Dear friends and supporters of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane (Pretoria, South Africa). Here is the latest LTS News: 2016,1 LTS News DinA4 and also in US Letter format: 2016,1 LTS News USLetter. Thank you very much for your ongoing support and prayerful encouragement. Please do share the LTS News and continue to pray for us and the Lutheran Church in Africa and beyond. We wish you a very blessed holy week and a very joyful Eastertide.
Pastor Klaus-Eckart Damaske is leading a camp for young couples in the bushveld this weekend, so he asked me to conduct the divine service in his afrikaans St.Paul’s congregation. I was very happy to do so, because it’s a joy and privilege to do that on any Sunday, but especially on this sixth and last lenten Sunday before Easter – Palmarum.
Here is my sermon to read (Phil.2,5-11 Palmarum 2016 Afrikaans) and also for listening
Have a blessed Palm Sunday!
Watchword from the gospel of John 3:14b-15: “The Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
Theme: Jesus Christ – the man of sorrow and pain. (Der Schmerzensmann)
Isaiah 50:4-9 4 The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. 5 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. 6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. 7 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. 8 He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! 9 It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.
Philippians 2:5-11 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
John 12:12-19 12 The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, 15 “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” 16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him. 17 Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. 18 Many people, because they had heard that he had given this miraculous sign, went out to meet him. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”
The collect for Palm Sunday: Almighty and everlasting God, You sent Your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross. Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (LSB Altar Book 682)
Here’s my sermon held this morning in the chapel of St.Timothy at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane (Pretoria, South Africa) first as outline (Hb9,15-18.27-28 Matins 2016.3) and then also as audio-file: The epistle was read in French (Peter Kizungu), Amharic (Teshela) and English to accommodate our various students, who obviously have many more mother tongues than just these three, but with those most are covered fairly well.
The Psalmist prays to God: „Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.“ (Psalm 71,20-21 KJV)
The evangelist St. Matthews writes: „But when Peter saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.“ (Matthew 14:30 KJV)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you +
Dear friends of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ + That’s what our Lord Jesus Christ does: He saves! He delivers! He brings us up from the depths! He increases and comforts us on every side! In this is his like his heavenly Father and like the Holy Spirit too. As one God he goes about this most liberating, uplifting, edifying and so comforting business of his. Saving Adam and Eve from the sure consequence of death, banishment and exposure to the elements. Saving Noah and his family and all those animals from that devouring deluge. Saving Lot and his loved ones from the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Pulling Moses from the reeds in that great river Nile and preparing him to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt and lead them through the desert and barren stretches to the promised lands otherside of the Jordan. The whole Bible is full of stories of salvation and rescue, help and deliverance. That’s what the living and triune God does. Then, today and as long as this world stands.
Not even the depths of the oceans can swallow God’s people. Even there his hands are holding them, so that they can never fall deeper than into his caring hands. Just think of Jonah, who was thrown out of that vessel by his opportunistic and rather desperate fellow travellers. Good riddance they might have thought and it could just save our skin. So they toss him out and don’t care too much that he’s helplessly exposed to those stormy waves and will drown in now time: Rather him, than us! They are quite willing to give him up, sacrifice him and thus prove themselves as the surviving fittest and the truth of the old saying: Homo homini lupus! (Man is a wolf for men) Yet the merciful God does not let Jonah slip from his care. He’s still got plans with Jonah and not just in eternity and heaven, but right here in that godless capital Nineveh, full of people and animals, whom God still wanted to save (!) rescue and deliver from their idolatrous existence. His missionary Jonah was to bring them the saving message of God’s gospel. So Jonah was not lost although he was now obviously prime fish food. Still because of God’s providence and merciful election that big monster had to regurgitate his prey, spit him out, leave him shell-shocked on the safe shore – something like a drenched poodle and rather sad sight. God had kept and preserved him in the most desperate of situations. He had not drowned. He was not lost – even though he experienced the darkest of darks in the very depths of the sea and in that fish. Those sure were also like the „great and sore troubles“ of which the Psalmist can sing a song too. Still God draws him from those depths, he is pulled from the very inside of the hungry fish and quickened again. He comes to life, he catches his breath and opens his eyes to God’s great work of salvation and deliverance. No doubt he was comforted no end and on every side. He must have then been super encouraged thus most awesomely revitalized so that he strode with great leaps and bounds towards his goal to fulfil his calling and mission promptly and without any further delay and thoughts of escape and fleeing.
