In my congregation, we have been reading and studying the book of Isaiah now for quite a while. A theme that I have come across a few times now is this: You become what you worship. And when one worships false gods, he takes on their characteristics. And when one worships the true God, the same thing occurs. Let us note a time or two when worship of an idol leads Israel to become like the idol they worship.
In Isaiah 6, Isaiah is called to preach so that the people of Israel would not hear, and that they would actually become blind and deaf. And again in Isaiah 42, the Lord speaks of His people as being deaf and blind. The idols they worship are unable to speak, hear, or move. For more, see Isaiah 44. You can see a great story about this in 1 Kings 18, where Elijah’s showdown with the false priests of Baal takes place on Mount Carmel.
This phenomenon of becoming like what you worship is not isolated to Isaiah or 1 Kings 18, though. It can be traced at least to Exodus. In Exodus 32, the Israelites are waiting on Moses, who had gone up Mount Sinai to speak with the Lord and receive the Instruction (Torah/Law) of the Lord. However, the Israelites lost interest in waiting for Moses. They cry to Aaron to make for them a god to worship. Aaron gathers gold from the people; he melts it down and makes a golden calf. Left unbroken, calves are difficult to manage, especially if you desire them to wear a yoke. They are stiff-necked and stubborn. How is Israel described in later episodes by Moses and the Lord? They are “stiff-necked” and “stubborn” because they do not follow the Lord and His Word. Israel worships a golden calf, so Israel becomes like a stubborn calf unwilling to follow its master.
During this Lenten season, I encourage you to examine yourselves. What are we fearing? In what are we placing our trust? Whom or what do we love? Luther says in the Large Catechism, “Anything on which your heart relies and depends, I say, that is really your god.” So, what are you becoming like?
Is there something positive to say about the phenomenon that we become like the thing we worship? Indeed! And it is a true blessing from God. Through His Service to us, He is working to conform us to His image as we hear His Word and receive from the Sacraments. We are to become like that which we worship. What does the Lord look like? Consider how He is self-sacrificial, giving His life for us at the cross. Christ our Lord intercedes for us as our Great High Priest before the Father in Heaven. What can we do that emulates this? We cannot save another; only Christ can do that, but we can and should love our neighbor through our prayers on their behalf. Like Jesus with us, let us be patient with one another. Like Jesus listening to His Father in Heaven and coming to earth as a man, let us listen to and obey our parents and those put in authority over us. Coming to the Divine Service to hear and gladly learn God’s Word. This how we become more like the God that we worship.
As Lent continues, let us continually pray: Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word, that we be brought into a life that conforms more with Your good and gracious will, now and into eternity. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word, that we might be brought into a life that conforms more and more with Your good and gracious will now and into eternity. Through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Invocavit Sunday March 9, 1522 Dr. Martin Luther Preacher at Wittenberg
The challenge of death comes to us all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with death by himself, alone. We can shout into one another’s ears, but everyone must be prepared finally to meet death alone. I will not be with you then, nor you with me. Therefore, everyone must know for himself the chief things in Christianity, and be armed with them. These are the same things which you, my beloved, have long ago heard from me.
In the first place, we must know that we are the children of wrath, and all our works, intentions, and thoughts are worth nothing at all. To prove this point we must have a clear, strong text, and although there are many such passages in the Bible I will not overwhelm you with them, but ask you to note just this one, “We are all the children of wrath.” (Ephesians 2:3) And pray, do not boast in reply: “I built an altar, I gave a foundation for masses,” etc.
Secondly, That God has sent us His only-begotten Son that we may believe in Him, (John 3:16) and whosoever will put his trust in Him, should be free from sin and a child of God, as John declares in the first chapter, “He gave them power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in his name.” (John 1:12) Here we should all be thoroughly at home in the Bible and be ready with many passages to confront the devil. In respect to these two points nothing seems to be lacking or amiss, but they have been rightly preached to you. I would be very sorry if it were otherwise. No, I am well aware and I dare say, that you are more learned in this matter than I, and that there are not only one, two, three, or four, but perhaps ten or more, who have this wisdom and enlightenment.
Thirdly, there must also be love, and through love we must do to one another as God has done to us through faith. For without love, faith is nothing, as St. Paul says, 1 Corinthians 13:1, “If I could speak with the tongues of angels, and of the highest things in faith, and have not love, I am nothing.” And haven’t you failed here badly, dear friends? I see no signs of love among you, and I observe that you have not been grateful to God for His rich gifts and treasures.
Let us beware lest Wittenberg become Capernaum. (Matthew 11:23) I notice that you have a great deal to say of the doctrine which is preached to you, of faith and of love. This is not surprising. A donkey can almost chant the lessons, and why shouldn’t you be able to repeat the doctrines and formulas? Dear friends, the kingdom of God — and we are that kingdom — consists not in speech or in words (1 Corinthians 4:20) but in deeds — in works and exercises. God does not want hearers and repeaters of words (James 1:22) but doers and followers who exercise the faith that works by love. For a faith without love is not enough — rather it is not faith at all, but a counterfeit of faith, just as a face seen in a mirror is not a real face, but merely the reflection of a face. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
Fourthly, We need patience, too. For whoever has faith, trusts in God and shows love to his neighbor, practicing it day by day, has to suffer persecution. For the devil never sleeps, and continually molests. But patience works and produces hope, (Romans 5:4) which freely yields itself to God and finds comfort in Him. Thus faith, by much affliction and persecution, ever increases, and is strengthened day by day. And the heart which by God’s grace has received such virtues must ever be active and freely expend itself for the benefit and service of the brethren, even as it has received from God.
And here, dear friends, one must not insist upon his rights, but must see what may be useful and helpful to his brother, as St. Paul says, Omnia mihi licent, sed non omnia expediunt, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are useful.” (1 Corinthians 6:12) We are not all equally strong in faith. Some of you have a stronger faith than I. Therefore, we must not look upon ourselves, or our strength, or our rank, but upon our neighbor, for God has said through Moses, “I have borne and nourished thee, even as a mother her child.” (Compare with Deuteronomy 1:31) How does a mother nourish her child? First, she feeds it with milk, then oatmeal, then eggs, and soft food. If she weaned it and at once gave it the ordinary, coarse food, the child would never thrive. So we should also deal with our brother, have patience with him for a time, suffer his weakness, and help him bear it. We should give him milk for food, too (1 Peter 2:2), as was done with us, until he grows strong, too, and thus we do not travel to heaven alone, but bring the brethren, who are not now on our side, with us. If all mothers were to abandon their children, where would we have been? Dear brother, if you have suckled long enough, do not at once cut off the breast, but let your brother be nourished also. I would not have gone so far as you have done if I had been here. What you did was good, but you have gone too fast. For there are also brothers and sisters on the other side who belong to us, and must still be won.
Let me illustrate. The sun has two properties, light and heat. No king has power enough to bend or guide the light of the sun. It remains straight in the place where it shines. But the heat may be turned and guided, and yet is ever about the sun. Thus, the faith must always remain pure and immovable in the heart, never wavering. But love moves and is guided, so that our neighbors may grasp it or follow us. There are some who can run, others must walk, still others can hardly crawl. (1 Corinthians 8:7-13) Therefore, we must not look upon our own, but upon our brother’s powers, so that if he is weak in faith, and attempts to follow the strong, he may not be destroyed of the devil. Therefore, dear brethren, obey me. I have never been a destroyer, and I was also the very first whom God called to this work. Neither can I run away, but must remain as long as it pleases God. I was the first, too, to whom God revealed it, to preach His Word to you. Moreover, I am sure that you have the pure Word of God.
Let us, therefore, take up this matter with fear and humility, cast ourselves at one another’s feet, join hands with each other, and help one another. I will do my part, which is no more than my duty, for I love you even as I love my own soul. (Ephesians 6:12) For here we battle not against pope or bishop, but against the devil, and do you imagine he is asleep? He doesn’t sleep, but sees the true light rising, and to keep it from shining into his eyes, he would make a flank attack — and he will succeed, if we are not on our guard. I know him well, and I hope, too, that with the help of God I am his master. But if we yield him but an inch, we must soon look to it how we may be rid of him. Therefore all those have erred, who have consented and helped to abolish the mass — in itself a good undertaking, but not accomplished in an orderly way. You say it was right according to the Scriptures. I agree, but what becomes of order? For it was done recklessly, with no regard to proper order and with offense to your neighbor. If, beforehand, you had called upon God in earnest prayer and had obtained the aid of the authorities, one could be certain that it had come from God. I, too, would have taken steps toward the same end if it had been a good thing to do. And if the mass were not so evil a thing, I would introduce it again. For I cannot defend your action, as I have just said. To the papists and the blockheads, I could defend it, for I could say: How do you know whether it was done with good or bad intention, since the work in itself was really a good work? But I can find nothing to reply to the devil. For if on their deathbeds the devil reminds those who began this affair of texts like these, “Every plant, which My father hath not planted, shall be rooted up,” (Matthew 15:13) or “I have not sent them, yet they ran,” (Jeremiah 23:21) how will they be able to withstand it? He will cast them into hell. But I have a weapon to brandish in the devil’s face, so that the wide world will become too small for him. I know that in spite of my reluctance, I was regularly called by the Council to preach in this place. And I would that you should have the same assurance as I. You could so easily have consulted me about the matter.
I was not so far away that you could not reach me with a letter, especially since I did not interfere with you in any way. Did you want to begin something, and then leave me to shoulder the responsibility? That is more than I can undertake, and I will not do it. Here one can see that you do not have the Spirit, in spite of your deep knowledge of the Scriptures. Take note of these two things, “must” and “free.” The “must” is that which necessity requires, and which must ever be unyielding, as, for instance, is the faith, which I shall never permit any one to take away from me, but which I must always keep in my heart and freely confess before every one. But “free” is that in which I have choice, and may use or not, yet in such a way that it profit my brother and not me. Now do not make a “must” out of what is “free,” as you have done, so that you may not be called to account for those who were led astray by your exercise of liberty without love. For if you entice any one to eat meat on Friday, and he is troubled about it on his deathbed, and thinks, Woe is me, for I have eaten meat and I am lost! God will call you to account for that soul. I would like to begin many things, in which but few would follow me. But what is the use? I know that those who have begun this thing, and when push comes to shove, cannot maintain themselves, and will be the first to retreat. How would it be, if I brought the people to the point of attack, and though I had been the foremost to exhort others, I would then flee, and not face death with courage? How the poor people would be deceived!
Let us, therefore, feed others also with the milk which we received, until they, too, become strong in the faith. For there are many who are otherwise in accord with us and who would also gladly accept this one thing, but they do not yet fully understand it — all such we drive aware. Therefore, let us show love to our neighbors, or our work will not endure. We must have patience with them for a time, and not cast out the weak in the faith. Much more should we regulate what we do and do not do according to the demands of love, provided no injury is done to our faith. If we do not earnestly pray to God, and act cautiously in this matter, it seems to me that all the misery which we have begun to cause the papists will fall upon us. Therefore I could no longer remain away, but was compelled to come and say these things to you.
This is enough about the mass. Tomorrow we speak about images.
Translated by A. Steimle. Edited and Language Modernized by Robert E. Smith From: The Works of Martin Luther. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915, 2:387-425.
Encore Post: Very early in the Church’s history, new Christians studied the faith intensively in preparation for baptism. It soon became the custom to baptize them during the Easter Vigil and to spend the forty days prior to Easter fasting and completing their instruction in the faith. These students (also known as catechumens, from the Greek meaning “to instruct”) were joined in the fast by their catechists (instructors). Both groups valued this discipline highly, and the entire church joined them in their study.
For this reason, the readings in the season of Lent are keyed to the basic doctrines of the faith. They serve as a kind of spring training for the Church as it prepares to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord on Easter. Often, Bible classes turn to a study of Luther’s Small Catechism (from the German word meaning “instruction book” or “handbook”).
[Twenty-Eighth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]
You say it every time you confess the Apostles’ Creed, “And He suffered under Pontius Pilate,” but what does saying it convey?
Pontius Pilate was the Roman governor who had authority over the use of the death penalty. That is a historical fact. And it is important to show that faith in Jesus Christ, as recorded in Holy Scripture, is historical. We can look at the historical record and see a governor named Pilate who served in Judea, and it was this man who gave the Jews the go-ahead to crucify Jesus. This is extremely important to acknowledge, but there are some important theological implications of reciting Pilate’s name as well in the Creed.
We remember from Holy Scripture that Pilate desired to release Jesus because Jesus had done nothing wrong. Certainly, Jesus did nothing that required the judgment of death by crucifixion. Pilate judged rightly that the Jews were bringing Jesus to him because they were jealous of him and how the people chased after him.
However, Jesus was before him, and he had to pass judgment. Because of his position as governor, his judgment was as if God spoke the judgment: “I find no fault in him at all.” And that right there is of great theological importance. Pilate, as governor, goes on record to say that an innocent man dies for the sins of the people. That is the Gospel proclamation. The innocent man receives the punishment of death while the sinner goes free. While Pilate wanted to release Jesus, he was getting nowhere with the people. The priests and scribes had caused a riot to break out. Pilate, being afraid, gave Jesus over to them that they might crucify him.
Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was handed over to the ruthless Priests and Scribes for crucifixion, but facing the cross, Jesus did not blink, nor did he complain. But rather suffered under Pontius Pilate that we might be set free from the punishment of our sins and live with Him in everlasting life.
[Twenty-Fourth in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]
Benjamin Franklin, like many of the leading thinkers of his time, liked to compare God to a clockmaker. God was a master craftsman. He skillfully formed the many precision parts of creation. Like the clockmaker, he assembled his ingenious machine, each piece carefully assembled, balanced, and put it in its proper place. He then wound it up and set it in motion. He then left it alone, only rarely touching it to clean it. God, Franklin thought, was watching us — from a distance.
While God is indeed a great craftsman, he is not distant at all. The Scripture tells us he is involved in every detail of our lives. He maintains the distance between Sun and Earth with precision. He controls the seasons, rains, and all their rhythms. His providence gives us all we have and need to live and enjoy our lives. Sometimes he does it directly, and other times he uses the people, things, and creatures in this world. He even contains the evil our sins let loose in this world.
We tend not to notice all these ordinary miracles and are tempted to believe our blessings come from our own efforts. When things don’t go well, we blame God as if he doesn’t care about us. We can’t comprehend that God can permit sin and evil in the world without being its cause. This is another mystery we encounter when we try to understand our creator.
This is why it is good to build thanksgiving to God into our daily lives, when we wake, when we eat, when we worship, and when we sleep. Most especially, it is good to thank him for his mercy in Christ Jesus.
[Twenty-Third in a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]
Life can sometimes be confusing. Perhaps you have two good opportunities to choose from. Maybe a series of setbacks or changes in your life hit you in quick succession. Or life just seems to drag on. Maybe you lose someone close to you. Or you discover the harder you try to obey God’s law, the more you fail to do so. You wonder who you are.
That is a good time to remind yourself of who you are and whose you are. The basic fact of your life, my life, and every life is that God made you. Martin Luther put it this way: “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my limbs, my reason, and all my senses” (Small Catechism 2.1) He made you who you are — a man or a woman, tall or short, blue eyes, brown hair and more — written in every cell of your body. Even twins are unique in their own ways. There is no one like you.
But the Father not only made you — he made you new again. In Baptism, he adopted you as his Son. You belong to him now and forever. So, you can answer the confusion of the world, the accusing devil, and the lure of our sinful self. “Go away! I am made by God and baptized to be His own.” Such a statement can bring peace, no matter the mess around you.
Encore Post: During his visit to Wittenberg in December 1521, Junker Jörg had the opportunity to speak with and overhear conversations among ordinary Germans. What he learned disturbed him greatly. He sensed anger against the Church and her abuses, and general unease among common people. He likely read several of the extreme pamphlets, some threatening violence and rebellion.
For months, he had been haunted by the possibility that events could get out of hand. The Electoral Saxon Court was also worried. Not entirely successfully, the Elector forbade the changes being made by Luther’s followers and university students for the time being. Yet many of the changes being made by impatient reformers were ideas he himself had advanced. The end of private masses, the distribution of both elements in the Lord’s Supper, and the end of monastic celibacy were among these reforms. He vowed to write and discourage the former while encouraging the latter.
In the summer of 1521, from the safety of the Wartburg, Luther wrote a treatise De abroganda missa privata Martini Lutheri sententia (The Misuse Of The Mass [AE 36:129ff]) to help those engaged in beginning to reform the Mass. He explained his chief objections and the reasons why he opposed them so that reformers would have good arguments to employ. He argued for the distribution of the Lord’s Supper in both kinds and the end of private masses, said to accumulate merit for souls in purgatory. He concluded that these practices rested on several false doctrines, that the priesthood is a separate and superior class of Christians, and that their work is primarily about sacrifice. Instead, all Christians are priests; the work of the priesthood is preaching, not sacrifice; and the Mass itself is not a sacrifice at all, but a promise given by Christ to be received in faith. He sent the work to George Spalatin, Elector Frederick’s secretary, who decided not to publish it. In the meantime, Luther worked from notes to prepare a German version, Uom Missbrauch der Messen. When Luther found out the book hadn’t been published, he demanded the publication of Misuse of the Mass under threat to write something more inflammatory. Both versions were first published in January 1522.
He also sent Spalatin a book to urge his followers not to resort to insurrection. The work, Treue Vermahnung zu allen Christen (A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians to Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion) appeared in early 1522. In the book, Luther argued that insurrection was forbidden by God. He had given authority to punish and compel reform to the government, and it must remain with them. It is the role of the common man to point out where reform is needed, pray for it, and urge their rulers to enact it and not to participate in abuses. They ought to trust God to act on their behalf.
