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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.
We are gathered here tonight in part to commemorate an event that took place in the city of Augsburg exactly 484 years ago: our Lutheran forbearers’ presenting, as requested, their confession of faith to Emperor Charles the Fifth of the Holy Roman Empire. Their “Augsburg Confession” set them apart both from the Roman Catholics, who had refused Martin Luther’s call to reform their church, and from the more-radical reformers, whose own reformations went too far, well beyond the Reformation for which Luther had called. Yet, tonight we not only commemorate our Lutheran forbearers’ Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, but we also honor the Confession itself. For, as genuine, confessional Lutherans, the Augsburg Confession is also our confession. Like the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, the Augsburg Confession is a faithful testimony to the truth of Holy Scriptures, a true exposition of Holy Scripture, and a correct exhibition of the teaching of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Similarly in agreement with the one scriptural faith are all the other Lutheran confessional writings, including Luther’s Small Catechism, which is likely the best-known to most people (although the copy of the Augsburg Confession you receive as you leave tonight can help you know it better, too). Scripture and the Lutheran confessional writings norm (or at least ought to norm) all the preaching and practice of our congregations.
While portions of tonight’s Gospel Reading are appointed to be read on consecutive Sundays of the Easter Season during the second year of our three-year lectionary series, as we reflect on the Gospel Reading with tonight’s occasion in mind, we especially consider the Augsburg Confession both as our abiding in the Vine and as fruit of the Vine.
The words of tonight’s Gospel Reading were spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ on the night when He was betrayed. Some think Jesus and the disciples at the time were making their way from the Upper Room, through a vineyard, to the Garden of Gethsemane, but their precise location ultimately makes no difference in our understanding of what Jesus said (compare John 14:31 and 18:1). Using the figure of speech of a vine’s sap’s nourishing its branches, Jesus elaborates on His inner fellowship with the disciples, which He had already mentioned earlier in the evening (John 14). Through repeated use of the same words and variations in His expressions, Jesus in the Gospel Reading emphasizes the urgency and priority of the disciples’ abiding (or “remaining”, “staying”, “dwelling”)—and of their abiding in Him, in His words, in His love—all essentially equated, along with His “commandments”.
For our Lutheran forbearers, not presenting the Augsburg Confession would have been much easier to do in some worldly ways, and, similarly, for us, not holding to the Augsburg Confession would be much easier to do in some worldly ways. For example, if we acted as if Lutherans were not unique for the faith we confess, we would face less opposition from and persecution by the world. For all the “tolerance” and “diversity” that we hear “preached” in our world today, the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh really want us all to be the same in not tolerating God’s truth. Of course, by nature, we all are hostile to God and to His truth; we do not submit to Him nor can we, on our own (Romans 8:7). As Jesus says in tonight’s Gospel Reading, we cannot bear fruit unless we abide in Him; for, apart from Him, we can do nothing.
Unfruitful and un-abiding branches, what we deserve is to be taken away, to be thrown away, to wither, and then to be gathered and thrown into the fire and be burned. On account of our sinful natures and our actual sins we deserve both death now in time and the death of eternal torment in the fires of hell. Yet, God does not desire the death of us sinners, but God desires that we repent: that we turn in sorrow from our sin, that we trust Him to forgive our sin, and that we want to do better than keep on sinning. When we so repent of our sin, then God forgives our sinful natures and our actual sins, whatever they might be. God forgives them all for Jesus’s sake.
You see, Jesus is the Vine. Jesus is the true Vine, in contrast to the corrupt wild vine, the vine bearing bad wild fruit, which vine unfaithful Israel had become and which vine we ourselves are by nature (Jeremiah 2:21; Isaiah 5:1-7; Ezekiel 15:1-8). Jesus kept His Father’s commandments and abides in His Father’s love. Jesus went to the cross to suffer and die for your sins and for mine, and Jesus rose from the grave, showing that the Father had accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. With His life, death, and resurrection for us, Jesus glorified the Father, and, in turn, the Father glorified Jesus. The Augsburg Confession and all of the other Lutheran Confessions glorify the Father by preserving the glory that belongs to Jesus. We believe, teach, and confess that Jesus alone saves us, not anything that we think, say, or do. For, if something that we thought, said, or did did anything to save ourselves, then Jesus would have less glory. Jesus alone of Himself has the right relationship with the Father (Vine and Vinedresser), and, in turn, Jesus gives us the right relationship to Himself (Vine and branches). For Jesus’s sake, the Father forgives us our sins, and, by the Holy Spirit through His Means of Grace, the Father enables us to abide in Jesus, in His words, in His love.
The figure of speech of a vine’s sap nourishing its branches only goes so far; at some point, it breaks down. Not every aspect of our scriptural faith can be mapped onto this figure of speech, nor was this figure of speech meant to illustrate every aspect of our scriptural faith. That said, however, there is an interesting overlap in the Greek expressions that Jesus uses that is lost in most Bible translations. Jesus says the Father “prunes” fruit-bearing branches so that they bear even more fruit, and then Jesus immediately uses a related Greek word to tell the disciples that they are already “clean” because of the Word that Jesus has spoken to them. Jesus’s Word—in all its forms: preaching, Holy Baptism, individual Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar—“cleanses” us with the forgiveness of sins and “prunes” us so that we bring forth even more fruits of faith. Jesus’s preached Word is spirit and life (John 6:63). Jesus’s Word with water in Holy Baptism is a cleansing bath that gives one spiritual birth and life from above (John 3:6-7; 13:10). Jesus’s Words of Absolution spoken through a pastor, to an individual who has privately confessed the sins known or felt in his or her heart, forgive those sins on earth and in heaven (John 20:23; Matthew 16:19; 18:18). And, Jesus’s Words with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar give His body and His blood and so give forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Especially in the Lord’s Supper we are mystically united with Jesus and He with us. Feeding on His flesh and drinking His blood, we abide in Him and He in us (John 6:56). The fruits of His perfect life and death given for us with the fruit of the vine, as the Sacrament of the Altar grafts us into Him so that we repeatedly are “cleansed” and “pruned” to bear even more fruit—fruits of repentance, the fruit of lips that confess His Name—as in the Augsburg Confession—and good works in keeping with our vocations (Luke 3:8; Hebrews 13:15; Luke 3:10-14).
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus emphasizes the urgency and priority of our abiding in Him, in His words, in His love and so our bringing forth such fruit. Such fruit shows that we are Jesus’s disciples and so glorifies the Father, and for such fruit we ask, and so it is done for us. All of what Jesus in the Gospel Reading speaks to us He speaks to us so that His joy may be in us and so our joy may be full—brought to the highest possible degree, as it relates to the fullness of salvation that is ours by grace through faith in Him. That salvation, that justification, is the central teaching of the Augsburg Confession, which both abides in and is fruit of the Vine, Jesus. At times we will fail to make that confession as we should, but, with repentance and faith, we daily live in His forgiveness of sins. We conclude our reflection on this Gospel Reading on this occasion by praying hymn‑writer Steven P. Mueller’s words (Lutheran Service Book 540:3):
Christ, the shoot that springs triumphant / From the stump of Jesse’s tree;
Christ, true vine, You nurture branches / To bear fruit abundantly.
Graft us into You, O Savior; / Prune our hearts so we remain
Fruitful branches in Your vineyard / Till eternal life we gain.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +