I found a couple of Luther quotes that had been on Bulletins back from 2007 and 2008 for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity. Consider them for a moment, especially in light of the Culture War.
No
Need to Repay the Poor World in Kind
(From
a sermon on 1 John 3:13-18) Whom is the world harming with its
hatred? It will not succeed in taking from you the [eternal] life
you have and it does not have, nor will it subject you to the death
which you have already escaped through Christ. If it does much, it
may slander you with bad words, take your possessions or your rotten,
stinking carcass, which is bound to decay anyway, so that you are
actually promoted into life through the death of the body.
And
so you are avenged on the world much more than it is avenged on you.
You have the joy of being translated from death into life, whereas
the world must remain in death forever. Moreover, while the world
imagines it is depriving you of both kingdoms, heaven and earth, it
must lose body and soul. How could its hatred and envy be punished
and avenged more terribly? In order not to please the devil and the
world and, still more, not to injure yourself, you should so act as
not to let your salvation and comfort be spoiled on account of the
world and lose this treasure because of impatience and a desire for
revenge. In fact, you should much rather take pity on the world’s
wretchedness and damnation; for you lose nothing but only gain, for
all that, while the world has nothing but loss. And for the small
loss which you do suffer materially and temporally it must pay you an
exorbitant price both here and there.
Ingratitude
Has Made Many Lose the Word
(In
Luther’s diary in 1538 he points out that when people become
unthankful for the Word, they fall away) God willing, we shall put
forth an effort to leave to our posterity a true church and school,
so that they may be equipped to teach and to govern. Nevertheless,
the ingratitude and the irreverence of the world terrify me.
Therefore I fear that this light will not long endure, not over fifty
years. It has always run its course. In the times of the patriarchs
it flourished for a while – under Adam, Noah, Lot, Moses, Joshua,
Samuel, David, Josiah, Hezekiah. But Ba’al dominated the intervals
between them and had to be uprooted periodically. Consider the
course of the Word in the time of Christ. It did not stay fifty
years. Indeed, the heresies of false brothers soon rose in the times
of the Apostles. Thereupon Arius reared his head. Thereupon Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine
again restored the Word, whereupon the Vandals and Lombards again put
it out. Then Greece, too, and other regions had it. So it continued
to migrate.
Now, consider both of these quotes. Shall we get agitated and freaked out when (not if, but when) the world hates us and messes with us? No. Shall we abandon the Gospel and shift our focus to fighting the world? By no means! The Gospel is our victory both now and eternally.
Yet what so often happens. We become unthankful for the Word. The Gospel that gives life now seems less important, less vital than fighting the latest social issue or political campaign. After the Vandals and Lombards came, they wanted the Pope to become a political leader... and he did... with the best of intentions. Yet we see where that led.
Preacher! Tend to the Gospel of Christ Jesus that gives life everlasting!
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