84. Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. I.
Lord, take us with thee,
and let us abide with thee alway. Amen.
Gospel Lesson, Matthew 8, 23-27. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!
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The disciples around the Lord Jesus are the Christian church. It is exposed to storm and danger. The devil, with all his hosts, rages against it; for Jesus is to destroy the kingdom of the devil. By his means of grace, which the church administers and uses, Jesus rescues the souls from the prince of darkness, and lays waste his kingdom; therefore the evil enemy makes turbid the great sea of humanity, and attempts to bury the church under its waves. How badly have not the people of God many a time seemed likely to fare! They were persecuted with fire and sword, and the mighty men of the world had firmly resolved to eradicate “the sect of the Nazarenes” from the face of the earth. The devil invented false doctrines, with which he made people drunk to such an extent that they thought they were serving God when they shed the blood of his saints. For the church of our own times the outlook seems still more threatening; for mighty intellects are conspiring to dig for it a deep and safe grave beneath the riotous masses. Philosophy, the natural sciences, the art of poetry, the press, all are incessantly fanning the flames of unbelief in the hearts of men; and thus the Christian peoples are, in truth, like a sea that is stirred from the bottom up and runs high in waves of atheism, materialism, liberalism, socialism; and it looks as if the church might no longer be able to weather the storms, but must be filled with unbelief, and go to the bottom. However, this is nothing new. In the very earliest days of the church the devil thought to crush it by assaults on the part of learned men, and by the intermixture of strong delusions with the pure word of God. In reality there is, after all, no danger whatever that the church may perish. But there is danger for each individual believer that he may be swept away by the temptation to infidelity. The ship of the church shall always emerge uninjured out of the angry waves, and keep its proper course; for Jesus is on board. Let each of us, however, watch and pray, that he fall not away in time of temptation. Abide with the Lord; O, abide with him! Accept the correction which he administers for the weakness of your faith; hear his word wherein he chastens you, and it shall calm your troubled heart; then shall you be strengthened, and your eye shall behold the glory of God. Make diligent use of the means of grace in the church; then shall you remain with the Lord in the ship. Be assured beyond a doubt that the almighty Lord Jesus shall save the humble and faithful, who willingly let themselves be disciplined for their want of faith, and who cling to him in all their distress; while the sleepy and the conceited and the foolhardy shall surely be swept away by the waves.
Faithful Lord Jesus, preserve us in faith unto the end. Let none of us tempt the deep without thee; and when the danger comes, be thou our refuge and deliverance. “When compassed about with dangers sore, When the waves run high and the tempests roar; Do thou, O Lord, our captain be, And give us faith to trust in thee.”*
I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if thou abide with me!
[TLH 552, LSB 878, ELH 561; listen here]
85. Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. II.
My God, give me the love of Christ
in my heart. Amen.
Epistle Lesson, Romans 13, 8-10. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
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When the world hates, we love all the more; and we return love for hatred. And when the world assaults us, and attempts our overthrow, this shall, by the grace of God, have no other effect than to unite us more closely, and to strengthen the fraternal spirit among us. Love one another. This is the law in the kingdom of Christ. It is our bounden duty to love one another; and the Lord has given us grace to do it. It is a blessed debt. We cheerfully pay it; but, at the same time, we do not wish ever to be rid of it. We strive to fulfill this our obligation, and are happy in being able to do that which is our duty; but we also desire to feel more and more deeply what we owe one another.
“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” What a kingly commandment this is; and how rich and precious life would be, if the commandment were obeyed! And in Christ this is possible. When he says to us: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another;” he gives us at the same time power to do what he commands. If we believe his words, they work in us that which he speaks. It is owing to the weakness of our faith that we neither love as warmly as we ought, nor prove our love in deed and truth. You have love in your heart, my Christian friend; use it in faith. You are in Christ; and the living vine is not wanting in sap or in life. The perverseness of your nature, which caused you to hate the law, has by the death of Christ been conquered for you and in you, with the result that you now love the law; and it is quite certain that in Christ you have power to live the life of love. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Go, then, and live your whole life in love; let all that you do be done in love. O, how happy you are! What a blessed thing it is to be with Christ in his church when tempests roar on every hand.
Lord, again we pray thee: Pour out thy love into our hearts by thy Holy Spirit. “Give me, O Lord, this greatest bliss I know, A heart that with thy love doth overflow.” Amen.*
O gentle Dew, from heaven now fall
With power upon the hearts of all,
Thy tenderness instilling;
That heart to heart more closely bound,
Fruitful in kindly deeds be found,
The law of love fulfilling;
No wrath, no strife, then shall grieve thee;
We receive thee:
Where thou livest
Peace and love and joy thou givest.
[TLH 235, LSB 913, ELH 27; listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.