This is very encouraging for us also. For we too are going to land in the depths of the earth, when they carry us to our last resting place. Meters down in the ground they will pile the sods of dark soil over us: „Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. From dust you were made and to dust you will return!“ No escape. Claustrophobic dangers galore. Still, we will sleep like a baby. Yes, it will be even more restful than our first months in our mother’s womb and that narrow escape during birth when we first saw daylight and caught our first breath too. A great deliverance and rescue by the Lord’s grace and mercy. Then in the grave it will be very similar. No disturbance. Peace for sure, because there too God’s hand will hold us and keep us from evil. Nothing in life and death can after all pull us from his loving hands, which tenderly hold and keep us safe and sound until he calls and wakes us to face the last judgement, witness the fulfilment of all his promises and see the heavenly Jerusalem and him as he is very God of very God, light of light and all in all. Now that will be a sight to see and we be quite amazed at that sight we will see then, with the lamb on the throne and all his angels around him and all the saints too from all nations, tribes and people of the world. We will never tire of this sight of God either, because he is who he is: God and the highest good, most lovely to behold and vitalizing to be near, joyful without limits, fulfilling and ultimate bliss. We together with all saints then and now will rejoice beyond measure even as we recall the words of the Psalmist praising God forever and saying: „Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, hast quickened me again, and have brought me up again from the depths of the earth. Thou hast increased my greatness, and comforted me on every side and without limits.“ (Psalm 71,20-21 KJV)
Our holy baptism and its daily relevance and effect is actually a full-dress rehersal of just this going down into the depths of death and rising to the new life and creation of righteousness and holiness by the very power and mercy of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ, who also was put into great and sore troubles for us and our salvation. It had to be so. God’s plan and wisdom had ordained it so. Still the grave could not hold him and he was brought to greatness – Lord of lords and King of kings – and as a great comfort for us all, who trust in him as our very God and Redeemer.
That good end is surely to come even if now, we often are much more in the dire situation of the holy apostle St. Peter as he was out there on the waves and losing focus on his Lord and master, was distracted by the boisterous wind, the billowing clouds, the crashing waves and threatening dark depths beneath him. Although he knew his Lord and God Jesus Christ was master of the waves and all winds and had all authority in heaven and on earth, still he was full of doubt and just plain afraid. He did however call out to his Lord still from the depths of his fear and he rescued him from those great and sore troubles, quickened him and brought him into the safety of the boat. Yes, he comforted St. Peter, whose loss of faith and great fear had put him on the spot yet once again. Still the Lord saved him and put him on a sure footing. He held him by his right hand and made sure that he would not fall into despair, but rise again to praise God now and always. Amen. The peace of the Lord be with you always +
“From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee” by Martin Luther, 1483-1546
Hymn 329 from The Lutheran Hymnal Text: Ps. 130 author: Martin Luther
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1863 titled: “Aus tiefer Not schrei’ ich zu dir”
Tune: “Aus tiefer Not” 1st published in: Johann Walther’s Gesangbüchlein: Wittenberg, 1524
Coming up is the fifth Sunday in Lent and second Sunday before Easter, which is called Judica Sunday: “Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta” (Judge me o God and fight my fight against a faithless people Ps.42)
Watchword for this Sunday is from the gospel of Matthew 20,28: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Theme: Jesus the High Priest
Mendelsohn composed this melody to fit the psalm 43.
| Richte mich, Gott, und führe meine Sache wider das unheilige Volk und errette mich von den falschen und bösen Leuten. Denn du bist der Gott meiner Stärke; Warum verstößest du mich? Warum lässest du mich so traurig geh’n, wenn mein Feind mich drängt? Sende dein Licht und deine Wahrheit, daß sie mich leiten zu deinem heiligen Berge, und zu deiner Wohnung. Daß ich hineingehe zum Altar Gottes, zu dem Gott, der meine Freude und Wonne ist, und dir, Gott, auf der Harfe danke, mein Gott. Was betrübst du dich, meine Seele, und bist so unruhig in mir? Harre auf Gott! Denn ich werde ihm noch danken, daß er meines Angesichts Hülfe, und mein Gott ist. |
Do me justice, o God, and fight my fight against a faithless people; from the deceitful and impious man rescue me. For you, o God, are my strength. Why do you keep me so far away? Why must I go about in mourning, With the enemy oppressing me? Send forth your light and your fidelity; they shall lead me on And bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling place. Then will I go in to the altar of God, the God of my gladness and joy; Then will I give you thanks upon the harp, my God Why are you so downcast, o my soul? And why do you sigh within me? Hope in God! Then I will again give him thanks, In the presence of my savior and my God. |
Old Testament Reading from Genesis 22:1-13 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Epistle reading from Hebrews 5:7-9 7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
Gospel reading from St.Mark 10:35-45 35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” 36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. 37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” 38 “You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” 39 “We can,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, 40 but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.” 41 When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. 42 Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 43 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Thus says the Lord our God: “I am the LORD, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.” (Isa 45:6-7 NIV) And the apostle St.Paul writes to the Corinthians in his 2nd epistle: “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (2Co 4:6 NIV)
Dear friends of our Lord Jesus Christ: The omnicausality of our Lord and God fits divine dimensions even if it remains a conundrum for our limited perception and logic. Luther advises us to look at the revealed God in the face of Christ and not get involved into the fruitless speculation about the hidden God, who does all things – not just those bringing prosperity, but also disaster. This is not a solution to the challenging enigma, but it sure is a safe way out and one that promotes faith, hope and love too, whereas the other avenue leads us into the cul-de-sac of desperation, fear and bitter void. The daring philosophers of the past century have shown that way at least for some part of it. It’s dark, daunting and quite terrifying too. No wonder, that we should only try that route on the best and sunny of days and then only partially and as long as we have the safety railing of the gospel to hold onto and the sure net of Jesus Christ to fall back into.
It is in the big calamities of our world – like the sacking of Rome or the bombing of Hiroshima or burning of Dresden or the genocide in Rwanda and chaos in Syria – that we flee the horrendous insight that it is the living and devouring God, who does all these things. We can only fall on our knees and plead for mercy: Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison! We have no other resource at our disposal, nor excuses to make, never mind demands to raise for we know, it is me and my sin – together with that sin of my fathers and my children, my people and those of the rest of the world too – that are as countless as the sand at the seaside that have awoken God’s wrath and have brought about the snowballing calamity as it is enfolding before our eyes.
It is Jesus Christ, who does what Bonhoeffer describes as falling into the spokes of the madly spinning wheel of tyranny and chaos. We others are but chewed up by the devouring beast and ugly dragon of evil. Yet Jesus Christ was a bite to big to chew for the evil one. Death, sin and devil could not devour him. He choked and crooked, died himself on this godly potion. His poison was drawn. His deadly energy sapped. He’s bound, tied up and left to growl, bark and bay but that’s it. He can no longer harm us. We no longer need to fear him. His time is over. He’s had it. One word can fell him: Jesus Christ, who is Lord and king with all authority in heaven and on earth. Thus we have been pulled from darkness into light.
Every day this baptismal wonder happens and reoccurs, when we wake from sleep to live another day in the caring goodness and loving light of our heavenly Father, who rules and reigns for our benefit in his son Jesus Christ, who freed us from the power of sin, death and devil so that we can lead our lives in righteousness and holiness as is pleasing in God’s sight – joyfully, thankfully and in constant service to our next of kin, neighbours and fellow human beings. We thank and praise our triune God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” and made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” (2Co 4:6 NIV) Amen.
The peace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you always + Amen.
Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to You.
“Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me?”
by Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676
1. Why should cross and trial grieve me?
Christ is near With His cheer;
Never will He leave me.
Who can rob me of the heaven
That God’s Son For my own
To my faith hath given?
2. Though a heavy cross I’m bearing
And my heart Feels the smart,
Shall I be despairing?
God, my Helper, who doth send it,
Well doth know All my woe
And how best to end it.
3. God oft gives me days of gladness;
Shall I grieve If He give
Seasons, too, of sadness?
God is good and tempers ever
All my ill, And He will
Wholly leave me never.
4. Hopeful, cheerful, and undaunted
Everywhere They appear
Who in Christ are planted.
Death itself cannot appal them,
They rejoice When the voice
Of their Lord doth call them.
5. Death cannot destroy forever;
From our fears, Cares, and tears
It will us deliver.
It will close life’s mournful story,
Make a way That we may
Enter heavenly glory.
6. What is all this life possesses?
But a hand Full of sand
That the heart distresses.
Noble gifts that pall me never
Christ, our Lord, Will accord
To His saints forever.
7. Lord, my Shepherd, take me to Thee.
Thou art mine; I was Thine,
Even e’er I knew Thee.
I am Thine, for Thou hast bought me;
Lost I stood, But Thy blood
Free salvation brought me.
8. Thou art mine; I love and own Thee.
Light of Joy, Ne’er shall I
From my heart dethrone Thee.
Savior, let me soon behold Thee
Face to face, -May Thy grace
Evermore enfold me!
Hymn #523
The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Ps. 73: 23
Author: Paul Gerhardt
Translated by: composite, based on John Kelly, 1867
Titled: Warum sollt’ ich mich denn graemen
Composer: Johann G. Ebeling, 1666
Tune: Warum sollt’ ich mich denn graemen
Read here my sermon during this morning’s Matins in the chapel of St.Michael at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane on “Jesus Christ – the bread of life”: Joh 6,47-58 Matins 2016.3.10
Read the sermon by Professor J.T. Pless (CTS Ft.Wayne) held during the confessional service in the chapel of St.Timothy at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Tshwane (Pretoria, South Africa) on the gospel of St. Mark the 12th chapter verses 28-34: Confessional Sermon John Pless 2016.3.9
John 6:24-29 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
Free food always gets the people flocking. You want the people to support you? Give them food. Many people are convinced that the secret behind successful student ministry is the pizza principle: If you feed them, they will come. The truth is that it applies to all age groups. Grandparents can buy the grandkids with Kitkats and Smarties; fast food will buy the teenager’s compliance; a chicken in every pot and KFC in every lunchbox will get the masses to vote for you. As the German proverb goes, “Liebe geht durch den Magen” – the pathway to love runs via the stomach. We can all be bought with food.
In 2012, then national commissioner of the South African Police Force Bheki Cele spearheaded a drive to get the police officers fit and trim, to have six-packs and not kegs around their waists. In a broadcast speech, Cele said that police officers must “walk straight – stomach in, chest out, not stomach out, chest in.” Well, to use that language, it seems the people running after Jesus by the shore of the lake were not walking all that straight. They were walking “stomach out, chest in” – you see, the previous day, Jesus fed the 5,000 with 12 baskets of leftovers, and now the people are hungry for more, impelled by their bellies to the one they believe to be the bread king. But Jesus sees through them. Luther comments: “The people flock to the preaching of the Gospel as if they were genuine students of it. But appearances deceive – all they want is a full stomach and to satisfy their own needs, and so they take the Gospel for a doctrine of the stomach teaching them to gorge themselves and to booze. This is how all people think, from the first to the last…” (Sermon on John 6:26, 5. November 1530) We are all by nature theologians of the stomach. Stomach out, chest in.
And so this is what we work for, this is what we hunger after, this is what we want. The greed for food today, tomorrow and forever is what drives our markets, fuels corruption, what makes us grip our wallets tightly closed and what makes people oppress other people. “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food,” cried the Corinthians – isn’t this how it was meant to be? “Yes,” says the apostle, but “God will destroy both one and other.” And yet, that’s the bread we literally burn ourselves out working for. Temporal bread. Bread for our bellies. Bread that does not last. Bread that is gone when the next drought hits, bread that is taken from us when the taxman cometh. Bread that we continually hunger for until we can eat no more. Bread that fills us one moment, and leaves us hungry the next. Bread that cannot rescue us from our corrupted condition of sin or from our sentence of death. I can eat the Sasko Seedloaf or the Albany White or the Bunny chow from Durban, tomorrow I will be hungry, and the next day I am dead.
Jesus speaks to the “stomach out, chest in” crowd of yesterday and today and directs our concern elsewhere. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. Jesus is posing an absolute contrast between physical and spiritual “food” here. Now Jesus is not saying that hunger is not a real need and that people should not work for their food. We know that he takes hunger seriously by the very fact that he feeds the 5,000 instead of leaving them to starve. He has compassion on them. He is God, and God created food and the stomach, demand and supply. This is why He sends rain and sunshine at their due season and why the earth yields a harvest at the right time. Indeed, the Word of God condemns laziness: “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” (2 Thess 3:10) Thus we are commended to seek work and to be industrious. At the same time, Jesus directs your attention elsewhere. He is pointing you to your real need, your underlying hunger, your fundamental need.
And this is one of those points where the church has something to say to our world, to the country in which we live. As we look over our history with its many ups and downs, we see a history of people fighting over bread, fighting over resources and the control of them. Our eyes fill with tears and our hearts with sorrow as we see how whites have oppressed blacks, how Afrikaners oppressed the English and the English the bushmen and the Xhosa and the Boer women and children in the first concentration camps, we see strife between the landowners and the landless, between the powerful and the powerless, between the haves and the have-nots, between criminals and fearful citizens, between the different tribes, and also between the locals and the foreigners, we hear demands for justice and retribution, for Uhuru at the cost of blood, the universities are burning and the fires of racism are being stoked once again, cry, cry the beloved country, the Penny Sparrows among the whites making disgusting remarks about blacks, a groundswell of hatred among some blacks rising up against whites.
There are no simple, quick answers to any of these things. But too long there has been a painful silence on the part of too many, and perhaps on our part also. At the same time, we in the church cannot assume that we will be seen as credible speakers when we do speak, for much has been said and done in the name of the church – even the Lutheran church – and in the name of Christ which defies all basic human decency and which certainly does not accord with his teaching. In the face of all of these things there is great need for repentance, and great need, urgent need for reconciliation. In fact, the future of this country hangs in the balance. But before we can speak of answers, we must speak of problems. Before we can speak of the solution, we must first face and speak of the real crisis. Here the eternal Word of God has something very credible to say. The Lord points us all to what we should be striving for first of all – not for power and control and resources and bread, but for food that does not perish, for the food that endures to eternal life. He is saying that we all, black and brown and white and yellow, we are all united by a common need, a common hunger that is far deeper than the hunger for bread and resources: We are united by emptiness, our real hunger is a shared yearning for meaning, for fulfillment, for purpose, for true joy, for eternal dignity, indeed, for salvation, for reconciliation, for restoration, for life with Him who made us all. It is for this reason that Jesus calls blessedthose who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
This righteousness, this food, the bread that satisfies this need comes only as gift, a daily gift from the Son of Man, on whom is the seal of God the Father. It is the gift of faith, the gift of righteousness, true dignity before God for all who are under the blood of Christ and showered in the waters of holy baptism. Many people do not like to hear this answer. Not then, not now. It strips us of our pretenses and says that none of us is better before God than another, that we are all equally needy and equally empty, and that to become pleasing to God we must all become beggars. When the “stomach out, chest in” crowd indignantly challenges Jesus: What must we do, to be doing the works of God?, they are saying: What do you mean? Are we not doing the works of God? Are we not doing enough? Who are you to accuse us like this? Jesus answers that true godliness comes from God, not from good intentions or pious self-righteousness.This is the work (singular!) of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.Jesus responds to accusations of hate with gift language. Jesus is saying that the language of righteousness and dignity and salvation and satisfaction before God is the language of gift, the language of divine monergism, the language of God’s doing located outside of us and given into us. Even faith is God’s work. And by faith Jesus means what the people receive and what the people do. As we in the church struggle to come up with answers to racism (past and present), to the fires and the power games and the mind games and the politicians’ many promises raging all around us, we find here that Jesus wants us to make room for him and to let him do his work in us and with us and to us and through us, that we turn from real hunger to real food and from real problems to real solutions that do not fail, to the gift of God in Christ, the living bread from heaven.
What our country needs is faithful Christians who soak up the Lord’s vitality from their daily bread and burn it up in His service, realizing their neediness and bearing witness to the Bread of Life we all need. As Rev. Bill Cwirla once said, “This is much more than a static symbol or a clever figure of speech. To come to Jesus is to draw upon the energies and vitalities of living Bread and never again be hungry… Here is Bread the way the world cannot bake Bread, a Bread that satisfies eternally. A Bread filled with the abundance of the vitalities and energies of God. A Bread that doesn’t simply provide health and energy for this life, but the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Every other food is transformed into the eater. But this Bread transforms the one who eats it. ‘Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.’Such a Bread has come down from heaven to feed you. He has been broken in death for you. He is here present to feed you with the promise that those who come to feast on Him in faith will never again hunger or thirst but will be satisfied. Jesus fed five thousand with barley bread. He feeds us with living Bread, Himself, the Bread of Life. He is our daily food against sin and all that sin has done to us.” This must be our answer to the brokenness in our church and to the brokenness in our land. May the living God grant us the faith – the words – the actions – the credibility – the wisdom – the patience – the courage – and above all, the love – to give it. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria – Pastor Karl Böhmer
Wilhelm's space 