Sermon 336
SERMO 336
On the Dedication of the Church
The building and dedication of the house of God in us. A new commandment a new song.
The fame of this congregation is the dedication of the house of prayer. Therefore, this is the house of our prayers, the house of God, ourselves. If we ourselves are the house of God, we are built in this world to be dedicated at the end of the world. Construction, or rather building, has labor, dedication has exultation. What was done here when these things arose is now done when believers in Christ are gathered. For by believing, as if from forests and mountains, wood and stones are cut; when they are catechized, baptized, and formed, they are hewed, aligned, and smoothed as though by the hands of artisans and workers. However, they do not make the house of the Lord unless they are joined together in love. If these pieces of wood and stones do not coherently align themselves in a certain order, if they do not peacefully interweave, if they do not in some way lovingly adhere to one another, no one would enter here. Finally, when you see the stones and wood in some structure well adhering to each other, you enter safely, not fearing collapse. Therefore, wishing to enter and dwell in us, the Lord Christ, as if building, was saying: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." "A commandment," he says, "I give to you." For you were old, not yet making a house for me, lying in your ruin. Therefore, to be uplifted from the oldness of your ruin, love one another. Let your Charity consider that this house is still being built throughout the whole world, as it was predicted and promised. For when the house was being built after the captivity, as another psalm has it, it was said: "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth." What he said there, a new song; the Lord said, a new commandment. For what does a new song have, if not a new love? To sing is the act of one who loves. The voice of this singer is the fervor of holy love.
God is to be loved for His own sake, and neighbor for the sake of God.
Let us love, let us love freely: for we love God, than whom we find nothing better. Let us love Him for Himself, and ourselves in Him, yet for His sake. For he truly loves a friend, who loves God in the friend, either because He is in him, or that He may be in him. This is true love: if we love ourselves for another reason, we hate rather than love. For he who loves iniquity: what does he hate? perhaps his neighbor, perhaps his neighbor's wife? Let him shudder, he hates his own soul. Hatred of the soul, love of wickedness. Therefore, against the hatred of wickedness, love of the soul. You who love the Lord, hate evil. God is good, what you love is evil, and you love yourself in evil: how do you love God when you still love what God hates? For you have heard that God loved us: and it is true, He loved us; and if we consider what kinds of people He loved, we blush. But therefore we do not blush, because by loving such people, He made them not such. We blush at the recollection of the past, we rejoice in the hope of the future. For why should we now blush for what we were, and not rather be confident that we have been saved in hope? Finally, we have heard: Approach Him, and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed. If the light withdraws, you return to confusion. Approach Him, and be enlightened. Therefore He is the light, we without Him are darkness. If you withdraw from the light, you will remain in your darkness: if therefore you approach, you will not shine with your own light: For you were once darkness, says the Apostle to the faithful who were once unbelievers: You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. If therefore light in the Lord, darkness without the Lord. Further, if light in the Lord, and darkness without the Lord; approach Him, and be enlightened.
The passion of Christ foretold in the Psalm of dedication.
Attend to the Psalm of Dedication that we have just sung, from destruction to building. You have torn my sackcloth: this pertains to destruction. What then about the building? And you have girded me with gladness. The voice of dedication: That my glory may sing to you, and not be silent. Who is the one speaking? Recognize him by his words. If I explain, it will be obscure. Therefore, I will say his words, and you will immediately recognize the speaker, so that you may love the one addressing you. Who is the one who could say: Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol? Whose soul has been brought up from Sheol, except of whom it is said elsewhere: You will not leave my soul in hell? Dedication is proposed, and liberation is sung: the song of the dedication of the house is jubilated, and it is said: I will extol you, Lord, for you have lifted me up, and have not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me. Consider the Jewish enemies, who thought they had killed Christ, had conquered him as an enemy, had destroyed him as a mere mortal man similar to others. He rose on the third day, and this is his voice: I will extol you, Lord, for you have lifted me up. Listen to the Apostle saying: Therefore, God exalted him and gave him a name that is above every name. And you have not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me. Indeed they rejoiced in the death of Christ, but in his resurrection, ascension, and preaching some were pricked at heart. Therefore, in his preaching and by the steadfastness of the Apostles in spreading the word, some were pricked at heart and converted, some were hardened and confounded; but none rejoiced. Now when churches are filled, do we think the Jews rejoice? Churches are built, dedicated, filled, how can they rejoice? Not only do they not rejoice, but they are also confounded; and the voice of exultation is fulfilled: I will extol you, Lord, for you have lifted me up, and have not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me. You have not allowed them to rejoice over me: if they believe in me, they will rejoice in me.
Our price is the blood of Christ.
Let us not speak much but rather come to those things we have sung sometimes. How does Christ say: You have torn my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness? His sackcloth was the likeness of sinful flesh. Do not regard it as trivial when he says, my sackcloth: there, your price was included. You have torn my sackcloth. We have escaped to this sackcloth. You have torn my sackcloth. The sackcloth was torn in the passion. How then is it said to God the Father: You have torn my sackcloth? How can it be said to the Father, do you want to hear? You have torn my sackcloth. Because He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. For He did it through the ignorant Jews, so that the knowledgeable might be redeemed, and the deniers might be shamed. For they do not know what good they have worked for us with their evil. The sackcloth was hung up, and as if the impious one rejoiced. The persecutor tore the sackcloth with a spear, and the Redeemer poured out our price. Let Christ the redeemer sing, let Judas the seller wail, let the Jewish buyer be ashamed. Behold, Judas sold, the Jew bought, they made a bad deal, both were damaged, they destroyed themselves, seller and buyer. You wanted to be buyers: how much better it would have been to be redeemed! He sold, he bought: an unfortunate trade; neither has the price, nor has this one Christ. To this one I say: Where is what you received? To that one I say: Where is what you bought? To this one I say: Where you sold, you deceived yourself. Rejoice, Christian, you have triumphed in the trade of your enemies. What this one sold and that one bought, you have acquired.
Prophecy about Christ the head, adapted to us his members.
Let our head therefore speak, let the head speak for the body slain, for the body dedicated; let him speak, let us hear: You have torn my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness, that is, you have torn my mortality, and girded me with immortality and incorruption. That my glory may sing praise to you, and not be silent. What does it mean, not be silent? No longer shall the persecutor bear a spear against me, so that I should be pricked: for Christ rising from the dead dies no more, death has no more dominion over him: for in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he lives, he lives unto God. So also let us reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore in Him we sing, in Him we are dedicated. For where the head has gone before, we hope that the members will follow. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it, being built up by patience. But perhaps our voice is also there, if we pay good attention, if we look diligently, if we carry a keen eye; not as blind lovers of bodies are wont to do: if therefore we should aim the spiritual eye, in the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ, we find ourselves. For the Apostle did not say in vain: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Recognize your voice there: That my glory may sing praise to you, and not be silent. For now as we bear the burdens of this mortal body, we are not without cause for pricking. For if the heart is not pricked, why is the breast struck? Therefore, when the dedication of our body comes, which has preceded in the example of the Lord, then we will not be pricked. For the lance of the persecutor has signified the pricking that we have for sin. Furthermore, since it is written: From a woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die: recall from which member she was made, and see where the Lord was pricked with the lance. Recall, I say, recall our first condition: for it is not in vain, as I said: Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that we henceforth should not serve sin. Surely Eve, from whom came the beginning of sin, was taken to form from the side of the man. He lay sleeping when it was done: he hung dead when it was done. Sleep and death are akin, side and side, the Lord was pricked in the place of sins. But from that side was made Eve, who by sinning caused us to die; but from this side was made the Church, who by bearing us brings us to life.