From Our Fathers

Monday in Pentecost 4
21 June 2010

I appreciated the prayer for fathers offered at the altar of our church yesterday. Pastor St-Onge prayed not only for our fathers in the flesh, but also for our spiritual fathers. I am grateful for those people who taught me the faith and modeled it for me. My own father in the flesh, Sunday School teachers like Mrs. Sinyard, the pastor who catechized me, Pr. Gerald Scholz, beloved professors, like Dr. Robert D. Preus, dear colleagues, like Pr. St-Onge, and beloved fathers, like some of the great elders of my parish, have all begotten me by delivering the gospel to me. I had many fathers in the faith, more than I could ever list. I owe a debt of gratitude to the church's sons, who all fathered me in the faith of Christ. They all taught and even now teach me that the divine promise comes only through the gospel. They are part of that great company of the saints created by their mother, the church, who then have a part in begetting many more children until the day when there will be no more begetting nor being begotten.

That begetting also occurs through the conversation that still goes on between the living and the dead. No, I don't mean by séances and mediums, but by listening to the teachings of our ancient forebears whose books, sermons, and letters deliver the holy gospel to those of us privileged enough to stand on their shoulders and listen in on what they are saying. We are given birth by some ancient fathers: Cyprian, Hilary, Augustine, and Luther, just to name a few of the more eminent fathers of the church. How prolific the holy church is through the work of so many fathers, both living and dead.

Through such a birth of the living and active Word of God, which is the divine promise of blessing, we become heirs of the church, which is God's kingdom. We are heirs of a free salvation so that through it we become free people. We are sons; heirs of the kingdom through birth of Sarah, who is our mother, the church. We have been begotten by the gospel from the watery womb of baptism which is the body of our mother, the church. In her divinely-given word, we are declared justified in God's sight. Our sin no longer plagues us. We are free. What a great thing to gain from our fathers.

Martin Luther

This allegory (Gal 4:22-31) teaches in a beautiful way that the church should not do anything but preach the gospel correctly and purely and thus give birth to free people. In this way we are all fathers and sons of one another, for we are born of one another. I was born of others through the gospel, and now I am a father to still others, who will be fathers to still others; and so this giving birth will endure until the end of the world. But I am speaking, not about Hagar's giving birth, who gives birth to slaves through the law, but about free Sarah's, who gives birth to heirs without the law, without works or their own efforts. That Isaac is the heir and Ishmael is not, even though both are natural sons of Abraham, happens through the Word of promise, specifically: "Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac" (Gn 17:19). Sarah understood this very well, and therefore she said: "Cast out this slave woman with her son" (Gn 21:10); words that Paul quotes below (Gal 4:30). Therefore just as Isaac has the inheritance from his father solely on the basis of the promise and of his birth, without the law or works, so we through the gospel are born as heirs of Sarah, the free woman, that is, by the church. She teaches, cherishes, and carries us in her womb, her bosom, and her arms; she shapes and perfects us to the form of Christ, until we grow into complete manhood (Eph 4:13). Thus everything happens through the ministry of the Word. It is the office of a free woman by marriage to God to go on giving birth to free persons endlessly, that is, to such sons who know that they are justified by faith, not by the law.

Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, loc. cit.