Third Article of the Creed (The Church) and John 10

Third Article of the Creed (The Church) - John 10:11-16; 27-30  

Our topic is the Third Article of the Creed, particularly, one holy Christian Church. In his answer to what this means, Martin Luther wrote, “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.[ii]

In the Large Catechism, Luther wrote, “If you are asked: What do you mean by the words: I believe in the Holy Ghost? you can answer: I believe that the Holy Ghost makes me holy, as His name implies.”  The Holy Ghost accomplishes this by the Christian Church …He has a peculiar congregation in the world, which is the mother that begets and bears every Christian through the Word of God, which He reveals and preaches, [and through which] He illumines and enkindles hearts, that they understand, accept it, cling to it, and persevere in it.”[iii]

In a sermon on our Gospel, the good doctor summarized, “that Christ alone is the good shepherd. [The gospel] teaches us the power and fruit of the preaching of the Gospel and its ministry and distinguishes it from the office of Moses and the preaching of the Law. Christ names only two who keep and feed the sheep, the true shepherd and the hireling. For the wolf is but a murderer, who works only injury and havoc; to resist him shepherds are necessary. But if the shepherd and the hireling are compared, it becomes manifest that Christ alone is the shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep. Neither Moses nor any other preacher of the Law does this.

For this reason, he justly calls himself alone the good, that is, the comforting and helpful, shepherd. For, although Moses, the prophets and all other preachers of the Law preach and teach, they are not able to lay down their lives for the sheep and to save them. They all had to die for themselves, and were not able thereby to save either themselves or others. But Christ says: It is I alone who lay down my life for the sheep. Only death brings salvation to the sheep. Because I am such a one, I found this new doctrine and a new flock and people.

In this way, he refers the true shepherd's office. … This office … comprises the whole preaching of the Gospel, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever it is done. These preachers are also named, after Christ shepherds; not for themselves, for that honor belongs to Christ alone, but because they are in the office which is Christ's and which he exercises through them.”[iv]

Elsewhere, Luther stated, “This is a comforting Gospel, which so beautifully portrays the Lord Jesus and teaches us what manner of person he is, what kind of works he does, and how he is disposed toward men. There is no better way to understand it than to contrast light and darkness and day and night; that is, the good shepherd with the wicked one, as the Lord himself does.”[v]

This evening, before you retire, take a minute to reflect on the voices that call you. Satan calls you. Sinners call you. Society calls you. So-called friends call you. Self calls you. Christ calls you. To which of these will you respond? To which of these did you respond today?

Were you tempted to sin blatantly? Called to participate in gossip and ridicule? Did talk radio or the evening news call you to sympathize with a cause that opposes Christ’s Gospel? Did your ego demand selfishness? To which did you respond?

Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and the one holy Christian Church to remain true to the Trinity. For this, pray. … In Jesus’ Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

---

[i] John 10:11-16; 27-30

[ii] http://bookofconcord.org/smallcatechism.php#creed

[iii] http://bookofconcord.org/lc-4-creed.php

[iv] http://www.orlutheran.com/html/mlsermjo1016-3.html

[v] http://www.orlutheran.com/html/mlsejo10.html

 

Baby Changes Habits. Christ Changes Habits.

Levi Ryan Gregg (our grandson)

A baby. The singular most effective way to change shopping habits. By the time a baby reaches its first birthday, parents spend $7,500 at stores like Target. That is why retailers study purchasing habits. If you are pregnant, retailers convince you through coupons and specials to spend $7,500 in their stores. That said, I will examine habits in light of our readings and Lutheran tradition.

Two weeks ago, I said John’s motive for writing to his church was to warn members about the dangers of philosophies that tempted them from following the Way, which is, the Person and Teaching of Jesus Christ. In today’s passage, John encouraged Christians to persevere as true brothers and sisters living in the world. He reminded them that not only the secessionists, those who walk in darkness, hate them, but also the world hates them because the world hated Jesus. The world hates Jesus’ followers.

Because the world hated Christians, John exhorted them to love not “in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”[i] He called them to lay down their lives for one another. Here, he referred to a specific event in history, Jesus’ crucifixion.[ii] John echoed Jesus’ words in the Gospel, “I lay down my life for my sheep.”[iii]

Jesus’ voluntary crucifixion was not only the supreme sacrifice, but also the indispensable means of forgiveness.[iv] As we heard two weeks ago and will hear next week, Jesus was the propitiation for our sins. Jesus is propitiation and propitiator. He lovingly paid our debt with his own flesh and blood.

John’s Christians expressed true love in the supreme sacrifice of laying down their lives for one another and through lesser, mundane means.[v] In John’s church, charity did not always imply laying down one’s life, but it always involved helping another at some personal cost. By cultivating such love in the community, John strengthened the Church’s identity and severed malicious behavior at the root.[vi]

When John wrote, “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” he referred to the heart as the seat and source of love, sympathy and pity.[vii] Implanted in us to keep us on the straight and narrow, the heart knows right from wrong. It prompts, nags and condemns us. In Romans, we read, “[The Gentiles] show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”[viii]

Yet, there are times when the heart distracts, confounds, refuses to believe the truth or shuns all comfort and betrays us.[ix] Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”[x]

Who can understand the heart? … When should you not trust your heart? John’s answer was: When the heart questions or doubts God, who is greater than you, your heart is not your friend.

John knew unrighteous sinners walking in dark shadows falsely accused Christians. Because Satan accused Christians day and night, John offered a strong dose of encouragement to squash the inner voices of anxiety and self-doubt.

He reminded Christians to approach God as the One who knows everything about their hearts, and is still able to forgive. God knows human folly and guilt, disgrace and shame, and thoughts and words before one thinks or speaks them.

Moreover, Christ our Advocate stands at God’s right hand. Through his intercession, God’s knowledge of human misery results in the exoneration that the heart desires rather than the condemnation that the soul fears.[xi]

To silence the heart, and refuse to submit to its distractions, betrayals and condemnations, and to focus instead on God and the sweet Gospel of forgiveness, is to turn the turmoil of trouble to joy.[xii] John wanted Christians to be confident enough to ask God for whatever they needed. This “whatever” was not some magical thing by which they could twist God’s arm, forcing Him to carry out some human wish that He would not execute. Rather, Christians could ask for what they did not know or have. Having received it, Christians should thank God who alone knows the needs of His children and provides for them.

Because God alone knows our needs and provides for them, John’s Christians could love one another as God commanded them. Their love for one another proved God abided in and among Church members.

About this passage, Martin Luther taught, “If our conscience makes us fainthearted and presents God as angry, still ‘God is greater than our heart.’ Conscience is one drop; the reconciled God is a sea of comfort. The fear of the conscience, or despair, must be overcome, even though this is difficult. It is a great and exceedingly sweet promise that if our heart blames us, ‘God is greater than our heart’ and ‘knows everything.’”[xiii]

Luther went on to say, “Although our sin is great, … His redemption is greater.” Luther’s insight, as noted by the renowned Catholic Scripture scholar, the late Raymond Brown, was resisted by Calvinists and Catholics alike, but has won the day among most Christians.[xiv]

Our sin is great. His redemption is greater. Basic Law and Gospel. The Law convicts us because we are guilty of sin. The Gospel frees us because God is loving and merciful.

Our loving and merciful God abides in us – as individuals and as church. How then, brothers and sisters in Christ, do we show love and mercy to one another? To repeat myself from two weeks ago: forgiveness. The mature Christian forgives habitually.

The mature Christian forgives habitually. … How? By believing that our loving and merciful God abides in us, and by practicing forgiveness.

Tell me if I am wrong. Most Christians do not practice forgiveness habitually. I start with me and look no farther than our church doors. If I am wrong, correct me, but I am willing to bet most of us do not practice forgiveness habitually.

We practice ruthlessness, blame, cruelty, hatred, indifference and numerous other bad habits – sins – that are far from Christ’s supreme sacrifice and lesser, mundane ones like having the world’s goods at our disposal and opening our hearts when our brothers and sisters are in need.

What does it take to replace bad habits with good ones? To replace blame with forgiveness, cruelty with mercy, hatred with love? To help answer my question, let’s go shopping.

In 1984, a UCLA professor set out to answer a basic question: Why do people suddenly change their shopping routines?[xv] A year of research revealed that most people bought the same brands of cereal and deodorant week after week. Habits reigned supreme. Except when they didn’t.

The professor discovered what has become a pillar of modern marketing theory: People’s buying habits are more likely to change when they go through a major life event. Marriage, divorce, buying a new house and changing jobs alter consumers’ buying habits. And the biggest life event for most people is having a baby. Parents’ habits are more flexible at that moment than at any other period in an adult’s life. Target and other retailers capitalize when you change your spending habits.

Retailers benefit from your change in spending habits after you experience a life-changing event like having a baby. My question is: Has the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead – a life-changing event – changed your habits? If the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead changed your habits, let’s take this conversation 50 miles west so you can show me proof.

Let’s examine our habits in light of our reading and our Lutheran tradition. John wrote, “We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. … Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. … We have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another.”[xvi]

The application of God’s Word is easier read than practiced, easier discussed than done, easier heard than lived. Living God’s Word is easier when life’s breaks go my way rather than against me. Easier when I receive God’s grace rather than sinners’ scorn. Easier when I have hope in God rather than despair. Nevertheless, as Luther said, “Despair must be overcome even though this is difficult.”[xvii]

Satan prefers you never overcome despair and hope in God. Satan prefers you never overcome your old habits. Luther, John, Jesus and His Church prefer you overcome despair and bad habits. What do you prefer? Do you prefer being your sinful self or would you prefer being a loving and merciful person? Will our world be a better place if you respond to your brothers and sisters with a closed heart or with a Christ-like heart? Do you want to be a chump for Satan or a champion for Christ?

“Champions don’t do extraordinary things. They do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking. … They follow the habits they’ve learned.”[xviii] So said Tony Dungy when he interviewed to become a head coach in the NFL. Dungy turned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, perennial losers, into winners. He did it by getting men to replace old habits with new ones. He did it by getting men to believe in themselves. Dungy says, “Belief is the biggest part of success in professional football.”[xix]

We can say the same about our lives as Christians. We believe God is greater than our hearts. We know the Resurrection changes lives more than marriage, divorce or the birth of a baby. Touched by God’s merciful love, we know we can change, but when life is tense and tough, we return to comfortable old habits.

Too often, saved Christians, resort to vulgarities, lies, blame, denial, violence, gossip and other sinful habits when challenged, chastised or confronted. We return to comfortable, sinful habits when life is tense, tough or tempting.

We must believe change is possible to change our habits permanently. Usually, that belief emerges with the help of a group. For Christians seeking to replace old, sinful habits with new, loving and merciful habits, change will happen when we, the Church, hold one another and ourselves accountable. We will do that when our love for God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and His children motivates every thought, word and deed. We will do that we realize that God Father, Son and Spirit loves us as His children, His babies.

If people can stop smoking and drinking; if people can lose weight and perennial losers can become champions, we can change our sinful habits because God loves us and through the Church, the Holy Spirit gives us the means to make it possible. We have the means to make it possible, if only we live God’s Word and Sacraments. For those you love and for the world, live God’s Word and be God’s Sacrament. Children of light, pray to the Holy Trinity for that grace. In Jesus’ Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

---

[i] 1 John 3;18

[ii] Bruce G. Schuchard, 1 – 3 John. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (2012), 382.

[iii] John 10:15

[iv] Schuchard, 382.

[v] Ibid, 383.

[vi] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament: Third Edition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press (2010) 502.

[vii] Schuchard, 389. See fn 337.

[viii] Romans 2:15

[ix] Schuchard, 390

[x] Jeremiah 17:9

[xi] Schuchard, 391f. See fn 354

[xii] Ibid, 394.

[xiii] Ibid, 391. See fn 348.

[xiv] Ibid. See fn 350.

[xv] Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks (2012), 191ff.

[xvi] 1 John 3:16-23

[xvii] Schuchard, 391.

[xviii] Duhigg, 61.

[xix] Ibid, 86

Martin Luther on John 16, the Holy Spirit and Enlightenment

Our topic is the Holy Spirit and Enlightenment based on our Gospel. This is a portion of a sermon on the topic and passage by Doctor Martin Luther.[i]

“ … Consider what the Lord says, that the Holy Spirit is to convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. [We] will see what the meaning of all this is.

In the first place, the world is accused of blindness and ignorance. All those who are without the Holy Spirit, however wise they may be in matters pertaining to the things of this world, are, before God, fools and blind. They do not like to hear this; and when they are told that their doings are of no account before God, it displeases them and makes them angry, because they insist that they are in possession of reason and the natural light, which God created in them. But what does this matter to us? There are the Scriptures and the Word of God plain and clear, that the Holy Spirit is to come to convict the world, because it does not know what sin, righteousness and judgment are. Thus, it is determined, there it stands; let be angry who will, Christ does not care.

