Week of August 25th Learning from Luther

This week's sermon from Luther is about prayer. 

He says that the first requisite for true prayer is faith in the promise of God. He wants us to pray and he promises to answer. How have you struggled in your life with this basic idea of faith that God will indeed answer? How has that made your prayer life wax and wane?

Sermon Fifth Sunday after Easter: John 16 (for the full text email me at pramylittle@gmail.com) 

1. In this Gospel we have a promise and Christ does not only promise, but he even swears that our prayers shall be heard; but through himself as mediator and high priest.
2. We should pray that we may have peace through faith, which St. Paul says, is a true and perfect peace.
3. When Christ says: “These things have I spoken unto you in parables (dark sayings), it is as much as to say, hitherto you have been unable to understand my Word, it all appears to you dark and hidden; but the time will come, when I send the Holy Spirit, that I shall speak plainly by my Spirit, that is, publicly in your hearts, of the things that belong to my father. So the sum and substance is, that without the Spirit one does not understand the Word. 

Thursday: Learning with Luther, What We Are to Look For in the Gospel

It's an interesting question: 

What shall we look for in the Gospel? 

Something pretty to look at while you ponder. . . 

If you had to answer it on your own, what would you say??

Here's what Luther has to say on the subject:
And the Gospel is nothing more than the story of the little son of God and of his humbling, as St. Paul says, <460202>1 Corinthians 2:2: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” 

I have mentioned all this, gracious lord, because it is my purpose to inscribe this book to the sovereign of those people who are of my blood, and that it may not be deemed peculiar that I, contrary to the usage of the world, have not begun with the oldest but with the youngest lord of the family. For the nature of this book, in which the littlest and youngest has been pictured, demands that the introduction be like the contents. And I do not only wish to talk of this doctrine of the Gospel with words of mouth, but also wish to write a booklet concerning it. For it is necessary for the lords in this world, who live continually in the prerogatives and respect of their high position, to think at times, according to the Gospel, that they are nothing before God, and that it is as necessary for them to think of this as it is for the others. 
---

The Last shall be first, the first shall be last; the wise, will be foolish and blind and the blind shall see. 

Why is this such a "curse" to our human nature? Why is it so difficult to wrestle with and come to terms with?

Have a blessed day. Share this with those you know want to dig deeper and let's keep the conversation going!

a.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013 Learning from Luther

We continue with Luther's letter to Elector Frederick who has asked him to write a church postil (commentary of sorts) on the Lectionary texts:

Luther wrote: "I hope, however, that I shall do enough, if I uncover the purest and simplest sense of the Gospel as well as I can, and if I answer some of those unskillful glosses, in order that the Christian people may hear, instead of fables and dreams, the Words of their God, unadulterated by human filth. For I promise nothing except the pure, unalloyed sense of the Gospel suitable for the low, humble people."

How often do we try to make the Gospel more difficult than it has to be? It is so simple! Luther, his commentary on 1 Peter, said the pure gospel is spiritual milk. To go deeper into the Gospel when one is a ready and willing disciple is the "wine" of the cross. That is where we engage with the text and Christ and share in his suffering. 

How have you experienced the "pure gospel" as well as the "wine" of suffering?

Learning from Luther: Dedication to Frederick the Elector, 1521

DEDICATION TO FREDERICK, THE ELECTOR,

Before the Postil, or the interpretation of the Epistles and Gospels of the Advent Circle was issued in Latin in 1521, and immediately translated into German.
(for the whole pdf go to http://media.sabda.org/alkitab-8/LIBRARY/LUT_SER1.PDF)

I do not know, most illustrious, most gracious Lord, at whose door I should lay the fault that I, having been hindered day after day through numerous circumstances, have not been able to comply with your wishes. Your Electoral Grace has counseled well that I should turn from the quarrelsome, sharp, and entangling writings, with which I have been engaged nigh unto three years, and that I should occupy myself with the holy and kindly doctrine, beside the work of the interpretation of the Psalter, labor in the interpretation of the Epistles and Gospels (which is called Postil) for the benefit of the ministers and their subjects: you having been of the opinion that I, burdened with such an amount of work, would the sooner attain peace also against the attacks of my enemies. So noble is, according to the peaceful name of Your Electoral Grace, the natural soul of Your Electoral Grace that you have often plainly told me how tiresome the quarrels and useless questions concerning the goat-wool are to Your Electoral Grace. 

How do you think Luther felt as he had to endure the conflict and criticism being thrown at him? Obviously he knew that Elector Frederick didn't like it, but it's almost as if he's saying, "YOU don't like? What about me?" Think of Jesus' words in today's Gospel from Luke 12: I have not come to peace but division.

How is division a part of following Jesus?

How hard is it to endure that division?

Monday:

Luther writes to Elector Frederick, who has requested that he pen a commentary (postil) on the lectionary texts: http://media.sabda.org/alkitab-8/LIBRARY/LUT_SER1.PDF

I myself do not wish to say how I have been affected by these storms and have been kept from my studies, so that I desired to give my flesh and blood free play, yes, have not abstained from answering these evil writings somewhat more pointedly than is becoming to a clergyman. I hope, however, just as I confess my guilt, that I may not reap the displeasure of all those who think differently what fierce Lions of Moab, what Rabsake of Assyria, what evil, poisonous Simei I alone had to endure, to the detriment of myself and of many to whom I might have been of service in the Word of God. In such storms, however, I have always firmly hoped that I would attain peace so that I could comply with the wishes of Your Electoral Grace, through which the mercy of God has, without doubt, done much good to the Gospel of Christ. 
How often do the pressures of life, and the conflicts around us (even in the church, or especially in the church we might say) keep us from serving others? 
Luther confesses that his words to his opponents haven't always been "becoming to a clergyman." How do we get maintain our "cool" in the face of certain conflict?

He goes on: 
But now when I see that my hope has been a very human thought and that, with every day, I sink deeper into the deep great sea, in which there are numberless creeping animals that help one another and are against me: then I also see that the devil with such vexations of my hope had nothing else in view but that I may finally abandon my purpose and would much sooner have to go to Babylon than to furnish my Jerusalem with armor’s nourishment. This is his wickedness. In consideration of it I have thought of the holy Nehemiah, and, forsaking the useless visions of Ezra, the scribe, have begun not to hope for peace, have prepared for peace as well as war, have taken the sword into one hand, to fight my Arabs, and wished to build the wall with the other, in order that I while applying myself to one work only, may not fail in completing both faster. For St. Jerome also says that not to withstand the enemies is just as detrimental to the church, as if we would only build. And the Apostle commands that a bishop ought to be able not only to exhort the people in the sound doctrine but also to convict the gainsayers. I do not say that I think I am a bishop, for I have neither riches nor an island, which in these days constitute the office of bishop; but that he who adminsters the office of the Word of God ought also to be able to fulfill the duties of a bishop, who must be capable with both hands, as Ehud, and able to kill the strong Aeglon with the left hand. 

​What is Luther's Jerusalem? 

What is your Jerusalem?

How does the devil try to stop you from your work?

Learning from Luther

At the prodding of a couple of my friends who are hungry to learn more about Jesus and who are distinctly Lutheran in their self-understanding, I decided to say "yes" to an experiment of online study. I will choose a sermon of Martin Luther, scan the text into a jpeg file and post it here with some questions in the margins. It won't be fancy, that's for sure. But perhaps it will spark some conversation about the discipleship journey we are all on. The first one comes from a sermon of Luther's in 1518 on John 9- The Man Born Blind. Think of the context of this sermon as coming on the heels of that church changing event, the posting of the 95 theses by Luther on the Castle Church Door in Wittenberg, Germany, October 31, 1517. Read on and post some reflections for all of us to chew on. Pass on the link to your friends who might be interested. It will be once a week so we all have time to get to it! This is the first page of it which can be found in LW Volume 51. Email me if you want to full text. . . this is just a teaser.

Blessings!
amy