Robert Smith – Page 42 – What Does This Mean?

The Law of God is Good and Wise

Encore Post: The natural world often calls to us with beautiful sunrises and sunsets, filled with colors that contrast with snow during the winter, complement in spring and summer the green of forests and fields and the green-blue of lakes and oceans, and that complete the wide range of colors in northern mountains, clothed with fall foliage. Even in our world damaged by the fall, there is order, symmetry and rhythm. All of these things are ordered by our Creator with unseen and often unknown principles — laws — that provide for us a place to call home and allow us to plan our lives in it.

The law of God is knowledge of God’s will and the way he wants his children to live. When God formed Adam from the dust of the earth, God built into him was the law of God, written into his heart. Adam loved God, wanted to serve him and knew what pleased the Father. When God formed Eve, this knowledge of God’s law passed down to her as well. Only a few of God’s commandments were spoken to him: be fruitful and multiply, rule over the living things on the Earth and eat plants (Genesis 1:29-30), work in and keep the Garden of Eden and do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and of Evil. (Genesis 2:15-17)

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought sin into the world, the image of God within them was destroyed. Some knowledge of his law remains written in our hearts, but it is very distorted, so that, ironically, we no longer know good from evil. When God in his love and mercy promised that the Messiah would come one day to crush the head of Satan, (Genesis 3:15) he began to reveal his law, giving it in detail to Moses. It now serves three purposes, which we will take up in another post.

To:Child and Pupil of the Catechism

Like Father, Like Son, Like Us

Sermon on Matthew 5:43, 48
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany
Our Hope Lutheran Church
Huntertown, Indiana
February 16^th and 17^th, 2020

“Love your enemies and pray for the one who persecutes you … You will then be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43, 48)

Intro: “Like Father, like son…” As Christians, we don’t need to seek out God and form a personal relationship with him. He sought us, bought us, made us his children in baptism and give us faith so that we trust him. We do not do good works to become Christians; We do good works because we are Christians. We want to please our Heavenly Father so…

Jesus urges Christians to be like their Heavenly Father
1. Forgive like your father forgives you
2. Be merciful like your father is merciful
3. Love your enemies
4. Perfect like your father is perfect
As both saints and sinners at the same time, we cannot do this perfectly
1. We can often manage outward obedience
2. Yet inside our emotions can sneak up on us without warning.
3. The result is we are constantly at war with ourselves.
Jesus lived like his father for us.
1. Jesus was born as the exact image of God.
2. He lived a life of perfect obedience to his father heart and soul.
3. He died to pay for our sins.
4. We are now being made over in his image

Theology of the Cross

Martin Luther described two ways to think or talk about God. One starts with what people do — how can we please God? It begins below with us and climbs up a staircase to heaven by our own efforts. The other starts with what God does: the Father sending his Son to save the world, the Son dying so we might live and the Holy Spirit bringing the gifts to sinners. The theology of glory is from below and gives glory to people, the theology of the Cross and is from about, focusing on Chris who died of us all.

These two approaches to understanding God end up in two very different ways of thinking. The theology of glory is not satisfied with what the Bible says about him, salvation and they way we should live our lives. It peers into the unknown things of God, using human logic and experience to form theories about him and believe them as if they were facts. Ironically, the result is making God over in our own image rather than in allowing God to remake us in the image of his Son. In reality, it makes us into god and god into our servant.

The theology of the cross, instead, knows nothing but Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:2) It is the theology that begins with the way that God has revealed himself to us in his word, in the cradle and on the cross. It begins with the mindset of Jesus, who did not hold onto his glory as God, but emptied himself of it, became man for us, suffered and died for us. (Philippians 2:5-11)

Rather than look for our own glory, taking credit for our works, our understanding and looks for rewards in this life, the theology of the cross calls on us to think like Jesus thinks, to set aside our interests to serve God and our neighbor. It is content to take up its own cross and follow Jesus, through suffering, to death and to life eternal.

Is the Crucifix too Catholic?

From the earliest days of the Christian faith, Christians have used the sign of the cross to remember the sufferings and death of her Lord and Savior. Not only did they use the sign to identify each other and during worship, they hung artistic versions of the cross. On the wall of a large room in Herculaneum, destroyed with Pompeii in 79 A.D., a cross-shaped mark was found in one of their walls.

Beginning at the end of the Fifth Century (400s AD), representations of the body of the dying Jesus began to appear on crosses. These became known as crucifixes. Churches throughout Christianity used crucifixes universally. It wasn’t until the 16th Century (1500s AD) that anyone objected to them. During the Reformation, the Reformed and Anabaptist traditions objected to them, thinking that crucifixes and Christian art in general were idols. Luther and the Lutheran tradition rejected this charge, contending that such depictions were an aid to devotion. No one was worshiping them. They were inspired by their art and their imagination turned to the events they represented.

So Lutherans continue use crucifixes until this day. Many of the great artists and musicians since that day were Lutherans and used their talents to enhance their churches and worship. Only in the last century, and in the United States, when Lutherans began to worship in English, did this begin to change. Their friends, families and neighbors accused them of being “too catholic,” not realizing that they were out of step with a sixteen hundred year old practice of the Christian Church.

There is, however, a deeper theological issue. When asked why they feel the empty cross is better than a crucifix, our non-Lutheran friends often object that Jesus did not stay on the cross, but is now risen from the dead. They think we need to focus on the Resurrection. Yet this is not what St. Paul tells the Corinthians, who said, among other things, ” I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) The focus of Christian preaching is to be on the cross. The crucifixes do just that. Christ is indeed risen from the dead, but he retained his wounds eternally to proclaim that sacrifice. And because he is risen, that sacrifice is now wherever Christians gather in his name.

So, far from apologizing for crucifixes, Lutherans are proud of them. For they are a symbol, pointing to the sacrifice that won our salvation. They remind us of the Lamb-who-was-slain for our sins and sins of the whole world.

The Cross is Crazy to the Lost

The cross is precious to Christians. It stands for our salvation, paid for by the sufferings and death of God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Over two thousand years, we have drawn it, worn it as jewelry, sung about it in our most beloved hymns, woven in it cloth and into the words of our sermons, teachings and conversations. In our liturgy, we make the sign of the cross to remind us that all the gifts being given by God in worship come to us by the power of that cross.

The cross is the deepest wisdom of God It is God’s answer to sin, suffering, grief and death. We are tied to it when we receive his body broken there with bread and when we drink his blood shed there with wine. When Jesus died on the cross, we died to sin and when he rose from the grave, we rose to new life. To this day, Christians literally die rather than forsake the cross.

In the cultures shaped by the faith, the cross is everywhere, you only have to look. It is hard for us to imagine why non-Christians either do not understand it, think it doesn’t make sense, or worse, are offended by it. Even though they see the evil in this world, they do not believe they themselves are evil. They do not understand the depth of God anger against the evil that has ruined his world, brought death and suffering into it and separated him from his children, whom he loves. They don’t realize that only death and eternal destruction can be the only way to satisfy that anger. They don’t get that means every person must pay that price. Finally, it doesn’t make sense to them that God would pour all that wrath out on his son — himself really — rather than let us suffer it. They think the whole plan is stupid.

But in the cross, which appears to be weakness, is really God’s strength. It is the power of God that destroys death and sin in us. It is the greatest wisdom, for it is the solution to our dilemma. He pays the price we cannot pay and forgives them forever. There may not be a free lunch, but there is free salvation. This is the good news that we preach.

Do Miracles happen today?

During Friedrich Wyneken’s theological examination, the interviewer said: “As is well known, miracles no longer occur nowadays. It only remains to be asked, if there really were miracles in former times or
not.” He then asked Wyneken: “What do you say to that?” Friedrich replied without further reflection: “God is a God who does miracles
daily” The young pastor had a point.

A miracle is something that happens that are beyond our ability to understand. As much as modern science has discovered, there is much more that we can’t figure out. Miracles break all the rules. The earth’s tilt on its axis and orbit around the sun are just right to maintain life. The cycles of seasons, rain and snow, heat and cold, allow the wide variety of life that support us and give us pleasure. How this all happens we are barely able to understand. These and everything that give us life are nevertheless very real, reliable and regular. In addition to these, God works through everyday people in our lives to make them what they are, all at the inspiration and provision of our Heavenly Father. God gives us all these things and more without fanfare and almost completely without thanks from us.

When we speak of miracles, though, these everyday acts of God are not what we think of. Our mind goes to the healing and suspension of nature that Jesus performed that continued in the ministry of the apostles. To a certain extent, this is deceptive. The events recorded in Scripture from the time of Abraham through the exile of St. John to Patmos cover two thousand years. As wonderful as miracles are, they did not happen all the time. Sometimes hundreds of years pass between them. Because they are all written about in the same place, we get the impression they were constantly present. Only in the ministry of Jesus was this true, and then only for the three years of his ministry.

It is possible that God does act in these ways today, but we do not know. Scripture does not say they have ceased nor that they will continue. What we do know is that God does care for us, heal us today and we occasionally can’t explain how. The miracles we do know about, however, are right under our nose. In water, he adopts us as his children and created knew hearts in us. In bread and wine, he gives us his body to eat and blood to drink to forgive us our sins and give us everlasting life. The greatest is yet to come for us. On the day our life here ends, he will take us to be with him forever and on the last day, raise our bodies from the grave. On that day, when he restores us and all creation, that will be one of the greatest miracles of them all.

Why did Jesus do miracles?

From the time our parents gave us children’s Bible story books, through Sunday school and Confirmation classes, to the regular readings in worship services, we hear about the many miracles that Jesus performed. He healed the sick, raised the dead, fed a crowd of five thousand — and a crowd of four thousand — with a few loaves of bread and several fish. It is easy to get the idea that he spent all of his time doing wonders. Yet he wasn’t always stilling storms, turning water into wine and healing people. In fact, for the first thirty years of his life, we do not hear of him doing even one So, why did Jesus do miracles?

First of all, Jesus did his miracles for the same reason he did everything else — to fulfill the promises of the Messiah proclaimed throughout the Old Testament. Unlike us, God keeps his Word. (see L uke 24:44) Second, miracles demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah and God Himself. (Matthew 11:4-6, John 14:11)

The miracles also do two other important things. One is they tell us something about Jesus and so about God. He has compassion on us and in our sufferings. (Matthew 14:14, Matthew 15:32, Luke 7:13-16) Unlike everyday miracle workers, who make a big show of their work, he spoke very few word when he worked miracle. The other thing they do is strengthen faith. The Evangelist John sums it up well: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31)

As great as these signs were, they were temporary. The wine at Cana was drunk, the calm waters became wild again, the five thousand would be hungry again, those healed, even raised from the dead, would die. But one miracle would last forever. Jesus died for the sins of the world, shattering the power of sin, death and the devil. He died and rested in the tomb and then rose from the dead breaking the seal of the grave forever. That was the greatest miracle of them all.

Jesus Teaches on the Mount and the Plain

Sometimes when surveys are taken of what people believe, the question is asked, “Who do you think Jesus is?” Good question. Jesus himself asked his disciples this question. Among the most popular answers are: “He was a great teacher” and “a new lawgiver — like Moses.” What people mean by this is often a guy with good advice into how you can live a good life here and now. From this perspective, there is nothing like the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew’s version) and the Sermon on the Plain. (Luke’s version) On the top of the list of most familiar teachings are: “Do to others what you would have them do to you,”(Luke 6:31) “Judge not,” (Matthew 7:1) and the Beatitudes. (Matthew 5:1-11, Luke 6:20-23)

Many sermons, Christian commentary and devotional literature treat the Beatitudes as a kind of recipe for the Christian life. They teach that Jesus is giving a new law on how to live your life at a higher level. They are taught to be the way to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) But such an analysis is missing the point. These are more descriptions of what Christians are like than what they must strive to do. They are predictions and promises, not commands to do to be saved or to be Super Christians.

But how can these be true? It is obvious to every Christian that they are far from poor in spirit–we think very highly of ourselves; we do not mourn our sins often — we kind of like them; we may say we want to be righteous, but keep our own favorite sins; we are mixed up at heart between the good we want to do and the evil we end up doing; we often want to carry grudges and have it out with our neighbor and dread persecution. Jesus’ line: “be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect” haunts us.

Yet the promises of the beatitudes come true because Jesus lived them out perfectly. Having done so, he took our sins and imperfections to cross where he died to pay their debt and broke their power over us. Now when God sees us, he sees only the ways we live the blessed life and not the way we fail to keep it. These blessings and others like them in Scripture are also promises of the way life will be for us when we live in the eternal kingdom after Christ at last returns to take us home. So, we are blessed and will be blessed, in God’s kingdom now and in his kingdom come.

Look! The Lamb of God!

John the Baptist knew who he was from his birth, He was the voice crying in the wilderness — the first prophet in four hundred years. He would be the herald of the Messiah. Yet even he didn’t know who the Messiah was. His cousin Jesus lived such an ordinary life, he didn’t stand out even to the last and greatest prophet. All that changed when he baptized Jesus and God the Father spoke and God the Holy Spirit settled on him like a dove.

Now John knew who Jesus was and what he had to do. “Look!” he told his disciples, “The lamb of God, who carries away the sins of the world!” This insight was fro God and not his upbringing. The Jewish people mistakenly thought the Messiah would be an earthly king, who would defeat the Romans and rule the world from Jerusalem. But the Messiah was instead to be the sacrifice to atone for the sins of the whole world.

All the Passover lambs of history, all the scape goats of Israel, all the sacrifices for sin did not have that power alone. They drew the ability to forgive from the sacrifice of God Himself in Jesus. As the Lord’s Supper, Baptism and absolution draw their strength from the cross, so did all the sacrifices of Israel’s history. The Angel of the Lord, who stayed the hand of Abraham and promised that the Lord would provide the lamb fulfilled it in himself.

This title of the Messiah, then, is precious to us. It is why we use it in the prayer just before we receive the Lord’s Supper — the agnus dei. “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the word… have mercy on us… grant us peace.”

Martin Luther, the Sacraments and Faith

During the Middle Ages, the sacraments became a system of good works by which a Christian earned salvation and the forgiveness of sins. Penance especially became torture instead of comfort. The indulgence controversy exposed the way the sacraments were seen as a burden to be borne not gifts to be cherished.

Early in 1519 in a tower experience, Martin Luther came to realize that righteousness is a gift that God gives, not the standard by which he condemns sinners. Salvation, therefore, was a gift held onto by faith. At first he did not realize how this insight changed everything. But change things it did.

The medieval view of sacraments as a way to earn grace no longer made sense. Confirmation, Marriage, ordination and the last rites did not bring the grace of God to Christians. Penance in the strictest sense of that word was a response to forgiveness, not a condition for it. Luther’s friends urged Luther to help everyday people see the Sacraments as comfort.

Five Hundred years ago, Luther began to do that in three sermons on the only three sacraments he could defend from Scripture as means of grace : absolution, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These sermons had the titles: The Sacrament of Penance (October 1519), The Holy and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism, and The Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ, and the Brotherhoods.

In the sermon on penance, Luther emphasized that absolution actually forgives sins and reconciled the believer with God. This forgiveness is received by faith and gladdens the heart of the believer. The penance assigned by the priest, rather, reconciles the believer with the Church as is done by the strength which comes from trusting God to keep his promises. Luther also commented that he saw no value in separating sins into two catagories, moral and venial.

The sermon on Baptism divided the sacrament into three parts: the sign of immersing a candidate in water, the beginning of the death of the believers old Adam and faith which relies on the word of God present in the sacrament. For Luther, faith returns to baptism each day and relies on the grace it offers.

In his sermon on the Lord’s Supper, the reformer recommended that laymen be permitted to receive both the bread and the wine. These had been withheld from them by the church at the request of the laity, who feared spilling the blood of Christ.

Luther was not fully satisfied with the way he spoke about the Sacraments in these sermons. In the next year, his A Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, the full teaching of these sacraments would take its Lutheran form.