It is much to be deplored that the world is convicted, not only because of its sin and because of want of righteousness, not being able to judge rightly, but that it does not acknowledge nor see this, to say nothing of its endeavor to alter the matter. Oh, how completely the praise of all comes to naught, who, while they endeavor to make other people pious, know not themselves what sin is! Let us take, for example, at the present day, all the schools of learning and the learned men and see whether they can tell us what that one little word "sin" is? For who has ever heard that not to believe in Christ is sin? They say, it is sin if one speaks, desires or does something against God's will and commandment. But how does that correspond with this saying of Christ: It is sin because they do not believe on me? Therefore, they are easily convicted of the fact that they know not what sin is; and if they be ever so learned, they will not be able to explain this text.

In like manner, they are not able to know what "righteousness" is. For who has ever heard that a man should become pious and just because Christ ascended to heaven or goes to the Father and we see him no more? There we must say, a fool has thus spoken and not a wise man. For they say, righteousness is a virtue, which teaches man what he owes others. This is true, but the trouble is, they do not understand their own words, such blind fools they are. Therefore, one need not be surprised that they rage so much against the Gospel and persecute the Christians. How could they do otherwise? They know no better.

Neither do they know what "judgment" or right is, that is, a right judgment, a correct good opinion and sense, or whatever you may call it. For they say: Right is that which is written in books, how one is to know and distinguish things, to quiet and end quarrels. But how does Christ define it? He says: "It is right, that the world is to be judged." Who understands such speech, and … how does it correspond with reason? Let us see whether we can explain it so that it may be understood.

In the first place, one must know that the Word of God does not speak only of outward existence and appearances, but it takes hold of the heart and the depths of the soul. Accordingly, it does not judge man as to his outward appearance and action, but according to the depths of his conscience. Now, everyone will experience in himself, if he wishes to acknowledge it, however pious he may be … that in his heart he would rather do the contrary … what he is outwardly compelled to do. Thus, if I were left to myself, … but were made to confess how I feel in my heart, I must say: That which I do, I would rather not do. If there were no hell and I would not feel the disgrace, I would [allow] my office [to] have the misfortune, and run off. For I have no desire from the heart to do it, but am compelled … and must do it in spite of hell, punishment or disgrace. It is not possible that I should do it from choice and gladly. … The same you will find continually in other matters. I am never from my heart kind and friendly to my enemy, for this is impossible to nature; and though I act otherwise, in my heart I think…: If it were not for the punishment, I would have my way and not remain without revenge. Thus, I still go about before the world, and do not as I would like and feel inclined to do, for fear of punishment or disgrace. Likewise if you go through all the commandments, from the first to the last, you will find that there is no one who keeps God's commandments from the bottom of his heart. …

Now, against this evil God found a remedy and determined to send Christ, his Son, into this world, that he should shed his blood and die, in order to make satisfaction for sin and take it away, and that the Holy Spirit then should enter the hearts of such people, who go about with the works of the Law, being unwilling and forced to it, and make them willing, in order that without force and with joyous heart they keep God's commandments. Otherwise, there might be no means of removing the misery; for neither human reason and power, nor even an angel could rescue us from it. Thus, God has done away with the sins of all men who believe on the Christ, so that henceforth it is impossible for one to remain in sin who has this Saviour, who has taken all sins upon himself and blotted them out.

Inasmuch as Christ has now come and commanded to preach that everything we may do, however great and beautiful it may appear, is sin, because we do nothing that is good with pleasure and willingly, and that for this reason he has stepped forward and has taken away all sin, in order that we may receive the Holy Spirit, through whom we obtain love and pleasure to do what God wants us to do, in order that we do not attempt to come before God through our own works, but through Christ and his merits, therefore it cannot be called any longer sin committed against the Law, for the Law did nothing to assist us in becoming pious, since we are not able to do anything good.

What sort of sin then remains upon earth? No other than that one does not receive this Saviour and refuses to accept him who has taken away sin. For if he were present, there would be no sin, since he … brings the Holy Spirit with him, who kindles the heart and makes it willing to do good. Therefore, the world is no longer punished and condemned on account of other sins, because Christ blots them all out; only this remains sin in the New Testament, that one will not acknowledge nor receive him. Therefore he likewise says in this Gospel: "When the Holy Spirit is come, he will convict the world in respect of sin, because they believe not on me."

---

[i] http://www.orlutheran.com/html/mlsejo16.html