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+ + + 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.)
Revelation chapter 14 verses 16 and 17 is the First Reading for Reformation Day essentially because some have said that Revelation’s angel, or messenger, with an eternal Gospel to proclaim, is the sixteenth‑century German Reformer Martin Luther. From Luther’s own pastor John Bugenhagen’s sermon at Luther’s funeral in 15‑46, to Missouri Synod founder C‑F‑W Walther’s sermon on Reformation Day 299 years later, and no doubt to other pastors’ sermons since and maybe even this year, interpreters have seen Revelation’s messenger with an eternal Gospel as a direct prophecy of Luther, a prophecy fulfilled only by Luther. Our Circuit’s pastors last week discussed this Revelation passage, in connection with a paper that I wrote, in which paper I suggested that faithful interpreters today have a different approach to Revelation, an approach that does not see many of the specific details of God’s Revelation to St. John as corresponding one-to-one to specific historical events, but rather sees the specific details of Revelation as symbolic of specific things that happen throughout history, especially that history from Jesus’s Crucifixion and Ascension to the time of His final coming in glory to judge the living and the dead. With that approach, Revelation’s messenger with an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth of every nation and tribe and language and people is in some way “typical” of all of those who faithfully have proclaimed, are proclaiming, or ever will proclaim an eternal Gospel—those before, during, and after Luther’s time—which includes us, for also “We proclaim an Eternal Gospel”.
The particular passage of Revelation that is today’s First Reading comes in what the Missouri-Synod’s most‑recent commentator on Revelation calls an “interregnum”, essentially a pause between the book’s second and third of three sevenfold‑visions of history, during which pause opposing forces are vying to rule, and St. John sees the over‑arching cosmic events that control and explain the events that he sees taking place on earth in the three sevenfold‑visions. In this case, despite all that is taking place in the cosmic struggle between God’s good and the devil’s evil, with implications for the believers and unbelievers on earth, the Gospel continues to be proclaimed prominently, for it is an eternal Gospel.
We might find hard to imagine one of the many printers that produced Luther’s writings during his lifetime’s coming to Luther and suggesting that Luther in some way change the content of the eternal Gospel in order to better reflect then‑modern times. For example, one printer might have suggested that, in order to be more relevant, stuff about slowly writing out copies on a scroll by hand should be updated to setting movable type for the then‑modern faster printing‑press. Or, another printer might have suggested that, in order to be less‑divisive, stuff in Luther’s writings about Jews, Muslims, and Roman Catholics should be toned down or taken out completely, and all people wrongly should be said to be received into heaven regardless of whether or not they repent or regardless of what they actually believe. We might find such requests hard to imagine in part because we easily imagine how Luther might have responded to such requests! Yet, we may think of asking or even ask our religious leaders to change the content of the eternal Gospel in order to better reflect our modern times. We may wrongly act as if specific or even all people are saved regardless of whether or not they repent or regardless of what they actually believe. If we do not sin in those ways, we certainly sin in other ways, for we are sinful by nature, and so, apart from repentance and faith, we deserve nothing but temporal and eternal punishment.
Like the messenger in the First Reading, Luther proclaimed the eternal Gospel to the people of what we think of as the German “nation” or “tribes”, translating that Gospel into their native language, and benefitting from the then‑modern faster printing‑press, but Luther did not change the eternal Gospel’s content. Whether in the language of the Old Testament’s Hebrew, the New Testament’s Greek, the Vulgate’s Latin, Luther’s German, our English, or even Star Trek’s Klingon, the content of the eternal Gospel is timeless. Whether handwritten on parchment, papyrus, or paper; whether printed by movable type, xerox machine, or ink jet; whether copied and pasted and distributed by postal service, e-mail, or Substack, the content of the eternal Gospel is always relevant. By the words of the eternal Gospel, God Himself speaks to our only true eternal need: our need for His forgiveness of our sins.
The eternal Gospel says, “Fear God” and “give Him glory” and “worship Him”, and God leads us to be sorry that we do not fear Him, give Him glory, and worship Him as we should; and, God also leads us both to trust Him to forgive us those failures for Jesus’s sake and then, in turn, at least to want to fear Him, give Him glory, and worship Him as we should because He has forgiven us for Jesus’s sake. What God revealed to St. John of the angel with an eternal Gospel’s proclamation arguably is only part of the eternal Gospel’s content. The eternal Gospel essentially is about the eternal Son of God, Who, out of love for His fallen creation, took on human flesh, in order to die on the cross and rise from the grave and so save us. Whether through Jesus’s preaching (as in the Gospel Reading [Matthew 11:12-19]), St. Paul’s preaching (as in the Epistle Reading [Romans 3:19-28]), Luther’s preaching, or my preaching: the righteousness of God is given as a free gift to those who believe in Jesus Christ, Whom God put forward as a sacrifice in our place, in order to satisfy God’s righteous wrath over our sin. We are forgiven, or “justified” by faith apart from our doing the good works that God’s law commands, but our doing the good works that God’s law commands should naturally follow God’s forgiving us.
As the Holy Spirit used Luther, Luther read and purely preached the eternal Gospel, and Luther also in a sense used the eternal Gospel to reform the way that the church of his day worshipped and received God’s gift of forgiveness. For example, against other radical reformers who rejected infant baptism, Luther, in keeping with the eternal Gospel, taught that children should be baptized, for through Holy Baptism God offers His grace and receives even children into His grace. Against the Roman Catholics who required at least an annual confession of all sins, Luther, in keeping with the eternal Gospel, taught that private confession only of sins known and felt in the heart should be made to pastors voluntarily for the sake of individual Holy Absolution. And, against both the Roman Catholics and the radical reformers who taught otherwise, Luther, in keeping with the eternal Gospel, taught that in the Holy Supper bread is the Body of Christ given for us and wine is the Blood of Christ shed for us, received by repentant believers for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
The first of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses that were nailed and “mailed” 507 years ago today called for our whole lives to be lives of repentance. Those Ninety-five Theses may be what we think of as beginning Luther’s career or starting the Reformation, but there are letters, sermons, and lectures of Luther’s going back some ten years before, and the Lutheran Church as we think of it may not have really started until more than ten years after. With his somewhat unique vocation, Luther nevertheless still apparently lived his whole life in repentance, and we do the same in our somewhat unique vocations. For example, I try to purely preach the eternal Gospel and administer the Sacraments according to that eternal Gospel. You try to support the work of the congregation both by giving sacrificially of what God has entrusted to you and by using the skills and abilities God has given you in the leadership and activities of the congregation, not to mention your sharing the things that pertain to eternal salvation with your family, friends, classmates, and coworkers. And, in Christ, we are forgiven for all of our failures to fulfill our somewhat unique vocations.
As I last week noted in my paper for our Circuit’s pastors, the angelic messenger in the First Reading is not mentioned as having androgynous features, effeminate hair, a golden halo, multi‑stringed harp, or snowy wings; and, even the flying that is mentioned is not always understood literally. More to the point, we concluded that the angelic messenger in some sense points to Luther, as well as to every other faithful law-Gospel preacher—before, during, and after Luther’s time—including those faithfully preaching today. Like Luther and all the others, “We proclaim an Eternal Gospel.” We thank God for Luther and for the blessings of the Reformation. For what God did through Luther and the other reformers then, and for what God does through us today, to God alone be the glory, now and forever!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +