Prayer and Preaching, page 260.
1 Cor. 15:1–10
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Catechism: from the Third Article
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel…
Homily:
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Called me by the Gospel. This is where faith comes from. From the Holy Spirit who calls by the Gospel and the calling is a calling from God to you, that you come to Him. Faith is never a possession. It's not something you stick in your pocket and keep. Faith always and only arises from the Gospel. Our conviction that this is so explains a peculiarity of Lutheranism.
In other churches, the gospel of Christ crucified for our sins and raised for our justification according to the Scriptures is something that folks fully credit and believe; and yet it is not something that they think they need to speak to Christians all the time. It's more aimed at those who do not believe to bring them to faith. But Lutherans are weird and believe that the Gospel is as much for Christians as anyone else. Maybe in this instance, we just listened to what St. Paul said. Did you catch it?
I would remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received or welcomed, in which you STAND, and by which you are BEING SAVED, if you hold fast (not letting go!) the word I preached to you. It's the same point he makes in Romans 10: "Faith comes from HEARING and hearing from the Word of Christ." NOT "Faith came from hearing." Faith COMES from hearing, from the hearing of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel of the Crucified and Risen Lord calling you to the Father's embrace.
Which means, for the life of the Church and of the Christian, that there is no moving on to other stuff. "Yeah, yeah. Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead to wipe out my death. Got it. Now what?" No. The Church preaches the Gospel to you so that you might always believe, hearing that in Jesus' death the Father really has wiped out your sins and by His resurrection from the dead, He punched a hole through death for you so that He will bring you out of it on the Last Day, raising YOU as He was raised into a life that has no end. This is not easy stuff to hold fast to. Not when Satan wakes you up at night to play a DVD of the sins of your past and of your present; not when you see your body begin to fail you, or the bodies of those you dearly love failing them. No believing it is not easy. In fact, believing it is impossible. It takes an act of God to give you the faith that that Christ's blood really does cover the whole lot of your sin; it takes an act of God to let you look at your loved one's corpse and believe it will live again, or to breathe your last and to do so in faith that it's acutally not the last breath you will take.
So the Church speaks a message to you for you to stand in, to revel in, to hear and be amazed at again and again. The Spirit works faith through it. And the only way it will fail is if it's not true. And that's what Paul is at pains to show you. It's true. Cephas saw him. The apostles saw him. Some five hundred folk saw him. James saw him. And even Paul on that road outside Damascus saw Him. He rose from the dead. And if He rose from the dead, your sins are gone and your future is bright with resurrection. "I'm not sure I can believe that" you might think. And the Church's answer is: "No, of course you can't. But listen. Listen as we tell what is true and you'll surprise yourself that you DO believe after all, and you'll know that it didn't come from you and that it doesn't come from you. It comes from the Father who calls you by the Spirit to faith in His Son by proclaiming the Gospel in which you stand and to which you cling for dear life.
So yeah, we Lutherans are weird when it comes to the Gospel. We know we can never hear it often enough; and that's a good thing!
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Hymn: "If Christ Had Not Been Raised from Death" 486
Prayers:
For all affected by Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath; for those who mourn the loss of loved ones; for those who have lost home, property or employment; for all who seek to bring relief and care to devastated lives, broken hearts and injured bodies, let us pray to the Lord: Lord, have mercy.
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