Sermon: St. Augustine – 2011

27 August 2011 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA


Text: Matt 5:13-19 (Micah 2:7-13, 2 Tim 4:1-8)

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Today the Church around the world honors a man who stole as a child, who fathered at least on child out of wedlock as a youth, and who joined a cult and attacked Christianity as an adult.

And this, dear friends, is the power of the Christian faith, of the Lord’s mighty Word, of the Holy Spirit’s power, of the Son’s redeeming grace, of the Father’s unrelenting love.

Augustine’s conversion was not as dramatic as St. Paul’s, but it was just as profound. Unlike St. Paul’s sudden change of heart on the road to Damascus, St. Augustine’s conversion was a long road, paved by the prayers and tears of his devout and patient mother, St. Monica, and marked by the irrefutable preaching and teaching of his devout and patient pastor: St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan.

In time, Augustine would see his folly, would yield to the Holy Spirit, would be molded by the Word of God, and would submit to His Creator. And like St. Ambrose, his beloved pastor and teacher, Augustine would also become a pastor and teacher. He is loved by Christians around the world, along with St. Ambrose, as one of the great Doctors of the Church. In fact, St. Augustine is known by a more specific title: “Doctor of Grace.”

The first thing that comes to mind when we think of the word “doctor” is typically a healer, a learned man or woman who is an expert in the arts and sciences of medicine, a caregiver of the body. But the more basic meaning of “doctor” is a “teacher.” And in the case of one who “does” and “teaches” the “least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

In the aftermath of his conversion, St. Augustine was a teacher, a doctor, a healer, a learned man expert in the arts and sciences of theology, a caregiver of the soul – that is to say, a pastor. After decades of a life wasted, he spent decades of a life lived to the full in Christ. He served as a bishop in Northern Africa from 395 AD until his death in 420.

As a redeemed sinner, this great doctor understood forgiveness and redemption, grace and salvation, law and gospel – and the centrality of the cross. He guided the church through difficult times, teaching us, by repeating God’s Word that we are saved by grace through faith, that our good works do not save us, and that salvation cannot be bought, sold, or earned. St. Augustine taught us to confess, to pray, to live the Christian life to the full, to love, to serve, and to teach pure doctrine.

More than a thousand years later, an Augustinian monk, another Doctor of the Church, another Doctor of Grace, would likewise remind the church about forgiveness and redemption, grace and salvation, law and gospel – and the centrality of the cross. This man, the Blessed Doctor Martin Luther, also taught us, by repeating God’s Word that we are saved by grace through faith, that our good works do not save us, and that salvation cannot be bought, sold, or earned. Dr. Luther – like St. Augustine – taught us to confess, to pray, to live the Christian life to the full, to love, to serve, and to teach pure doctrine.

Dear friends, we need teachers like these men, and we need to hear them. For they pointed us to Christ and the holy scriptures, they preached to us and celebrated the sacraments. And in their writings, their life and work continue. St. Augustine, in his sermons and theological writings, let his light shine before others, seeing his good works, giving glory to our Father who is in heaven. And his greatest work of all is the preaching of the pure gospel and teaching us that good works do not save us.

As St. Augustine taught and preached, our Lord has not come to abolish the law. It is to be preached in its severity. It is to sting us and condemn us. But our Lord has not come to leave us in our trespasses and misery. For He came to fulfill the law. He came to save, not to condemn. He came to call all men and women of the church, the doctors and the students, the preachers and the hearers, to repentance and new life. For Augustine, this was not theoretical, but rather autobiographical. The Lord heard St. Monica’s tear-drenched motherly prayers. The Lord used St. Ambrose’s gospel-laden pastoral preaching. The Lord used the threats of the Law and the enticement of the Gospel to convert St. Augustine.

And the Lord would use the convert, the intellectual, the writer, the pastor, the bishop, the doctor St. Augustine to continue to “gather the remnant of Israel” to “set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.” Augustine was charged “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” to “preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For 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, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

And as St. Paul exhorted St. Timothy, and as St. Augustine himself was exhorted at his ordination, and as pastors and teachers are exhorted to this very day and even until the Lord returns: “As for you,” says the Lord, “always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

By His bountiful grace and merciful will, may the Lord continue to raise up preachers and teachers, doctors of the Church, theologians, and bold confessors of the faith once delivered to the saints, so that we too may fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith – now and forever.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.