Menu

Sundays:  Pastor's Class 9:00 AM (Ephesians)
               Divine Liturgy 10:30 AM

Wednesdays: Pastor's Class 10:00 AM (Psalm 119 deep dive)
                    Divine Liturgy 7:00 PM

Holy Week:

    • Maundy Thursday Divine Liturgy 7:00 PM

 

    • Good Friday Tenebrae 8:00 PM

 

    • Holy Saturday Easter Vigil 8:00 PM

 

    • Easter Sunrise 8:00 AM

 

  • Easter Divine Liturgy 10:30 AM

 

 

                

 

Homily For Day 2 of St. John Seminar

June 11, 2019

Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 11, 2019
Matins
Weinrich Seminar on St. John

We no longer live in the Book of Acts nor was the Great Awakening Pentecost.

Then why do we want to act as if 2,000 years of church history never happened. Why do we recite from the catechism of those who worship the idol: Evangelism? Who ever insist that the church must return to the Book of Acts?

The church’s evangelism program is baptism and for the church catholic that means infant baptism.

Now if you have not been sufficiently tweaked for a Tuesday morning it is only because of this little known fact: that on Tuesdays the people of Cleveland strive to be on their best behavior between 9 and Noon –

And so if you are not sufficiently tweaked then we will need to hear from the Great Tweaker himself, David Scaer, whose vocation it is to stick long, stiff, pointy hat pins deep into our collective gluteus maximus – God be praised that whom the Lord loves he disciplines!

Yes, to quote the good doctor: the church should baptize no one but infants! Because we have Jesus’ sure word of promise regarding them – while “no such assurance is given in other cases.”

That said there are adult converts to the faith who, whatever their age become little children at the font. Newborn babes desiring the “logikon” milk of the word which is the Flesh and Blood of Christ.

And one of the most beautifully vocal of those was St. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage who was invited into Jesus’ life 17 centuries ago by Holy Baptism.

Cyprian first birth was into a rich, pagan family in Carthage. His original name was Thascius; but he took the additional name Caecilius in memory of the priest to whom he owed his conversion.

Before his conversion he was a leading member of a legal fraternity in Carthage, an orator, a "pleader in the courts", and a teacher of rhetoric. After a dissipated youth Cyprian was baptized when he was thirty-five years old (c. 245 AD). After his baptism he gave away a portion of his wealth to the poor of Carthage as befitted a man of his status.

What you are about to hear is from a letter to a new convert written c. 246 AD.

Now Cyprian:

“I promise to share with you the grace God in His great mercy has shown me, and to tell you as simply as I can what I have experienced since I was baptized.

Until that time, I was still living in the dark, knowing nothing of my true life. I was completely involved in this world's affairs, influenced by all its changing moods and troubles, and exiled from the light of truth. I had indeed been told that God offered men and women a second birth, by which we could be saved, but I very much doubted that I could change the kind of life I was then living.

Frankly, I could not see how a person could cast off his fallen nature, and be changed in heart and soul while he still lived in the same body as before. How was it possible, I asked myself, to change the habits of a lifetime instantaneously. How can one suddenly rid oneself of accumulated guilt and break with sin that has become so deeply rooted in one's life? Can a man whose life has been characterized by feasting and luxury, learn frugality and simplicity in a single moment? A person who craves public distinction and honor cannot bear to be passed over and unnoticed. Another who is accustomed to throngs of flattering attendance, takes it a terrible penance to be left alone.

Is every species of temptation suddenly to lose its force? Should we no longer feel the enticement of wine and good living, where pride no longer swells our heads or anger blazon our breasts? Shall we no longer be troubled by covetousness or cruelty or ambition or lust? These were my thoughts. My past life was so burdened with so many sins, that I saw no way ever to be rid of, that I had grown accustomed to giving way to my weakness. I despaired of ever being any better. Consequently, I simply humored my evil inclinations, and made no attempt to combat them.

But at last I made up my mind to ask for Baptism. I went down into those life-giving waters, and all the stains of my past were washed away. I committed my life to the Lord. He cleansed my heart and filled me with His Holy Spirit. I was born again, a new man. And then in a most marvelous way, all my doubts cleared up, I could now see what had been hidden from me before. I found that I could do things that had previously been impossible. I saw that as long as I had been living according to my lower nature, I was at the mercy of sin, and my course was set for death. But that by living according to my new birth in the Holy Spirit, I had already begun to share God's eternal life.

You know, as well as I do, what sins I died to at that moment, just as you know the gifts the Holy Spirit gave me with my new life. I have no desire to boast, but it is surely right to thank God for His free gift. It was through faith in Him, that I received the power to break with the sins into which my own folly had led me. We have received the seal of the Holy Spirit. Our task now is to preserve the integrity of what we have received by living a truly Christian life. We must give time to prayer, and to the study of scripture. Now speaking to God; now listening to His word to us, and letting His teaching mold us. He has enriched us with a treasure no one can take away. We have eaten and drunk at His heavenly banquet, and can never again know the pinch of poverty.”