Faith and Duty: Sermons on Free Texts, with Reference to the Church-YearBuchheimer, L. B. (Louis Balthaser)
Religion
Faith and Duty: Sermons on Free Texts, with Reference to the Church-Year
Buchheimer, L. B. (Louis Balthaser)
Church year sermons; Lutheran Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American
We are entering to-day upon the second part of the Christian
church-year. The seasons and festivals of the church-year may be
compared to a river that takes its rise, like the stream which
washes the banks of our city, in some small and distant lake, and
then ever continues to grow, widen, and deepen, until it becomes a
majestic flow, and finally empties into the vast gulf of the ocean.
We have seen in the past months the river of grace and salvation
issuing as a tiny rivulet from under a humble manger on Bethlehem's
plains, passing through the gorge of Nazareth, flowing along the
banks of Jordan, sweeping past the cities of Galilee and Judea,
lifting up its surging billows to the height of Calvary and Olivet,
until it overflowed the world with its heavenly billows on the day
of Pentecost.
By that river it has been our good fortune to linger each Sunday,
to dip up of its waters many a draught for our thirsty souls, and
bathe in its currents for the washing away of our sins. To-day,
however, we are called to ascend to its source, to leave Bethlehem,
Nazareth, and Judea behind, to climb above Golgotha's Mount and
Olivet's top, yes, to soar beyond the cloud which once received our
ascended Lord out of sight, and to gaze upon a gulf, an ocean, which
has no boundary and no shore. To speak in simple and unadorned
speech: It is the subject of God Himself which we are invited to
contemplate, the most overwhelming, mysterious, deepest of them all.
"Who by searching," asks Job, "can find out God? Who can find out
the Almighty to perfection?" And yet there are some things which we
can and which we must know, for the subject of God is at the base
of all things, of all religion. Without the right knowledge of God
no man is a right man, and no one can rightly adjust himself to his
place in this world or in the next. Let us, then, approach the great
mystery of godliness, letting heavenly wisdom be our teacher.--
To-day's festival is called the Festival of the Trinity. What is
the doctrine of the Trinity? For it certainly behooves every one to
understand what is meant thereby, and this doctrine is held by all
the Christian churches. Whosoever believes it, becomes a member of
the Church. Whoever rejects it, ceases to belong to the Christian
Church, and becomes a heretic.
Scripture tells us on the one hand that God is one, that there are
not three Gods, but one God; on the other hand, that the Father is
God, that our blessed Lord Jesus, the Son, is God, that the Holy
Ghost is God, each person being a perfect God, yet so joined, each
to each, that they constitute one invisible God. We are taught
that these three persons are uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal,
almighty, equal in glory, majesty, and power. None is before, none
after, none greater or less than another; they are coeternal and
coequal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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