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41.
Christians, however, though obliged to live among swine and to be at times
trampled underfoot and rooted about, have nevertheless surpassing glory; for
they can look up and intelligently behold their Lord and his gifts. They are
not of the pen of swine intended only for slaughter; they know themselves
children of God, adorned by him with gifts and graces not merely temporal. They
are conscious that, having given them body and life — for these they realize
are not of their own obtaining — he will also supply their further needs,
providing for them forever.
Luther's Sermons, Volume 8,Tenth
Sunday after Trinity
Greatness
of God Unequaled
43.
Regarding the baptizer — who may be a woman even — and the baptized, we
certainly can see nothing wonderful. The humanity in the case does not effect
any great work; the work is wrought by him who is God, Lord and Spirit. It is
he who gives to the office power and greatness above that of all emperors,
kings and lords, however inferior the instrumentality — the occupants of the
sacred offices. By these ministrations souls are won from the devil, snatched
out of hell and transformed into saints blessed forever. Person and office may
be apparently inferior, but the office is of God and God is no inferior being.
His greatness cannot be equaled by a hundred thousand worlds. He accomplishes
things incomprehensible to the world and impossible to angels. The combined
efforts of all creation could not produce baptism. Were the world to unite in
baptizing an infant, the infant would receive no good therefrom unless God the
Lord commanded the deed.
Luther's Sermons, Volume 8,Tenth Sunday after Trinity
Glory Which Every Preacher May Claim
9.
It is a glory which every preacher may claim, to be able to say with full
confidence of heart: “This trust have I toward God in Christ, that what I teach
and preach is truly the Word of God.” Likewise, when he performs other official
duties in the Church — baptizes a child, absolves and comforts a sinner — it
must be done in the same firm conviction that such is the command of Christ.
Twelfth
Sunday after Trinity
If the Doctrine of Faith in Christ Be Left
Out…
In
short, there can be no New Testament preached if the doctrine of faith in
Christ be left out; the spirit cannot enter into the heart, but all teaching,
endeavor, reflection, works and power remain mere “letters,” devoid of grace,
truth, and life. Without Christ the heart remains unchanged and unrenewed. It
has no more power to fulfill the Law than the book in which the Ten
Commandments are written, or the stones upon which engraved. “For the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”
#36, Twelfth
Sunday after Trinity
Efficacy and Bearing Fruit
20.
Not only preachers, but all Christians, should constantly entreat the God who
grants knowledge to grant also efficacy; should beseech him that the Word may
not pass with the utterance, but may manifest itself in power. The prevailing
complaint at present is that much preaching obtains, but no practice; that the
people are shamefully rude, cold and indolent, and less active than ever, while
at the same time they enjoy the strong, clear light of revelation concerning
all right and wrong in the world. Well may we pray, then, as Paul does here. He
says, in effect: “You are well supplied: the Word is richly proclaimed to you —
abundantly poured out upon you. But I bend my knees to God, praying that he may
add his blessing to the Word and grant you to behold his honor and praise and
to be firmly established, that the Word may grow in you and yield fruit.”
Sixteenth
Sunday after Trinity
Where the Spirit Is, Faith Must Obtain
36.
A third answer to our enemies is: We are certain that wherever the Word of God
is proclaimed, the fruits of the same must exist. We have the Word of God, and
therefore the Spirit of God must be with us. And where the Spirit is, faith
must obtain, however weak it may be. Though visible evidence may be lacking,
yet inevitably there must be some among us who daily pray, while we may not be
aware of it. It is reasonably to be expected that our enemies should judge
erroneously, because they look for outward evidences of Christianity, which are
not forthcoming. The Word is too sublime to pass under our judgment; it is the
province of the Word to judge us. The world, however, while unwilling to be
judged and convicted by us, essays to judge and convict the Word of God. Here
God steps in. It would be a pity for the worldly to see a godly Christian, so God
blinds them and they miss his kingdom.
Sixteenth
Sunday after Trinity
Creating Discord - Walther's UOJ and Election without Faith
18.
One of the wickedest offenses possible to commit against the Church is the
stirring up of doctrinal discord and division, a thing the devil encourages to
the utmost. This sin usually has its rise with certain haughty, conceited,
self-seeking leaders who desire peculiar distinction for themselves and strive
for personal honor and glory. They harmonize with none and would think
themselves disgraced were they not honored as superior and more learned
individuals than their fellows, a distinction they do not merit. They will give
honor to no one, even when they have to recognize the superiority of his gifts
over their own. In their envy, anger, hatred and vengefulness, they seek
occasion to create factions and to draw people to themselves. Therefore Paul
exhorts first to the necessary virtue of love, having which men will be enabled
to exercise humility, patience and forbearance toward one another.
Seventeenth
Sunday after Trinity
The Christian Treasure
14.
The Christian has indeed inestimable treasure. In the first place he has the
testimony of the Word of God, which is the word of eternal grace and comfort,
that he has a right and true conception of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Ten
Commandments and the Creed. In addition, he has the sure refuge of God’s
promise to deliver us from every trouble in which we shall call upon him, and
to give us, as he promised by the prophet Zechariah 12:10, the Spirit of grace
and of prayer. And the Christian, by virtue of his enlightened understanding,
can wisely discern what are good works and what callings are pleasing to God;
on the other hand, his judgment is equally true as to unprofitable and vain
works and false services. Before, we had not this wholesome knowledge. We knew
not what we believed, or how we prayed and lived. We sought comfort and
salvation in self-devised trivialities, in penances, confessions and
satisfactions, in self-righteous works of monkery and in obedience to the
commands of the Pope. We believed such works to be fully satisfactory and, indeed,
the only things that were holy; the pursuits of common Christians we considered
worldly and dangerous.
Eighteenth
Sunday after Trinity
Whose Fault?
28. And so Paul, when here extolling the
Corinthians, has not an eye to the contentious, the Epicureans, or to those who
give public offense, as the man that “had his father’s wife;” but the apostle
looks to the fact that a few remain who have the pure Word of God, faith, baptism
and the sacrament, though some hypocrites be among them. Because of these few —
and few indeed there may be — we recognize the presence of that inestimable
treasure of which the apostle speaks. It is found as well where two or three
are gathered together as with thousands. Neither the Gospel nor the ministers
nor the Church is to be blamed that the multitude miss this treasure; the
multitude have but themselves to blame, for they close their ears and eyes.
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity
