When the Word is lost, God is lost

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

Dr. Martin Luther continues his commentary on Deuteronomy with this summary of chapter 13 – and it´s good reading in this translation by Richard R. Caemmerer in Luther´s Works Volume 9, pages 129-131:

God´s Word remains forever

To confirm what he said at the end of the preceding chapter—“You shall not add to it, etc.”—Moses now presents this whole chapter. It is his will that we adhere to the Word of God with such devotion that we are not moved by persons or signs, however learned and holy they may be, like prophets; or by brothers, sons, and friends, however good and gentle they may be; or by cities and powerful people, however great and many they may be. One must rest wholly on the Word alone and shut out everything from eyes and senses, because when the Word is lost, God is lost. It is better to lose friends, brothers, saints, mighty ones, and everything than to lose God.

When Jesus Christ commands: “Beware of false prophets!” (Mt.7,15) he gives everybody the right – no, more the duty! – to judge doctrine, spirits and prophets even…

And here you see that the right to judge the doctrines even of lawful prophets is entrusted to each person—just as Christ also commands in Matt. 7:15: “Beware of false prophets”—although no one but the government is allowed to execute outward justice and kill such a prophet, as we shall be taught in a following chapter. Each must watch over his own conscience, and therefore each must have the right to judge spirits and prophets; but no one has the right to take the sword for himself. Otherwise what need would there be of the public government?

There is a difference whether this concerns the past of the future, but also whether it contradicts God´s Word as written – You shall have no other Gods! – or whether it concerns a new word from God, which is still to be tested. The first is not permissible, whilst the other is out for testing according and in the framework of God´s Word already given:

Here one asks how Moses can forbid to believe a prophet who performs and foretells signs that will come to pass, when nevertheless in chapter eighteen (v. 22) he says that if what the prophet said comes to pass, it is recognized that this is the Word of God. I answer: This chapter thirteen speaks of a past Word of God that has already been received and confirmed by its signs, just as he says: “You shall not add to it or take from it” (12:32), and again: “Keep the Commandments of God, and hear His voice” (28:1). In the face of such a Word no prophets are to be received, even if it were to rain signs and wonders—not even an angel from heaven, as Paul says to the Galatians (1:8). Here, however, a prophet is written about who will give signs in order to introduce other gods. This is already contrary to the Word which has been received concerning the only God who is to be worshiped, and therefore he should not be heard. In chapter eighteen He speaks of a new Word which has not yet been received and is not contrary to the one that has been received; therefore He says there (18:20): “If a prophet shall speak in My name what I have not commanded, etc.” Such a prophet is not to be received unless he does signs, just as Christ confirmed His Gospel with signs when it had to be preached in a way that went beyond Moses. For God does not reveal any new Word unless He confirms it with signs.

God tests his people and therefore, we should be watchful and pray to not be misled by false prophets, erroneous teachings, heresies, blasphemy, enthusiastic sects etc. because that sad lot has even befallen saints of the church, who by God´s grace came back to their senses:

God does indeed allow a new word to be taught in order to test us, but He is faithfully at our side, so that no signs are done or that what they have predicted does not come to pass, as He shows in the case of Elijah with the Baalites (1 Kings 18:24). Just so Paul also says (1 Cor. 11:19): “It is necessary that there be heresies, that those who are genuine may become manifest.” So He also permits signs to be done contrary to the received Word, again in order to test us (just as Moses says here), whether we love Him with our whole heart. So far Satan has misled us with signs and lying wonders into the working of error, as Paul predicted (2 Thess. 2:11), when we admired pilgrimages, appearances of spirits, or certain healings near some graves, all of which was contrary to the received Gospel. Saints, too, have slipped here, such as Augustine, Bernard, Jerome, and many others, who set up orders and rules of works contrary to the purity of faith, and who would certainly have had to be condemned (as Wycliffe says) if they had not come to their senses and been saved by the richness of their faith in the midst of unrecognized error.

God wants to be worshipped in faith and truth – not with sacrifices, works and other man-made rules and customs without the Word of God:

Strange gods, we have often said and say again, are not only an external idol but much rather an erring notion or conscience devised about the true God. For as the conscience is, so is God. If you believe that God is worshiped by sacrifices of this or that kind, in this or that place, and that without a Word of God, then you have already lost the true God; and that notion concerning sacrifice to which you cling under the name of the true God is your god. If you believe that God is worshiped through cap and tonsure, poverty, obedience, fasting, food, or drink (since here you do not have a Word of God), then cap and tonsure, or that notion about cap and tonsure, is your god. Therefore just as you have an inner assumption about the cap in place of God, so you extend this outwardly and set up,wear, honor, worship, and value the cap as an external idol according to the likeness of the inner notion.

The true triune God is only known and worshipped rightly through His Word.

See, this is what it means to make and follow other gods; it means to worship gods whom you do not know, because you do not feel or understand that in the place of the true God you worship a notion and an idol. Nor do you notice how uncertain you are in that worship, and how you think or know nothing concerning the true God, since you think about Him without His Word. But He cannot be known or thought of except through His Word. So you see that every way of inventing and worshiping strange gods is nothing else than that godless notion by which we choose and believe that we can please God without the Word of God, by this or that work, at this or that place, by this or that rite, when He is not of that sort and yet under His name another is falsely concocted in the heart. From this follow various names just like those of the idols. Thus one is called Baal, another Ashtaroth, another Dagon, another Moloch, Peor, Camos; and there are other names. Just so our monks are named, one from white clothing, another from black; and by his name and work each is outwardly different from the others. These all are prophets whom their dreams deceive. They say: “Let us go and worship strange gods.” That is, “Let us choose new rites without the Word, under the name of the true God.”

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It is right for us to fulfill all righteousness…

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber
The great Nurenberg Reformation in the context of Jesus Baptism – artist unknown – 1558

Now, this is what the Lord says,
the one who created you,
and formed you:
“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you.
I call you by name, you are mine.”

Isaiah 43: 1 (Watchword for the 6th Sunday after Trinity)

We pray:

Almighty God, beloved heavenly Father, through Holy Baptism You have made us Your children and heirs of Your kingdom, grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that we, having died to sin, may live faithfully in a new life with Jesus Christ, who together with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

We confess: 

O merciful God, full of compassion, longsuffering, and of great pity, who sparest when we deserve punishment, and in thy wrath thinkest upon mercy: Make me earnestly to repent, and to be heartily sorry for all my misdoings; make the remembrance so burdensome and painful, that I may flee to thee with a troubled spirit and a contrite heart; and O merciful Lord, visit, comfort, and relieve me; cast me not out from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me, but excite in me true repentance; give me in this world knowledge of thy truth, and confidence in thy mercy, and in the world to come life everlasting, for the sake of our Lord and Saviour, thy Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Dobberstein Pg.41
Various depictions of our Lord´s Baptism by Lucas Cranach jr

God´s Holy Word for Friday in the 6th week after Trinity

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John to be baptized by him in the Jordan River. But John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?” So Jesus replied to him, “Let it happen now, for it is right for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John yielded to him. After Jesus was baptized, just as he was coming up out of the water, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my one dear Son; in him I take great delight.”

Gospel of St. Matthew 3:13-17

We laud + praise His holy name: God Father, Son + Holy Ghost +

1 To Jordan came our Lord, the Christ,
To do God’s pleasure willing,
And there was by St. John baptized,
All righteousness fulfilling;
There did He consecrate a bath
To wash away transgression,
And quench the bitterness of death
By His own blood and passion,
He would a new life give us.

2 So hear ye all, and well perceive
What God doth call a Baptism,
And what a Christian should believe
Who error shuns and schism:
That we should water use, the Lord
Declareth it His pleasure,
Not simple water, but the Word
And Spirit without measure;–
He is the true Baptizer.

3 To show us this, He hath His word
With signs and symbols given;
On Jordan’s banks was plainly heard
The Father’s voice from heaven:
“This is My well-beloved Son,
In whom My soul delighteth;
Hear Him!” Yea, hear Him, every one,
When He Himself inviteth;
Hear and obey His teaching!

4 In tender manhood God the Son
In Jordan’s water standeth;
The Holy Ghost from heaven’s throne
In dove-like form descendeth;
That thus the truth be not denied,
Nor should our faith e’er waver,
That the Three Persons all preside
At Baptism’s holy laver,
And dwell with the believer.

5 Thus Jesus His disciples sent
Go, teach ye every nation,
That, lost in sin, they must repent,
And flee from condemnation;
He that believes and is baptized
Shall thereby have salvation,
A new-born man he is in Christ,
From death free and damnation,
He shall inherit heaven.

6 Who in this mercy hath not faith
Nor aught therein discerneth,
Is yet in sin, condemned to death
And fire that ever burneth;
His holiness avails him not,
Nor aught which he is doing;
His inborn sin brings all to naught,
And maketh sure his ruin;
Himself he cannot succor.

7 The eye of sense alone is dim,
And nothing sees but water;
Faith sees Christ Jesus, and in Him
The Lamb ordained for slaughter;
It sees the cleansing fountain, red
With the dear blood of Jesus,
Which from the sins, inherited
From fallen Adam, frees us,
And from our own misdoings.

Martin Luther 1483-1546

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Governed by the Word…

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

Dr. Martin Luther continues his commentary on Deuteronomy with this summary of chapter 12 – and it´s good reading in this translation by Richard R. Caemmerer in Luther´s Works Volume 9, pages 123-126:

The spiritual explanation of the First Commandment has been finished, and the heart has been instructed. Moses now moves on to works and the outward worship of God in action and ceremonies.

And first he issues a decree concerning the place of divine worship; he repeats about five or six times that they should sacrifice and worship God, not in any place that pleases them but only in the place which the Lord chooses. Then he also commands that the places, the altars, and the statues of the Gentiles be wrecked and their memory erased.

When the general and constant place for the continual sacrifice of the whole people was being spoken of, the place chosen by God was wherever the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle were. Otherwise He often chose another place for one day or year, as is apparent in Samuel, Elijah, Gideon, Manoah and others; but He did so by a special revelation either through an angel or through a prophet.

All this He commands in order that in the worship of God the people may not be carried away by its own feeling, however holy and good, but may be governed by the Word; for if man does not live without the Word even with respect to the belly, how much less does he live without the Word in the work of God and in the spirit!

God wants our conscience to be certain and sure that it is pleasing to Him. This cannot be done if the conscience is led by its own feeling, but only if it relies on the Word of God.

Therefore if they should worship God in a place chosen by themselves, even if they pleased themselves thereby, nevertheless they would not be sure that they were pleasing God. They were sure that they were pleasing Him only if they made offerings in a place set apart through the Word of God.

Page 123

Memorable among the statements of this chapter are these two: “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here this day, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes” (v. 8), and, “Everything that I command you you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to it or take from it” (v. 32).

The former wholly condemns free will. It compares our efforts with the Word of God, inasmuch as by a general statement it wants us to choose and accomplish nothing unless the Word of God goes before us and lights the way. Thus no other place should be chosen, etc. From this it follows that whatever we attempt without the Word is sheer darkness and error. If this were not the case, it would not have been necessary to warn us not to do what seems right to us; nor would we be in need of the Word.

The latter statement removes presumption, lest we do things that are better than the Lord commands; and at the same time it gives us liberty and absolves us of all works, efforts, laws, and traditions of men; and it binds our consciences to the Word of God alone. Of this very much elsewhere.

Page 125
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The one who believes and is baptized will be saved.

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

Now, this is what the Lord says,
the one who created you,
and formed you:
“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you.
I call you by name, you are mine.”

Isaiah 43: 1 (Watchword for the 6th Sunday after Trinity)

We pray:

Almighty God, beloved heavenly Father, through Holy Baptism You have made us Your children and heirs of Your kingdom, grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that we, having died to sin, may live faithfully in a new life with Jesus Christ, who together with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

We confess: 

Forgive my sins, O Lord – forgive me the sins of my present and the sins of my past, the sins of my soul and the sins of my body; the sins which I have done to please myself, and the sins which I have done to please others. Forgive me my wanton and idle sins, forgive me my serious and deliberate sins, forgive me those sins which I know and those sins which I know not, the sins which I have laboured so to hide from others that I have hid them from my own memory. Forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all. Of thy great mercy let me be absolved, and of thy bountiful goodness let me be delivered from the bonds of all that by my frailty I have committed. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Dobberstein Pg.33

God´s Holy Word for Thursday in the 6th week after Trinity

Then Jesus appeared to the eleven themselves, while they were eating, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen him resurrected. 

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the one who does not believe will be condemned. 

These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages; they will pick up snakes with their hands, and whatever poison they drink will not harm them; they will place their hands on the sick and they will be well.”

Gospel of St. Mark 16:14-18

We laud + praise His holy name: God Father, Son + Holy Ghost +

You were before your day of birth,
Indeed from your conception,
Condemned and lost with all the earth,
None good without exception.
For like your parents’ flesh and blood
Turned inward from the highest good
You constantly denied Him.

But all of that was washed away
Immersed and drowned forever.
The water of your Baptism
Restored again whatever
Old Adam and his sin destroyed
And all our sinful selves employed
According to our nature.

In baptism we put on Christ
Our shame is fully covered
With all that He once sacrified
And freely for us suffered
For here the flood of His own blood
Now makes us holy, right, and good
Before our heavenly Father.

O Christian, firmly hold this gift
And give God thanks forever!
It gives the power to the uplift
In all that you endeavor.
When nothing else revives your soul,
Your baptism stands and makes you whole
And then in death completes you.

So use it well! You are made new,
In Christ a new creation!
As faithful Christians live and do
Within your own vocation!
Until that day when you possess
His glorious robe of righteousness
Bestowed on you forever.

Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) translated by Jon D. Vicker

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Therefore both rains are necessary, the early and the late…

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

Dr. Martin Luther continues his commentary on Deuteronomy with this summary of chapter 11 – and it´s good reading in this translation by Richard R. Caemmerer in Luther´s Works Volume 9, pages 117-119:

This chapter is a sort of conclusion to all previous exhortations concerning the First Commandment.

It repeats and drives home the blessings received in Egypt and the desert, and promises the land and future benefits which are to be received when they keep the Commandments of God and do not worship strange gods.

So far He has been discussing and urging this First Commandment, and therefore He is so concerned about it that He commands it to be taken to heart, to be bound as a sign on hands and eyes, and to be taught to the children, just as He did above; for it contains the whole sum and fulfillment of all the Commandments that follow. So we see that Moses omits nothing that pertains to the understanding of the First Commandment, just as he has amply discussed everything that promotes faith and everything that impedes it. In what follows he will deal with the rites and ceremonies of works of the same Commandment.

But he also mixes in some promises, namely, that if they cling to the Lord, He will drive out nations stronger than they. Likewise, every place their foot treads shall be theirs. He also says: “No one will stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear and the dread of you upon all the land into which you are about to go” (v. 25).

Then He puts a curse next to the promises. Yes, both at the same time, blessing and cursing, He commands to be spoken on Mts. Gerizim and Ebal. About this we shall speak below, for it all belongs to the final summary.1 He adds also the nature of the Promised Land as a sort of promise, namely, that it is not like the land of Egypt but is under the special care of the Lord, whose eyes are on it from the beginning of the year to the end.

The point is that He warns them to be dependent on God in faith and to know that through the favor of God the rain of this land is granted to the faithful and withheld from the unfaithful.

We know that Egypt is not moistened by rains but by the flooding of the Nile each summer. This miracle of God, like all the others, has been belittled because of its regularity. In this Egypt differs from other lands by a remarkable distinction. But the Land of Promise has mountains and valleys; therefore it is made fertile, not through the flooding of the river but through moistening rains from the sky. Not that other lands are not moistened and cared for in the same way or that the eyes of the Lord are not on them from the beginning of the year to the end, as they are on this one. For He Himself gives food to all flesh (Ps. 136:25), as the preceding chapter also says (Deut. 10:18): “He Himself gives food and clothing to the stranger,” and “He fills with gladness and food the hearts of the sons of men” (Acts 14:17).

But the difference is that no Gentiles have the promise of God in this matter. God indeed gives everything to all; but to this His own people He adds the Word of promise that they should not live by bread alone, as the rest of the nations do, but also by the Word.

In this land they are not to have care for the belly alone but much rather also for the spirit. They should not think that the land is given them to fatten them like pigs; rather, they are to nourish themselves with the Word of God and to receive everything through the Word of God, that is, to serve God. Not for the sake of the land itself but for the sake of the people in it is God concerned for the land, that He may rule them in it by faith, as is said elsewhere. He did not choose the nation because of the place, but the place because of the nation. For He did not choose Abraham and his seed on account of the land which He promised him, but He chose the land which He gave him because of Abraham.

This land, however, denotes the kingdom of Christ, which—previously occupied by godless demons, teachers, and workmongers—is freed from sin and error through the Word of the Gospel.

In it one lives through faith in such a way that with a sure and faithful conscience we are aware of being under the care of God and realize that the eyes of His grace are open over us always.

Then it is made fertile by the rains of heavenly doctrine. For it is moistened, not through the work or word of man, as in Egypt irrigation waters are conducted from one place to another, but solely through the speech of God from heaven.

The seasonal and the later rains are also discussed elsewhere. The seasonal rain is the first rain; the late rain comes afterwards. That is how a joyful harvest and abundance of produce come about, when fair weather and the warm sun follow the rain; then, when it is very hot, rain again follows. For constant rain destroys everything, just as constant summer heat and warmth do. So also not only doctrine is to circulate among the people, but after doctrine the work of faith must be practiced.

But where strength has slackened through labor and suffering, then the heart must be lifted up again, comforted, and consoled through doctrine. Thus man will grow in the knowledge of God.

On the other hand, only to teach and not to do is just as if it were always raining, and everything choked and perished. Again, to labor and suffer and not to teach is just as if summer heat were to burn constantly and the waning strength of the spirit were being quenched. Therefore both rains are necessary, the early and the late, that is, teaching and exhorting. In Rom. 12:7–8 we read: “He who teaches, in doctrine; he who exhorts, in exhorting.”

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Neither Jew nor Greek…

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

Now, this is what the Lord says,
the one who created you,
and formed you:
“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you.
I call you by name, you are mine.”

Isaiah 43: 1 (Watchword for the 6th Sunday after Trinity)

We pray:

Almighty God, beloved heavenly Father, through Holy Baptism You have made us Your children and heirs of Your kingdom, grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that we, having died to sin, may live faithfully in a new life with Jesus Christ, who together with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

We confess: 

O Lord,with heartfelt sorrow we repent and deplore our offences. We condemn ourselves and our evil ways, with true penitence entreating that thy grace may relieve our distress. Be pleased to have compassion upon us, O most gracious God, Father of all mercies, for the sake of thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And as thou dost remove our guilt and our pollution, grant us the daily increase of the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that acknowledging from our inmost hearts our own unrighteousness, we may be touched with sorrow that shall work true repentance, and that, mortifying all sins within us, thy Spirit may produce the fruits of holiness and righteousness well pleasing in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dobberstein Pg.27

God´s Holy Word for Wednesday in the 6th week after Trinity

For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female —for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.

St. Paul´s epistle to the Galatians chapter 3 verses 26-29

We laud and praise His holy name – God Father, Son + Holy Ghost +

1 All who believe and are baptized
Shall see the Lord’s salvation;
Baptized into the death of Christ,
They are a new creation.
Through Christ’s redemption they shall stand
Among the glorious, heav’nly band
Of ev’ry tribe and nation.

2 With one accord, O God, we pray:
Grant us Your Holy Spirit.
Help us in our infirmity
Through Jesus’ blood and merit.
Grant us to grow in grace each day
That by this sacrament we may
Eternal life inherit.

Thomas H. Kingo 1634-1703
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Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens.

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

Our good God is greatest of all and for all:

Again, after the manner of a good lawgiver, Moses impresses and repeats the greatness and goodness of the God who commands. “Behold,” he says, “there are various heavens and various gods; but your God is over them all (almost as Paul says in 1 Cor. 8:5). Nevertheless, from all the nations under all the heavens He has loved and chosen your fathers and their seed.” I note that in Scripture the heavens are distributed, not according to spheres, as the mathematicians are accustomed to do but according to parts of the earth, just as the earth, too, is distributed, as he says elsewhere (Deut. 28:23): “And the heavens over your head shall be brass”; that is, there is to be one heaven for this people and another for that people. But this is the God of all the heavens, that is, over all heavens, ruling in the horizon of all—the God, not of the Jews alone but of all nations. Thus Ps. 115:16:4 “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.”

Martin Luther´s Commentary on Deuteronomy 10:14 (LW 9 Pg.111)
IX: God and Lord

He loves the sojourner and takes good care of them:

Look at those delightful promises of God: “Who is not partial”; likewise, “Who takes no bribe”; likewise, “He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow”; likewise, “He loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing” (vv. 17–18). With these words God clearly consoles all the wretched, lost, and afflicted in the whole world and draws their hearts to Himself, that they may believe in Him and trust in His goodness, as the one and only God demands. If He does not regard persons, I already have something because of which to glory, to puff up my heart, and to be proud against all the kings, princes, rich and strong men of the world. By them I am despised and deserted as poor, mean, and weak. Yet I am certain that I am regarded, sustained, and cared for by Him who is the God of gods and the Lord of lords (as Moses also teems and is magnificent with words here), the powerful one, fearful above all my despisers. What, therefore, would I lack, if some lord of a few servants despises me, while the Lord of all lords and the God of gods deems me worthy of His care?

So if I am a fool, a despairing and despised sinner, or if I have been judged, condemned, and excommunicated as a sinner, heretic, an accursed one, a blasphemer, a servant of Satan—so what? They are holy, righteous, honored, praised, of high repute among the sons of God, and numbered among the stars—so what? Here is the God of gods, who does not regard persons or care for their gifts. He cares for me, a sinner and fool, just as they presume He cares for them. Heavens, if I could hold to these promises in faith, what could happen that could sadden me? What sin could oppress me, what could cause me to despair? Yes, what height, what depth, what present thing, what creature (Rom. 8:38–39) could either puff us up or humble us? Let the heart cling to these words, and nothing will be lacking when all is lost—and nothing will be overly important even when everything is just fine. Only believe that He who says this does not lie, just as He cannot lie; and you shall have a secure and joyous heart in everything and through everything.

See, this is what it means to interpret the First Commandment. This is the commentary of Moses himself. Thus he teaches the understanding of what it means that there is a God, what it means to have God, what it means to fulfill the First Commandment. Oh, what great fountains just these words have been for the prophets! From this source they have drawn whatever they shout forth about the concern of God for the infirm, the lowly, the poor, the sinners, the widows, the orphans, the judged, the condemned, the afflicted, and the wretched; also whatever they thunder against the wealthy, the tyrannical, the mighty, the critical, the violent, the hard, and the proud about the wrath and vengeance of God. For all these flow from the great ocean of the First Commandment and flow back into it, so that no richer consolation or voice is more plainly heard or ever will be heard, yet none harder or severer, than the voice of the First Commandment: “I am the Lord your God.”

And, to proceed to the rest, widows and orphans suffer many things. Who cares for them then? No one, no one at all. But here they shall see with a sure heart, where it is said for their joy: “God of gods, Lord of lords, the great, powerful, and dreadful God—He executes judgment for the widow and the orphan.” This is the source of Ps. 68:5: “The Father of orphans and the Judge of the widow.” He wants this title of glory to be praised and thus to make it evident that out of pure mercy He admonishes tyrants not to do what would force Him to satisfy this title against them. Yet He genuinely frightens them so that they fear to harm widows and orphans, but rather, after His example, do them good and love them. And this is much more remarkable because, whether widows and orphans believe or not, He still executes judgment for them and judges the tyrants, although the unbelief of widows and orphans does not deserve to experience that in this life or while their unbelief lasts. The promise goes on and is fulfilled against the violent and the cruel, even if no one here believes. But it is fulfilled much more powerfully and quickly if the widows and orphans do believe.

