09 Easter 5th Sunday

PRAYER FROM LUTHER’S PRAYERS: Prayer relies on the promise.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

O God, Creator of heaven and earth. You have sent your only Son Jesus Christ into the world. For me he was crucified, died, and was buried, and rose again on the third day. He ascended to heaven that he should sit at your right hand to rule all things. He sent his Spirit that we should await his coming to judge both the living and the dead. With the Spirit we should come to the eternal kingdom. It is our heritage which you will give us through him. For this reason, O Lord God, you have instituted and given us Baptism and the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ your Son. For us you have united Christ with these Sacraments. In them you reveal yourself and command us to receive you. Cornered by Satan, we are grievously tormented by sin and constantly surrounded by death. Dear Son of God, Jesus Christ, you came to earth to destroy the work of the devil. You have brought life and immorality into the open. Give us again your work, for it is righteous and gives life. Help us to survive the attacks of the devil, by which he would throw us from life into death. O Christ, you have conquered the devil. Help me also to defeat him. Do not leave me. Amen.

FROM LUTHER’S SMALL CATECHISM: The Lord’s Prayer - The First Petition Hallowed be your name. What is this? It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, but we ask in this prayer that it may also become holy in and among us. How does this come about? Whenever the Word of God is taught clearly and purely and we, as God’s children, also live holy lives according to it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven! However, whoever teaches and lives otherwise than the Word of God teaches, dishonors God’s name among us. Preserve us from this, heavenly Father!

O God, form the minds of your faithful people into a single will. Make us love what you command and desire what you promise, that, amid all the changes of this world, our hearts may be fixed where true joy is found; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

GOSPEL: John 15:1-8 (Jesus said :) “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ? Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John xv.4.

Whoever wants to be a Christian must be born, and grow out of the vine which is Christ. When I am baptized or converted through the Gospel, the Holy Ghost is present and takes me like a piece of clay, and makes me into a new creature, who now receives a new mind, heart, and thoughts, namely, a right knowledge of God and a heartfelt trust in His grace. In short, the innermost being of my heart is made new and changed, that I become a new branch planted into the vine which is Christ and growing out of Him. For my holiness, righteousness, and purity do not grow from myself, nor do they rest upon myself, but are in Christ alone and come from Him, into whom I am rooted through faith, as the sap passes into the grapes, and I have been made like Him, that He and I are now of one nature and substance, and through Him I bear fruit, which is not mine but the vine’s. Thus Christ and the Christian become one loaf and one body, and Christians bear the proper fruit, not Adam’s, and not their own, but Christ’s. Exposition of John xiv and xv.

Taken from the book: Day by Day We Magnify Thee by Martin Luther page 330

W.A 45. 667.