LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2004, Page 97

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CONVENTION BIBLE STUDIES
so also does the church’s opportunity to let the bright flame
of the Gospel blaze and shine.
That also means, however, that we need to be increasingly prepared to do what Peter’s readers were called to do,
namely, to suffer discrimination and alienation and perhaps
even persecution for the sake of our faith in Christ. It’s kind
of hard to think of suffering as a good thing—until we remember that God paid the price for the sin of the world
through the suffering of His Son, and that God first planted
His church in soil that was rich with the blood of His saints,
and that God promises to use even our own personal struggles and sufferings for the ultimate benefit of His church’s
mission. “Dear friends,” says Peter, “do not be surprised at
the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though
something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed” (1 Peter
4:12–13). I wonder if the biggest surprise will come when
we get to heaven and discover that our most shining moments as God’s witnesses came not when we were self-consciously or self-confidently “ablaze with the fire of God’s
Spirit,” but when we were hanging on for dear life to
Christ’s cross and to His promises, learning with St. Paul
the meaning of that mysterious sentence: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
President Kieschnick concluded his report yesterday by
praying Luther’s sacristy prayer; I’d like to close this study
this morning by praying one of my favorite prayers of
Luther’s—a prayer Herbert Brokering describes as Luther’s
“prayer for greater spirituality.” Would you bow your heads
and pray with me please: “Look, Lord, an empty vessel that
needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in the faith;
strengthen me. I am cold in love; warm me and make me
fervent, that my love may go out to my neighbor. I do not
have a strong faith and firm faith. At times I doubt and am
unable to trust You completely. O Lord, help me.
Strengthen my faith and trust in You. I have insured all
my treasure in Your name. I am poor; You are rich and You
did come to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; You are
upright. With me there is an abundance of sin; with You a
fullness of righteousness. Therefore I remain with You,
from whom I can receive but to whom I may not give.
Amen.”17
Joel D. Lehenbauer
Assistant Executive Director
Commission on Theology and Church Relations

97

Notes
1. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (London: Collins, 1952), 116.
2. Luther’s Works (American Edition) 30, 11. Translation is from
Volker Stolle, The Church Comes from All Nations: Luther
Texts on Mission, trans. Klaus Detlev Schulz (St. Louis: CPH,
2003), 20.
3. LW 30, 141–142.
4. See What Luther Says: An Anthology, complied by Ewald M.
Plass (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 470.
5. Ibid., 471.
6. Paul Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther, trans. Robert C.
Schulz (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), 314.
7. John H. Elliot, I-II Peter/Jude: Augsburg Commentary on the
New Testament (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1982), 61.
8. “Christian Quotation of the Day,” http://cqod.gospelcom
.net/cqod0209.htm#q020916.
9. Gene Edward Veith, The Spirituality of the Cross (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1999), 71.
10. Ibid., 72.
11. C. F. W. Walther, The Proper Distinction Between Law and
Gospel, trans. W. H. T. Dau (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing
House, 1928), 207–208.
12. C. F. W. Walther, “Bringing Souls to Christ—Every Christian’s
Desire and Duty” (Sermon for the 12th Sunday after Trinity,
1842). Originally published in Festklänge (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House, 1892); translated by Bruce Cameron, July
1993. Pages 6–7 of (unpublished) Cameron translation.
13. LW 30, 98.
14. Ibid.
15. Paul Althaus, Die Christliche Wahrheit, Lehrbuch der Dogmatik (Gütersloh, C. Bertelsmann, 1949), II, 321f.; quoted in
John W. Doberstein, Minister’s Prayer Book (Philadelphia:
Muhlenberg Press, n.d.), 262–263.
16. Robert Kolb, “God Calling, ‘Take Care of My People’:
Luther’s Concept of Vocation in the Augsburg Confession and
Its Apology” (Concordia Journal 8:1, January 1982), 11.
17. Luther’s Prayers, ed. Herbert F. Brokering (Minneapolis:
Augsburg Publishing House, 1967), 67.

2004 Convention Proceedings