All About the Savior

"Built on the Rock the Church doth Stand"
by Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig, 1783-1872
Translated by Carl Doving, 1867-1937

Tune - Kirken den er et" is linked here

1. Built on the Rock the Church doth stand,
Even when steeples are falling;
Crumbled have spires in every land,
Bells still are chiming and calling,
Calling the young and old to rest,
But above all the soul distrest,
Longing for rest everlasting.

2. Surely in temples made with hands,
God, the Most High, is not dwelling;
High above earth His temple stands,
All earthly temples excelling.
Yet He whom heavens cannot contain
Chose to abide on earth with men,
Built in our bodies His temple.

3. We are God's house of living stones,
Builded for His habitation;
He through baptismal grace us owns
Heirs of His wondrous salvation.
Were we but two His name to tell,
Yet He would deign with us to dwell,
With all His grace and His favor.

4. Now we may gather with our King
E'en in the lowliest dwelling;
Praises to Him we there may bring,
His wondrous mercy forthtelling.
Jesus His grace to us accords;
Spirit and life are all His words;
His truth doth hallow the temple.

5. Still we our earthly temples rear
That we may herald His praises;
They are the homes where He draws near
And little children embraces.
Beautiful things in them are said;
God there with us His covenant made,
Making us heirs of His kingdom.

6. Here stands the font before our eyes
Telling how God did receive us;
The altar recalls Christ's sacrifice
And what His table doth give us;
Here sounds the Word that doth proclaim
Christ yesterday, today, the same,
Yea, and for aye our Redeemer.

7. Grant then, O God, where'er men roam,
That, when the church-bells are ringing,
Many in saving faith may come
Where Christ His message is bringing:
"I know Mine own, Mine own know Me;
Ye, not the world, My face shall see.
My peace I leave with you." Amen.

Hymn #467
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Eph. 2: 19-22
Author: Nicolai F.S. Grundtvig, 1837
Translated by: Carl Doving, 1909, alt.

All About the Savior

Where do we find the key revelation in the entire Bible - a summary, a portrait, an anchor, or simply - bedrock? The famous Jesus v. Peter is brushed aside, as if the climax has Jesus building on the first Pope, for "On this Rock I will build My Church."

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter (a rock), and upon this Rock (bedrock) I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The Church of Rome gets this verse completely twisted, and today no seminarian or pastor will stop and study this in Greek, no matter which denomination, because so few take the time to clarify this tiny little verse in the original. 

I am willing to bet that all the denominations openly or furtively align themselves with the papacy, even if only through the Almy catalogue. LCMS and WELS pastors used to adorn themselves with grim, black Calvinist robes - adorned with colorful stoles in the latter days. More each year are going full papacy with the best of costumes and smoke pots.

His Eminence, Bishop Jim Heiser (fish hat) gave Ichabod readers a sample of the high church, Rome-centric pastors from Ft. Wayne and the Other One. Wayners resist saying "St. Louis" because of their imaginary superior status. Sadly, these photos are no longer being published, since they lack gravitas and sanctimony.

Bedrock

Modernists cannot abide the thought of Jesus being divine, so they are very cozy with the Church of Rome, where the Savior is downplayed to emphasize the holiness of the Pope and His underlings (Let him that readeth understand, Matthew 24:15).  Note that the papal wannabees go along with gazillion holy days, prayers, and honors for every dead person except the Savior, the only one who rose from death.

The modernists make the Word of God devoid of anything except their own material desires. ELCA - in one small corner of their world - Explores Lutheran Values - with an emphasis on abortion. They glory in their shame. And yet, from the anxious bleating of the sheep who happen to be wolves, the Faithless Walther Four - LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) follow ELCA and even get ahead of the apostasy.

The Singular in the Trinity

The Savior Jesus is the keystone, so believers know that the Bible begins and ends with the Son of God, from  the Creating Word in Genesis 1 and John 1 to the ending of Revelation.

Everyone should be furious that colleges, seminaries, and denominational drones are intent on replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with second-rate sales gimmicks, still being borrowed from Peter Drucker and the gang at Fuller Seminary and other bandit hide-outs.

Even worse, they have kidnapped the Bible business to keep it in harmony with the frauds from the Church of Rome, Tischendorf, the American Bible Society, and the even worse United Bible Society.

The Faithless Walther Four - LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) are eager to make money from selling bad, expensive, conflicted Bibles. All their changes are against the divinity of Christ and faith in Him.

I ran across a so-called Lutheran blog, now deceased, that complained about the Walther Four denying the use of the New KJV. The so-called best of the alternatives (like gourmet vomit) happily engages in changing the main text and also in providing apostate readings in the footnotes.

Scholars are divided. Isaiah 7:14. It was either the Virgin Birth or not.

Scholars are divided. Mark 1:1. He was the Son of God or not.

The establishment of alternatives argues that the New Testament is not reliable - and Scriptural doctrine is whimsical.  

Jesuit training pays off, and the Walther Four have at least 8 Jesuit PhDs.

Walzing Matilda

 

https://spectator.org/the-manchurian-by-way-of-minnesota-candidate/

"It’s not as though the vice presidential nominee needed to travel to all the way to China to learn to treat reporters as children better seen and not heard. But he surely absorbed by osmosis the folkways of Chinese politicians vis-à-vis the press on his many visits to the Middle Kingdom.

Walz first traveled to China 35 years ago around the time of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Despite it serving as a mostly peaceful protest, Chinese officials did not treat it with the indifference initially shown by Walz toward the violent George Floyd riots in Minneapolis four years ago. The Chinese Communists murdered an unknown number of protesters that certainly number in the hundreds and perhaps reach well into the thousands."

***

GJ - Walz - like Kamala - has a definite, extensive, glaring background in Marxist cooperation and promotion with China. The article linked above should be read along with many more details.

Similarly, Walz' behavior as a governor should offer him a chance to reveal himself as a tool.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - "Moreover whatever they need of temporal things for this life and the necessaries for present wants they are to expect also from him, and they are not to be terrified if they do not see this before their eyes and have it prepared for the future, and are tempted by want and need."

 

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.
   

SECOND SERMON.

MATTHEW 6:24-34.


KJV Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

CHRISTIANS SHOULD NOT BE ANXIOUS FOR THINGS OF THIS LIFE, BUT SEEK THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

* Avarice and anxiety are the fruits of unbelief.



1. This Gospel is a part of the long sermon Christ delivered to his disciples on the mount, in which among other things he especially warned and admonished his disciples against the infamous vice of avarice and anxiety for daily bread, the legitimate fruit and proof of our unbelief. This does great harm in Christendom when it takes possession of those in the office of the ministry, who should be occupied by nothing except teaching the Word of God and faith aright, and chastising the error and sin of the world; or when it possesses these it should confess God’s Words before all persons and be prepared to serve everybody for the sake of God, even if they be obliged on that account to lose their riches, honor, body and life.

2. Christ wishes also to teach here how he desires to have his kingdom distinguished from the civil life and government, that he will not govern his Christendom upon earth so that it be conceived and vested as a government where Christians are first of all to be amply provided with temporal goods, riches and power, and who need not fear any need or danger; but he wishes to provide them with spiritual treasures and what their souls need, so that they may have his Word, the consolation of his grace, and the power and strength of the Holy Spirit against sin and death unto everlasting life. Moreover whatever they need of temporal things for this life and the necessaries for present wants they are to expect also from him, and they are not to be terrified if they do not see this before their eyes and have it prepared for the future, and are tempted by want and need. On the other hand they are to know that their God and Father will care for them and will surely give them all if they with firm faith are only anxious about and seek how they may continue faithful to his word and in his kingdom, and serve him there.

3. Therefore Christ makes a distinction in this sermon, by which he separates his Christians from the heathen and unbelievers. For he does not deliver this doctrine to the heathen as they do not accept it, but to those who are already Christians. He does not however consider those Christians, who only hear his word and can repeat it, like the nuns do the Psalter. In this way satan also hears the Gospel and the Word of God, yea, he knows it better than we, and can preach it just as well as we, if he only wished to do so. But the Gospel is doctrine that is to be a living power and put into practice; it should strengthen and comfort the people and make us courageous and aggressive. Therefore they who only hear the Gospel thus, so that they know and can speak about it, are not to be classed among Christians; but those who believe and do as the Gospel teaches are righteous. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or else he will hold to one and despise the other.”

4. Now he, who tries to serve two masters, will do it in a way that cannot be called serving at all; for it will certainly be as the Lord here says. One can indeed compel a servant to do a certain work against his will and he may grieve while doing it; but no one can compel him to do it cheerfully, and mean it from the bottom of his heart. He of course does the work as long as his master is present, but when he is absent, he hurries away from his task, and does nothing well. Hence the Lord desires our service to be done out of love and cheerfully, and where it is not done thus, it is no service to him: for even people are not pleased when one does anything for them unwillingly. This is natural, and we experience daily that it is so.

