{"id":5205,"date":"2020-02-05T10:44:50","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=5205"},"modified":"2020-05-31T13:40:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-31T20:40:34","slug":"epiphany-6-the-light-shines-in-the-darkness-the-church-is-a-mouth-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=5205","title":{"rendered":"Epiphany 6: \u201cThe light shines in the darkness.\u201d The church is a mouth house."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Please click here for a pdf version of this document<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(A basic line for an Epiphany sermon on the church.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this season of Epiphany we celebrate the coming of the\nlight. \u201cThe light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it\u201d\n(John 1:5). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is hidden in light inaccessible, as Isaiah states:\n\u201cTruly thou art a God who hidest thyself\u201d (Isa 45:15). God is hidden because he\nactively hides himself. He means <\/em>to be hidden. He out of reach to our senses.\nWe cannot see God in other people. We cannot see God as we see each other.\nThere is a distance between God and ourselves that cannot be bridged from our\nside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The natural\nworld around us is a place of majestic beauty but also strife, conflict, and\nviolence, as the poet Tennyson wrote: \u201cNature, red in tooth and claw.\u201d Thus we\ncannot look through nature and see God above. Evil blocks the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The human race, too, is red in tooth and claw. Someone\nhas said that the only proof for the existence of God is the Jews, who for\n4,000 years have survived in spite of all the horrible things done to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cannot\npenetrate the hiddenness of human events. We see through a glass darkly. We\ndon\u2019t even have a basis for making an absolute separation between good and\nevil. Many things we think are good turn out to be evil in the end and vice versa.<\/em>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church, properly\nspeaking, like her Lord, is also hidden, but not invisible. It is hidden\nbecause you cannot point to any institutional church and announce there is the\ntrue church. In this world visible, institutional churches are always both good\nand bad. There never was a pure church back at the beginning. Heresies cropped\nup in the first century. In the Middles Ages the church was a den of debauchery\nand superstition. Those who study church history know darkness and evil has\nshadowed the church from the beginning. It is said that God writes straight\nwith crooked lines. This is true, not just for our lives, but for the church throughout\nhistory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luther famously\nsaid: \u201cWhere God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel.\u201d As he and his fellow\nreformers wrote: \u201cThe church is hidden under a crowd of wicked men\u201d (BC<\/em>\nTappert 171\/19). And: \u201cThough wolves and ungodly teachers run rampant in the\nchurch, they are not, properly speaking, the kingdom of Christ\u201d (BC<\/em>,\nTappert 172\/22). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Luther the\nchurch, properly speaking, is not bound to time, place, nor persons, and thus\nnot to Rome, Geneva, Wittenberg, or Canterbury, Chicago, or St. Louis. The\nchurch is not a legal institution. Rather, it is a spiritual assembly of\nbelievers across time and place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luther\u2019s\nconflict with Rome drove him to rediscover the church scattered around the\nworld. As he said, Christ lives and rules in India and the Orient, as well as\nin Greece. The church, properly speaking, is not any particular physical\nassembly but rather a spiritual one. John 19:36: Jesus says: \u201cMy kingdom is not\nof this world.\u201d This indicates that the church is not bound to time and place,\nbut is found wherever there is faith in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The marks of the\nchurch, properly speaking, are not its officials, its leaders, or its headquarters.\nRather, the marks of the church are baptism, the Lord\u2019s Supper, and the gospel,\nfor where they are present there are God\u2019s own people<\/strong>. The church,\nthough hidden, is revealed wherever you find baptism, the Lord\u2019s Supper, and\nthe gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Peter 2:9: \u201cYou are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,\na holy nation, God\u2019s own people<\/strong>, that you may declare the wonderful\ndeeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are called out of the darkness in baptism. Through baptism we are adopted<\/strong> into God\u2019s own people. Through baptism the believer participates in the death and resurrection of Christ. Through baptism the believer is taken from the kingdom of darkness and placed into the kingdom of light. Through baptism the believer is given the Holy Spirit. Baptism saves (1 Peter 3:21). As Paul writes, God sent his Son so that we might receive adoption<\/strong> as sons and daughters, and if sons and daughters, then fellow heirs with Christ (Gal 4:4-7; Rom 8:15-16). In the church we are all adopted children<\/strong> of God, fellow heirs with Christ of his kingdom to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul writes that the church as the body of Christ. The\nchurch is not like<\/strong> a body; the church is<\/strong> a body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor just as the body is one\nand has many members, so it is with Christ\u2026.If the foot should say, \u2018Because I\nam not a hand, I do not belong to the body,\u2019 that would not make it any less a\npart of the body. And if the ear should say, \u2018because I am not an eye, I do not\nbelong to the body,\u2019 that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the\nwhole body were an eye where would be the hearing? If the whole body were an\near, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the organs\nin the body, each one of them, as he chose\u2026.As it is, there are many parts, yet\none body. The eye cannot say to the hand, \u2018I have no need of you,\u2019 nor again\nthe head to the feet, \u2018I have no need of you\u2019\u201d (1 Cor 12:12-21).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the human body, the church is a body in which all\nthe parts matter. A pastor once visited a fellow who had gradually dropped out of\nchurch. And as they sat in the fellow\u2019s living room by the fire and talked, the\npastor took the poker and separated out some embers, which gradually grew cold.\nLike those separated embers, when we are separated from other Christians, we\ngrow cold. We need other believers to carry us in faith. And others need us to\ncarry them in faith. We need the nudge and the togetherness of hearing the word\nand receiving the sacraments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church is a body organized for different functions\nand all working for a common goal. Some are the feet that get us places. Some\nare the ears that listen. Some are the arms that lift and move and get things\ndone. Some are the backs that carry the load. Many are the hands that carry others\nin prayer. All are the ears that listen for the gospel. As Paul writes: \u201cHow\nwill they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to\nbelieve in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without\na preacher? (Rom 10:14)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is all about the speaking and the hearing. Faith comes\nby hearing (Rom 10:17). The gospel brings the light<\/strong>. \u201cIn him was life<\/strong>\nand the life was the light<\/strong> of men\u201d (John 1:5). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luther put it this way: The church is a mouth house<\/strong>\nand not a book house. What the church has to offer is not ancient history. Rather,\nit is the living voice of Christ himself. He who died and rose again is living\nnow and comes to us in his Word and sacraments to claim us for his kingdom to\ncome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church is a mouth house because the gospel is not\nwhat you find in the book; rather, the gospel is a living voice of the living\nLord. The church is a gathering to announce good news, the lordship of Christ, his\nvictory over sin and death, to baptize in his name, sing of his glory, distribute\nhis body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, partaking in his Supper now, as\na foretaste of the feast to come. As Paul writes:
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cup of blessing which we\nbless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we\nbreak, is it not a participation in the body<\/strong> of Christ?\u201d (I Cor 10:16).\nAnd: \u201cIf we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly\nbe united with him in a resurrection like his.\u201d (Romans 6:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church is a mouth house and the message it announces is\nspecific: \u201cWhat we preach is not ourselves<\/strong>, but Jesus Christ as Lord<\/strong>,\nwith ourselves as your servants for Jesus\u2019 sake\u201d (2 Cor 4:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get it done, to function properly and do its job, the\nchurch choses individuals to be the public ministers, the public speakers of\nthe word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About a hundred years ago a young farmer out in his field saw a\ncloud formation shaped like the letters \u201cPC\u201d \u2013 which he read as a sign from\nheaven \u2013 \u201cPreach Christ.\u201d His sold his farm, sold his equipment and off to the mission\nfield in China he went. He was a sincere Christian but he was inept and had to\nbe shuffled from place to place. Back home his uncle just shook his head and\nsaid: \u201cI told him the \u201cPC\u201d  meant \u201cPlant\nCorn.\u201d He was a good farmer; he should have stayed where he was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another young man, a college student, mulling over future options,\nmade an appointment with the campus pastor to talk about the ministry. The\nstudent was worried because he had never had a conversion experience, a\npersonal miracle, to which he could point to verify that he was \u201ccalled\u201d to the\nministry. The campus pastor told him that a call to ministry is not about signs\nand miracles; rather, he said: \u201cThere are two questions to ask: 1) Do you have the\nright skill set? and 3) Does the church have a need for more preachers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1521 Martin Luther was called before the Emperor and took\nhis famous stand: \u201cHere I stand, I can do no other.\u201d To save him, his friends whisked\nhim away and hid him in the Wartburg Castle for 10 months. In 1522 returned to\nWittenberg to preach and give direction for the Reformation. He preached eight\ndays in a row. His first sermon began this way: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe summons of death comes to\nus all, and no one can die for another. Everyone must fight his own battle with\ndeath by himself, alone. We can shout into another\u2019s ears, but everyone must\nhimself be prepared for the time of death, for I will not be with you then, nor\nyou with me. Therefore, everyone must himself know and be armed with the chief\nthings which concern a Christian. And these are what you, my beloved, have\nheard from me many days ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luther lived in troubled times. The foundations of the\nestablished church were crumbling. People were looking for direction. What is\nthe church for? Which should we do? C. S. Lewis said that the devil works\nharder in the church because he owns all the rest. The devil works hard in the\nchurch to get its leaders off track, to confuse and confound the church\u2019s\nmission. And the fact that church history is such a crooked tale shows the power\nof the darkness as it contends with the light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord has called us out of the darkness into his\nmarvelous light. In baptism the Lord claims us and adopts us into his own\npeople. In the Lord\u2019s Supper he forgives our sin and gives us a future in his\nkingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The church is a mouth house. \u201cWhat we preach is not ourselves but\nJesus Christ as Lord.\u201d To be sure, we extend calls to pastors to preach\npublicly. It is equally true that this Word is for each of us as we fight our\nown battle with death and evil and as we care for others. What is it to preach\nJesus Christ as Lord? In a nutshell it is these ten words: God in Christ died\nand rose for you and me. Stop, no additions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No gospel-plus. No added works, or proper feelings, or mystical experiences.\nJust these 10 words and no other: God in Christ died and rose for you and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. Outside\nof the gospel, God hidden in inaccessible light. He is revealed where he wants\nto be known, in the cross and resurrection. Christ lives now and comes to us in\nhis Word and sacraments \u2013 through ordinary speaking and hearing, in ordinary\nwater, bread, and wine. And he works salvation through his broken, fallible\nchurch; he works through you and me, ordinary men and women, lost and helpless\nas we are, his wonders to proclaim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

In this season of Epiphany we celebrate the coming of the light. \u201cThe light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it\u201d (John 1:5). <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

God is hidden in light inaccessible, as Isaiah states: \u201cTruly thou art a God who hidest thyself\u201d (Isa 45:15). God is hidden because he actively hides himself. He means <\/em>to be hidden. He out of reach to our senses. We cannot see God in other people. We cannot see God as we see each other. There is a distance between God and ourselves that cannot be bridged from our side.<\/p>\n

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