1. Corinthians 12,12-14.26-27 5524
Trinity XXI 68
20 Caprasius of Agen, Bordeaux, France, Bishop and Martyr 303 under Prefect Dacian (Diocletian, 284-311/12; persecution 302-11)
20. Oktober 2024
1. ℣ O Lord, the Almighty King, all things are placed under Your control:
℟ And there is no one who can resist Your will (Esther 13,9 vul; 4,17b lxx).
Domine rex omnipotens in dicione enim tua cuncta sunt posita:
et non est qui possit tuae resistere voluntati lxx mas
O God, our Lord, help us to constantly keep before our eyes the love of Jesus, who prayed for His enemies and did good to them, so that we likewise follow His example pure. Amen. (Stark 115; English 133).
2. »For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.«
3. In the Apostles’ Creed we confess: I believe … in the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints. The Triune God put us into this Church and communion at our Holy Baptism. In the Nicene Creed we confess: I believe … in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. Jesus puts His body and blood in us, by means of His Church, for the remission of our sins. In the Athanasian Creed we confess at the end: This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved. Where the Church is, there is Jesus with His means of grace for our salvation. Three Western creeds for one Church—a very trinitarian number that reminds us of the 3 Persons of the 1 God.
4. Paul tells us that the Church is comprised of many members. From that come many gifts and talents. That’s the work and blessing of the Holy Spirit. But as you read Paul’s epistles, sins and false teachings creep into the Church. That’s the sinful work and sectarianism we are responsible for. The Holy Spirit delights in forgiving our sins and restoring us to be one Church; and we certainly keep Him busy.
5. Division within the Church is nothing new. Paul’s epistles and Acts 15 tell of the first major rift in the Church. Arius nearly succeeded in changing the confessional standard of the Church in the early 4th century. Then the Great Schism of 1054 occurred when Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Bishop of Constantinople, Patriarch Michael, and then Michael excommunicated Leo. To this day the Catholic West and the Orthodox East are two separated halves of the one Church. 500 years after the Great Schism the Catholic Church splintered among Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans and other Protestants. Many lament the plethora of denominations in the Church.
6. Jesus prayed hours before His betrayal: »ut omnes unum sint. that they/we may all be one« (John 17,21). Jesus died to make us all one. Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, men and women are all redeemed by the blood Christ shed on His cross. We cannot alter this reality, for it is the core of Christ’s gospel. Every Christian has been baptized in the Triune Name of God who has made each of us a member of His one Church.
7. From 1962-74 the lcms was in a state of theological confusion. When it was at its boiling point in 1973, Norman Nagel wrote a short, poignant article for The Springfielder, the theological journal of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne at that time. Here were some of his wise words:
„To the Triune God we belong as his people. We have been baptized. We heed our Lord’s bidding to carry the message of salvation through the world, so that his words and baptism may make disciples of all people. We gather in his name and know him present with us. We lay ourselves down before him and receive his forgiving word.
„The Christian life is shaped by the giving love of Christ and in the Scripture we have his bidding and descriptions of that shape. We would please him. Yet in nothing of our achievements, in no factor of us, do we place our final reliance. That is in his body and blood given and shed for us, in our Baptism, and in his forgiving and life-giving word of the Gospel which does not merely tell but bestows what it says. This is all from him and as sure as he is sure. At no point may we insert some factor of ourselves as decisive or guaranteeing“ (Nagel 118.119).
8. Nagel titled his article The Gospel Is What Lutherans Care About. Nagel knew, as Luther knew, as every Christian should know: the gospel is what keeps the Church together. The gospel is what resolves factions and frictions in the Church. The gospel is what gives the healing salve for hurting Christians wounded by the sins of others. We tend to forget this truth in the heat of conflict and division. But the Holy Spirit continues to bring the gospel to us, bring us back to the gospel, for our benefit and for our healing. For in bringing the gospel to us, the Holy Spirit is bringing us Jesus Christ. Nagel writes in his article: „The magnitude of the Gospel is recognized by contrast with the Law, and particularly in its function of disclosing sin. When the Law has demolished every ground in man for making any claim on God, then the Gospel is received as sheer gift. Because of Calvary, there is forgiveness and this is bestowed by the absolving ‘word of the cross’“ (Nagel 118).
9. This sheer gift of the gospel is delivered to us by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace: Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion. The gospel tells us that Jesus has forgiven all our sins. He has forgiven all the sins of the people you are conflicted with. He wants those who are many in isolated groups to be one in their Christian confession. The Apostle Paul wrote the Ephesians Christians: »There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all« (Ephesians 4,4-6). With Jesus we pray: »ut omnes unum sint. that they/we may all be one« (John 17,21).
10. We pray to You, Lord,
O noble Duke of might,
In the manner of a child’s accord:
Send us in this spiritual fight,
Your sword that cuts on each side,
For it’s Your Word Divine,
With which we can deride
The gates of Hell’s line.
(O König Jesu Christe elkg 397,2 2021 Wilhelm Thomas 1933 nach Leonhard Roth 1539
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. O God, the Lord and Leader of the hosts of the blessed, instruct us in spiritual warfare, arm us against all foes visible and invisible, subdue unto us our own rebellious affections and give us daily victory in the following of Him who vanquished sin and death and now goeth forth with us conquering and to conquer. Amen. (Trinity xxi, 1st Vespers Collect. 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.
Nagel, Norman. The Gospel Is What Lutherans Care About. The Springfielder, Vol. 37, Num. 2 1973
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.
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