***What follows are the outline and general notes used to preach the sermon on this festival.***
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Augsburg Confession “approves giving honor to the
saints. This honor is threefold. The first is thanksgiving: we ought to give
thanks to God because he has given examples of his mercy, because he has shown
that he wants to save humankind, and because he has given teachers and other
gifts to the church. Since these are the greatest gifts, they ought to be
extolled very highly, and we ought to praise the saints themselves for
faithfully using these gifts just as Christ praises faithful managers. The
second kind of veneration is the strengthening of our faith. When we see Peter
forgiven after his denial, we, too, are encourages to believe that grace truly
superabounds much more over sin. The third honor is imitation: first of their
faith, then of their other virtues, which people should imitate according to
their callings. The opponents do not require these true honors. They only argue
about invocation, which, even if it were not dangerous, is certainly not
necessary.”[1]
I. We give honor to the saints in thanksgiving for the
examples of God’s mercy.
II. We give honor to the saints in the strengthening of our
own faith.
III. We give honor to the saints in imitating first their faith, and then their other virtues.
Mary is not a co-redemptrix.
“People imagine that Christ is more severe and that the
saints are more easily conciliated, and so they rely more on the mercy of the
saints than on the mercy of Christ. Thus, they flee from Christ and turn to the
saints. In this way, they actually make them mediators of redemption…
“Two conditions must be met for a person to qualify as a
propitiator. First, there should be a Word of God from which we know with
certainty that God wants to have mercy upon and to answer those who call upon
him through this propitiator. Therefore, such a promise exists for Christ [John
16:23]: ‘If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.’
No such promise exists for the saints. Therefore, consciences cannot establish
with any degree of certainty that we will be heard if we call upon the saints…
“The second qualification for a propitiator is this: his
merits must be authorized to make satisfaction for others who are given these
merits by divine reckoning in order that through them, just as though they were
their own merits, they may be reckoned righteous. It is as when a person pays a
debt for friends, the debtors are freed by the merit of the other, as though it
were by their own. Thus, Christ’s merits are given to us so that we might be
reckoned righteous by our trust in the merits of Christ when we believe in him,
as though we had merits of our own.”[2]
“Here and there this form of absolution has come into use:
‘The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the merits of the most blessed Virgin
Mary and all the saints be to you for the forgiveness of sins.’ Here an
absolution is pronounced that declares that we are reconciled and accounted
righteous not only by the merits of Christ but also by the merits of the other
saints. Some of us have seen a case where a teacher of theology was dying and a
certain monastic theologian was summoned to offer consolation. He could do no
better than press upon the dying man this prayer, ‘Mother of grace, protect us
from the enemy; receive us in the hour of death.’
“Now we grant that the blessed Mary prays for the church.
But she does not receive souls in death, conquer death, or give life, does she?
What does Christ do if the blessed Mary performs all these things? Even though
she is worthy of the highest honor, nevertheless she does not want herself to
be made equal with Christ but instead wants us to consider and follow her example.
The fact of the matter is that in the court of public opinion the blessed
Virgin has completely replaced Christ. People have called upon her, trusted in
her mercy, and through her have sought to conciliate Christ, as though he were
not the propitiator, but only a dreadful judge and avenger. We contend,
however, that we are justified by the merits of Christ, alone, not by the
merits of the blessed Virgin or the other saints.”[3]
In + Jesus’ name. Amen.
[1]
Apology to the Augsburg Confession XXI: 4-7, hereafter referred to as "Ap." Quoted from The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, Translated by Charles Arand, Eric Gritsch, Robert Kolb, William Russell, James Schaaf, Jane Strohl, and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 238.
[2]
Ap XXI: 15, 17-19. Kolb / Wengert, 239-240.
[3]
Ap XXI: 25-29. Kolb / Wengert, 241.
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