Lord God, heavenly Father: We beseech Thee so to guide and direct us by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may not exalt ourselves, but humbly fear Thee, with our whole hearts hear and keep Thy word, and hallow the Lord's day, that we also may be hallowed by Thy word; help us, first, to place our hope and confidence in Thy Son, Jesus Christ, who alone is our righteousness and Redeemer, and, then, so to amend and better our lives in accordance with Thy word, that we may avoid all offenses and finally obtain eternal salvation, through Thy grace in Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God. world without end. Amen.
Mankind looks for Truth, waters it down, shuns, and rejects it. We have all kinds of standards, norms, protocols, but
"What is Truth?" said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. (Bacon essay, Of Truth, John 18:38)
This is the answer -
KJV John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
This passage below from Ephesians 4 made me think about the contemporary failure of the denominations. What do they have in common? They all teach and preach the denomination, and compare them to others. They consider themselves businesses and have business goals which show they are failures. Our only goal is to teach that Truth which is revealed in the original Scriptures and taught in harmony with the Lutheran Reformation.
KJV Ephesians 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Luther:
1. This, too, is a beautiful sermon, delivered by Paul to the Ephesians, concerning the good works of Christians, who believe and are obedient to the doctrine of the Gospel. In the knowledge of good works Paul desires Christians to grow and increase, as we learned in the epistle for last Sunday. The ground of all doctrine, of all right living, the supreme and eternal treasure of him who is a Christian in the sight of God, is faith in Christ. It alone secures forgiveness o£ sins and makes us children of God.
Now, where this faith is, fruits should follow as evidence that Christians in their lives honor and obey God. They are necessary for God’s glory and for the Christian’s own honor and eternal reward before him.
Is this passage about people getting along with each other, or about the Trinity? The answer is - both, because God has revealed Himself so that we can enjoy the kind of life which is promised in the Scriptures.
The invisible Church is made up of believers, and that is all the New Testament talks about. There is nothing about endowment funds, properties, silverware, goldware, men's groups, women's groups, youth groups. Wouldn't the apostles gasp at a money shortage where they keep $100 million in the bank?
Paul is invoking his prisoner status because that meant he would probably die, from maltreatment if not from execution itself. However, this was God's plan - a prisoner of the Lord - to glorify His Name. The apostles had great honors as witness of Christ but very short lifespans. John lived the longest. The ultimate value of his Gospel came from being the one to unify the first three Gospels and to include essential teaching from Christ.
Paul in naming his imprisonment is showing that this will possibly be their fates, too, but it is in God's hands. In this life we should see ourselves as
2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Who called Himself lowly and meek?
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Luther points out in in his sermon for this Sunday that these attributes are enough for the Christian. The believer does not have to separate himself from society or join a monastery. There are no peculiar actions that make him a saint, someone made holy (sanctified) by the Gospel of faith in Jesus Christ.
That makes all the difference, because there is a lot less done in "have to" and a lot more done in "want to." I want told when they taught us about the phone, "Never say - I have to - because that sounds like a burden when you are doing service work for the client." When parents say, "Clean your room," the automatic response is - "Do I have to?"
The solution for each individual is to think of everything as "want to," which makes it fun and fulfilling as well. I knew that Christina wanted a clean kitchen, so I cleaned up while I prepared food on the stove and in the microwave. She said, "How can you do both at once?" I said, "I grew up in fast food. We made the products and cleaned all day - and took care of customers." And it was fun to suggest menus and changes that worked out or were never mentioned again.
One of the clear and obnoxious signs of Pietism is "I will do this for my friends but not for anyone who has annoyed me in any way." That quickly descends into a bunch of superficial and self-righteous works-saints and cell groups who are just the opposite of what Paul talks about - being meek, lowly, and long-suffering.
I know many pastors are afraid of speaking their minds because they are afraid of retribution, the bishop or DP getting even. Fear is a reaction coming from a lack of faith. Perhaps the Lord High Bishop is just God's instrument for moving a faithful pastor into the work he should do - in another capacity, another place?
Forbearing one another in love means not expecting others to be as perfect as we imagine ourselves to be. Shunning and the stink-eye are not the two Sacraments, though they are immensely popular and practiced frequently.\
3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
We can often substitute the Word of God for the Spirit, simply because they always work together. Unity of the Spirit comes from placing ourselves under the teaching of the Scriptures. That does not mean we cannot disagree, but it does mean that we seek the Truth from that source alone and faithful exponents of that source. But it always begins with the Scriptures and everything must rest on that unique, divine, inerrant, and efficacious Word.
We can see what horrible divisions and errors have come from the denial of:
- The Holy Trinity
- The divinity of Christ
- The Virgin Birth of Christ and His miracles
- The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ
- The Sacraments being effective
- The immortality of the soul.
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
These are simple words with a powerful message. As Christian believers we are fashioned and led by these inspired words. We are not on our own or alone, because we are God's Creation in two ways. He gave us life and the complexity of our bodies, but He also gave us faith and sealed us in His Kingdom through the Gospel Word,
- either when baptized as babies or
- converted as adults and baptized.
Both creations are marvels, self-healing (self-healing with some help from the doctor; self-healing from drowning our sins in the ocean of His grace - from the Means of Grace).
Luther has much more to say about this in his sermon for today, posted below.
