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.)
The date was June 25, in the year of our Lord 15‑30, in the “lower larger room” or “chapter hall” of the Episcopal Palace in the city of Augsburg in the country we today know as Germany. Accompanied by Chancellor Heins Brueck, principle author Philip Melanchthon, and perhaps others, Dr. Christian Beyer stepped to the front of the assembly, and the Lutheran delegates rose to their feet, as Beyer for some two hours read in German the Lutheran profession of faith ever since known as the Augsburg Confession—read not only to the Emperor and some 200 other people packed inside the room but also to those outside in front of the room and in the nearby Palatinate and Castle Courtyard who reportedly could understand every word (Schwiebert, 729)—warm weather, so open windows, without air‑conditioning, closed‑circuit television, or even a public‑address system, much less viewing live on YouTube or streaming or downloading later.
The date perhaps was October 8, 445 years before Christ (Wenthe, CPR 23:1), on the square before the Water Gate in the city of Jerusalem in the country we today know as the State of Israel. Accompanied by four chiefs of the people—Anaiah, Maaseiah, Hashum, and Meshullam—and nine others standing on a wooden platform made for the purpose, Ezra the scribe and priest opened the Book of the Law of Moses, and all the people stood, as Ezra for some six hours read in Hebrew, likely excerpts from what we know as the first five Divinely‑inspired books of the Old Testament, and all the people answered “Amen, Amen”, lifting up their hands, bowing their heads, and worshipping the Lord with their faces to the ground. Then, thirteen Levites helped the people to understand better what was read, translating it and applying it to them.
Today we commemorate the 496th anniversary of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, and, in doing so, we use an Old Testament Reading about an observance of what is called the Feast of Trumpets (see, for example, Leviticus 23:23-25), on which was prescribed a reading of God’s Word, as we heard indeed took place (see, for example, Deuteronomy 31:9-13). In my nearly 28 years of ordained ministry now, I have preached on some eight Commemorations of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession but, before tonight, I have not once preached on this Old Testament Reading, which Old Testament Reading is not always appointed for this occasion, but, when it is appointed, seemingly is appointed because of the similarities between the public reading of the Augsburg Confession and the public reading of God’s Word. As they applied to those hearing them read on those occasions, arguably both God’s Word and the Augsburg Confession based solidly on God’s Word apply also to us, they apply to us not only on this occasion but also always.
In the Old Testament Reading, all the people wept as they heard God’s law. Apparently, the Holy Spirit worked through God’s law to cause the people to grieve over their sin. How do you and I react when we hear God’s law? Do we get indignant and think that the pastor is hitting too close to home? Or, even if a particular sin mentioned might not apply to us, do we recognize both our other particular sins and our general sinfulness? To be sure, the Augsburg Confession makes clear that all people “who are born according to the course of nature are conceived and born in sin”. That is, they “are full of evil lust and inclinations from their mothers’ wombs and are unable by nature to have true fear of God and true faith in God”. (Augsburg Confession II:1.) Like the people in today’s Old Testament Reading, we should grieve over our sinful nature and our actual sin, which deserve both our deaths here and now and our torment in hell for eternity. However, as Nehemiah, the governor, and Ezra, the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people told them not to mourn or weep but to rejoice in the Lord their strength, so as God, out of His great love, through our pastors, turns us in sorrow from our sin and leads us to trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, also we go “From grief to joy”.
The Savior from sin that the people of Nehemiah and Ezra’s day expected to come in fact did come centuries later when, as the Augsburg Confession puts it, the Son of God took on a human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried, that He might reconcile the Father to us and be a sacrifice not only for original sin but also for all actual sins of humankind (Augsburg Confession III:1-3). At the center both of Holy Scripture and of the Augsburg Confession based solidly on Holy Scripture is the teaching that we cannot obtain forgiveness of sins and righteousness before God by our own merits, works or satisfactions, but that we receive forgiveness of sin and become righteous before God by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith, when we believe that Christ suffered for us and that for His sake our sin is forgiven and righteousness and eternal life are given to us (Augsburg Confession IV:1‑2).
In order for us to obtain such saving faith, God instituted the Office of the Holy Ministry, that is, God provided the Gospel and the Sacraments, through which, as through means, God gives the Holy Spirit, Who works faith, when and where He pleases, in those who hear the Gospel (Augsburg Confession V:1-2). And, the Augsburg Confession also says, the Sacraments were instituted not only to be signs by which people might be identified outwardly as Christians, but that they also are signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us for the purpose of awakening and strengthening our faith, and so they require faith and are rightly used when they are received in faith and for the purpose of strengthening faith (Augsburg Confession XIII:1-2). The Augsburg Confession is “defended” as teaching that the genuine Sacraments are Baptism, private Absolution, and the Lord’s Supper, which all have the command of God and the promise of grace, which is at the heart of Holy Scripture, so, when we are baptized, when we are absolved, and when we eat the Lord’s Body and drink His Blood, our hearts should firmly believe that God really forgives us for Christ’s sake (Apology of the Augsburg Confession XIII:4).
In the Old Testament Reading, because they had understood the words that were declared to them and so were exhorted by their leaders, the people went their way to eat richly-prepared food and to drink sweet wine and to send portions to those who had nothing ready, perhaps because they had nothing to prepare, and to make great rejoicing. Likewise, the Augsburg Confession says that saving faith is bound to bring forth good fruits and that we must do the good works that God has commanded, but not because we place our trust in those good works, as if they merit favor before God, for we receive forgiveness of sins and righteousness through faith in Christ (Augsburg Confession VI:1‑2). God’s law not only shows our sinful nature our sin, so that we live every day with sorrow over our sin and trust in God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, but God’s law also shows our redeemed nature the good works that God wants us each to do according to our various callings in life.
As God did with those in the Old Testament Reading, God moves us “From grief to joy”. If you were to go to the area of the Water Gate in Jerusalem tomorrow, you apparently would go to what is now a national park and an archaeological area, where excavations have revealed ancient gate‑houses and water‑channels. If you were to go to the area of the Episcopal Palace in Augsburg tomorrow, you reportedly would find only the palace tower from the 15‑30 structure, with a plaque on the tower’s façade memorializing the Augsburg Confession’s having been presented there. The places may change, but the Word of God and the Augsburg Confession based solidly on the Word of God live on. The immediate future of the real people in Ezra and Nehemiah’s day and the immediate future of the Lutheran confessors in 15‑30 were uncertain, as the immediate future of us in our day is uncertain, but, as did they, so do we go forward with good courage knowing that God’s hand is leading us and His love is supporting us (confer Lutheran Service Book Collect #193 p.311).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