He loves strangers so much that He feeds and clothes them. Heavens, who would now rely on his home or patrimony, even though this is not to be despised either? But if in a certain case he should happen to be a wanderer, let him not lose faith or believe less than if he were cherished in his paternal home; but let him sing with the psalmist (27:10): “My father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord has received me.” Wisdom 10:106 says of the patriarch Jacob: “She [wisdom] led the righteous one on the right way when he fled from the wrath of his brother, showed him the kingdom of God, gave him the knowledge of sacred things, enriched him by means of his labors, and completed his labors, etc.” Who will doubt that this is why more people become wealthy, prominent, and famous among strangers than at home and in their parental circles? For God is the Father of all; He loves the stranger to the point of giving him food and clothing.

Therefore, rejoice and boast: He is your praise; He is your God.

This is a Hebrew expression. In this passage “praise” seems to me properly to mean what Paul calls in Greek καύχησις (2 Cor. 7:4) or καύχημα (1 Cor. 5:6), “glorying”; in German it is Ruhm. The meaning, then is: “Because of nothing, neither of yourself nor your works, shall you be puffed up or boast. But in your God shall you boast, in Him be puffed up, in Him be proud, since you know that He it is who does not regard persons.”

“And He did with you all these great things which your eyes have seen”; as if He were saying: “You have learned through experience that He gave you food and clothing when you were a stranger, that He does not regard persons, that He judges for the widow and the orphan, etc. Therefore you have something to puff you up and make you proud against all tyrants, yes, against every evil, namely, your God, who provides you with all good things.”

And so you see that it is the fulfillment of the First Commandment to have God be the praise, the boasting, the bragging, the pride of our heart in the time both of prosperity and of adversity. For this it is to have God in truth.

Posted in Martin Luther and the Reformation, Saints of the church, Slavery, Theologie, Travels, You comfort me + | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

This prefigured baptism, which now saves you… 1.Pt.3,18-22

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

Now, this is what the Lord says,
the one who created you,
and formed you:
“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you.
I call you by name, you are mine.”

Isaiah 43: 1 (Watchword for the 6th Sunday after Trinity)

We pray:

Almighty God, beloved heavenly Father, through Holy Baptism You have made us Your children and heirs of Your kingdom, grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that we, having died to sin, may live faithfully in a new life with Jesus Christ, who together with You and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

We confess: 

Almighty and most merciful God, we acknowledge and confess that we have sinned against thee in thought, word and deed; that we have not loved thee with all our heart and soul, with all our mind and strength; and that we have not loved our neighbour as ourselves. We beseech thee, O God, to be forgiving to what we have been, to help us to amend what we are, and of thy mercy to direct what we shall be, so that thy love of goodness may ever be first in our hearts, that we may always walk in thy commandments and ordinances blameless, and follow unto our life’s end in the footsteps of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

God´s Holy Word for Tuesday in the 6th week after Trinity

Because Christ also suffered once for sins,
the just for the unjust,
to bring you to God,
by being put to death in the flesh
but by being made alive in the spirit.

In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water. And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you —not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,  who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him.

1. Peter 3:18-22

We laud and praise His holy name – God Father, Son + Holy Ghost +

1. Water, blood, and Spirit crying,
    By their witness testifying
    To the One whose death-defying
       Life has come, with life for all.

2. In a wat’ry grave are buried
    All our sins that Jesus carried;
    Christ, the Ark of Life, has ferried
       Us across death’s raging flood.

3. Dark the way, yet Christ precedes us,
    Past the scowl of death He leads us;
    Spreads a table where He feeds us
      With His body and His blood.

4. Through around us death is seething,
    God, His two-edged sword unsheathing,
    By His Spirit life is breathing
       Through the living, active Word.

5. Spirit, water, blood entreating,
    Working faith and its completing
    In the One whose death-defeating
       Life has come, with life for all.

Stephen P. Starke 1955
Posted in Gedankensplitter, Morgengebet, Morning Prayer, Trinity (The church season after Pentecost) | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Battle of nations”: The story of winning and loosing

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

Well, this time around it was but a day in the park, whereas at the time of war, this was one of the worst calamities to hit Leipzig – this Battle of Leipzig (October 1813: “Völkerschlacht”). It was not the first one of great proportions to befall this industrious city in Saxony. During the thirty-years-war another was fought (1631: “Battle of Breitenfeld” and another in 1642) between the opposing confessions: Catholics versus Protestants even if that might be a serious misnomer according to Golo Mann with his masterly account on Wallenstein. Visiting one of the biggest European monuments, we however, were not reminded of that war, but rather of the even larger conflict between Russians, Prussians, Swedes and Austrians on the one side against the seemingly invincible emperor of the French grand nation, who had the little Saxons on their side too – for starters at least and before they then deserted Napoleon and finally joined the winning side.

The battle of nations at Leipzig in 1813

Napoleon had passed his zenith, when he had got lost in the Russian expanse and in Leipzig his luck didn´t return either. He made serious errors of judgement, some due to misinformation and others because of the sheer size of this confrontation. That the Saxons deserted him, was more of a sign of changing times and result of his failing star, than the cause for his demise as the French would have liked to believe. Still, Napoleon got away with damages to fight another day, yet he was no longer invincible. That was obvious – and probably part of the beginning of the end.

The French retreat

In Germany this battle was used extensively in Prussian propaganda. The Saxons were not shunned for their initial opposition, but rather taken up into the German fold with great exuberance. The story told, was that Germany had withstood their archenemy from across the Rhein, but it really was a united effort with huge help from Russians, Austrians and even the small number of Scandinavians must have counted for something.

The French flee and Leipzig is taken over by their victorious enemies

The victory was commemorated with one of the largest monuments in Europe for this “Battle of the nations” “Völkerschlachtdenkmal” finished a hundred years later paid for mainly by citizens of Leipzig, who had borne the brunt of the battle in the first place.  It was inspiration for the “Voortrekker monument” in Pretoria (1949). Ernst Moritz Arndt initially suggested this monument. It was his idea and part of his nationalistic ideals for a united Germany as formulated in his poem: “What is the German fatherland?” way back in 1813.  

 

The monument of the battle of the nations in Leipzig (1913)

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Spiritual pride demolished in 3 steps

Posted on July 20, 2020 by Wilhelm Weber

In this chapter Moses selects another occasion for transgressing the First Commandment, an occasion called spiritual pride because it boasts of its righteousness and merits. This is trust in one’s own works, and no plague and opponent of faith or trust in the mercy of God is more destructive. Therefore Moses demolishes it here with many words throughout the whole chapter. It robs God of His glory, for these two cannot stand side by side: to glory in God and His mercy, and to glory in ourselves because of our righteousness and works. He disproves this righteousness with three strong arguments.

Martin Luther on Deuteronomy chapter 9: LW Vol.9, Pg.102-105

1. Those Gentiles deserved to be expelled on account of their godlessness.

He says this: “For not because of your righteousnesses or the uprightness of your heart will you go in; but because they dealt godlessly, the Lord cast them out” (v. 5). With these words we, too, should be instructed if we see others smitten either by ourselves or by others. It does not follow that since you or others smite that man, therefore you or others are more righteous than he. Otherwise the tower of Siloam, which fell on many in Jerusalem (Luke 13:4), would also be regarded as just. But it is God who smites the godless, as he says here. Whether He does these things through a tower, fire, water, beasts, your hand or another’s, makes no difference. Nothing else takes place there than that the just God has smitten the godless.

Furthermore, you should fear this example. The godless one is smitten that you may be terrified, just as Christ explains in Luke 13:5, saying: “You shall all perish this way.” And Paul says in Rom. 11:21–22, as he forbids the Gentiles by means of the same argument to be proud over the ruin of the Jews: “See to it that He spares you; otherwise you, too, shall be cut off”; and Rom. 2:3: “Man, when you judge those who do such things, and you do the same, do you think that you shall escape the judgment of God?”

Outstanding is also the statement of St. Gregory: “When we see anyone sin, we should first weep over ourselves in their calamity, because we have either fallen like them or we can fall.”2 

Someone has summed this up in the following lowing verse: “We either are, have been, or can be what this man is.”3 

A person recorded in The Lives of the Fathers said, when he had heard of the lapse of a brother: “He yesterday, I today.”4 

Hence when someone else is smitten, this should be our thought: “It is your business when the neighboring wall is on fire.”5 Yes, with a feeling of pity and sympathy the godless are to be destroyed or struck down by us as we remember that we are the instrument of God and are ourselves perhaps to be cast as a whip into the fire after we have blasted the evildoers.

2. The second argument is the authority of the divine promise.

The Lord cast them out “that He might fulfill His oath and Word which He promised to your fathers” (v. 5). Nothing stronger could have been said against trust in one’s own righteousness. For where were the sons of Israel when God promised the land of Canaan to their father Abraham, who up to that time was sterile and hopelessly childless? If they receive and occupy the land through the promise of God, therefore, it is not because of merits or their own righteousness but from the simple grace and goodness of God, which He poured out over the unworthy and those not yet born.

Why does He promise? Perhaps because those who would come after 430 years would deserve it? Far from it! He who promised out of goodness alone also fulfilled His Word out of mercy alone.

Paul uses this argument in his letters to the Galatians (3:2 ff.) and the Romans (4:1 ff.), when he proves most powerfully that righteousness has to come about by the mercy of God once promised, not by works.

3. The third argument is experience itself.

He says: “Since you are a stiff-necked people, etc.” (v. 6). By such a neck they had not deserved even to come close to the land; for God was so incensed that He would have rather destroyed them than the Gentiles in the desert. Just as the psalm says (106:26): “And He stretched out His hand that He might cast them down in the desert” and would have turned His promise elsewhere, namely, toward the descendants of Moses (Num. 14:12). Finally He laid them all low in the desert to the last man, except Joshua and Caleb, so that neither Moses nor Aaron entered the land. Hence that they should enter the land by their merit was so far from being the case that the very opposite should much rather have happened to them—as it also turned out—if they were to be dealt with according to merit. Paul also uses this argument in Rom. 4:14 ff., where he says: “If the inheritance is by the Law, faith is void, the promise is abolished; for the Law works wrath.” So you see that both Moses and Paul use the same dialectic of the spirit against the righteousness of works and on behalf of the grace and mercy of God.

The conclussion thus is: Evil is well deserved, whereas good is but due to God´s goodness and his most gracious promises long ago:

Therefore all these things are also written for our learning (Rom. 15:4), that we may learn that if any evil comes upon the godless, it comes indeed by their merit. As for the rest, if it does not break in upon us but we enjoy good things, this is due not to our righteousness but to divine goodness, by which such things have been provided and promised for us from eternity; for we deserved the very opposite. Hence the verdict stands: Not on account of our righteousness is any good thing given to us, but in order that God may fulfill the Word which He willed from eternity, lest we be puffed up and make an idol out of our righteousness. We are to know that we have one God, from whom we freely receive all things, through His sheer goodness poured out over the unworthy. So also the patriarch Jacob confesses (Gen. 32:10): “I am too small for all Thy mercies,” that is, not only for a mercy which may be large but for any at all, however small and slight it may be.

For remember, who You are and where You come from – even though through God´s grace and goodness, You have now been saved and brought to a new life in IX:

Then Moses administers a healing antidote to this pestilence, for this monster of one’s own righteousness is so formidable that it cannot be sufficiently restrained. He sets before their eyes all the former misdeeds of the people and commands them to remember such things; and forcibly, before all, with great power of words, he recalls their sin at Mt. Sinai, when they worshiped the calf. What can heal the sickness of this pride more promptly than to remember former godlessness and crimes?

What does this people have except what makes it ashamed to lift its eyes to heaven? Just as Paul says to the Ephesians: “Of which you are now ashamed.”6 Hence He also permitted David, Moses, Peter, Paul, and other great men to fall, that they might be humbled, become ashamed before God, and rely on His goodness alone. Therefore Peter (2 Peter 1:9) sharply lashes out at those who forget the forgiveness of former sins, become smug and cold, and then stiff-necked and proud.

So, in the end, what reason do we have to boast? None! Therefore, we can but laud and praise God´s grace and goodness, who is willing to forgive and grant life even to those deserving death:

Finally he closes: “You have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you” (v. 24). What a worthy commendation, what merits, what righteousness of a holy people, namely, disobedience to the divine voice! Go on now and boast, brag, be puffed up, saying that the land has been given to you because of your righteousnesses, you who do not deserve to hear anything but that you are a stiff-necked people and always disobedient to the Lord! Indeed, do such merits deserve such royal wealth and not rather a thousand deaths and crosses? What more dreadful a thing can be said than to be disobedient to the Lord? Nevertheless, that celebrated and blessed land is given to this disobedience. What does Israel have left here to be proud of? Should it not rather put its face into the dust and say: “I am worse than all the Gentiles, and great and undeserved is Thy grace, that I receive that land”? Furthermore, if that holy and special Israel is such a people before God, what are we Gentiles and sinners?

In the end it is but God´s most Holy Name, Honor and Glory that He pardons sinners and saves those lost:

See in how many words Moses here accuses the people in this very prayer which he prays for them as he says: “Do not regard the stubbornness of this people, or their wickedness, or their sin, lest the land from which Thou didst bring us say, etc.” (vv. 27–28). Nothing is told here about the people except things for which they deserved death. The one salvation was this, that their destruction would endanger the name of God. Hence, that the name of God might not be blasphemed, pardon not otherwise to be given is conferred on them. They would have been destined for total destruction if the glory of the name of God, which was called out over them (Jer. 15:16), could have been saved. From this place many others, especially David in the Psalter, took this safe and dependable argument (Ps. 25:11): “On account of Thy name, Lord, have pity on my sin, etc.”; and Joshua (7:9): “What wilt Thou do by Thy great name,” by which we are called?

Posted in Bibel und Übersetzung, Lectionary etc, Martin Luther and the Reformation, Saints of the church, Theologie | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment