and shine with it before all the world.  Amen. (Stark 147 © 1900; English 86). 

2. »And Hannah prayed and said: „My heart exults in Yahweh; my horn is exalted in Yahweh. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. There is none holy like Yahweh: for there is none besides You; there is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for Yahweh is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. Yahweh kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. Yahweh makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them to be seated with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s, and on them He has set the world.« 

3. Alleluia!! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!! Martin Luther wrote in 1543: … die gantze Schrifft … alles Eitel Christus. The whole of Scripture is pure Christ (WA 54,88.38-39). We see this in 1. Samuel 2 where Hannah’s prophesies Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection: »Yahweh kills and brings to life; He brings down to שְׁאוֹל [Sheol] and raises up.« κύριος θανατοῖ καὶ ζωογονεῖ κατάγει εἰς ᾅδου καὶ ἀνάγει. Dominus mortificat et vivificat; deducit ad inferos et reducit. שְׁאוֹל was translated into Greek with ᾅδου, then into Latin with inferos, then into German with Hölle and into English as hell or grave. 

4. Normally when we hear the word hell we immediately envision a place of eternal torment, but that was not how it was used by Hannah in her prayer. The Hebrew and Greek have in mind the realm of the dead or the underworld. Only centuries later did hell become thought of as a place of eternal punishment. Many of the Early Church Fathers said that Hannah in her prayer is prophesying about the resurrection of Jesus; Cyril of Jerusalem (313-86), John Chrysostom (347-407) and Augustine (354-450) in particular state this in their writings. 

5. What they point out is that there is a line of theological thought running from the Old to the New Testament about resurrection, salvation and eternal life. In his famous Easter sermon, Chrysostom preached: „Let no one mourn their transgressions, for pardon has dawned from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free. He that was taken by death has annihilated it! He descended into Hades and took Hades captive! He embittered it when it tasted His flesh! And anticipating this, Isaiah exclaimed: Hades was embittered/exasperated/made powerless when it encountered Thee in the lower regions (Isaiah 14,9)“ (Chrysostom Paschal Homily preached in 400). 

6. God judged us when He judged Jesus for our sins (Nagel 103). We were put to death in our Baptism by words and water and a new us was born, an us no longer enslaved to sin (Nagel 103). Paul says it this way to the Romans and the Galatians: »All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death« (Romans 6,3); »We have been crucified with Christ« (Galatians 2,20). As it is on Good Friday, so it is on Easter Sunday. We were given life in our Baptism. Again Paul: »For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, then we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. … We must …  consider ourselves alive to God in Christ Jesus« (Romans 6,5.11b). Blessed Hannah saw this thousands of years before it happened when she prayed: »Yahweh kills and brings to life.«

7. The angel, whom Mark calls a young man, told the women that first Easter dawn: »You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here« (Mark 16,6). 2000 years later Christians still journey to His tomb to worship Him and rejoice in the salvation He purchased for us. Now Jesus is at His tomb, for where 2 or 3 gather in His Name He has promised to be among them. Jesus is here with us right now. When we receive the Lord’s Supper He instituted for us He is present with the bread that is His body and present with the wine that is His blood. He gives, and we take. His body and blood is given to us in the bread and the wine; when we receive this Sacrament we are partaking of the forgiveness of sins He purchased for us long ago at Calvary. 

8. In the late 2^nd century Melito of Sardis proclaimed in an Holy Week homily: „[Jesus says:] Draw near, all families of men, you who have been befouled with sins, and receive forgiveness for your sins. I am your Forgiveness, I am the Passover of your salvation, I am the Lamb which was sacrificed for you, I am your Ransom, I am your Light, I am your Savior, I am your Resurrection, I am your King, I am leading you up to the heights of heaven, I will show you the Eternal Father, I will raise you up by My right hand“ (Homily on the Passover ¶ 103 ).

9. Christ is risen!! Alleluia! Deus, et discerne causam Hæc est dies quam fecit Dominus; exsultemus, et lætemur in ea. (Psalm 117,24 vul). This is the day which Yahweh has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. 

10. Up, up, my heart with delight,

Acclaim what happened today!

How after a great suffering’s night,

Now a greater light does sway!

My Savior once did rest nigh

Where we are taken up high,

When from us our soul

has traveled to heaven, its goal. 

   (Auf, auf, mein Herz, mit Freuden elkg 453,1 2021 Paul Gerhardt 1653). 

This is most certainly true. 

11. 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. 

12. Let us pray. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, to joy and rejoicing unspeakable and full of glory in Him; to whom with Thee, O Father, and Thee, O Holy Spirit, one blessed Trinity, be ascribed all honor, might, majesty and dominion now and forever.  Amen. (Easter, Vespers Collect 5. 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. 

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. 

Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.