Text: Matt
5:13-18 (Mic 2:7-13, 2 Tim 4:1-8)
In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
St. Augustine lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, but he was quite a modern man. In fact, young Augustine would be right at home today, with his parents cheering him on. For he was an intelligent kid, he hit the books, he was a remarkably successful student who studied at university, and became a successful professor himself while still young.
Parents today dream of such happiness and success for their children. Augustine was not hindered by getting married young and having a large family. He had a girlfriend, and one child – but they didn’t get in the way of his success in his career. He followed a religion that didn’t interfere with his success. Augustine was the kind of modern man that most parents dream of. He was most certainly going to be rich and famous.
But Augustine’s mother, whose name was Monica, wasn’t happy. She was a pious Christian. She did not approve of his live-in girlfriend. She wanted him to join her church. Our culture today would see her as narrow-minded and backward. I imagine there were those in her own day who saw her that same way. But still she prayed every day for her son’s conversion.
Monica’s prayers were answered when Augustine became a Christian, thanks to the preaching and teaching and pastoral care of her own pastor, Bishop Ambrose, the famous pastor of Milan, Italy, where Augustine was working as a teacher. In time, St. Augustine himself became a pastor and preacher and bishop and theologian, who became even more famous and beloved to the church than St. Ambrose.
We could go on and on singing the praises of Augustine, calling to mind his debates against heretics, his massive output of writing, his brilliant sermons, and his insights into the Scriptures. But what made St. Augustine great was not his abilities in and of themselves. It was rather his confession of Christ, no matter what was happening in the world. Augustine lived in a time of great change, as the Roman Empire was crumbling, and ordinary people were afraid of the future. But we Christians have assurances of the future in Christ, no matter what happens in the cities and countries of men, no matter what is happening politically.
Augustine took seriously our Lord’s words: “You are the salt of the earth.” For Augustine salted his words with the Gospel, preaching the words of the Bible concerning God’s grace in Jesus, who also said, “You are the light of the world.” For in Augustine’s day, things were becoming dark for the people of Northern Africa – and in the entire empire – as barbaric tribes were invading and overwhelming the empire and threatening their way of life. But as Augustine pointed out, the City of Man is temporary, but the City of God endures forever. He let the light of Christ “shine before others” and implored the people under his pastoral care to give the barbarians good works to see, that they might “give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Augustine stood firm for the doctrines of the faith that were under attack, especially the Holy Trinity, and the divinity of Jesus. Augustine fought against the belief that salvation is by works rather than by grace. He preached Paul’s words that we Lutherans hold dear, such as this: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” A thousand years after Augustine defeated the heretic Pelagius on this point, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther would make the same argument to a church that had distanced itself from Augustine and from Paul. We Lutherans could just as easily be called “Augustinians.”
Augustine took seriously what St. Paul wrote to St. Timothy in our epistle reading: “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.”
Indeed, this was happening in Augustine’s day, and it is happening today, dear friends. People want to hear only things that make them feel good, things that affirm them, things that are not true, but are rather ear-itching myths. Augustine’s pious mother Monica rejected all of those things. It didn’t matter that her son was rich and successful. It didn’t matter that he was educated. She did not tell him, “I just want you to be happy.” She did not tell him to “pick whatever religion tickles your ears, because we all worship the same God anyway.” She did not tell him to follow his heart in matters of sexuality. Instead, Monica prayed for her son to come to faith and see the light. And God heard her prayer.
St. Augustine pointed out that following our heart is foolish, for “our hearts are restless, until they find their rest” in the one true God of biblical Christianity. St. Augustine was a brilliant defender of our Christian faith because he had earlier opposed Christianity. He was a defender of biblical morality because he lived without it as a young man, and saw how shallow such a life was. He used his skills at rhetoric and debate to defend the biblical faith against those who would turn grace into works of the Law, and focus on the self instead of on Christ alone.
St. Augustine taught us Christians about original sin. He knew it not only from Scripture, but from his own life. His writings shape our Christian thought to this very day. He taught us Christians about how to properly wage war in such a way as not to dehumanize our enemies or ourselves. He also wrote about natural law, and the relationship between the church and the state.
We could, of course, go on and on. But the point is that the church goes on and on: she goes on no matter what empires rise or fall, no matter who wins elections, no matter how popular or unpopular Christianity is. She goes on no matter what divisions exist within her, no matter what heresies re-emerge. The church goes on because, as is engraved above the tabernacle containing Christ’s true body and blood in this Augustinian church: “Verbum Dei manet in aeternum” – “the Word of the Lord endures forever,” just as the Word of the Lord itself, as penned by St. Peter in his first epistle, teaches us.
And first and foremost Augustine was a preacher of the Word, of Christ, of the cross, and of grace. We remember him because he caused us to remember Christ. All Christian pastors are sent out with these words of St. Paul: “Preach the Word.” We preachers preach, dear friends, and you confessors confess. We preach and confess in season and out of season, whether people like it or not, whether their itching ears want something else, or if they are ready to hear the Word of God and be transformed by it, or not. We pray like Monica for the unconverted.
“As for you,” says the Lord, “always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” Bishop St. Augustine is a saintly role model for the clergy and the laity alike, for he preached the Word, and did not waver. Like St. Paul, Augustine “fought the good fight,” “finished the race,” and “kept the faith.”
Let us praise God for the witness of St. Augustine, and may the Lord continue to raise up men of his caliber to preach and teach and lead the flock of God until the Lord returns, until the City of Man gives way to the City of God, and the prophecy of Micah is fulfilled as Augustine and all Christian preachers have proclaimed: “I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold.” Let us give thanks to the Lord of the flock for raising shepherds like Augustine to lead us to Jesus and His grace. Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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