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The following reading from the CONCORDIA edition of the Book of Concord is for the LSB series A, Gospel, Matthew 5:13-20 for the Epiphany 5, series A, February 6, 2011. It is from Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXVII, Pages 237,239. Jesus makes it clear that his disciples are to be doing the Lord's work, not like tasteless salt or light that is hidden and doesn't shine for the benefit of others. Click here for the reading formatted for the back of a standard CPH bulletin. Pastor Doug May
It is clear how much hypocrisy, ambition, and greed there are in the monasteries, how much ignorance and cruelty exists among all the unlearned, what pride there is in their sermons, and how they continually create new ways of making money. There are other faults, which we do not care to mention. Monasteries were schools for Christian instruction; now they have deteriorated… All the most wealthy monasteries support only a lazy crowd, which gorges itself upon the public alms of the Church. Christ, however, teaches that the salt that has lost its savor should be cast out and be trodden underfoot (Matthew 5:13). By such morals the monks are singing their own fate ‹a requiem, and it will soon be over with them›… Certainly we do not accuse every one of them, for here and there some good men in the monasteries decide fairly about human and "factitious" services, as some writers call them, and do not approve the cruelty exercised by the hypocrites among them. Now we are discussing the kind of teaching that the writers of the Confutation defend: Can these services merit the forgiveness of sins and justification? Are they satisfactions for sins? Are they equal to Baptism? Are they the obedience to basic rules and counsels? Do they have the merits of super-abundance? Do these merits, when applied to others, save them? (paragraphs 4-6, 8-9)
These are excerpts from the Book of Concord.
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