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The Road to Emmaus Volume 13, No. 10–11 All Saints (Oct–Nov) 2006 From the Lutheran Confessions . on Remembrance of Saints “Our Churches teach that the remembrance of saints may be commended to us so that we imitate their faith and good works accor- ding to our calling. Thus the emperor may follow the example of David in waging war to drive the Turk out of his country, for like David the emperor is a king. However, the Scriptures do not teach us to pray to the saints or seek their help, for the only Mediator, Propitiator, High Priest, and Intercessor Whom the Scriptures set before us is Christ. He is to be prayed to, and He has promised to hear our prayers. Such worship Christ especially approves, namely, that in all afflictions He be called upon. ‘If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father,’ etc. (I John 2:1). .” [Our Roman opponents condemn this article,] “because we do not require the invocation of the saints. Nowhere else do they expend so much sophistry, but all they manage to prove is that the saints should be honored and that the living saints should pray for others. They present this as though on this account the invocation of departed saints were also necessary. Yet, the theory of invocation, together with the theories our opponents now hold about the application of merits, surely has no support among the ancient Fathers. “Our [Augsburg] Confession approves giving honor to the saints. This honor is threefold: (1.) “The first is thanksgiving: we should thank God for showing examples of His mercy, revealing His will to save men, and giving teachers and other gifts to the Church. Since these are His greatest gifts, we should extol them very highly; we should also praise the saints themselves for using these gifts, just as Christ praises faithful businessmen (Matt. 25). (2.) “The second honor is the strengthening of our faith: when we see Peter forgiven after his denial, we are encouraged to believe that grace does indeed abound more than sin (Rom. 5). (3.) “The third honor is the imitation, first of their faith and then of their other virtues, which each should imitate in accordance with his calling. “Our opponents do not require these real honors; they only argue about invocation, which, even if it were not dangerous, is certainly unnecessary. “Besides, we grant that the angels pray for us. This is attested to by Zech 1:12, where the angel prays, ‘O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou have no mercy on Jerusalem?’ We also grant that the saints in heaven pray for the Church in general, as they prayed for the Church universal while they were on earth. Nevertheless, there is no passage in Scripture about the dead praying, except for the dream recorded in the Second Book of the Maccabees. “Even if the saints do pray fervently for the Church, it does not follow that they should be invoked. But our Confession affirms only this much, that Scripture does not teach us to invoke the saints or to ask their help. Neither a command nor a promise nor an example can be shown from Scripture for the invocation of the saints; from this it follows that consciences cannot be sure about such invocation. Since prayer ought to come from faith, how do we know that God approves such invocation? How do we know, without proof from Scripture, that the saints hear the individual’s prayers? . Therefore our opponents should not coerce us to adopt something uncertain, for prayer without faith is not prayer. Since they refer to the example of the Church, we reply that this is a novel custom in the Church. The ancient prayers mention the saints, but they do not invoke them. “Not only do our opponents require invocation in the veneration of the saints; they even apply the merits of the saints to others and make the saints propitiators as well as intercessors. This is completely in- tolerable, for it transfers to the saints honor belonging to Christ alone. “Our opponents teach that we should put our trust in the invocation of the saints, though they have neither a Word of God nor an example from Scripture for this. They apply the merits of the saints in the same way as the merits of Christ and thus transfer to the saints the honor that belongs to Christ. Therefore we cannot accept either their ideas about venerating the saints or their practice of praying to them. We know that we must put our trust in the intercession of Christ because only this has God’s promise. We know that the merits of Christ are our only propitiation. Because of them we are accounted righteous when we believe in Him, as the text says (Rom. 9:33), ‘He who believes in Him will not be put to shame.’” (From the Augsburg Confession and its Apology [Defense]) For all the saints who from their labors rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blest. Alleluia! Alleluia! Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might; Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight; Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light. Alleluia! Alleluia! Oh, may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold, Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old And win with them the victor’s crown of gold! Alleluia! Alleluia! Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine! We feebly struggle, they in glory shine; Yet all are one in Thee, for all are Thine. Alleluia! Alleluia! (LSB #677) A RESTING PLACE FOR RESTLESS HEARTS The Sermon Text is the Word of Jesus concerning the freedom of discipleship, from the Gospel According to Saint John; and also the story of Martin Luther, Doctor and Confessor of the faith. In the Name Z of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is generally well known that Dr. Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk when he set off the chain of events that became the 16th- century Reformation. As an Augustinian, Luther followed in the footsteps of the great Saint Augustine, the fifth-century Bishop of Hippo. Not only in his theology, but also in his personal journey of faith, Luther mirrored the famous namesake of his monastic order. Both men spent many years searching for the truth of God, before making their monumental contributions to the historical life and theology of the Western Church. There is one saying of Saint Augustine, in particular, found in his autobiographical Confessions, which captures the very essence of Luther’s own search for the truth. “You have made us for Yourself, O God,” the Bishop of Hippo prayed, “and our hearts are restless, until they rest in You.” It is a justifiably famous saying. And what is more, it is in fact a profound prayer that could easily be used to describe the entire Reformation. As a young man, as near as we can tell, Luther must have thought and reflected a great deal on the meaning of life. He was restless for a sense of purpose, as young people often are, and he was especially anxious to know where he stood in the eyes of God. Finding little satisfaction or fulfillment on his way to becoming a lawyer, in desper- ation he entered the monastery. And just as Saint Paul had excelled as a pharisee among pharisees, so did Luther push himself to be the most diligent of monks. The stories of his self-inflicted burdens and deprivations are legendary. So many hours on end did he spend in the confessional, wrestling with his restless conscience, that his father- confessor finally had to scold him and send him away. How many of us haven’t also wondered, Why are we here? and What is the point to it all? How many restless nights have we spent . Unable to sleep, worrying about money, worrying about our children, worrying about our jobs? How often are we in such a hurry to get through the day, already anxious for tomorrow, yet frightened of what the future might hold? Like running on a treadmill, or riding an exercise bike, we work and sweat with all our might, never seeming to get anywhere. Or what is worse, maybe everything seems to be going our way, until we start to believe that we’re really in control, only to discover (in the end) that nothing lasts forever and you can’t take it with you. Why are we here, and what is the point to it all? In our restless search for an answer, too often we work and struggle to create our own meaning and purpose, to make a name for our- selves. Perhaps we take on the impossible task of trying to please all of the people all of the time. Even more bold and foolish, we try to please God and earn His favor with our own achievements. In fact, we might even be able to fool ourselves for a while with these attempts at self-styled meaning and purpose. Sadly enough, many people never do see past their own charade; they fool themselves, until it is too late. That was the case for many of the Jews in Jesus’ day—the very people who should have known better. As Saint Paul indicates in Romans, these were the people with all the advantages. They had the Covenant, the Word of God, the Temple and its sacrificial system, the Worship of Yahweh; they had the promise of Messiah.