“Keep THE Faith, Baby!”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Dear fellow keepers of THE faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God
the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord [Amen.]
“Cast care aside, lean on your guide;
His boundless mercy will provide.
Trust and enduring faith shall prove
Christ is your life and Christ your love.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
664:3)
Epistle
Reading......................................................................................
2 Timothy 3:14-15
As for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed,
knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been
acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for
salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Prologue: Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. lived from 1908 to 1972.
His father and grandfather were Christian pastors and so was He himself who
“pastored the first Black mega church, became one of the most powerful
lawmakers in Congress and partied like a rap star. But many of the benefits
we take for granted today—such as federal minimum wage and education for the
physically challenged—we can thank Powell for.”
In addition, Powell actively organized boycotts and picket lines
when Martin Luther King, Jr. was only a high school student and “spearheaded
protests to desegregate Manhattan businesses—dependent on the Black
consumer—creating thousands of jobs. In 1945, he transitioned from
civil-rights activist to politician when Harlemites elected him to the U.S.
House of Representatives. They sent him back to the Congress 11 times.
“By 1965, Powell was the most powerful Black politician in America.”
Although he accomplished many meaningful things, “Unfortunately, his
flamboyant lifestyle and scandals at the end of his career have overshadowed
his contributions to improving the lives of all Americans.”
He eventually “followed his father into the pulpit of Harlem’s
Abyssinian Baptist Church. By the time he died, membership had more than
doubled to 10,000. But Powell had a wild side. His controversial behavior
and his legal problems caught up with him. He was expelled from Congress
for alleged misuse of funds, corruption, and his long absences from
Washington. Harlem re-elected him anyway. Not to be outdone, the
legislators seated him but he was stripped of his 20+ years of seniority—and
power.”
Finally, “In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Powell had
been illegally expelled. By then, it was too late. The controversies and
the legal battles had taken their toll on his career and his health. In
1970, Powell lost his first election. He retired to the Bahamas where he
died two years later. They broke him, but he never let them see it. His
most famous saying: ‘Keep the faith, baby!’ is also the title of a biography
and documentary of his life.” (Post A Day 2011) His slogan “Keep the faith,
baby!” was not so much a confession of Christian conviction as it was a
desperate cry to not give up and lose his political power and persuasive
influence.
In today’s Epistle Reading we heard Saint Paul’s similar
encouragement to Pastor Timothy, whom he had mentored and looked upon as a
son. The somewhat rookie pastor faced trials, tribulations, challenges, and
difficulties, even as pastors in particular and all Christians in general do
today. But the seasoned veteran Pastor Paul reminded him (and us as well)
to “continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from
whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the
sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith
in Christ Jesus.” In effect, Pastor Paul told Pastor Timothy (and us) to …
“Keep the Faith, Baby!”
God tells us in His Holy Scriptures that “Faith is the assurance
of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1 ESV) God’s
promise in today’s Gradual gives a foundation for our faith: “He will
command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” (Ps 91:11
ESV) And today’s Gospel Reading contains a piercing question about faith:
“[Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray
and not lose heart. ‘Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find
faith on earth?’” (St Luke 18:1, 8b ESV)
In our Catechism studies leading to Confirmation of God’s Baptism
covenant with us we learned that faith consists of knowledge, assent, and
confidence. Knowledge is the information about salvation by grace through
faith in Jesus that God gives us in His Holy Word. Assent is Spirit-given
agreement with the information that God gives us in His Holy Word. And,
confidence is the belief the Holy Spirit gives us that the information in
God’s Holy Word is true, trustworthy, reliable, and useful in its revealing
of Jesus Christ to us. In other words …
I. God’s Inspired Holy Word Is Absolutely Authoritative and Practically
Beneficial. (3:16-17)
16All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man
of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
It’s vitally important that we realize, believe, and confess that
“the Bible is God’s own Word and truth, without error (inerrancy).” At the
same time we also realize that “Errors in copying or translations are not
part of the God-breathed (inspired) Scriptures.” (Luther’s Small Catechism
with Explanation. Copyright © 1986, 1991 Concordia Publishing House, St.
Louis, MO. Page 49.)
In addition, we also realize, believe, and confess that “Jesus
Christ, the Savior of the world, is the heart and center of the Scripture
and therefore the key to its true meaning.” (Ibid. Page 50.) Jesus Himself
declared to the Jews who criticized, persecuted, and sought to kill Him:
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal
life; and it is they that bear witness about Me.” (St. John 5:39 ESV)
Sadly, many people today deny the divine nature and authority of
the Holy Bible. They wrongly claim that its contents are merely fictitious
tales that have good moral meaning and application for how to live our lives
in peaceful coexistence with one another. Some wrongly claim that it may
have had valuable meaning for the people at the time and place of its origin
but not so for the people of today’s time and culture.
So it is that the unrepented evils God condemns such as murder of
unborn babies as well as hatred and killing of other persons; sexual
unfaithfulness by husbands and wives; disrespect by children for their
parents and others in authority over them; sexual activity between unmarried
and same-sex couples; greedy desire to possess what rightly belongs to
someone else and the ultimate theft or robbery of such; neglect or refusal
to join together with other Christians of like belief in public Divine
Service worship where God gives His merciful and gracious gifts of
forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life; crude, rude, and obscene language
and misuse of God’s holy name; and slander of others by listening to and
spreading rumors and lies about them are more and more overlooked, ignored,
justified, openly done, and even encouraged. Unrepentant sinful activity of
such will result in eternal death; that is, forever separation from God in
the fiery torment of hell.
But, there is certain assurance of rescue, redemption, and
reconciliation through God’s dear Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. All sins
(yes, even those I just listed) were laid on Him for which He suffered the
punishment we deserve, even crucifixion death on Calvary’s rugged cross.
There He shed His holy blood unto death for the forgiveness of all sins of
all people of all time—your sins, … my sins, … and the sins of all who lived
before us, are living now, and will live after us.
The blessed benefit of what Jesus gained for us, namely,
forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life, He now gives to us in Holy
Baptism, Holy Absolution, Holy Communion, and His Holy Word. So it is that
Pastor Paul declared: “[Christ] died for all. In Christ God was reconciling
the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” (1 Cor
5:15, 19 ESV) The apostle John said it this way: “[Jesus] is the
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the
whole world.” (1 John 2:2 ESV)
In light of all that and more, God tells us that His inspired Holy
Word is absolutely authoritative and practically beneficial. In fact, God’s
absolutely authoritative and practically beneficial Holy Word educates us
about Jesus, reprimands us, corrects us, and instructs us in virtuous living
according to God’s Holy Law for glory, honor, and gratitude to Him. It does
so by the Holy Spirit’s power to prepare and equip us because …
II. We Live and Struggle through the Challenging Times That Pastor Paul
Predicted. (4:1-5)
4:1I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge
the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2preach the
word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort,
with complete patience and teaching. 3For the time is coming when people
will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate
for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4and will turn away from
listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5As for you, always be
sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your
ministry.
The terrible reality of our contemporary culture and society is
that a new morality of self-centered, self-indulgent attitude of entitlement
is running wild and loose. Sound teaching that honors, respects, and is
based on God’s Holy Word is largely compromised, contradicted, and rejected.
Clerics who pretend to be preachers but don’t preach Jesus Christ as Lord
and Savior spout what scratches itching ears and satisfies and promotes what
suits their hearers’ passions.
Such pretenders use their own sin-stained reason, logic, and
intellect to give people what they want that’s new and entertaining instead
of what’s the best that they need, namely, the good, right, and salutary
understanding and guidance of God’s Holy Word. That understanding and
guidance comes in and through the church’s historic liturgy, hymns, and
prayers. After all, those things proceed forth from God’s Holy Word, unite
us with the historical and contemporary Christian church, and serve to
prevent us from turning away from listening to the truth and wandering off
into myths. It’s what God gives us to help us succeed in our efforts to …
“Keep the Faith, Baby!”
THE one true faith that focuses on and is rooted in Jesus Christ
alone, that receives God’s good gifts of mercy and grace, and through which
we are saved unto eternal life with Jesus in heaven is the faith that is
informed and nurtured by …
I. God’s Inspired Holy Word [That] Is Absolutely Authoritative and
Practically Beneficial. (3:16-17)
Of course, our faith that’s informed by and founded on
what God reveals in His Holy Word, is the faith to which today’s Introit
prayerfully referred: “Remember your congregation, which you have purchased
of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Have
regard for the covenant, Arise, O God, defend your cause.” (Ps 74:2a, 22a
ESV) It’s the faith the Holy Spirit gave us in our Baptism and by which …
II. We [Successfully] Live and Struggle in the Challenging Times That
Pastor Paul Predicted. (4:1-5)
Today’s Old Testament Reading reveals that struggle,
challenge, and outcome in Jacob’s life: “Your name shall no longer be called
Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have
prevailed.” (Gen 32:28 ESV)
It’s that “faith that will not shrink Tho’ pressed by many
a foe; That will not tremble on the brink Of poverty or woe; A faith that
shines more bright and clear When tempests rage without; That, when in
danger, knows no fear, In darkness feels no doubt; A faith that keeps the
narrow way Till life’s last spark is fled And with a pure and heavenly ray
Lights up the dying bed.” (The Lutheran Hymnal. Copyright © 1941 Concordia
Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. 396:1, 3, 5.)
And so we bear on our hearts and minds what we prayed
in today’s Collect of the Day: “Mercifully grant that Your Holy Spirit may
direct and govern our hearts in all things that we may persevere with
steadfast faith in the confession of Your name.”
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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