# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1859_S106
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

106 On Easter Sermons.

...transition from the sorrowful picture of Good Friday to the joyful picture of Easter, whereby the descent into hell is explained by the old churchly and comforting image of Christ with the banner of victory, storming hell, etc., and the most necessary points of doctrine and comfort are added. The same may also be done in connection with the passage Colossians 2:14-15 (see the first sermon of the aforementioned pastor). Or one may treat the whole matter more fully in a separate section, or hold a special sermon on it in the afternoon, e.g. on Acts 2:22-32. It is most advisable to alternate yearly among these three methods.

For preparation, Dr. Luther's sermon is especially to be recommended, the one he preached at Wittenberg on Easter evening in the year 1532, which is found only in the Rörer-Poach edition of the House Postil. With this sermon there often agrees word for word the one that Dr. Luther preached at Torgau in the year 1533, to which the Formula of Concord, Article IX, appeals. (Walch 10, 1354; Erlangen 20, 127, third piece.) Next, the expositions of the individual proof texts are to be used, e.g. Psalm 16:10, in which a comparison of Dr. Luther's earlier and later works allows one to perceive a great growth in insight; further Psalm 68:19 [68:18], compared with Ephesians 4:8-10 (see also the Ascension sermon on this text in the House Postil); finally Hosea 13:14, 1 Peter 3:18-20, and 2 Peter 2:4. The descent into hell also resounds in several old Easter hymns; in particular, one of the oldest hymns of the church, from the sixth century, sings of it quite powerfully: "So holy is the day," etc. Finally, the words in the Easter collect also point to this, that Christ has redeemed us from the power of the devil.

On the second Easter Gospel we have, besides the two sermons in both Postils, only two more delivered by Dr. Luther: one from the year 1530, and the other ostensibly from the year 1537, though probably from a much earlier time. (Walch 12, 2066, 1028; Erlangen 18, 109, 80.)

The Gospel for Easter Tuesday, which in most places is no longer observed, ought nevertheless fairly to be expounded from time to time — either on the second holiday, or at a weekday or one of the nearest subsidiary services. In general it would be desirable that the Gospels for the third day of the high festivals, likewise for the Sundays after Christmas and after the Circumcision, as well as for the last Sundays after Epiphany and after Trinity, when these themselves fall away, should be expounded in the nearest time before or after, so that the treasures of the evangelical pericopes, which the ancient church with such great wisdom prescribed for these days, might not be lost along with them, or at least remain hidden.

To the well-known epistles for the three Easter festival days is still to be added that from Colossians 3:1-7, which, according to Dr. Luther's remark in the Church Postil, may also be read on Easter Tuesday. Since now the chief purpose of the second and third epistles (Acts 10 and 13) agrees, as noted above, with that of the Gospels, I would advise, for the two afternoon sermons, either to remain with 1 Corinthians 5 and Colossians 3, or