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Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent, 2,014 @ Concordia Lutheran Mission

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on December 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.-St. Matthew 1:  8

 As Advent progresses, one typical question of the season:   Are you ready for Christmas?  Are you prepared?  It’s kind of scary as the mind races through the mental checklist:  gifts for family members and friends, office parties, wrapping, tree and decorations, baking and cooking, dinner and/or houseguests, traveling, cleaning the house etc. etc. etc. It amounts to what I am supposed to do, that is, what I owe.  Just not enough time!  Only 18 more days to shop before Christmas!  Then on top of it all the banks and credit cards want people to go into debt so we owe twice:  by what we have not done and by what we have done. 

 We prepare as Christians and the Church in the Way that is already been prepared:  As the Lord said, “I am the Way, the truth and the life, no one comes to Father except by Me”.  The highway to heaven is first the highway from heaven. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. 

 The Messiah is the office of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit does not push nor sell the Messiah, the Christ, Jesus with coercion . He teaches.  The Holy Spirit does not process words, but proceeds from the Father and the Son to teach us the Word, the Word of Christ.  The Holy Spirit teaches the pages of the Holy Scripture, the written Word in the spoken Word of the Church to proclaim the incarnate Word Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit’s will, desire and work is to fill the Lord’s people with the Word of God, Word of Christ Jesus in the grace, mercy and peace of Christ Jesus for His forgiven people.  The Lord has baptized us into His Church, His body.  All offices in government and business, and education have parameters. When government oversteps its parameters and interferes in the lives of law-abiding citizens to “make them better”, it is illegal and outside the supreme law of the land, the Constitution.  The office of the Messiah’s parameters is all the human race, all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord. The office of the Holy Spirit will never step over the bounds of the Decalogue, the 10 Commandments.  The office of the Messiah, of Jesus is to step into our lives to redeem them, our hearts, souls and minds. He has.

 We confess in the Nicene Creed that the Holy Spirit spoke by the prophets:  from Moses to Malachi.   Moses was a prophet and is attributed with writing the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy, commonly called, the 5 books of Moses.  Many prophets’ sermons, sayings and deeds,  such as Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Nathan etc., were not recorded in  books bearing their names.  Yet  their words and deeds are recorded in 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles.  Put all that together with the books bearing a prophet’s name:  the Major Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel and the 12 Minor Prophets, prophets wrote most of the Old Testament or are about them. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth.  God does not lie. “The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.” (Rev. 19: 10)  The testimony of Jesus, from His conception to His Crucifxion, to His Resurrection, His Ascension and His promise to come again.  All Scripture, Old and New Testaments,  is inspired, God breathed.

 John speaks of two baptisms:  one of the Law and the one to come, the Gospel promise fulfilled in work and word of Jesus.  The first baptism was for the confession of sin and the second, for remission of sin, now the one Baptism into Christ (Romans 6:1ff).  It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, in God’s Name, His Holy Name in the water: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

 All Scripture is divided into Law and Promise.  People were flocking to the Jordan for baptism, “confessing their sins”.    The phrase used many times in the Old Testament is “The word of the Lord came to…”.  The Holy Spirit taught His Word to the Lord’s chosen prophets as He did through John (Luke 3: 2).  John came to preach repentance and a baptism into repentance. Today is also the Commemoration of  St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, a faithful preacher of the Gospel in the 4th Century. At his congregation a young troubled man came to Mass. He was an adulterer and a pagan philosopher.   His name was Augustine and through the preaching of the Gospel, by Ambrose, came to faith.  Ambrose preached the following on John the Baptist and the Word:

The Son of God, being about to bring together His Church, first works through his young servant: and so it is well said: The Word of the God came to John (Luke 3:2), etc., so that the Church has its beginning not from man, but from the Word.  

  There were many baptisms, ritual ablutions and such in the Temple.  But in God’s Word, the baptism by John, was one size fits all for all are not fit, for we sin.  All Judea and all Jerusalem came to the Jordan.  They knew by the preaching of the Law, they were sinners. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.   John preached the Word and the Word of repentance in the baptism of repentance to prepare the way of the Lord. They were dumping their sin into the Jordan River water where the Word of Law was comprehended in John’s prophetic preaching.  Immediately following today’s lesson, Jesus Himself comes to be baptized into the Baptism of repentance, He who need no repentance, but did so to fulfill all righteousness.  He bore our sin, He was drowned in it and died and breathed again and still does, He breathes the Holy Spirit into our lifeless bodies, through His Word of eternal life, Jesus, and so we live.

 John’s Baptism was a one shot deal back then. Baptism into Christ, in the Name of God, is also one time event, but unlike John’s baptism, the Lord’s baptism, baptised into Christ  is also an everyday deal, His means of grace for faith in His Word. We are washed in Christ’s blood, His forgiveness.

 The Holy Spirit’s Office of the Word, preached and taught and prayed,  is two fold: 

  •  His strange or alien work rebukes sin and sinners that they might know God’s anger toward sin.  It is alien as any father and mother should know, that they do not want their anger over their children’s misdeeds to last long. This is the word of the Law. He convicts of sin according to His 10 Commandments. Still does.  
  •  The Holy Spirit’s second work, His proper work is Christ Jesus and His blood shed for sinners administered in the Baptism into Christ.  This is the word of the Gospel. His grace, mercy and peace seeking us daily that in daily repentance the New Man is fortified in faith through His grace towards us all. Any sin, however seemingly trivial, is confronted by the enormity of Christ Jesus’ blood on the Cross for confession and forgiveness.  Overkill?  Yes! When the Apostle wrote of Baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ, he immediately exhorts to walk in the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit hovered above the face of the deep, the depths of sin and sorrow. Walking in the Holy Spirit is walking in our Baptism, “…be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” 