Now, if it be the case among human beings that no one can serve two masters, how much more is it true in the service of God, that our service cannot be divided; but it must be done unto God alone, willingly and from the heart; hence the Lord adds: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

 Norma A. Boeckler

5. God cannot allow us to have another Lord besides himself. He is a jealous God, as he says, and cannot suffer us to serve him and his enemy.

We find very few, who do not sin against the Gospel. The Lord passes a severe judgment and it is terrible to hear, that he should say this of us; and yet no one will confess, yea, no one will suffer it to be said that we hate and despise God, and that we are his enemies. There is no one, when asked if he loves God and cleaves to him, who would not reply: Dost thou take me to be such a desperate character as to be an enemy of God? But see how the text here closes, that we all hate and despise God, and love and cleave to mammon. For it is impossible that he, who loves gold and riches and cleaves to them, should not hate God. Christ here holds the two opposed to one another and as enemies, and says: If you love one of these two and cleave to the same, then you must hate and despise the other.

However well a man may live here upon the earth, if he clings to riches it cannot be otherwise than that he must hate God. And whoever does not trust in gold and worldly riches, loves God. This is certain. 

Matt the Flexible Has Finally Backed Away from the LCMS-WELS-ELS Opioids

 

Matt the Fatt only needed11 million Ichabod views to admit the obvious - the Missouri Synod, like its fetid partners - loves everything except the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace.

Nothing in the Book of Concord teaches Objective Faithless Justification.  

Rick Strickert (Carlvehse) Senior Member Username: Carlvehse Post Number: 11199 Registered: 10-2003

Posted on Friday, September 06, 2024 - 11:55 am:       In 2023 there was a brouhaha over the CTCR/CPH/ChiCom-manufactured LLCACA and President Harrison's diktat for the excommunication purge of the "horrible and racist" "alt-right" teachers of "white supremacy, Nazism, pro-slavery, anti-interracial marriage, women as property, fascism, death for homosexuals, even genocide," who "were at the genesis of a recent controversy surrounding essays" in LLCACA. Some of the essays (and their authors) had been sharply criticized for their non-Lutheran, woketardian, leftist propaganda. As a result, at least two critics were known to have been excommunicated, although one excommunicant was reinstated as a communicant member in another LCMS congregation. Now, in his September 1, 2024, letter, "Give Me ‘Book of Concord’ Lutheranism," President Harrison seems to have backpedaled ever so slightly (and perhaps even taken a swipe at some hyper-ritualist blog postings) when he stated: quote: Give me Book of Concord Lutheranism! Book of Concord Lutheranism does not need to be supplemented. It cannot be supplemented with modernism or post-modernism without subtraction. It doesn’t need Anglicanism (apostolic succession, broad church latitude in doctrine, ambiguity in its public confession of Christ in the Sacrament). It doesn’t need Roman Catholicism (a pope, episcopal order, dogma of tradition, seven sacraments, obscure liturgical intricacies or splendorous vestments). It doesn’t need to be supplemented by pop evangelical, what’s-happening-now, wandering, skinny-jeaned, unvested preachers. It doesn’t need Eastern Orthodoxy (dogma of the authority of the church fathers and seven ecumenical councils, much less infant or toddler Communion).

This Mark and Avoid Jeske Photoshop honors the Big Five plus other toxins, like Leonard Sweet, below, patron saint of Lutheran goofballs.

CPH's 400 page "Small" Catechism advises teachers to soft-pedal Objective Faithless Justification. Luther's own Small Catechism teaches Justification by Faith.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 15 - "Each one means to carry out his affairs without God, to oppress and choke whosoever would hinder him, and rather to throw all things higgledy-piggledy on a heap than to desist from his mind. Thereby in all affairs and governments all good things perish and naught but evil grows; as all history and daily experience more than amply show."

