“Divine Self-Denying Love Epiphanied Jesus as the Christ”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Dear fellow recipients of God’s self-denying love, grace, mercy,
and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord [Amen.]
“In the day this world is fading
Faith and hope will play their part;
But when Christ is seen in glory
Love shall reign in every heart:
May love be ours, O Lord.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
695:4)
Epistle
Reading.......................................................................
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a, 13)
4Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; 6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all
things. 8aLove never ends. 13So now faith, hope, and love abide, these
three; but the greatest of these is love.
Prologue: The highest form of love is that which motivates
someone to deny and even sacrifice him or herself for another person …
especially when that other person is an avowed enemy. The Reverend Rudolph
F. Norden explained that concept further in a devotion he wrote based on
verse 13 of today’s Epistle Reading: “Even more lasting than romantic
love—called eros in Greek—is love flowing from the Christian’s faith in the
love of God. The Greek New Testament calls it agape. The apostle Paul
extols it in 1 Corinthians 13. He speaks of love as giving validity to
phenomena that would otherwise be passing—speech in superhuman and angelic
tongues, prophecy, the understanding of mysteries, knowledge, heroic faith,
works of charity, and self-sacrifice. He boils everything to these three
abiding virtues: faithfulness, hope, and love, adding, ‘But the greatest of
these is love.’” (Rudolph F. Norden in Each Day with Jesus: Daily Devotions
through the Year. Copyright © 1994 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis,
MO. Page 188.) I’ll finish that quote in the conclusion of my sermon, but
for now realize that today’s sermon text implies the simple and so very
profound message that …
“Divine Self-Denying Love Epiphanied Jesus as the Christ.”
As Pastor Marks reminded us last weekend, we’re still in the
season of Epiphany … the transition between Christmas and Lent; the time
after Jesus’ humanity was revealed by His incarnate birth; the time during
which His divine nature was manifested through miracles that He did; and the
time preceding the revelation of both His human and divine natures through
His death and resurrection. In fact, all that Jesus did during His
three-year ministry fulfilled the purpose of showing that …
I. Divine Self-Denying Love is More Excellent Than Sinful
Self-Centeredness. (12:31b-13:3)
31bI will show you a still more excellent way. 1If I speak in the tongues
of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging
cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
not love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my
body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Using hyperbole (that word means exaggeration), the apostle Paul
identified the following three perceived qualities: being able to speak in
foreign or even heavenly languages; “a deep insight into divine revelation
and a thorough understanding of the same” coupled with a “wonder-working
faith”; and self-depriving generosity coupled with hypocritical martyrdom.
(Dr. George Stoeckhardt in Exegetical Lectures on the First Epistle of Paul
to the Corinthians. Presented in English by H. W. Degner, Pastor Emeritus,
Ltt.D., Fairmont, MN. Page 77.)
To one extent or another and on one or more occasions all sinful
humankind has fallen victim to Satan’s temptation of self-glorification. At
some time or another and in one way or another we all have said nice words
or done nice things in order to be noticed, receive a compliment or
gratitude, or be recognized for moral superiority. Our words and works are
sometimes less about self-denying self-sacrificial service to or for others
than they are about bringing praise-attention to ourselves. Because of
these and many other of the devil’s temptations to sin it’s important for us
to make what we prayed in today’s Collect an ongoing part of our prayer
life: “Grant strength and protection to support us in all dangers and carry
us through all temptations.”
You see, the supposedly good words that we speak and good deeds
that we do amount to absolutely nothing before God when they’re said or done
for self-adoration. It’s certainly true that “In the Law God commands good
works of thought, word, and deed and condemns and punishes sin” and “In the
Gospel, the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ, God gives
forgiveness, faith, life, and the power to please Him with good works.”
(Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation. Copyright © 1986, 1991
Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 52.) However, in order for
works and words to be good before God we must understand that “In God’s
sight a good work is everything that a child of God does, speaks, or thinks
in faith according to the Ten Commandments, for the glory of God, and for
the benefit of his or her neighbor.” (Ibid. Page. 154.) In fact, such good
works and words are “the necessary result of repentance” (Ibid. Page 227.)
about which Immanuel’s cousin John the Baptizer declared to the
self-righteous Pharisees and Saducees: “Bear fruit [or ‘do genuine good
works’] in keeping with repentance.” (St Matt 3:8 ESV) It’s what Saint Paul
wrote to the Christians in Rome: “Let love be genuine.” (Rom 12:9 ESV)
Our inability to fulfill that divine directive was fulfilled by
Jesus for us. His love for us was genuinely self-denying and
self-sacrificial. He kept God’s Law perfectly … for us. He endured … for
us … the punishment (even death on Calvary’s cross) that we deserve because
of our imperfect keeping of God’s Law. He then arose from the dead thereby
making known His divine power and validating all His atoning work to rescue
us from sin, Satan, and eternal death-separation from God in the fiery abyss
of hell. The Holy Spirit uses all that Jesus did for us to motivate us to …
II. Strive to Imitate Jesus By Doing Divine Self-Denying Acts of Love.
(13:8b-12)
8bAs for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy
in part, 10but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11When I
was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a
child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12For now we see in a
mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know
fully, even as I have been fully known.
Many … perhaps most … maybe even all of us adults can certainly
remember one … or more … probably many foolish things that we did or said as
children. Having now progressed to older years of life and accumulated
greater amounts of wisdom, we hopefully have replaced childish words and
actions with wiser ones.
Our spiritual lives are much the same way. At Baptism we were
born anew from on high into God’s family of believers-in-Jesus. In that
sacred washing with water and God’s Holy Word the Holy Spirit gave us the
gifts of forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life that Christ gained
for us. At the same time, He set us on a path of sanctified living that, at
our young age, was not necessarily very evident. But as we matured in the
faith once given we also matured in living that faith with divine
self-denying acts of love that imitate Jesus.
Nurtured by reading and hearing God’s Holy Word, comforted by Holy
Absolution, and strengthened by Immanuel’s true body and true blood received
in Holy Communion, we grow and mature in our Christian faith and reflect
that growth and maturity in our Christian lives. In our younger years we
loved God and others with selfish thoughts, desires, words, and deeds. But
as we advance in age and spiritual growth we love God and others with
increasing selfless thoughts, desires, words, and deeds, and thereby reflect
to others the love with which God loves us.
Jesus Himself demonstrated that selfless love and also further
revealed His divine nature when, as reported in today’s Gospel Reading, He
“was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching,
for his word possessed authority. But Jesus rebuked [the spirit of an
unclean demon], saying, ‘Be silent and come out of him!’ And when the demon
had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no
harm. And [Jesus] stood over [Simon’s mother-in-law] and rebuked the fever,
and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. Now when
the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various
diseases brought them to [Jesus], and he laid his hands on every one of them
and healed them. And demons also came out of many, crying, ‘You are the Son
of God!’” (St Luke 4:31b-32, 35, 39-41 ESV)
In addition, today’s Introit prophetically revealed about Yahweh:
“The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land. O
Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart;
you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.” (Ps 10:16-18
ESV) In fact, Yahweh demonstrated His divine care and provision for the
young prophet Jeremiah, who was overly concerned about his youthful
inability to serve God, and us as well when He told him in today’s Old
Testament Reading: “But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a
youth”; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command
you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to
deliver you, declares the Lord.’” (Jer 1:7-8 ESV)
So, to finish the quote that I began in the prologue of this
sermon, the Reverend Norden wrote: “Much of what we hold in the Christian
faith must await eternal life in heaven before it comes to fruition and
completeness. Our knowledge is imperfect; some of the truths we hold in
faith don’t make sense because they surpass human understanding. With love
it’s different. It always makes sense; it doesn’t have to be put away on a
shelf as we await further enlightenment. It is always in place, always
applicable, always understandable in life’s here and now. How thankful we
are that love abides!
“Such love inheres in the love of God and in that great gift he gave:
His Son Jesus Christ. Believing in Him, we have eternal life. What is
more, from that love springs our love to Him and to one another—abiding
love.” (Rudolph F. Norden. Page 188.)
You see, that love, after all, is the …
“Divine Self-Denying Love (that) Epiphanied Jesus as the Christ.”
Let’s continue to meditate on that truth, remembering that …
I. Divine Self-Denying Love is More Excellent Than Sinful
Self-Centeredness. (12:31b-13:3)
Being built up and encouraged by that truth, let’s then
energetically…
II. Strive to Imitate Jesus By Doing Divine Self-Denying Acts of Love.
(13:8b-12) As we do so, let’s make sure those acts of love are sanctified
good works that, as the Epiphany Gradual instructs us: “Praise the Lord, all
nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward
us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Ascribe to the Lord
the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!” (Ps
117:1-2a; 96:8 ESV)
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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