I was honored to read this statement from Pr. Todd Wilken after the Evening Prayer service held at Emmaus on 13 April 2008. Thanks, Todd, for echoing my homily so well! ;-)In this morning’s Epistle, Peter writes,
Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 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 our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:21-24)Can we do better than Christ? No. Jesus Christ was judged in our place at the Cross. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.”
Entrust yourselves to Him Who judges justly.
To that end, I can do no better than the prayer with which Philip Melanchthon’s ended his preface to the Apology of the Augsburg Confession:
We shall commend our cause, therefore, to Christ, who some time will judge these controversies, and we beseech Him to look upon the afflicted and scattered churches, and to bring them back to godly and perpetual concord. Therefore, if the known and clear truth is trodden under foot, we will resign this cause to God and Christ in heaven, who is the Father of orphans and the Judge of widows and of all the forsaken, who (as we certainly know) will judge and pass sentence upon this cause aright. Lord Jesus Christ it is Thy holy Gospel, it is Thy cause; look Thou upon the many troubled hearts and consciences, and maintain and strengthen in Thy truth Thy churches and little flocks, who suffer anxiety and distress from the devil. Confound all hypocrisy and lies, and grant peace and unity, so that Thy glory may advance, and Thy kingdom, strong against all the gates of hell, may continually grow and increase. Amen.
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