 

Complete Sermon ->FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

46. This he would gladly still do, if the world could or would haply for its own good follow the well-meant advice which he here gives, and not with unbelief, greed and unchristianlike scheming rage against his Word, to its own harm and ruin. So must he turn this Word with her and prove the contrary; that he who will not strive after God’s kingdom and his righteousness, but despises the same and reckons to provide for himself, against God’s will, by means of his own wisdom and plotting, must be deprived both of the eternal and of the temporal, and either not obtain the temporal or at least not be satisfied and happy with it. “Be not therefore anxious for the morrow; for the morrow will be anxious for itself Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

47. The world is always anxious about the future, and therewith thinks to assure its fate and to bring this much about that it may be removed from danger, protect and support itself. They see not the vanity thereof, and that their projects go wrong; that it be true, and experience testifies, as Christ here says, that each day brings its own misfortune and evil. Thus it comes to pass that, with such plottings and prudence of their own, whereby they mean to ensure themselves and to forestall all coming danger, the world only causes the more woe and harm. For whenever they see that things do not go as they expected, or that an accident happens, then they begin to despond, think of one remedy and another, and imagine they must, wherever and as best they can, look for help, protection and safety; thus they patch for themselves and think to help matters by all sorts of strange craftiness and practices, whereunto they are driven by unbelief, against God and their conscience, thus to carry out what they have in mind, albeit they see that God does not prosper such things. Hence springs so much misfortune, misery, murder, war, and all mischief and misdoing of the wicked world. Each one means to carry out his affairs without God, to oppress and choke whosoever would hinder him, and rather to throw all things higgledy-piggledy on a heap than to desist from his mind. Thereby in all affairs and governments all good things perish and naught but evil grows; as all history and daily experience more than amply show.

48. Against this Christ would caution his believers, that they may not waver nor stake their affairs on that which is uncertain, vainly caring for the future, but at all times and daily do that which is right; that they may not worry how things will come out, nor permit themselves to be swerved by future and uncertain good or evil things; but rather commend care to God, and then take everything that occurs to them in good part and overcome it with faith and patience. For it cannot be on earth otherwise than that each one daily in his office, estate and calling meet with other things than he gladly welcomes, which causes him much trouble and labor.

Hence does also Christ call this life daily evil or misfortune, that is to say, all sorts of misfortune, resistance, hindrance; that we may know it and be prepared for it, so as not to be frightened by any of them from doing good, neither yet to hanker after the world and become partakers in its unrighteous and evil affairs, — thereby leading ourselves and others into ruin and damnation.

The Train-Wrecks of Lutherdom

 

ELCA continues to be the star train-wreck, consuming the LCA, ALC, AELC, which are the ULCA, the Augustana Synod, various Norwegian Synods, and a cancerous lump of the LCMS.

This reminds everyone of Matt the Fatt's incredible feat of electrifying his sect over a bogus charge against a layman, dangling his train mid-air so no one faces the meltdown of the LCMS education system.

WELS is very old, a rust-bucket of second-rate teachers chanting the same old nonsense, protecting the criminal element of clergy and the incompetence of professors. When WELS clergy are imprisoned, "It never happened."

The ELS train polished the saintly image of Marvin Schwan, who now has a sales robot named after him - Marvin. The Little Norwegians, adamant on the dogma of Objective Faithless Justification, exploited adultery in order to build shiny new, soon-to-be-empty buildings. Wisconsin Lutheran College got its share too. Never say "ELLS" and never admit knowing that Forbes published the truth. As one ELLS pastor stated, "Nobody reads Forbes!" Who ran around his sect saying that I put the Forbes article in Christian News? Yes, I thought the matter was too much like Walther covering up for Stephan and starting a riot to grab Stephan's land, money, and title. As one Lutheran said succinctly - "When the Stephan ships landed in New Orleans, a bishop (Stephan) and a pope (Walther) arrived - both heretics.

The Church of the Lutheran Confession...pause to weep with laughter over the name...has one great advantage. They are so deep into their inbred lines that students ask each other, "How are you related to me."

This very special train-wreck is dedicated to the addicts who must have their dreams, their visions, their DMins from Fuller Seminary, their Church Growth Principles. The train represents the thrill of almost being there, if they could only squeeze more money from Thrivent, the Schwan Foundation, and other venereal disorders. "He has gone too far!" said one seminary president. But the insiders know that the Four Waltherian Sects are founded upon Bishop Martin Stephan's syphilis, Pietistic dogma, and Walther's servile covering up the plague, until he could use it to take over.

Reformation Seminary - John 4 KJV - The Samaritan Woman at the Well

YouTube

4 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,

2 (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)

3 He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.

4 And he must needs go through Samaria.

5 Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)

9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

27 And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?

28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,

29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

30 Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.

The Synods Have Been Weighed in the Balances and Found Wanting

 

Not a debate but a debacle.

 Wayne Mueller at the helm.

Dress for success church picnic.

Our Great Calvinist Heritage should be the title of this Book of Concord rebuttal.

One of the many strange perversions in The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) - is their merger in the name of Faithless Justification, which sounds eerily like Unitarian-Universalism, whose adherents are called U-U's. The Calvinists always drift into Unitarianism or Universalism - or both.

Mergers are the cowards' way of adding one plus one to get 1.2. Ask Thrivent, which was birthed from the unholy wombs of AAL and Lutheran Brotherhood. I was on the scent of UUA when I found that the precious Graduate Theological Union was shedding denominations in their fumbling, bumbling corporation (carperation in St. Louis Irish lingo).

U-Us dropped out of this corrupt gathering of dunderheads - due to costs and lack of interest. 

The famous Megan Rohrer attended the Graduate Theological Union.

Member seminaries, academic centers, and affiliates

[edit]

Consortial seminaries

[edit]

• Berkeley School of Theology (American Baptist Churches USA)
• Church Divinity School of the Pacific (Episcopal)
• Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
• Institute of Buddhist Studies
• Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University
• Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (ELCA)
• Pacific School of Religion (United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and United Methodist Church)
• San Francisco Theological Seminary (Presbyterian Church (USA))

Academic centers and affiliates

[edit]

• Center for the Arts and Religion^[5]
• Center for Islamic Studies^[6]
• Center for Swedenborgian Studies^[7]
• Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences^[8]
• Mira & Ajay Shingal Center for Dharma Studies^[9]
• New College Berkeley
• Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute^[10]
• Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies^[11]
• Newbigin House of Studies^[12]
• Wilmette Institute^[13]

 

Little Charlie Sue - Her Love, Work, and Glee

 

I can see the happy wall display from my desk.

Charlie Sue, the Patterdale Terrier with a dash of Chihuahua, goes to work before the sun is up. If anyone wonders why I post early most of the time, Charlie is the alarm clock. She never needs winding.

Her first action is to pose for breakfast. That means I make coffee or tea and find her standing at attention to remind me of my duties. Her "oo-wee" is accompanied by her ears straight up for attention, assuming the best. If not, she drops her ears to show how disappointed she is. The sound of Science Diet makes her jump around and lead me to her eating spot. If there is any delay, her sounds of despair remind me of her duty.

Yesterday she slipped out the front door, leading the two of us to imagine the other person let her out. The Doggie Day Care manager came over to give Charlie Sue back to us. That was so much fun - for Charlie - that she did two other explorations and ran back gleefully, grinning about finding new scents and dog friends.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 15 - "Is he not your father, and only your father — not the birds’, the geese’ or ducks’, nor the godless heathens’ father! Then trust him to be so loving that he will as a father care for you and neither forget nor leave you; aye, that he has long before known what he should give you, and has provided therefor ere you yourselves think of it or feel your wants."

 

Complete Sermon ->FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

41. Still more strongly does he speak to them by saying: “After all these things do the Gentiles seek” etc. This ought surely to deter a Christian, when he hears the public and terrible verdict spoken that those who worry and hanker after mammon are heathen, that is, people who really have no God; who, instead of God, serve mammon, in which there is only God’s name and naught but lies and vanity; who therefore are wholly cut off from God, deprived of all divine knowledge, comfort, grace and bliss. These are none other than the most miserable, most unfortunate, condemned people, who have never any salvation or comfort to hope for.

42. Here you see the world pictured, what sort of a thing it is, namely the big, mighty crowd — excepting a very few Christians — who, as soon as they have grown up, turn altogether away from God and serve mammon, the god of lies. Him do they hold as the great, aye, the only god, because the crowd that follows him is so great; nevertheless he is nothing, a mere powerless name. So a Christian should truly be horrified and shocked, when thinking of such blindness and misery of the world; he should with sighs and tears strive and work for it to be far removed from such shameful practices, and run from it, as run he can, as it were out of a fire, aye, out of the midst of hell.

43. Thirdly, in order in the most loving and comforting way to entice us to believe he again says: “Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” Is he not your father, and only your father — not the birds’, the geese’ or ducks’, nor the godless heathens’ father! Then trust him to be so loving that he will as a father care for you and neither forget nor leave you; aye, that he has long before known what he should give you, and has provided therefor ere you yourselves think of it or feel your wants.

For who but he has before known or thought what you would be or need, ere you were born into this world? Therefore honor him so far as to believe that he sees and knows such things and, knowing them, will act with you as a father. “But seek ye first his kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

44. That is the chief passage in this sermon, and states the right rule and manner how we are to proceed in order to get both the divine or eternal gift, and what we need for this life. Would you rightly and well take care whereof it behooves you to take care, then let this be the first, aye, indeed, your only care, that you strive according to God’s Word to do your duty, to serve him in his kingdom as his Word teaches you — for in this consists the righteousness belonging to this kingdom — and to prize this more highly than all pertaining unto this temporal life.

If you do this you have done and provided well and need not take any further burdens upon you nor cherish any cares in your heart; indeed, it should be much too small a thing for you to care for so slight a matter as the wants of your belly, and therefore to aggrieve yourselves. Rather do this for the honor of God, and furthermore for your own use and benefit, that you strive after the great and eternal good; which if you attain and keep, the rest will surely take care of itself. Neither can you in any better way arrive at obtaining it from God, than in this wise that you first seek and ask of him the great things.

 Norma A. Boeckler

45. For this is to his liking, that we ask great things of him, and that he be able to give great and many things. And for the reason that he gladly gives great things, he will also not stint the small things, but throw them to boot into the bargain. This God has constantly caused many pious people to experience, who, following this rule and precept, have striven to help in building God’s kingdom, have served the church, furthered God’s Word, and given thereto of their means. He then on the other hand has richly blessed them with goods, honor, etc. This is evidenced by the old examples not only of the Scriptures, but also by the history of some of our pious kings and princes, who, first having given plentifully for parishes and pulpits, for the support of the holy ministry and for schools, have thereby not become poorer, but were much more richly blessed and endowed by God, so that they have reigned in good peace, with victory and good fortune.

Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Trinity 15 - "This he admonishes them to believe; and to impress them most strongly with it, not by many but by earnest words, he suddenly breaks off after having held up to them the examples from daily life and God’s work among his Creatures; and closes with these words: Shall he not much more do such things for you, O ye of little faith?"

 

First Lutheran Church in Moline, Illinois.

Complete Sermon ->FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

37. As I said at the beginning Christ delivered this sermon to his Christians, especially to those in the office of the ministry or to those who otherwise either had nothing or never could acquire and gather for themselves riches and mammon, as the rest of the world does; in order that they might know, from what source they could nourish and support themselves and their families. Yea, they are compelled to live in the danger of being robbed of the little earthly goods God gave them and thus they are without the least doubt compelled to live entirely upon the help that God sends them and they expect from him, since the world gives them nothing.

38. This is indeed painful to flesh and blood, and is very burdensome to them, yea, no one can bear or do it, unless he is a believing Christian. For the world is so disposed that it will not take the least risk in temporal matters for the future; but it must be sure of them, order beforehand and have in store and ready for use whatever it needs, as food, peace, protection and insurance, so that it can live and depend upon neither God nor the people; but as it is evident that the world enriches no one because of his faith and piety, they think they must act and live as others do, in order that they may nevertheless have also something.

39. Against this he herewith comforts and strengthens his Christians, and again repeats: They shall therefore not worry nor doubt nor wriggle in such unbelief, saying: Oh, what is to become of us? Who is going to give us anything? Where in this world are we Christians to get food, protection, peace? But they must know that their heavenly Father provides for this, and will also give it to them, he who for this very reason is called their Father (not the unbelievers’, although he feeds all the world, and gives everything), in order to show that he will also not leave his children, tie leads them into God’s high work of the whole creation, that they may see how he nourishes and supports all things which he creates, after having ordered and regulated each one, — also all the birds in the air, which, as you know, do not fret about their food nor know beforehand whither they shall take it. Aye, especially also the little flowers does he so deck and adorn that such beauty and finery might more fittingly be supplied elsewhere; for does it not seem quite useless, since they only bloom for perchance a day? Must he not therefore much more think and care for his Christians, how they may be fed and clad, and where they might dwell and stay as long as they have to live on earth?

40. This he admonishes them to believe; and to impress them most strongly with it, not by many but by earnest words, he suddenly breaks off after having held up to them the examples from daily life and God’s work among his Creatures; and closes with these words: Shall he not much more do such things for you, O ye of little faith? He wishes to say: Well, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves, if you are Christians and know that you have a Father in heaven, to let me do so much preaching about this! Yes, ashamed you ought to be, and not permit that such things be said of you.