Daily Lutheran Sermon Quote - Cantate Second Sermon

 

I knew two WELS pastors who were Church Growth fanatics, like Valleskey, and Antinomian (no Law, only their twisted Gospel). Both pastors became 100% atheists. They are not alone - just samples of Objective Faithless Justification.

Link to Cantate Sermon 2 - Fourth Sunday after Easter

11. His way to the Father is his glory. For “to go” means to die, and to pass through death to the Father and enter upon another existence. He glories in his future course when he says: “I go unto the Father.”

Therefore, here righteousness is nothing more than traveling by faith the road through death unto the Father. This faith makes us righteous before God, this faith by which we believe that he delivered us from sin, death, Satan and hell, through his passion, and that thereby God, the Father, is reconciled and our sins are blotted out by his blood. This is also the reason that he mentions his going, when he says, in respect of righteousness, not that he is with the Father, but that he goes to the Father. In this going, sin is swallowed up in righteousness and Christ passes cheerfully through death, so that no one is even aware of it. Therefore it follows: “And ye behold me no more.”

12. The nature and art of faith are here set forth: Faith neither feels nor gropes, nor do the things connected with it require a science; but it bestirs itself cheerfully to believe the things it neither feels nor ‘can measure with all its powers inwardly or outwardly. Paul says in Romans 8:24: “Who hopeth for that which he seeth?” Therefore, the Lord aptly says: “And ye behold me no more.” As if he would say that this way of good works which he is traveling, will not be seen nor grasped by the senses, but it must be believed. Now follows the third and last part of our Gospel.

Using the Rainbarrel Before a Rainy Day or Two

 

Weather alerts always being with "Have you dumped your rain barrels?" I do that for two reasons. One reason is (later in the summer) to thwart the mosquitoes. The second reason is to pour lots of usable nitrogen and unbleached water on the neediest plants.

I got this local advice tonight, with the sun beginning to sink, "It is going to rain tomorrow you know." My answer, "That is why I am using up this rain barrel." I am a magnet for gratuitous advice and modest when handing the results to friends, neighbors, and church members. 

The first plant targets were three Clethra bushes up front - tiny and beautiful, attracting hummingbirds and butterflies - and also two beginners out back. I have lost four others but I count the five survivors as great additions to the garden and their cinnamon fry fragrance. 

Tonight a woodpecker stopped by to drink from the hummingbird feeder.

I also poured plenty of rain water on calla lilies, some late blooming flowers, and the new roses. 

Wood mulch was used last fall and renewed this spring. Fresh mulch is a good way to mark where the neediest plants get extra care, by pruning or watering or de-weeding. I agree with the Queen Elizabeth's policy of leaving stumps and lumps of wood on the soil to foster the bugs that bring the birds that sing in the trees and bushes.

If we cannot learn from God's Creation as foundational, the rest of all knowledge is diluted, misunderstood, and misused. 

I have spent some time and labor building up islands of bee balm, a mint loved by butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Now that I have large, healthy clumps in the garden, I can transfer samples to other areas where they will dominate weeds while soaking up the sun.

Likewise, areas front and back are hosting attractive hostas (approved by King Charles III) for background decoration. They are not glamorous but sturdy and attractive - but special treats when their graceful flowers on a stalk invite sipping from the hummingbirds. I often think, "Did He do that on purpose?" The answer is obvious - nothing is random when 

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.

Daily Lutheran Sermon Quote - Second Cantate Sermon - "You Shall Humble Them with the Holy Gospel."

Link to Cantate Sermon 2 - Fourth Sunday after Easter

8. The rod, however, by which the world is convicted and punished, is the divine Word and the holy Gospel, proclaimed by the apostles and preachers, as God the Father says to his Son in Psalm 2:9: “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” That is, you shall humble them with the holy Gospel. But the world resents such conviction and punishment; yet it punishes severely, and even more severely than the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit takes rods, but the world uses swords and fire. Isaiah also speaks in like terms of Christ our Lord in Isaiah 11:4: “He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.”

9. What is now the righteousness the Lord means here? Some say righteousness is a virtue that gives to every person his own. Although this is a fine definition, yet it is misleading, in that we do not know how we are indebted to every one, to God and to man. This God desires and demands of us. Therefore, his righteousness is nothing more than the faith and grace of God, by which God makes us pious and righteous. Such righteousness we must have and thus be righteous, if we are to be found righteous and unblamable before God, and not only before man. For the smallest letter or tittle of the Law shall not fail, but all will be fulfilled.

10. Noah was found to be such a righteous man. It is written of him in Genesis 6:8-9: “Noah was a righteous man, and blameless in his generation; he walked with God. Therefore he found favor in the eyes of Jehovah.” It is also written of Job, in Job 1:1, that he was a perfect and upright man, one that feared God and turned away from evil. But that is done only by faith, when one believes that God has strangled and swallowed up one’s sins in his righteousness. For this righteousness is nothing but to believe that Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father; that he is equal with God, possessing equal power; that he has become Lord by virtue of his passion, by which he has ascended to the Father, reconciled us with God and is there as our mediator. This is what the prophet means in Psalm 110:1. “Jehovah saith unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Therefore, St. Paul calls Christ now a mediator, 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6; then a throne of grace, Romans 3:25; a propitiation,1 John 2:2, and other like names. God requires this honor from us and faith demands it that we possess him as our Lord and Savior; and this glory he will not concede to any one else, as he says through the prophet: “My glory will I not give to another,” Isaiah 42:8.

11. His way to the Father is his glory. For “to go” means to die, and to pass through death to the Father and enter upon another existence. He glories in his future course when he says: “I go unto the Father.”

Therefore, here righteousness is nothing more than traveling by faith the road through death unto the Father. This faith makes us righteous before God, this faith by which we believe that he delivered us from sin, death, Satan and hell, through his passion, and that thereby God, the Father, is reconciled and our sins are blotted out by his blood.