Third Sunday After Trinity, June 16, 2024

Third Sunday After Trinity, June 16, 2024

A pernicious fallacy promulgated by the Father of Lies tells us that once we have repented from unbelief to belief we progress in righteousness and sanctification and, if we don’t, we are guilty of backsliding. Luther refutes this fallacy specifically in his Large Catechism where he speaks of progress by saying that the only progress is to begin again. He means that repentance is not one and done… that conversion is not once and forever… that faith in Christ must constantly be reestablished over and against faith in one’s self. The ninety-nine righteous persons who needed no repentance are a fiction in this lost and sin-broken world where the flesh still adheres. The ninety-nine’s righteousness exists only in their imaginations and their lack of needing repentance held only in their dreams. Their faith was entirely in themselves. So, too, for you and I. We must always hear anew and afresh each day Jesus’ words, “Repent and believe!” Then, we are relieved from the burden of yesterday’s faith and yesterday’s righteousness… relieved of that legal burden and delivered into the freedom of the gospel and its righteousness. In being so delivered, we are repented into the truth of the promise that our Lord’s steadfast love and mercy never end but are new and fresh every morning (Lam. 3:22-23).

Prayers from one who builds on yesterday’s faith and righteousness…

Father in heaven, your Son, the Word of God, seeks me out, grant that my being found repents me of yesterday’s faith and righteousness and delivers me into a faith fit for today. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Father in heaven, your Son, the Word of God, seeks me out, grant that my faith and trust in your mercy and steadfast love are reestablished today in their truth and purity. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Father in heaven, your Son, the Word of God, seeks me out, grant that I be relieved of trusting myself but that I am brought into the trust of the one who has found me. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Father in heaven, your Son, the Word of God, seeks me out, grant me neighbors who rejoice with me daily as they come to celebrate my being found. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Father in heaven, your Son, the Word of God, seeks me out, grant that I rejoice with my neighbors when one of them has been found by the same Word that has sought me out. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Father in heaven, your Son, the Word of God, seeks me out, grant that I see in the Institute of Lutheran Theology a source of that Word which has come to seek me and others out to deliver us from being lost. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.

Father in heaven, your Son, the Word of God, seeks me out, grant that I live out these days of my baptism in rejoicing and celebration each day as the Word of God, Jesus Christ, finds me time and again until that day when the New Creation arrives in its manifest glory. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.