 When the worldly Christmas replaces the actual Christ Mass, His Nativity and Advent as time of prayer and Scripture things get all bollixed. Look at it  this way:  When worldly Christmas supplants the real Christ Mass, then the Office of the Holy Spirit is forgotten.  For instance, we have not seen a Christmas card with the icon of John the Baptist on it, complete with his head on a platter…

 

 …with the caption, Prepare ye the way of the Lord!  He wore camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waste.  Not exactly Santa Claus.  When King Ahaziah of Israel heard a prophet was speaking against him, he asked his messengers:  

 “What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?” 8 They answered him, “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” (2 Kings 1)

Elijah prepares for the Messiah as foretold.  John prepared the Way.  He is a prophet of the Word of God but when the actual Word of Law and Promise  is replaced by sentimentality and nostalgia at Christmas, we see Christmas cards like this one:  

I found one such card with this poem on it:  

“Sweet as a song may Christmas prove, and one by one, as they depart, May all its hours be words of love set to music of your heart”

Nostalgia and sentimentality replace the Word and as in the poem above, the last thing Old Adam should do is to set words of love to your heart.  As the Lord tells us look at what comes out of the heart: theft, murder, adultery, evil thoughts etc.  Don’t trust your heart, trust God’s Word for He knows you better than you do.  When we follow hearts, then the word of God is not heard and hearts are so hard they are cruel, or so soft, men and women stand for nothing and fall for everything.

The question was asked, Where is the Lord’s coming?  The Apostle Peter answered as in today’s Epistle reading:

 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.   

 The word “patience” has also been translated, “long-suffering”. As in 1 Corinthians 13, Love is long-suffering.  God has all the time, His long-suffering, patience toward us and yet we do not have all the time in the world. 

  We live in a  fast-paced, achievement-oriented world entering the third millennium, when the spirit of the age tempts churches and Christians to look for quick and impressive results, when short-tempered anger is literally  the rage,  it is salutary to reflect on the Lord’s long-suffering love for us, a love that can wait on the Lord and each other.  His long-suffering love bore our wrong and hurt.  His long-suffering, His forbearance is our salvation.  We are admonished in Holy Scripture to walk in the Holy Spirit, walk in faith, walk in love, not three walks but one walk, one pilgrimage according to His Word, His Law a lamp unto our feet and the Lord Himself the light, in holiness and godliness., Law and promise.  This is walking wet in baptism.   The question is not how many days toward Christmas, but today is the day of His Word, not just Sunday but everyday. Everyday pray. Pray the Word. Pray the Psalms  For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven, still does in His Word, until He comes again in glory, 1 Peter 3: 15:  

 Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation

 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. (Ephesians 3: 20-21)

 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Commemoration of Noah, 29 November

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 29, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Icon of Noah, Kramer Chapel, Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN

Psalm 29
Genesis 7:1-5, 11-12, 17-23
1 Peter 3:18-22 or Hebrews 11:1-3, 7; 12:1-2
St. Matthew 24:36-44

Almighty and eternal God,  according to Your strict judgment You condemned the unbelieving world through the flood, yet according to Your great mercy You preserved believing Noah and his family, eight souls in all.  Grant that we may be kept safe and secure  in the holy ark of the Christian Church, so that with all believers in Your promise, we would be declared worthy of eternal life,through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

 Noah, the son of Lamech (Gen 5:30), was instructed by God to build an ark, in which his family would find security from the destructive waters of a devastating flood that God warned would come. Noah built the ark, and the rains descended. The entire earth was flooded destroying “every living thing that was on the face of the ground, both man and beast” (7:23). After the flood waters subsided, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. When Noah determined it was safe, and God confirmed it, he and his family and all the animals disembarked. Then Noah built an altar and offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for having saved his family from destruction. A rainbow in the sky was declared by God to be a sign of His promise that never again would a similar flood destroy the entire earth (8;20).  Noah is remembered and honored for his obedience, believing that God would do what He said He would. (From LCMS website)

 Reflection: 

When I served as Pastor at a congregation with a pre-school, a teacher impressed on me this about Noah:   we tell it like it’s a cute kiddie  story complete with Disney-like animals, a big boat and a flood but it’s about God’s judgment on all flesh.  It really isn’t “nice”:

13And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,for the earth is filled with violence through them. (Genesis 6)

And in the narrative the word “violence” is central reason for God’s judgment.  Violence is not “nice”:  war, tyranny, murder, suicide, abortion, bloody fights, seemingly endless video games,  are not the picture of man made in the image of God.  There is no sin in a Disney world…and no forgiveness either. This violence and the unrepentant violent must die and God’s righteousness live.  So Noah becomes the image of Baptism: drowning and living, dying and rising.

Today is the First Sunday in Advent and the collect of day’s main petition is,

“…Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come,  that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance…”

The “threatening perils our sins” is like a flood rising higher and higher about to drown us and it has.  This is a fitting picture on the Commemoration of Noah and it fits together all together too well.  On our own, we can maybe tread water for awhile, under our own power, and think we are pretty good swimmers.  Once the Law of God shows us the peril, we  give out and realize  can not save ourselves…we are like Peter trying to walk on the water and we see the waves and we sink.  On our own, we are sunk.  The Lord interceded for obedient Noah and his family and the lesser creatures to save them.  The Lord interceded for us by sending His Son.  Jesus Christ was baptized into the flood of our sins to save us.  Baptized, we “walk wet” in His grace, mercy and peace, so we can live His life, dead to sin and alive in Him, to promote and serve life temporal and eternal in good works for our neighbors.  He is the only reason we so live and will live again at His coming again.  In Advent, we rejoice in the Lord’s total immersion into the threatening dangers of our sin.

This Advent the palpable fear and terror of ISIS is upon us as we have seen them beheading Christians which is the depths of gratuitous violence ‘sanctioned’ by a false religion.  ISIS sadly may behead Christians, as other and many persecutors have done in the past, but they can not behead the Church’s Head, Jesus Christ.  He holds His Church in His hands in the midst of terror…and anxiety.

The icons above and below are from the Baptistry of Kramer Chapel at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN.  One is of Noah and the other of our Lord’s Baptism.  The sinless One Who did not need to be baptized for His sin, nevertheless, immersed Himself into the sin of the world.  The immersion began when He was conceived in the Virgin Mary, in the amniotic fluid of His Mother, indeed:  

For You formed my inward parts;
    You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are Your works;
    my soul knows it very well.” Psalm 139 

The prayer after the icon is by Martin Luther and it is prayed at a Baptism and it is a good prayer for anytime, as we are baptized and we are His.

Icon of the Baptism of Christ, Kramer Chapel Baptistry

Almighty eternal God, who according to thy righteous judgment didst condemn the unbelieving world through the flood and in Thy great mercy didst preserve believing Noah and his family, and who didst drown hardhearted Pharaoh with all his host in the Red Sea and didst lead Thy people Israel through the same on dry ground, thereby prefiguring this bath of thy baptism, and who through the baptism of thy dear Child, our Lord Jesus Christ, hast consecrated and set apart the Jordan and all water as a salutary flood and rich and full washing away of sins: We pray through the same Thy groundless mercy that Thou wilt graciously behold this N. and bless him with true faith in the Spirit so that by means of this saving flood all that has been born in him from Adam and which he himself has added thereto may be drowned in him and engulfed, and that he may be sundered from the number of the unbelieving, preserved dry and secure in the holy ark of Christendom, serve Thy Name at all times fervent in spirit and joyful in hope, so that with all believers he may be made worthy to attain eternal life according to Thy promise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

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Veteran’s Day, The Commemoration of Martin of Tours and a Baptism: 11 November

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 11, 2014| 1 Comment »

Three seemingly disparate events occurred on this date:  

1.  On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the armistice was signed ending World War I and this date became Veteran’s Day.  We remember all military, soldiers and sailors, who have defended our nation in war.  We thank them for their service and the best way to do that is, as is rightly encouraged in the media: THANK A VETERAN TODAY!2. On this date, Martin of Tours, Pastor and Bishop was buried in the city of Tours, France:

Martin was born about the year 316 in the town of Sabaria in the Roman province of Pannonia, present day Hungary, of a pagan family, his father a Roman legionary. He spent his boyhood in Pavia in Lombardy where he came under Christian influence, and at the age of ten he decided on his own to become a catechumen (a catechumen is a person preparing for Holy Baptism. When he was fifteen, being the son of a soldier, he was drafted to serve in the army. He was apparently a good soldier and popular with his comrades. One winter night when he was stationed in Amiens, Martin saw a poor old beggar at the city gate shivering in the cold, and, having nothing else to give him, he drew his sword, cut his own cavalryman’s cloak in two, and gave half to the man to wrap himself in. The next night Martin dreamed of Christ in heaven wearing his half-cloak and saying, “Martin, still a catechumen, has covered me with his cloak.” The young soldier, however, found it increasingly difficult to combine his own ideal of a Christian life with the duties of the military. Eventually he decided to be baptized and asked to leave the army, since he was no longer willing to kill. Like his modern counterparts, this fourth century “conscientious objector” had difficulty proving he was not a coward, but finally he was released, now about twenty years old. (from Festivals and Commemorations by Philip Pfatteicher)  But sensing a call to a church vocation, Martin left the military and became a monk, affirming that he was “Christ’s soldier.” Eventually, Martin was named bishop of Tours in western Gaul (France). He is remembered for his simple lifestyle and his determination to share the Gospel throughout rural Gaul (present day France) (From Treasury of Daily Prayer, CPH)

3.  On November 10th, 1483  a miner and his wife gave birth to a son.  Baptisms were done quickly due to infant mortality. The next day Hans and Margarette brought their son for Baptism, St. Martin’s Day.  So they named him Martin, as was the custom, after the saint’s day he was baptized.  The son baptized today was Martin Luther.

What do these 3 commemorations have in common? These two Christian saints and veterans is all about being a soldier.  We give thanks for those veterans who served in our armed forces.  I have heard many a veteran say that I did my duty and I came home.  War is hard, to say the least.  Many veterans do not want to say what happened over there.  They bore arms to defend our freedoms inscribed in the Constitution, the words of the charter of our political freedom. Martin of Tours left one army and joining the militia Christ, the army of Christ for the salvation of souls.  As bishop he did battle against the heresies of his day and served his people the green and eternal pasture of the Word of God.  He fought against the powers and principalities:  sin, death and the power of the devil. The man named after him, Luther, likewise did the same. Martin and Martin bore the weapons of the Spirit to defend the charter of our eternal salvation, one Lord, one faith, one birth.  Martin and Martin did their duty, lived their callings.  

This day is united in thanksgiving for our freedom, political and spiritual.  We are freed from tyranny of political and spiritual despots and so freed to serve our neighbor, our nation and church, as free citizens of both that any tyranny is defeated.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

 Lord God of hosts, Your servant Martin the soldier embodied the spirit of sacrifice. He became a bishop in Your Church to defend the catholic faith. Give us grace to follow in his steps so that when our Lord returns we may be clothed with the baptismal garment of righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns With You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

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The Commemoration of Fr. Johannes von Staupitz, Martin Luther’s Father Confessor, 8 November

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on November 8, 2014| 1 Comment »

Johann von Staupitz (ca. 1469–1524), was vicar-general of the Augustinian Order in Germany and friend of Martin Luther, was born in Saxony. He studied at the universities in Leipzig and Cologne and served on the faculty at Cologne. In 1503 he was called by Frederick the Wise to serve as dean of the theological faculty at the newly founded University of Wittenberg. There he encouraged Luther to attain a doctorate in theology and appointed Luther as his successor to professor of Bible. During Luther’s early struggles to understand God’s grace, it was Staupitz who counseled Luther to focus on Christ and not on himself. (The Treasury of Daily Prayer, CPH)

Reflection:  When the publication of the 95 Theses spread throughout Europe, then Luther was in middle of a raging storm.  He corresponded with his father confessor.

On the twenty-fifth of November he sent word to Staupitz:

I am expecting the curses of Rome any day. I have everything in readiness. When they come, I am girded like Abraham to go I know not where, but sure of this, that God is everywhere.

Staupitz wrote Luther from  Austria:

The world hates the truth. By such hate Christ was crucified, and what there is in store for you today if not the cross I do not know. You have few friends, and would that they were not hidden for fear of the adversary. Leave Wittenberg and come to me that we may live and die together. The prince [Frederick] is in accord. Deserted let us follow the deserted Christ. (From Here I Stand by Roland Bainton)

Up until his death, Fr. von Staupitz, wrote to Luther and he to him.  We do not know if Luther’s dear father superior ever accepted the evangelical doctrine but he sure seems to have known them and lived them.  

It is written in Proverbs 17: 17:

A friend loves at all times,
   and a brother is born for adversity.

And from Proverbs, 18: 24:

A man of many companions may come to ruin,
   but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Fr. Staupitz epitomized those Scripture passages.  In The Smalcald Articles, of the Lutheran Confessions, Part III, Article IV, “Of the Gospel”, Father Luther confesses the 4 ways the Lord gives us the Gospel: 1.  the Preaching of the Word;  2. Baptism;  3. the Sacrament of the Altar; 4. “through the power of the keys, and also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren, Matt. 18:20: Where two or three are gathered together, etc.” (emphasis added).  The power of the keys, or absolution, are linked with “the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren” and rightly so, as the Lord did, recorded in Matthew 18.  I can only opine that Luther was taught this in the school of Holy Spirit, partly at least, because of his Father confessor.  Staupitz was obviously Luther’s mentor and with that Luther’s  friend and brother in Christ.

This is a good commemoration to thank and remember mentors in our lives, who have been closer than a brother and a brother born for adversity and hung in there with you.  A brother who has heard your soul’s confession and offered Christ’s absolution as did von Staupitz. All the Facebook friends in the world do not one dear brother in Christ Jesus make.  Between Martin and Johannes stood Jesus Christ and the dear Father Johannes showed Martin Jesus Christ so that Martin could see Him in the clear Word of Scripture.  “Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word”, penned and sang Luther.  He probably knew he was kept steadfast by his dear father confessor as a mentor has so done for you.  Fr. Staupitz knew the Word as he had been fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Almighty, everlasting God, for our many sins we justly deserve eternal condemnation.  In Your mercy, You sent Your dear Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who won for us forgiveness of sins and everlasting salvation.  Grant us a true confession so that dead to sin we may hear  the sweet  words of Absolution from our confessor as Luther heard them from his pastor, Johannes von Staupitz, and be released from all our sin;  through Jesus Christ, our lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

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The Lutheran Understanding of the Saints

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

If you look at this clip art upside, see what it reads!

About the Saints:  The Biblical writers use the word “saints” 82 times, as Paul does when he addresses an epistle, “…to the saints that are in…”  It is clear from Paul’s epistolary introductions that the saints are those who have been baptized into Christ, and thus brought over into kingdom of God, by faith through grace:

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.(1 Corinthians 6; emphasis added)

 

The Word of  God is clear: washed (that is Baptism), sanctified and justified are all one action per Christ Jesus’ command and promise (see St. Matthew 28): “…in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” These are the ones made holy, that is saints.  It is equally clear we needed washing, “…and such were some of you”, but the list of sins in 1 Corinthians 6 is by no means exhaustive.  Indeed, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 23).  To what purpose?  “…and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans  3: 24)  Saints do not achieve by good works to be saved, but receive “His grace as a gift” through Christ Jesus’ death and resurrection and are saved. Saints confess their sin, daily. Out of His salvation come the good works to help and serve our neighbor. Indeed,

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2)

 This doctrine of the saints devolved into a treasury of merits of the saints as Christians began to invoke them in prayer for their spirituality.  There is not one  instance in the Bible of anyone living invoking a saint.  This is still part of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, and maybe even the Mormons, but the Evangelical Lutheran Church did not throw out the saints.  It is clear that there are saints who were remembered for their faith and their stance in the faith for the life of the world. The Lutheran Confessions, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, taught and restored the Biblical and clear understanding of the saints:

Our Confession approves honors to the saints. For here a threefold honor is to be approved. 

The first is thanksgiving. For we ought to give thanks to God because He has shown examples of mercy; because He has shown that He wishes to save men; because He has given teachers or other gifts to the Church. And these gifts, as they are the greatest, should be amplified, and the saints themselves should be praised, who have faithfully used these gifts, just as Christ praises faithful business-men,  Matt. 25:21, 23.

The second service is the strengthening of our faith; when we see the denial forgiven Peter, we also are encouraged to believe the more that grace  truly super abounds over sin, Rom. 5:20.

The third honor is the imitation, first, of faith, then of the other virtues, which every one should imitate according to his calling. 

The first listing of all the saints is recorded in Hebrews 11.  This is the great crescendo of The Letter to the Hebrews in which the preacher puts before us for our encouragement those in the Old Testament  who lived by faith in the One Who was to come.  “By faith” is the refrain throughout the chapter. Out of faith in the Lord they could accomplish the impossible which they could never have done on their own.  As it says above in the Apology, this is for our encouragement.  In fact, “encouragement” is the preacher’s goal in Hebrews because his fellow Christians were losing heart.  Everyone listed in Hebrews 11 was a sinner and by faith, a saint.  “Sinner and saint” and the line between the two was not a fixed line: this part of me saint, this part sinner, but ever being sanctified, make holy by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  One of the  Marines recruiting  mottos is: “Never given always earned.”  For the saints, it is: Never earned, ever given.  And another motto:  Ever given, always  learned.

