Monday of Misericordias Domini (05.04.2014)
IN District Southern Region Pastor’s Conference
1 Peter 2:21-25
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
For you were straying like sheep. As it is for the flock of sheep, so it is for the gathering of undershepherds. We have, every one of us, strayed. Wandered from the good green pastures of our Lord’s Word and wholesome Sacraments, from fidelity to our Confessions, seeking our sustenance elsewhere.
We have committed sin, some we fear to name, even to our father confessors. Deceit has been found in our mouths. Either by the soft peddling of the Law, the guarded statements spoken in fear of rejection, or the full out denial of our Lord’s revelation in His Word.
When we are reviled, beaten down, abused, our first reaction is often retort, complaint, and retaliation. When we suffer, for certain we threaten. Threaten to leave, threaten to get even, threaten to break the seal.
If the duties of the Holy Office to which you have been called were up to you, you would have failed long ago. And this is precisely why we have failed, we have behaved as if they were up to us rather than entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly.
Return to the Shepherd and Bishop of your soul; that is to say, Repent. Your Good Shepherd, in laying down His life for you has left you an example; more than that, Your Chief Shepherd, in laying down His life for you has taken your place. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore your sins in His body on the Tree. By His wounds you have been healed.
Brothers, die then to sin and live to righteousness. For there is but one flock and one Shepherd. Head the living voice of His Word. For by it He comforts you in your weaknesses that you may be able to comfort and strengthen your brothers. He who has healed you by His stripes has appointed you to be a bishop and pastor in His Church. He knows how unfit you are for the Office.
But because He has called you and the people need the Word, preach. Feed His lambs. Tend His sheep. Feed His sheep. To this you have been called. Bring them to the selfsame pasture of His Word. Feed them on the Body and Blood of their Good Shepherd, even the very Lamb of God, who has ransomed them. He your Bishop and theirs. And He has appointed you bishop of His flock; a steward of His mysteries. As Clement of Rome wrote, “Where the Bishop is there is the Church.” That is, where lambs and sheep hear the voice of their Good Shepherd, there is the flock.
Such is the order of the Augstana: So that we may obtain justifying faith, the ministry of the Word and Sacraments was instituted. In an ordination address given December 28, 1961, Bishop Bo Giertz said,
"Paul says that he hold his ministry high. He knows that he has been given it from God. He knows that God has given this commission specifically to him. This forms and shapes his entire life. He is not only a Christian like all others. He also has this special commission, this ministry. And the pastor should be aware of this. The world already knows it. It feels it, maybe with a certain uneasiness. Perhaps it ridicules, even despises, the ministry. It looks upon the [Lutheran] pastor as something pompous and strange, before which one feels a little unsure or artificial. All this the pastor shall take with great composure. He shall not try to convince people that he “is just an ordinary person.” He is not. He has this ministry." (Hammer for God, p282)
In mercy Christ suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. In mercy you are Christian, made little Christ’s through Baptism by which you died to sin and live to righteousness. In mercy you have the privilege of living in the forgiveness of sins, which we need every day, just as often as our flocks. And it is through Christ’s mercy that we have been called and ordained to this ministry (cf. Hammer for God, p283).
“O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Thou Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, send Thy Holy Spirit that He may work with us, yea, that He may work in us to will and to do through Thy divine strength according to Thy good pleasure,” (Luther’s Sacristy Prayer) for Thou lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, to whom be glory and honor now and forever. Amen.
IN District Southern Region Pastor’s Conference
1 Peter 2:21-25
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
For you were straying like sheep. As it is for the flock of sheep, so it is for the gathering of undershepherds. We have, every one of us, strayed. Wandered from the good green pastures of our Lord’s Word and wholesome Sacraments, from fidelity to our Confessions, seeking our sustenance elsewhere.
We have committed sin, some we fear to name, even to our father confessors. Deceit has been found in our mouths. Either by the soft peddling of the Law, the guarded statements spoken in fear of rejection, or the full out denial of our Lord’s revelation in His Word.
When we are reviled, beaten down, abused, our first reaction is often retort, complaint, and retaliation. When we suffer, for certain we threaten. Threaten to leave, threaten to get even, threaten to break the seal.
If the duties of the Holy Office to which you have been called were up to you, you would have failed long ago. And this is precisely why we have failed, we have behaved as if they were up to us rather than entrust ourselves to Him who judges justly.
Return to the Shepherd and Bishop of your soul; that is to say, Repent. Your Good Shepherd, in laying down His life for you has left you an example; more than that, Your Chief Shepherd, in laying down His life for you has taken your place. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore your sins in His body on the Tree. By His wounds you have been healed.
Brothers, die then to sin and live to righteousness. For there is but one flock and one Shepherd. Head the living voice of His Word. For by it He comforts you in your weaknesses that you may be able to comfort and strengthen your brothers. He who has healed you by His stripes has appointed you to be a bishop and pastor in His Church. He knows how unfit you are for the Office.
But because He has called you and the people need the Word, preach. Feed His lambs. Tend His sheep. Feed His sheep. To this you have been called. Bring them to the selfsame pasture of His Word. Feed them on the Body and Blood of their Good Shepherd, even the very Lamb of God, who has ransomed them. He your Bishop and theirs. And He has appointed you bishop of His flock; a steward of His mysteries. As Clement of Rome wrote, “Where the Bishop is there is the Church.” That is, where lambs and sheep hear the voice of their Good Shepherd, there is the flock.
Such is the order of the Augstana: So that we may obtain justifying faith, the ministry of the Word and Sacraments was instituted. In an ordination address given December 28, 1961, Bishop Bo Giertz said,
"Paul says that he hold his ministry high. He knows that he has been given it from God. He knows that God has given this commission specifically to him. This forms and shapes his entire life. He is not only a Christian like all others. He also has this special commission, this ministry. And the pastor should be aware of this. The world already knows it. It feels it, maybe with a certain uneasiness. Perhaps it ridicules, even despises, the ministry. It looks upon the [Lutheran] pastor as something pompous and strange, before which one feels a little unsure or artificial. All this the pastor shall take with great composure. He shall not try to convince people that he “is just an ordinary person.” He is not. He has this ministry." (Hammer for God, p282)
In mercy Christ suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. In mercy you are Christian, made little Christ’s through Baptism by which you died to sin and live to righteousness. In mercy you have the privilege of living in the forgiveness of sins, which we need every day, just as often as our flocks. And it is through Christ’s mercy that we have been called and ordained to this ministry (cf. Hammer for God, p283).
“O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, Thou Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, send Thy Holy Spirit that He may work with us, yea, that He may work in us to will and to do through Thy divine strength according to Thy good pleasure,” (Luther’s Sacristy Prayer) for Thou lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, to whom be glory and honor now and forever. Amen.
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