Listen to the sermon with the player below, or, download the audio.
+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Over the last two weeks, perhaps you have experienced, as I have experienced, a range of visceral emotionals, watching the death of a black suspect at the knee of a white policeman now fired and charged with his murder, the resulting both destructive rioting and peaceful protesting, and governmental responses to those that in some cases have been too weak and in other cases too strong. We may weep for innocent victims, lament yet another example of racial violence, be thankful that so far our community has largely been spared the violence, and wonder what, if anything, we can do to help preserve the peace here and extend it to the rest of the country.
As is arguably evident even it its name, the United States of America has always tried to be, if nothing else, a singular country made up plural states, whether it is the great American “melting pot” or more of a “stew”; think of our currency with the Latin expression e pluribus unum, which in English means “of the many one”. E pluribus unum expresses a concept that is sometimes called “unity in diversity”. That expression, “unity in diversity” was on my mind last week, not only because of the current events but also because I was preparing to preach today, the feast of the Holy Trinity, when we celebrate the richness of our Tri-une God Who is three Divine Persons in one Divine Substance, arguably the first “unity in diversity”! So, as we this morning consider today’s Gospel Reading, let us do so under the theme “Unity in Diversity”.
Today’s Gospel Reading, with its one Name of the three persons of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, into which Name people of all nations are to be baptized and so made disciples, may be one of the most‑explicit revelations of the Holy Trinity, but there are also many other notable things in those five verses from St. Matthew’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account. For example, the making disciples of all nations not only is by so baptizing but also is by teaching them to observe all that Jesus—as God in human flesh, to Whom all authority in heaven and on earth had been given—had “commanded”, or, we might say “entrusted”, to the Eleven disciples, which, in its place at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel account arguably refers to that whole Gospel account (for example, Scaer, CLD XI:28).
Given current events, we might think, for example, especially of the contents of St. Matthew’s Gospel account that relate to our love of our neighbors under the heading of the Fifth Commandment, that Commandment not only not to murder—not to hurt or harm our neighbor in his body—but also to help and support our neighbor in every physical need. As Jesus teaches in His so-called “Sermon on the Mount” in St. Matthew’s Gospel account, forbidden is “harboring anger or hatred in our hearts against our neighbor” (2017 Explanation, p.86, citing Matthew 5:22), in other words, “hating, despising, or slandering other groups of people”, and so we should examine ourselves for any racism or other prejudices (2017 Explanation, p.90). Similarly, we sin against the Fifth Commandment, as Jesus makes clear later in St. Matthew’s Gospel account, by “neglecting to assist people in bodily need” (2017 Explanation, p.86, citing Matthew 25:42-43), and we sin against the Fifth Commandment neglecting not only to look after the physical well‑being of our neighbors, but also neglecting to come to their aid, to speak well of them and to defend them, and to treat them with kindness and compassion (2017 Explanation, p.87). As the Athanasian Creed that we will confess in a few moments will remind us, a judgment is coming, when we will give an account concerning our own deeds, those in regard to the Fifth and all the other Commandments, after which judgment, those who have done good, giving evidence of their repentance and faith, will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil, giving evidence of their lack of repentance and faith, will enter into eternal fire.
The God-man Jesus Christ went to the cross in order to keep us out of that eternal fire. The Triune God loved even the fallen, sinful world by having Jesus die for the world’s sins. Jesus died for us, in our place, the death that we otherwise would have deserved. As we heard in the portion of St. Peter’s Pentecost Sermon that was today’s Second Reading (Acts 2:14a, 22‑36), Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection were part of God’s definite plan of salvation for us. After Jesus’s resurrection, His disciples recognized His Divine Sonship, as we heard in the Gospel Reading, by falling down to worship Him (Greeven, TDNT 6:764). Jesus’s divine nature always had all authority in heaven and on earth, but that authority was given to Him according to His human nature, by way of the union of His two natures in His one Divine Person (Formula of Concord, Epitome VIII:16; Solid Declaration VIII:55, 74, 85). So, Jesus has the power and authority to effect the forgiveness of sins (Foerster, TDNT 2:568).
And, Jesus chose to effect the forgiveness of sins and Himself be present with His Church through the ministry first of His apostles and then of their successors, including pastors today (confer Marquart, CLD IX:129). The so-called “Great Commission” is common to them (Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, paragraphs 30-31). The Triune God Who revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also at Jesus’s baptism (Matthew 3:13-17), through a pastor’s application of water and the Word in our baptisms, Himself puts His Triune Name on us, making us His own and bringing us under His protection. The “all nations” to be baptized includes children (Apology of the Augsburg Confession IX:2), babes and infants out of whose mouths, today’s Psalm says (Psalm 8; antiphon: v.9), God has established strength. And, the One to Whom all power on heaven and earth had been given, Jesus is able, through a pastor’s consecration, to be present in the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar with His body and blood (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration VII:43), given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins. The bread we break is a participation, a communion, in the body of Christ, and, though we who eat it may be many, we are one body, for we all partake of the one bread and drink of the one cup (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
The Church exists to deliver, through these Means of Grace, Christ’s saving work to the world; the Church does not exist primarily to make a “responsible society” or to liberate humanity from whatever might be deemed social oppression (Marquart, CLD IX:190). Much mischief has been done in the Church on earth in the name of “unity in diversity”, for example, pretending that there can be sacramental unity when there is doctrinal diversity. But, we cannot deny that, in some sense, faith and forgiveness change us and should change the world. As we heard in the Old Testament Reading (Genesis 1:1-2:4a), all people descend from the same couple created in the image of God on the sixth literal 24-hour day of creation. Despite the intervening fall and changes in genetics, in Christ Jesus, we all again are one, neither black nor white, slave nor free (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11; Ephesians 2:13-17). When we abide in Christ, we know the Father, and we delight in the freedom of the Spirit to love and serve our neighbors (Beckwith, CLD III:227; confer 219, citing Galatians 5 and Romans 8), and so we love and serve our neighbor, according to our individual vocations, in keeping with the Fifth and all of the other Commandments.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, after speaking of the sending of the Holy Spirit, prayed to the Father that all who would believe in Him through the apostles’ word would be one and dwell together as the Father and the Son—and no doubt also the Holy Spirit—are one and dwell together (John 17:20-21). In this life, the “Unity in Diversity” in the Church on earth and in the society of the world may never be quite like the unity of the three Divine Persons in one Divine Substance, or anywhere close to what God otherwise would have it be, but, with daily repentance and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins for all our sins against the Fifth and all of the other Commandments. We can be at peace with God and with one another, for He is with us always, to the end of the age.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +