Sermon: St. Bernard of Clairvaux - 2020

19 August 2020

Text: John 15:7-11 (Ecclus 39:1-10, Rev 3:7-11)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux is a complicated historical figure.  In some ways, it’s odd that we Lutherans should honor him with a feast day.  As a man of his times, he had a held to a superstitious view of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  And having become a powerful figure in the Church of his own day, he became entangled in internal political disputes involving church politics.  

And yet, our Lutheran confessions mention him eight times, and refer to him as a “holy father.”  

For in spite of his imperfections and foibles, St. Bernard understood the central doctrine of the faith: justification.  He said, “You must believe, first of all, that you cannot have the forgiveness of sins except by the forbearance of God; but add further that you also believe that through Him your sins are forgiven.  This is the witness that the Holy Spirit brings in your heart, saying, ‘Your sins are forgiven you.’  For thus the apostle concludes, that a man is justified freely by faith.’”

St. Bernard also confessed that good works flow from the free gift that is the forgiveness of sins.  As the abbot of many monasteries, St. Bernard understood that good works and self-sacrifice cannot earn salvation, but rather that Christian good works flow from being justified by grace through faith.  

And where does this faith come from, dear friends?  Why do we believe in this doctrine of justification?  How are we justified, dear brothers and sisters?  It all gets back to Christ, to His work on the cross, to His victory over Satan, to His sacrificial atonement.  And what is the source of all of this?  Why does Jesus die for the sins of the world?  What motivates God to save us?

Love.

St. Bernard’s hymns – two of which we are singing tonight – confess this love of Christ and our devotion to Him.  For Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples.”

Our Lord speaks of good works as “bearing fruit.”  Our good works flow from our “abiding” in Him, and His words abiding in us.  Even if you were to renounce all worldly wealth, live in a tiny cell, and pray all day.  Even if you were to cut yourself off from every worldly pleasure, if you sacrifice all joys and pleasures of this life, if you gave up spouse and children and home and family in the pursuit of righteousness, it won’t mean anything at all without the love of Christ, without His Word, without faith, and without being declared righteous by God for the sake of Jesus.

Our Lord says, “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you.  Abide in My love.”  To “abide” means to persevere.  The love of Christ will carry us through all times of trouble and struggle in this life – and even unto eternity.  He abides in us, which means that we can abide in Him.  It is a week by week thing, a day by day thing, a minute by minute thing.  We Christians focus our lives on the life and love of Christ, remembering our baptism multiple times a day and praying, imbibing the Holy Scriptures, and abiding in His love through the miracle of receiving His body and blood in the Holy Eucharist.  And it is only in this context of abiding in Christ, in His love, that we can live out the Christian life according to our callings.  

Jesus says, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”  And while we fail to keep the commandments perfectly (which is why we need the love and mercy of God and the salvation of the Son), we Christians rightfully resist temptation and turn to the Lord in such times, receiving Holy Absolution when we fail as a means to abide in the love of Christ.  And the only way to even begin to keep the commandments is to know them, for they too are God’s Word.  

Our Lord does not speak of the Christian life as the fruitless struggle to become perfect through works – which is the sad fate of the followers of every other religion in the world.  Rather, our Lord offers a radical alternative: grace and faith as gifts flowing from His own pierced side and from His own “sacred head now wounded.”  This justification by grace through faith is the Good News, it is how we abide in Christ and how Christ abides in us, it is that which fuels our faith, and dear friends, instead of life on a treadmill of failure, our Christian life is one of joy.

Don’t take my word for it.  And don’t even take Bernard of Clairvaux’s word for it.  Listen to our Lord Jesus Christ sum up his discourse on abiding in His love: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Our first reading today comes from the Apocrypha, and it speaks of a person abides in the Word of God: he “devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most High” and “will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients.”  He will “reveal instruction in his teaching, and will glory in the law of the Lord’s covenant.”  And all of his good works in pursuit of the Lord will bear fruit “if the Lord is willing.”  And, dear friends, this is why we honor the saints, such as the holy father Bernard.  For “many will praise his understanding, and it will never be blotted out; his memory will not disappear, and his name will live through all generations.  Nations will declare his wisdom, and the congregation will proclaim his praise.”  We honor St. Bernard because the Word abided in him, and through his preaching and teaching, the word abided in the many who heard his preach and teach and administer the sacraments.

The Church has honored St. Bernard for nearly eight hundred years because He was a preacher of the Gospel.  His sermons, hymns, and teaching point us to Christ and what He has done for us, the love of God, the forgiveness of sins, and how it is that we Christians live out our life of grace.  And ultimately, what makes Bernard of Clairvaux a “holy father” in the words of our Lutheran confessions is not his founding of monasteries, his work in trying to reform the church, his involvement in the crusades, or even his preaching and teaching, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ, the gifts of grace and faith, and the Word that abided with him in all of his endeavors, and abides with him in eternity – the same Word that abides in you, dear friends.

Abiding in the love and Word of God in Christ Jesus is even more urgent in these dark and latter days than it was in the days of St. Barnard.  For as Jesus speaks to the Church in the last days: “I know that you have but little power, and yet have kept My Word and have not denied My name….  Because you have kept My Word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.  I am coming soon.  Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown.”

Let us abide in the Word, in the Gospel, in the Holy Sacraments, in God’s love, in prayer, and in joy – in other words, let us abide in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

Amen.

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