In the conclusion to this work, Luther asks that his followers not call themselves Lutheran. “What is Luther? After all, the teaching is not mine. Neither was I crucified for anyone.… How then should I—poor stinking maggot-fodder that I am—come to have men call the children of Christ by my wretched name?” (Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation, 1521–1532, trans. James L. Schaaf (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994), 32.)
Encore Post: If your church follows the Church Year closely, you might notice that Feb 2nd is a Feast Day within the Church. It may sound like a replay of the first Sunday after Christmas if your congregation uses the one-year lectionary. The events of Jesus being in the temple as a baby occurred exactly forty days after his birth. It had to be that way to fulfill the Law prescribed by Moses for mothers (Leviticus 12). Jesus is there in the Temple with his mother and presumed father because Mary had to offer a sacrifice so that she could be purified after giving birth. February 2nd is the Festival of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus (Luke 2:22-38). Simeon’s song comes to be because of Mary and Joseph’s faithfulness in keeping the Law.
But Jesus fulfills a different Old Testament law, a law that had been forgotten, but a law on the books, nevertheless (Exodus 13:1-2, 11-16). Jesus, though not a son of the tribe of Levi (Jesus is of the tribe of Judah, a son of David), is presented to the Lord like He was to serve Him as a priest. Jesus is the great high priest who comes in the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 110). He is not of the line of the High Priest Aaron, but He is the faithful High Priest promised to come in 1 Samuel 2:35. The Lord God raises up His very own Son, whom He sent into the World, in the flesh to be the High Priest who is also the sacrifice for the sin of the world.
This is why Simeon can sing to God about departing in peace. This child, before his very eyes, will secure peace for Him and the entire world by the shedding of His own blood at the cross. What joy we have in our great high priest who has worked atonement for our sins, covering our sins with His own blood! This is just like the words of Exodus 24. There, Moses stands before the people with the blood of the covenant, which the Lord God made with Israel. Moses sprinkles the blood on the people, and then there is the interesting story of the elders of Israel, along with Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, ascending Mount Sinai, seeing God, and eating and drinking with Him. Moses tells us, “He (God) did not lay His hand on them.” Sinful men cannot stand before the Lord and live (Psalm 5:4, but see all of Psalm 5). However, when the blood of the covenant covers them, they can. It is just like the blood of the Passover Lamb in Egypt (Exodus 12). It is with Simeon, you, and me. The blood of Jesus, the blood of the new covenant (also translated as New Testament), covers us. We have peace granted to us. We have forgiveness, thus salvation, as we participate in Christ’s New Covenant in His Blood (Small Catechism, The Sacrament of the Altar, “What is the benefit of this eating and drinking?”). Rejoice and be glad. Be at peace in the presence of God, your Savior, who has been revealed to you!
[Eleventh is a series of posts on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism]
A name has a lot more packed into it than we often realize. It carries a person’s reputation, authority, and power. In ancient magical lore, if you know a person’s true name, you can have power over them. God’s name is the most important of all, not because it is magical, but because God has promised to hear us when we call to him.
The Second Commandment is all about using God’s name in prayer, acting as his tools in this world to bring the Gospel to the lost and to do his will as we serve him and our neighbors. We baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We teach all that he commands us to teach. When we make promises to tell the truth and make promises to each other in his presence, we commit ourselves to keep them.
The problem is our sinful nature wants to use God’s name to cover lies and to make people believe we intend to do what we have no intention of doing. We want God to give us what we desire, treating Him as if He were some kind of cosmic vending machine — insert prayer. Believe you will get it, and it will come to you. We are inclined to say “Oh my God” when we are surprised or shocked, rather than as a prayer for help. These uses are misuses of God’s name and are what the command forbids.
So, then, do we go the other way, as Judaism does, and not even use his name at all? No, God wants us to use His name. We call him in trouble. We are comforted when, in His name, our pastors forgive our sins. We draw strength when we remember that he came to us in our baptism and put his name on us so that in his name we are saved. We call his name the way we call a beloved father, mother, or grandparent, knowing we are loved and that they want to share our lives. We use his name to praise him and thank him for his love and mercy.
Encore Post: 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 is 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, support the wide variety of life that gives us pleasure. How this all happens, we can barely understand. These and everything that gives us life are nevertheless very real, reliable, and regular. Besides 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 have in mind. Our minds go to the healing and suspension of nature that Jesus performed, which 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, heals us today, and we occasionally can’t explain how. The miracles we do know about, however, are right under our noses. In water, he adopts us as his children and creates new 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.
