according to the instructions of the first bid.
Held on the day of St. Lawrence, 1516.
Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Joh. 12, 24.
1 The apostle distinguishes, Rom. 12, 7. 8. between two kinds of business of the preachers, namely teaching and exhorting, planting and watering, the foundation and the building up on this foundation. The former happens when the unknown truths are revealed and presented, but the latter happens when the already known truths are inculcated and the practice of them is urged. And so we have to keep it also with every holy commandment of God in detail. I have therefore taught in the foregoing, which
The true meaning of this commandment is how to live up to it or how to go against it. But now there is also a need for exhortation and warning, so that we will no longer act against it.
2. "You shall have no other gods besides me"; so says and commands God; that is, with pure faith, with firm hope, with uncolored love, we are to rely on God alone, to base ourselves on Him and to esteem Him so highly that without Him we feel completely abandoned and unhappy; He alone must be our only good, in which we have a taste, which we seek, which we expect and for which we long. It must go with us in such a way as Ps.
42, 2. 3. It is written: "As the deer cries for fresh water, so my soul, O God, cries for you; my soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come to behold the face of God?" O! a blessed, holy soul, highly esteemed in God's eyes, who is so pleased with God, who seeks Him so that she considers everything she sees, hears and feels to be tribulation and misery without God; that she can say with truth, v. 4: "My tears are my food day and night, because they say to me daily, Where is your God?" That one can say this with truth even in the days of temporal prosperity is an extraordinary grace from God; for to use such language in the time of tribulation is not such a great thing.
From this it follows that the smaller the characteristics of these feelings in the heart, the more distant man must consider himself from the fulfillment of this commandment. For the more wonderful and strange something appears to us, the further it seems to be from us. The reason for this lies in the conclusion: To whom God is something, other things cannot possibly be something; but to whom, on the contrary, other things are something, he cannot possibly think anything of God. Thus we find it in the case of the bride in the Song of Songs, when she had sought God everywhere; for she could not find Him even among the guards, that is, among the prelates and rulers of the church, until she passed before them also. It is so impossible to love anything besides God that one must feel indifference, even aversion, for His sake, even against learned and holy men. But to whom God is nothing, in his eyes even a tree leaf is something. For such a reason, St. Lawrence did not shy away from fire, nor did he consider the whole world to be something. If those who seek only God have reason to sigh, how can one weep enough for those who, like us, feel nothing of this state of mind, who do not even know their own misery, who do not know that they seek their bliss in something other than God, and who look to
trust in completely different things, who laugh and are cheerful in such things, about which others mourn and weep. O what a strange difference! That which makes those joyful makes these sad and troubles and worries them, whether it is one and the same.
(4) But let us continue our exhortation and both instruct the ignorant and present to them the reasons that should move them to trust in God. First of all, the distinction that God has bestowed upon us by bestowing upon us our nature and essence should be enough to awaken our hearts to trust in God. For if we believe that He created us, that He protects and sustains us, and that everything He created must serve for our good; if, I say, we believe that this is true, as it certainly is, how is it possible that we should not have a good heart toward Him? How can man be angry and impatient when God takes away one of them from him? He has given you five senses; how? if you lose one of them, will you then run elsewhere than to God? or will you not rather say: He has made me, I am His with all that I have? Job was armed with this attitude when he said at the loss of all his earthly goods, Cap. 1, 21: "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away." Which is also stated in 46. cap. V. 4. 5. of the prophet Isaiah, where it says: "I will carry you to old age and until you turn gray; I have made you, I will lift you, carry you and heal you. To whom will you compare me?" as if to say, "Do you think that I am a dead idol, that you will not trust me? But look now at the Christians who pray and confess: I believe in an almighty God, who is able to do everything, who has made everything and still does. When they meet with something adverse, that they lose their goods, beauty, a member of the body or temporal honor, they immediately say, "The devil has done that," and then take refuge, sometimes in men, sometimes in the help of the devil. If one asks these people: Do you believe in
an almighty God? they immediately answer: Yes, we believe it. If one asks further: Why do you not accept these coincidences as from God? What else can they answer than that their claim to believe was a false one, and that they admit their foolishness?
5 Therefore, the first reason for trusting in God is that we have received all things from God, so that we may learn to place our trust and hope in God, since He who has given us so much can and will give us much more. But God often plays with us as a father plays with his little child, taking away from him what he has given him, in order to put the child's attitude to the test and to stimulate his desire for the gift anew, for he has given it in order to inspire confidence in him; he takes it away again in order to put the confidence to the test. If the child gladly gives it back, it arouses all the greater affection in the father through such childlike confidence. But if he does not want to give back what he has given, but cries and screams, he provokes the father to anger and has the rod as his reward. This is what God does with all visible goods of this life, even with the life itself, which he has given us; for he has given everything so that we should trust in him, but he also takes everything away again, at least in death, so that he may put such trust to the test. Here the unbelieving transgressors of this commandment come to nothing, as Paul, 1 Cor. 1, 21, testifies with the words: "Because the world through its wisdom has not known God in His wisdom, it has pleased God through a foolish preaching to make blessed those who believe." So also, because the world did not recognize God in His goodness from the benefits and goods of God, it pleased Him to make blessed those who believe in Him through evil and the deprivation of goods and benefits.
(6) From this every ignorant man, even every scholar, shall learn to see how much God has given him that which he has denied to so many others, and shall therefore
ask: Why did God give it to me? Then he will certainly find enough reasons to trust in God. This should happen especially on our feast days. For this is why feast days are celebrated, so that we may remember them: Behold! God has given you healthy senses, a body fit for work, faithful parents, sufficient possessions, temporal peace, the fruits of the earth, the services of animals, the kindness of men, healthy air and weather, day and night, along with all that you see; be ashamed now that you have never praised, loved and acknowledged Him for this; indeed, that you have loved all this more than Him and have not learned to put it aside for His sake. This means keeping the holiday in the spirit, namely praying, praising and giving thanks, which is not done with the mouth only, or with musical instruments, or with other outward signs and postures, but it must take place in the depths of the heart.
(7) To such motives belong, on the other hand, spiritual good deeds, which actually belong to the first category, although they cannot be seen with the eyes, as there are understanding, science, arts, spiritual abilities, which are to be esteemed all the more highly, since one finds so many ignorant, clumsy, silly and useless people; then also all kinds of virtues, a good name for the promotion of a quiet, safe and happy life; as well as honor, favor, dignity and favored position.
Third, there are many testimonies in the Scriptures that promise two other things, merit and reward. The first is Jer. 17:5, which reads: "Cursed is the man that trusteth not in the Lord, but holdeth flesh for his arm, and turneth away his heart from the Lord: but blessed is he that trusteth in the Lord, and whose confidence is in the Lord." Another saying is found in the same prophet, Cap. 39, 17. 18. where it is said to the Moor Abimelech: "Because you have put your trust in me, I will save you and help your soul." The third saying is in the 125th Psalm: "He who hopes in the Lord shall not fall, but shall be saved.
will remain forever like Mount Zion. On the other hand, it is written about King Saul that he died in his sins because he did not put his hope in the Lord, the God of Israel. But Susanna trusted in the Lord, therefore she was not forsaken. So also throughout the 91st Psalm runs the thought: "He has trusted in me, therefore I will save him"; and Ps. 115, 9: "The house of Israel has hoped in the Lord; he is their helper and protector." Likewise Ps. 37:5: "Hope in the Lord; he will do it well." Finally Sirach. 2, 11.: "Know that no one has ever been forsaken and come to shame who has put his hope in God; for who has remained in his commandments and ever been forsaken? or who has called upon him whom he would have spurned?"
9) In addition, there are the benefits of His patience and longsuffering, Rom. 2, 4. Each one of us only looks back at his own past life, from how many dangers, misfortunes and deaths he has been saved, in which others have perished; how many times God has taken care of himself, even in great sins, to show how inclined he is to repay good for evil; then he will truly have to marvel at God's mercy.
Fifth, which coincides with the third point, consider how often riches, honor and pleasures have left those who sought their purpose and happiness in them. They have become disgraceful, for God has despised them. But if we had all this only from hearsay and did not know it from our own experience, our ignorance would not be so punishable. This has to be considered especially during the feast days.
11) Sixth, we must consider above all things that God Himself gave us His Son as the author and example of our faith.
He gave us Christ his Son as a model and helper, because he wants to draw us to himself and to establish our hearts in trust in him. For this very reason, that he might draw us to himself and establish our hearts in trust in him, he has given us Christ, his Son, as a model and example, and even as a helper, for Christ's word and sacraments give us the support of his grace, but his life gives us instruction and an example of how we should believe and trust in God. In this way, everything we find in Christ benefits us in two ways, namely through his sacraments and through his example, as Augustine writes in the third book of the Trinity: "It is a sacrament that Christ was bound for us, so that we who are bound may be eternally freed; but his example shows us how we are to be bound either by other men or by ourselves with bonds of repentance in the old man. Through the sacrament he justifies the inner man and renews him; but through the example he points to the outer man and shows us the old. Thus it is also a sacrament of Christ that he wanted to be without all trust and completely stripped of human help, even abandoned by God himself, so that we would not be without faith and trust, abandoned by God and desolate; but by his example we are to learn to be abandoned by the outer man and to be without hope and trust, so that we learn to place our hope in God alone. By his hope he took away our false hope and gave us a reason for a better trust, by giving us trust in God and taking away trust from the creature. We should only remember these benefits with a grateful heart, and in this way willingly hand over and sacrifice everything we possess to God, so that we may learn to trust in Him with joy forever.
Several interpretations of trusting in God. can be found in:
III. part, excerpt of some chapters of the 5th book of Moses, 7th chapter, § 83-113. Of mistrust, as well as of true trust in God.
IV. Theil, Ausl. der 22 ersten Ps., 5. Ps., § 170 bis 260. Von Vertrauen und Hoffnung auf GOtt.
XI. Theil, 2. sermon on the 5th Sunday, after Trin,
From faith in the provision of God and professional work.
XI. Part 1, sermon on the 5th Sunday after Trinity, on faith in temporal goods.
XII. Theil, Predigt am 3. S. n. Trin., § 28 ff.
Exhortation to faith and trust in God.
e. From obedience to God.
I. Part, Cap. 6, § 289-298. I. Part, Cap. 19, § 162-167. I. Part, Cap. 21, § 131-136.