Sermon: Wittenberg Academy – Nov 28, 2023

 

28 Nov 2023

Text: 1 Pet 1:13-25

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

St. Peter tells us what the Gospel is, quoting Isaiah (40:8) and then explaining it: “‘The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this Word is the Good News that was preached to you.”  The Good News, the Gospel, dear friends, is the Word of God.  For the Word is not only the proclamation of Good News, the Word is Jesus: the Word Made Flesh.  Grass and flowers and all flesh, all that is material in this fallen world, are subject to dying and fading away, corrupting and perishing and ceasing to be.  But the Word is eternal: the Word that speaks the unchanging truth, the truth that the Creator is also the Redeemer.  “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), the Word whose withered and dead flesh re-emerged alive from the tomb, remains forever!

As we approach the season of Advent, our minds are drawn to the coming of Jesus, the miraculous Incarnation, the eternal Word of God, the Word, by which and by whom, all things were made, the Word that spoke the universe into being, this Creator Word becoming one with His created world as a miraculously fertilized egg in the virginal womb of Blessed Mary.  This Word is the Gospel, dear friends.

And another theme of our rapidly approaching season of Advent is that the Word Made Flesh is returning in a second Advent, coming not in humility, not meek and mild, not as a baby lying a manger, but as the conquering King of kings and Lord of lords, the Almighty, the Holy One, the Alpha and the Omega.  St. Peter bids us to be prepared.

“Therefore,” proclaims the apostle, “preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  Now is the time to prepare, dear friends.  Because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of His blood that has ransomed us (rather than “perishable things such as silver and gold”), the “precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot,” we can indeed purify our souls by our “obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love.”

Without this grace, without this ransom, without this blood, without this Word Made Flesh, without this Lamb sacrificed, without this Word that remains forever, having walked out of His own tomb, we cannot be holy.  But thanks to the Word, His holiness is transferred to us, and we can indeed respond to His mighty power, His grace, His mercy, and His proclamation of Good News. 

By virtue of this justification by the Word, we can be sanctified in the Word.  As the apostle proclaims to us by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, we overcome the fate of the dying grass and flowers that pass away and corrupt, and we overcome by the incorruptible flesh of the incorruptible Word.  And in Him, we can have a pure heart, and we can “love one another earnestly” – since we have been “born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable.”  For, as our Lord Himself said in the Word proclaimed by the apostle John, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish,” unlike the grass and the flowers, “should not perish, but have eternal life.”  For “the Word of the Lord remains forever.”

Indeed, “this Word is the Good News that was preached to you.”  This is the Gospel of the Lord, thanks be to God!”

Amen.

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