Martin Luther, in his commentary on Romans, described the paradoxical nature of the saints.

“For inasmuch as the saints are always aware of their sin and seek righteousness from God in accord with His mercy, for this very reason they are always also regarded as righteous by God.  Thus in their own sight and in truth they are unrighteous, but before God they are righteous because He reckons them so because of their confession of sin.  They are actually sinners, but they are righteous by the imputation of a merciful God.  They are unknowingly righteous and knowingly unrighteous; they are sinners in fact but righteous in hope.  And this is what he is saying here: ‘Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.’ (Ps. 32:1)” Martin Luther, Lectures on Romans, in Luther’s Works, vol. 25, p. 258. (Emphasis added)

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All Saints Day, 1 November, anno Domini 2,014

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 1, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Lessons:

The Apocalypse of St. John the Divine 7: 2—17   Psalm 149 1 John 3: 1—3 St.Matthew 5: 1—12

Almighty and everlasting God,  You knit together Your faithful people of all times and places into one holy communion, the mystical body of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Grant us so to follow Your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living that, together with them, we may come to the unspeakable joys You have prepared for those who love You; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

About All Saints’ Day: This feast is the most comprehensive of the days of commemoration, encompassing the entire scope of that great cloud of witnesses with which we are surrounded (Hebrews 12:1). It holds before the eyes of faith that great multitude which no man can number: all the saints of God in Christ—from every nation, race, culture, and language—who have come “out of the great tribulation … who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9, 14). As such, it sets before us the full height and depth and breadth and length of our dear Lord’s gracious salvation (Ephesians 3:17-19). It shares with Easter a celebration of the resurrection, since all those who have died with Christ Jesus have also been raised with Him (Romans 6:3-8). It shares with Pentecost a celebration of the ingathering of the entire Church catholic—in heaven and on earth, in all times and places—in the one Body of Christ, in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Just as we have all been called to the one hope that belongs to our call, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). And the Feast of All Saints shares with the final Sundays of the Church Year an eschatological focus on the life everlasting and a confession that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). In all of these emphases, the purpose of this feast is to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, that we might not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:2-3).

Reflection:

“Here’s the church, here’s the door, open the door and see all the people”.

Some of you may remember the child’s rhyme about the Church above.  In The Large Catechism, Dr. Luther explains that when we think of “church”, we usually think of the church building, as “we are going to church”, but he points out that the only reason a sanctuary is called a “church”, is “… for the single reason that the group of people assembles here.”  The people who assemble are the Church, the communion or the community of saints, “the holy Christian Church” (Third Article of the Apostles Creed).  

The rhyme above could be redone:  “Here’s God’s House, here’s the steeple, open the door and see all God’s people.” All Saints Day reminds us that when we open the doors, we might want to say, “where are all the people?”!  A friend and  colleague said to me one day that he is surprised there is anyone at church to begin with!  In other words, as Luther summed up the work of the Holy Spirit in the third article of the Apostles’ Creed:  

“I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.“

The communion of saints is not the church’s making, but the Holy Spirit working in and through the Word of Christ faithfully taught and preached and prayed and sung and served in the lives of the Lord’s forgiven people.  I am surprised people are there because it is not our doing and I have a tendency not to trust the Lord.  And further:  when we open the doors, we won’t see ALL the saints gathered because myriads upon myriads are around the throne of the Lamb (see Revelation 5:11), awaiting with us the day of Resurrection and judgment.   When we gather for Holy Communion, the pastor will pray, “…with angels and archangels, AND ALL THE COMPANY OF HEAVEN…”, even with 2 or 3 gathered together, there are countless more!  The saints before us were built up by His Word of Law and Grace.  We are called to keep the faith with the dead, who live in Christ waiting together the day of the general resurrection.  

Yet, the saints labor here and there are the saints,

“…who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confess,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest,
Alleluia! Alleluia!(#677, For All the Saints, Lutheran Service Book).

I think we are entering ever darkening days when the little flock will be persecuted…but that’s how it’s been in times past.  As in hymn lyric, the saints confessed Jesus Christ.  This is our calling from the Lord to His Church this day and every day, for every day in Christ is All Saints Day.  I close with this quote from Pr. Bonhoeffer’s sermon from 1933 in Berlin after the Germans under the Nazis voted in “the whore of Babylon” the “German Church” totally compatible with National Socialism, that  is the Nazi ideology.  

…it is not we who build. He builds the church. No human being builds the church but Christ alone. Whoever intends to build the church is surely well on the way to destroying it; for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing it. We must confess-he builds. We must proclaim—he builds. We must pray to him-that he may build. We do not know his plan. ‘We cannot see whether he is building or pulling down. It may be that the times which by human standards are times of collapse are for him the great times of construction. It may be that from a human point of view great times for the church are actually times of demolition. It is a great comfort which Christ gives to his church: you confess, preach, bear witness to me, and I alone will build where it pleases me. Do not meddle in what is my province.
Do what is given to you to do well and you have done enough. But do it well. Pay no heed to views and opinions, don’t ask for judgments, don’t always be calculating what will happen, don’t always be on the lookout for another refuge! Let the church remain the church! But church, confess, confess, confess! Christ alone is your Lord, from his grace alone can you live as you are. Christ builds.

 

Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

 Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

O blest communion, fellowship divine,
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

 

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Festival of Saint Simon and Saint Jude, Apostles, 28 October

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on October 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

 

Almighty God, You chose Your servants Simon and Jude to be numbered among the glorious company of the apostles. As they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so may we with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Scripture Lessons:  Jeremiah 26: 1-16; Psalm 43;  1 Peter 1: 3-9;  John 15: 12-21

 Alleluia.  You did not choose Me, But I chose you. Alleluia.

About Saints Simon and Jude:  In the lists of the twelve apostles (Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6: 14—16); Acts1:13), the tenth and eleventh places are occupied by Simon the Zealot (or ‘Cannanaean”) and by Jude (or “Judas,” not Iscariot but “of James”), who was apparently known also as Thaddaeus. According to early Christian tradition, Simon and Jude journeyed together as missionaries to Persia, where they were martyred. It is likely for this reason, at least in part, that these two apostles are commemorated on same day. Simon is not mentioned in New Testament apart from the lists of twelve apostles. Thus he is remembered and honored for the sake of his office, and thereby stands before us—in eternity, as his life and ministry on earth—in the Name and stead of Christ Jesus, our Lord. We give thanks to God for calling and sending Simon, along with Jude and all the apostles, to preach and teach the Holy Gospel, to proclaim repentance and forgiveness, and to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (John 4:1-2; Matthew 10: 28:16-20; Luke .24: 46-49).

Jude appears in John’s Gospel (14:22) on the night of our Lord’s betrayal and the beginning of His Passion, asking Jesus how it is that He will manifest Himself to the disciples but not to the world. The answer that Jesus gives to this question is a pertinent emphasis for this festival day: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23). Surely both Jude and Simon exemplified, in life and death, their love for Jesus and their faith in His Word. Not only are we thus strengthened in our Christian faith and life by their example, but, above all, we are encouraged by the faithfulness of the Lord in keeping His promise to them to bring them home to Himself in heaven. There they live with Him forever, where we shall someday join them.

(From The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House)

Reflection: The Prayer of the Day above speaks of the “glorious company of the apostles” but of course by any worldly standard they were not glorious.  As the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.” (1 Corinthians 4: 13)  Not exactly a job recruitment pitch for the apostolic Church, unlike the ‘ministries’ we see wearily promoted on TV. Simon and Jude have no extant writings, scant mention in the Bible, no founders  of  ‘great’ ministries,  but the Lord called them to the one holy, catholic and evangelical Ministry.  Their glory, like ours, is a borrowed one, a given one, one given to sinners: the love and mercy of Jesus Christ which by the Lord, the Holy Spirit, in prayer,  we can make known as glory in clay jars (see 2 Corinthians 4:6-8)

It is Pr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer who provides a good commentary on the Apostles Simon and Jude and the apostolic Church from his book, The Cost of Discipleship, in this reflection on the Beatitude from St. Matthew 5.  Remember and note:  everything Bonhoeffer wrote was in the time in Germany of the rise of Nazism and the descent into darkness, yet most in Germany thought this was ‘light’ and ‘goodness’, the Nazis put men back to work, Germans were feeling good about Germany again and the like.  I am patriotic but I do not worship our country and neither are we to despise it.  I find Pr. Bonhoeffer’s  writings prescient in that they are so relevant and close to the bone in our day:

“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” With each beatitude the gulf is widened between the disciples and the people, their call to come forth from the people becomes increasingly manifest. By “mourning” Jesus, of course, means doing without what the world calls peace and prosperity: He means refusing to be in tune with the world or to accommodate  oneself to its standards. Such men mourn for the world, for its guilt, its fate and its fortune. While the world keeps holiday they stand aside, and while the world sings, “Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,” they mourn. They see that  for all jollity on board, the ship is beginning to sink. The world dreams of progress, of power and of the future, but the disciples meditate on the end, the last judgement, and the coming of the kingdom. To such heights the world cannot rise.

Simon and Jude did not follow the world, nor a churches in captivity to the world, but held captive to the Word of God, Jesus Christ and so also free, freed to follow Him and free to serve.  The actual Reformation Day is this Saturday (2015)  Luther and the Reformers clearly preached the Word, not following a worldly church and worldly doctrine.  Upcoming is All Saints Sunday, and the saints did not look to the world for their light and follow the glow of their “devices” but the light shining in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4: 6)

A blessed feast day to all in the Lord!

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“Optics”

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Maybe you have heard on the news, and/or read in articles the oft used  word “optics” especially in politics: bad or good optics is the way a politician or politcal party handles situations regarding their actions.  In other words, how does it look? Image is everything.

In his last column in the New York Times (2009) word guru, William Safire wrote:

“Optics” is hot, rivaling content. “It seems that politicians are now working to ensure that their policy positions are stated in a way that’s ‘optically acceptable’ to their constituents,” writes Tom Short of San Rafael, Calif. “Not good. Anytime I hear this word used in any context outside of graphic arts, my eye doctor’s office or the field of astronomy, my B.S. detector goes into high alert.”

Everyone’s “B. S. detector” should go into red alert.    The original meaning of “optics” is not the same now.  I do not like the new meaning because it sounds so important, but it is elected officials and others committing willful fraud, talk about “optics”, or as it used to be said,  “trying to pull the wool over your eyes”.  And the response to that is, “Let me help you”.   But why is it so few seem to care?  Our discourse is not about content, substance…truth, any longer, but image, and sound bites,and emotional tugs. Congregations want to look good but the Lord’s  goal to be good is downplayed.  Image is actually not everything.. The assertion “image is everything” is the confession of idolatry, but image is a whole lot easier than the truth, God’s own truth about human nature. 

It is so easy to buy into the Canon ad slogan of several years ago.   We live in the age of the endless image or images parading across our screens, computer and television. Professor Neil Postman in his critique of television, Amusing Ourselves to Death:  Public Discourse in the Age of Television (1985) talks about “the image”, that images have replaced words as the means (media) of public discourse. 

In courtrooms, classrooms, operating rooms, board rooms, churches and even airplanes, American no longer talk to each other, they entertaineach other.  They do not exchange ideas;  they exchange images.  They do not argue with propositions, they argue with good looks, celebrities and commercials. (emphasis my own)

In ’85, there was no internet, no memes, no snappy sayings with images.  We now exchange images. The graven image forbidden in the first commandment has always been downplayed in a culture influenced by the Bible but now with the liberalization of culture, the graven image  is accepted and lauded.  We are like the people of Israel with the golden calf. 

Now it is written in Genesis that man is made in the image of God, like a living statue reflecting God.  I think that the “image of God” in the fall, in sin, has not been destroyed, but divorced from our Creator, and that means a cleavage in every man and woman. We can look good on the outside and inside just the opposite.  As Jesus said about the Pharisees, “For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’sbones and all”  (St Matthew 23: 27).   This could be the verse for the age of optics, of appearing good.  It is  more important the way one looks and wears, than who you are and who’s you are.  The art of “optics” in politics is most assuredly bipartisan and Pharasaical. It is the total disconnect and divorce of image from substance, the inside.  The only ones we are fooling are ourselves and each other with “optics’ but the Lord sees the heart.

Then in the fullness of time came the One in whom image and substance is perfectly one, Jesus Christ:  “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1: 15).  The reunion in repentance in His redemption has begun and will be fulfilled in the new creation, in the resurrection of the body:  ” Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15: 49).  This image, the image of of the man of heaven is actually everything. And so today, we are baptized into Christ, and notice the Apostle Paul’s exhortation speaks to our euphemism. “optics” :   “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3). 

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The Commemoration of Hannah, Mother of Samuel, 2 September, anno Domini 2,014

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on September 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
    but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness,
    for not by might shall a man prevail.

1 Samuel 2: 9, from The Song of Hannah

Hannah was the favored wife of Elkanah, the Ephraimite, and the devout mother of the prophet Samuel. He was born to her after years of bitter barrenness (1 Sam 1:6–8) and fervent prayers for a son (1:9–18).After she weaned her son, Hannah expressed her gratitude by returning him for service in the House of the Lord at Shiloh (1:24–28). Her prayer (psalm) of thanksgiving (2:1–10) begins with the words, “My heart exults in Lord; my strength is exalted in the Lord.” This song foreshadows the Magnificat, the Song of Mary centuries later (Lk 1:46–55). The name Hannah derives from the Hebrew word for “grace.” She is remembered and honored for joyfully having kept the vow she made before her son’s birth and offering him for lifelong service to God. (From The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing House)

Reflection:  In high school (I graduated in ’72),  I was the president of the social science club (I was a class-A nerd!) and the club went  to hear Dr. Paul Ehrlich speak at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on his huge best seller Population Bomb in which he argued Malthusian horrors of overpopulation, decreased productivity and rising prices resulted in a global crisis bar none.  His book has been reprinted 20 times.  None of his predictions came true.  Just think how many ‘scientific’ doomsday scenarios grip the public media.  He argued for ZPG:  zero population growth, that is replacement breeding, 2 or less children. I even remember in high school being relieved it was only my sister and I in our family.  This thinking has permeated Western civilization to the point Biblical scholars debunk the Lord’s imperatives to be fruitful and multiple in Genesis 1.  When in a liberal Lutheran church body (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)I heard in an evangelism presentation that we can not count on families (or what’s left of them) filling the church.  Such a ‘tactic’ was derided as “bedroom evangelism”.      

I thought of these terrible reminiscences in reading in Hannah’s brief bio above about her “bitter barrenness”.  “Bitter barrenness” surely described Hannah’s soulful plight and ours as well.  When Elizabeth was greeted by her kinswoman Mary, she exclaimed blessed is the “fruit of your womb”. The Visitation is sheer joy.  We want wombs no longer fruitful.  We want barrenness, bitter barrenness as a way to ‘solve our problems’, but it has not.  ZPG in Europe will result in the demise of those once Christian populations, but it also is a cause of the demise of life and joy.  Pro-life is more than no abortion.  Pro-life means children.  Our solutions to problems both actual and perceived become even greater problems.  In Hannah’s bitter barrenness, she prayed to the point that the priest Eli thought she was drunk because she was so overcome. The Lord answered her prayer and she conceived and named her son Samuel, literally God hears.  There was good news in the bedroom of Hannah and Elkanah and in the bedroom of Joseph and Mary.  We must take the Lord at His Word of promise to be fruitful because, parenthood is the highest vocation in creation which is blessed by the Lord with His Word in the 4th Commandment: Honor your father and your mother.  No children means no honor.  We live in a shameful age.  Christians must be as Hannah and be Samuel, trusting in the Lord: He hears.

The Lord also heard more that Hannah may had not heard:   Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phineas were scamming worshipers of their offerings (1 Samuel 2:  12-17) and committing adultery with the women serving at the temple in Shiloh (1 Samuel 2: 22-25).  Hophni and Phinease were priests as their father.We are told Hophni and Phineas were “worthless men”(1 Samuel 2: 12) and Eli knew about it but did little.  Sounds like headline ripped from our news about churches in our day.   There was a greater bitter barreness in the land:  “And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.”  (1 Samuel 3: 1). We are also told this about Hophni and Phineas:   “They did not know the Lord”(1 Samuel 2: 12). Priests who do not know the Lord nor follow in His ways sound like the bitter barreness of churches advising abortion, non-fecund same sex false marriages, wombs never knowing life as ‘planned parenthood’,  divorce and remarriage, winking at adultery and masturbation, always thinking about money, preaching a false prosperity ‘gospel’ of your best life now.  What went on in Israel happened over years as well in this land.  We decry the terror abroad but not the terror in our barren pews.  Yet the Lord raised up Samuel:  God hears.  He has heard and calls out to repent:  Christ died to take away your sins not for you to wallow in them, you are freed.  Samuel anointed the first kings of Israel, David and Solomon and from the seed of David came the King anointed with the Holy Spirit.

God the Father Almighty, maker of all things, You looked on the affliction of Your barren servant Hannah and did not forget her but answered her prayers with the gift of a son. So hear our supplications and petitions and fill our emptiness, granting us trust in Your provision, so that we, like Hannah, might render unto You all thankfulness and praise, and delight in the miraculous birth of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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The Commemoration of St. Monica, Mother of Augustine, 27 Augustine, anno Domini

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2014| 1 Comment »

Collect of the Day:

O Lord, You strengthened Your patient servant Monica through spiritual discipline to persevere in offering her love, her prayers, and her tears for the conversion of her husband and of Augustine, their son. Deepen our devotion to bring others, even our own family, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and forever.

About Monica, Mother of Augustine: 

St. Monica was the mother of St Augustine of Hippo, and it is from his writings that she is known. Her husband, Patricius, was a man of modest rank at Thagaste in North Africa; they had three children, of whom Augustine was the eldest, and when he was eighteen his mother was left a widow. Monica had tried to bring him up as a Christian, but she was over-ambitious for his worldly success, and he regarded her religion with scorn. Augustine was converted to Manichaesim, a dualistic religion of Persian origin that was popular at the time.   His earlier vacillations and his liaison with a woman of unknown name caused Monica the deepest distress.  They had a son,  Monica’s grandson.  Augustine named him Adeodatus, “Gift of God”. During this time a bishop whom she had consulted gave her the famous reassurance, ‘It is not possible that the son of so many tears should be lost.’

When in 383 Augustine slipped away to Italy, Monica followed him, first to Rome and then to Milan, where she became an obedient disciple of  St Ambrose. Three years later her devoted pertinacity was rewarded, when Augustine decided to receive baptism: she ‘rejoiced triumphantly’, and retired with him and his friends to Cassiciacum, a happy woman. After the baptism they set out to return to Africa. St Augustine records that at the port of Ostia on the Tiber he and his mother were joined in a most moving conversation on the everlasting life of the blessed; five days later she fell ill, and died there. St Monica had at times been a trying mother, and Augustine had not always been a considerate son; but he had come to recognize her as his true mother in the spirit as well as in the flesh: his own experience taught him to speak of parenthood as a sort of bishopric. (Adapted from The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, by David Attwater)

 

Proverbs 31: 10 An excellent wife who can find?
   She is far more precious than jewels.
11The heart of her husband trusts in her,
   and he will have no lack of gain.
12She does him good, and not harm,
   all the days of her life.

“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” 2 Timothy 1: 5

 Reflection:  Monica’s husband was an adulterer.   She stayed with him.  She was faithful. She reflected in her life God’s Word, the Epistle reading:  Ephesians 5:21-23.   She knew her husband to be her head…but in Christ Jesus .    The Ephesians passage is not the model in our day of the liberated woman…or man for that matter. As husbands in Christ means a whole different way than the world’s way of parenting:  a husband is to be like Christ.  “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”  (Ephesians 5: 25).  In fact, in the Ephesians text,  there are more verses on husbands than wives, and probably needs to be.  

A neo-feminist wag could harumph and say, Noted for being a mother!  As if that is no accomplishment!  “Being a king, an emperor or a president is mighty small potatoes compared to being a mother…” (see rest of Billy Sunday’s  quote here). Monica’s  strength was her Lord and she prayed for the conversion of both her husband and their son, yet like us she was a sinner.  She also wanted worldly success for Augustine.  Mother and son did not see eye-to-eye.  Yet, Monica persisted in prayer for them and in Christ they knew by faith through His grace, they were reconciled.  Monica is encouragement for us  persist in prayer and not give up (cf.  Luke 18:1ff). Patricus and his son Augustine were baptized.  Her son became one of the most important theologians and pastors whose writings influenced one young monk, centuries later,  in the Order of St. Augustine:  Martin Luther. As you read in the bio, Augustine thought of the family as a kind of bishopric.  Dr. Luther wrote about fathers and mothers being bishops and bishopesses for their children!    Monica’s son’s  feast day is tomorrow. Freedom in Christ is praying for someone who may not even want your prayers. 

From The Confessions of Augustine of Hippo,Pastor and Hippo, feast day, August 28th:

(Monica) was brought up in modesty and sobriety. She was made by You obedient to her parents rather than by them to You. When she reached marriageable age, she was given to a man and served him as lord. She tried to win him for You, speaking to him of You by her virtues through which You made her beautiful, so that her husband loved, respected and admired her. She bore with his infidelities and never had a quarrel with her husband on this account. For she looked forward to Your mercy coming upon him, in hope that, as he came to believe in You, he might become chaste….Another gift with which You endowed at good servant of Yours, in whose womb ou created me, my God, my mercy (Ps. 58:18), was that whenever she could, she reconciled dissident and quarrelling people. She showed herself so great a peacemaker that when she heard from both sides many bitter things, Monica would never reveal to one anything about the other unless it might help to reconcile them….At the end, when her husband had reached the end of his life in time, she succeeded in gaining him for You. After he was a baptized believer, she had no cause to complain of his behavior, which she had tolerated in one not yet a believer. She was also a servant of Your servants: any of them who knew her found much to praise in her, held her in honor, and loved her, for they felt Your presence in her heart, witnessed by the fruits of her holy way of life. She had “testimony to her good works” (1 Timothy 5:10). She had brought up her children, enduring travail as often as she saw them wandering away from You. Lastly, Lord—by Your gift You allow me to speak for Your servants, for before her falling asleep we were bound together in community in You after receiving the grace of Baptism—she exercised care for everybody as if they were all her own children. She served all as if she was a daughter to all of us. (From The Treasury of Daily Prayer, Concordia Publishing  House)

 

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