What was visible of our Redeemer was changed into Sacraments

An excellent exerpt from Leo the Great on why we fix our eyes and our faith on the Word and the Sacraments.

"When all things were fulfilled which concerned the gospel preaching and the mysteries of the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the fortieth day after the resurrection in the presence of the disciples, was raised into heaven, and terminated His presence with us in the body, to abide on the Father's right hand until the times divinely foreordained for multiplying the sons of the church are accomplished, and He comes to judge the living and the dead in the same flesh in which He ascended. And so that which till then was visible of our Redeemer was changed into sacraments, and that faith might be more excellent and stronger, sight gave way to doctrine, the authority of which was to be accepted by believing hearts enlightened with rays from above."

Leo the Great, Sermons, 74.2

A PRAYER AT THE END OF DAY

A glorious evening prayer.  Thanks to my sister Marsha Fulton for reminding me of this blessed hymn prayer. "Now the Day Is Over"  by Sabine Baring-Gould, 1834-1924

Now the day is over, Night is drawing nigh;
Shadows of the evening Steal across the sky.

Now the darkness gathers, Stars begin to peep,
Birds and beasts and flowers Soon will be asleep.

Jesus, give the weary Calm and sweet repose;
With Thy tend'rest blessing  May mine eyelids close.

Grant to little children  Visions bright of Thee;
Guard the sailors tossing  On the deep-blue sea.

Comfort every sufferer  Watching late in pain;
Those who plan some evil  From their sin restrain.

Through the long night-watches  May Thine angels spread
Their white wings above me,  Watching round my bed.

When the morning wakens,  Then may I arise
Pure and fresh and sinless  In Thy holy eyes.

Glory to the Father,  Glory to the Son,
And to Thee, blest Spirit,  While all ages run.

Hymn #654  The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Proverbs 3:24
Author: Sabine Baring-Gould, 1865
Composer: Sabine Baring-Gould, 1865
Tune: "Eudoxia"

THE PURE DOCTRINE OF GOD’S WORD - Law & Gospel

In the clouds of confusion about what the "Law of God" is and what the "Gospel" is and their proper relationship in teaching, preaching and living the faith, one does well to go back to the Epitome, Article 5 of the Formula for clarification.

THE PURE DOCTRINE OF GOD'S WORD - Affirmative Thesis

1. We believe, teach, and confess that the distinction between law and Gospel is an especially glorious light that is to be maintained with great diligence in the church so that, according to St. Paul’s admonition, the Word of God may be divided rightly.5

2. We believe, teach, and confess that, strictly speaking, the law is a divine doctrine which teaches what is right and God-pleasing and which condemns everything that is sinful and contrary to God’s will.

3. Therefore everything which condemns sin is and belongs to the proclamation of the law.

4. But the Gospel, strictly speaking, is the kind of doctrine that teaches what a man who has not kept the law and is condemned (tr-803) by it should believe, namely, that Christ has satisfied and paid for all guilt and without man’s merit has obtained and won for him forgiveness of sins, the “righteousness that avails before God,”6 and eternal life.

5. The word “Gospel” is not used in a single sense in Holy Scripture, and this was the original occasion of the controversy. Therefore we believe, teach, and confess that when the word “Gospel” means the entire doctrine of Christ which he proclaimed personally in his teaching ministry and which his apostles also set forth (examples of this meaning occur in Mark 1:15 and Acts 20:24), then it is correct to say or write that the Gospel is a proclamation both of repentance and of forgiveness of sins.

6. But when the law and Gospel are opposed to each other, as when Moses is spoken of as a teacher of the law in contrast to Christ as a preacher of the Gospel, then we believe, teach, and confess that the Gospel is not a proclamation of contrition and reproof but is, strictly speaking, precisely a comforting and joyful message which does not reprove or terrify but comforts consciences that are frightened by the law, directs them solely to the merit of Christ, and raises them up again by the delightful proclamation of God’s grace and favor acquired through the merits of Christ.

7. Now as to the disclosure of sin, as long as men hear only the law and hear nothing about Christ, the veil of Moses7 covers their eyes, as a result they fail to learn the true nature of sin from the law, and thus they become either conceited hypocrites, like the Pharisees, or they despair, as Judas did, etc. Therefore Christ takes the law into his own hands and explains it spiritually (Matt. 5:21–48); Rom. 7:14). Then “God’s wrath is revealed from heaven” over all sinners8 and men learn how fierce it is. Thus they are directed back to the law, and now they learn from it for the first time the real nature of their sin, and acknowledgment which Moses could never have wrung from them.

Therefore the proclamation of the suffering and death of Christ, the Son of God, is an earnest and terrifying preaching and advertisement of God’s wrath which really directs people into the law, after the veil of Moses has been removed for them, so they now know for the first time what great things God demands of us in the law, none of which we could fulfill, and that we should now seek all our righteousness in Christ.

8. Nevertheless, as long as all this — namely, the passion and death of Christ — proclaims God’s wrath and terrifies people, it is not, strictly speaking, the preaching of the Gospel but the preaching of Moses and the law, and therefore it is an “alien work”9 of Christ by which he comes to his proper office — namely, to preach grace, to comfort, to make alive. And this is the preaching of the Gospel, strictly speaking.

5 The reference is to a false etymology of the verb which the Revised Standard Version renders “rightly handling” in 2 Tim. 2:15.
6 Rom. 1:17; 2 Cor. 5:21.
7 2 Cor. 3:13–16.
8 Rom. 1:18.
9 Isa. 28:21; see Luther, WA, 15:228.
Tappert, Theodore G.: The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Philadelphia : Fortress Press, 2000, c1959, S. 478

Saving Faith is faith according to Sarah, not Hagar

"The people or the church of the new testament is completely without law so far as its conscience is concerned. Therefore, in the sight of the world she appears to be deserted. But even though she appears barren, without law or works, yet in the eyes of God it is very prolific, giving birth to an infinite number of sons, and free ones at that. How? Not through the husband Law but through the Word and the Spirit of Christ, given through the gospel, it conceives, bears, and rears its sons.

"With this allegory Paul clearly shows the distinction between law and gospel (Gal 4:28-31). First, when he calls Hagar the old testament and Sarah the new. Next, when he calls one a servant woman and the other a free woman. Finally, when he says that the one who has a husband and is prolific will grow ill and will be cast out of the house with her sons, but that the one who is barren and desolate will become prolific and will produce an infinite number of sons, all of whom will be heirs.

These are the essential differences between faith and the law. The people of faith does not have the law as its husband; it is not in slavery; it was not born of the present Jerusalem as its mother. But it has the promise; it is free; and it is born of Sarah, the free woman."

Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, loc. cit.

The Theological Skill of 'turning the verbs'

“The point is not how well we are doing for God but what God has promised us.
This means that in the face of our doubts or unbelief the question to ask is not 'How could I be doing better?' but rather, 'What is God’s promise to me today?'
We need to develop the theological skill of 'turning the verbs,' as one Lutheran theologian put it, that is, making God the subject of the theological sentence and not the object of our works and resolutions.
Faith, our trusting relation to God, is not a product of our efforts but a miracle of hearing.
In fact, perhaps the best story in the Bible for showing both the human predicament and God’s action comes in Mark 7, where Jesus speaks to a deaf man to make him hear.
The paradox of this action – speaking words to someone incapable of hearing them – is precisely what happens to us every time we wander into a worship service. This paradoxical speaking to the deaf (or, in the case of the young man at Nain in Luke 7, to the dead!) begins in baptism and continues every day thereafter.”

Pg. 34 - Formula For Parish Practice: Using the Formula of Concord in Congregations
Timothy J. Wengert

Original Sin - Who we think we are vs. Who we really are

“Sin, especially the ‘original’ sin, goes to the core of who we think we are (free persons) and who we really are (bound persons).
When the liturgy has Lutherans in the United States and Canada saying, ‘We are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves,’ it has us confessing the heart of the matter.
Human nature is good – insofar as it is God’s creation.
However, because of sin it is bent, “curved in upon itself,” to use Luther’s famous saying, and worse yet, it thinks it is straight as an arrow.” 
Pg. 21 - Formula For Parish Practice: Using the Formula of Concord in Congregations
Timothy J. Wengert.