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Second Sunday in Lent

 

Collect of the day
O God, You see that of ourselves we have no strength. By Your mighty power defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Old Testament Reading……………………………………. Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Epistle Reading…………………………………………………………. Romans 5:1-11
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Holy Gospel Reading…………………………………………………. Mark 8:27-38
And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? For what can a man give in return for his life? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

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What does it mean to be “Lutheran”? Part 1: Confession of Faith

There are so many Christian denominations out there, what is “Lutheranism” and what does it mean to be “Lutheran”?

Despite what it may seem, Lutherans are not ones who follow Martin Luther. Though we recognize Martin Luther as a great teacher of the faith, he is only a man and a witness to someone greater than himself. That someone greater is Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus is the object of our faith and focus of Lutheranism. The term “Lutheranism” only comes into play to help distinguish our confession of the Christian faith from the other confessions, or denominations. Luther himself hated the designation, but for the sake of clarity the term stuck.

So when we say “Lutherans”, we are not talking about followers of Martin Luther, but ones who stand in agreement with Luther on his devotion to Christ and interpretation of His Word. This, then, forms our confession of faith. Each confession of faith, what we more commonly call “denominations” or “movements” or even “independent churches”, has something to say about Christ and His Word.  This confession underpins their teaching and lays the foundation for their proclamation, whether it is publicly acknowledged or not. In other words, when someone asks you what you believe about Jesus you will share with them your confession of faith, and this is what we are called to do:

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Romans 10:8-10

So what is it that Lutherans have to say about Christ and His Word?  The Lutheran confession of faith is contained in the Book of Concord. This book is a collection of documents which lay out the creeds and the basic teachings of the Lutheran Church. It is a summary of Scripture as it lays out the doctrines, or teachings, found within. Therefore, the Book of Concord is not looked at by Lutherans as authoritative in and of itself, but authoritative because it contains the truths of Scripture. For apart from Scripture, no confession of faith has any authority whatsoever to speak. Therefore, the Book of Concord is careful to only say what Scripture says: not any more, not any less. To do otherwise would go against Christ’s command and warning found in Revelation 22:

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. (v. 18-19)

Our confession begins with the three ecumenical creeds: Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian.  This is to show that what we have to say concerning Christ and His Word is in line with the historical confession of the ancient Church. Then come the documents that lay out exactly what Lutherans “believe, teach, and confess”: The Augsburg Confession, The Apology to the Augsburg Confession, The Smalcald Articles, and The Power and Primacy of the Pope.  Next are two instructional documents: The Small and Large Catechisms.  Last is the Formula of Concord, meant to address controversies that arose early on in the Lutheran Church.

These documents compiled into the Book of Concord form the basis for the Lutheran confession of faith and all point to the person and work of Christ as the center of our faith, and His Word as the ultimate authority. As the ultimate authority, Lutherans take great care to handle God’s Word rightly. Our main framework for interpreting the Scripture is “context, context, context.” The Word of God is a comprehensive witness, and not simply a “collection of pearls from heaven”. Therefore, each and every verse is connected to the verses around it to form a whole thought, a whole paragraph, a whole letter/book, a whole testament, the whole Bible. Therefore, when interpreting a single verse, a Lutheran keeps in mind the whole witness of Scripture for Scripture never contradicts itself.

We also pay close attention to the genre: is it narrative, is it wisdom literature, is it prophetic, is it didactic, is it exhortation, and so on? It would be reckless to interpret the the Song of Solomon the same as the Gospel of Matthew, or the Book of Revelation the same as the Letter to the Romans. Poetic and prophetic books make use of symbolic language (such as the 144,000 in Revelation that becomes the great multitude that no one can number), while narratives use more concrete language. The genre of the verse also impacts how we interpret the verse. Ultimately, the goal and aim of Lutheranism and Lutherans in general, is faithfulness to Christ and His Word in all we say and do.

In fact, Lutherans will claim that anything that is faithful to the Word of God is “Lutheran”, even if the person who wrote/composed it is not Lutheran themself. Thus, we count many hymns as “Lutheran” even though a Methodist, etc. wrote it, or we count parts of the liturgy as “Lutheran” even though it came from Roman Catholicism, etc.  If it is faithful to the witness of Christ and His Word, then it can rightly be called Lutheran and we will use it as such.  This focus and devotion to placing Christ at the center of all we do is truly what it means to be a Lutheran.