In summary, if God were to bid you to pick up a straw or to pluck out a feather with the command, order, and promise that thereby you would have forgiveness of all sin, grace, and eternal life, should you not accept this joyfully and gratefully, and cherish, praise, prize, and esteem that straw and that feather as a higher and holier possession than heaven and earth? No matter how insignificant the straw and the feather may be, you would nonetheless acquire through them something more valuable than heaven and earth, indeed, than all the angels, are able to bestow on you. Why then are we such disgraceful people that we do not regard the water of baptism, the bread and wine, that is, Christ’s body and blood, the spoken word, and the laying on of man’s hands for the forgiveness of sin as such holy possessions, as we would the straw and feather, though in the former, as we hear and know, God himself wishes to be effective and wants them to be his water, word, hand, bread, and wine, by means of which he wishes to sanctify and save you in Christ, who acquired this for us and who gave us the Holy Spirit from the Father for this work?  (Luther’s Works, v.41, p.172)

Picture: St. Matthew: “Liber generationis Jesu Christi,” the Latin of Mt 1:1, “A book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ…”

Well then, that is just what is done for us feeble human beings, and in it we see how God deals with us as with beloved children and not, as he surely would have a right to, in his majesty. And yet, in this guise he performs his majestic, divine works and exercises his might and power, such as forgiving sin, cleansing from sin, removing death, bestowing grace and eternal life. Indeed, these things are missing in the devil’s sacraments and churches. No one can say there, “God commanded it, ordered it, instituted it, and ordained it; he himself is present and will do everything himself”; but one must say, “God did not command, but forbade it, that man, or rather that ape of God, invented it and misled the people with it.” For he effects nothing except that which is temporal, or, if it purports to be spiritual, it is sheer fraud. He cannot forgive sin eternally and save, as he lyingly claims, by means of holy water, masses, and monkery, even though he may restore a cow’s milk which he had first stolen from her by his prophetesses and priestesses. Among Christians these are called the devil’s harlots and, when apprehended, are rightfully burned at the stake, not because of the theft of milk, but because of the blasphemy with which they fortify the devil, his sacraments, and his churches against Christ.  (Luther’s Works, v.41, p.171-172)

Picture:  The pulpit was made for Trinity in 1864.  Originally it had the four evangelists and an angel, which was damaged by the tornado of 1896.  A statue of Martin Luther (a gift from a congregation in Dresden, Germany) has replaced the angel.

Therefore the ecclesia, “the holy Christian people,” does not have mere external words, sacraments, or offices, like God’s ape Satan has, and in far greater numbers, but it has these as commanded, instituted, and ordained by God, so that he himself and not any angel will work through them with the Holy Spirit. They are called word, baptism, sacrament, and office of forgiveness, not of angels, men, or any other creature, but of God; only he does not choose to do it through his unveiled, brilliant, and glorious majesty, out of consideration for us poor, weak, and timid mortals and for our comfort, for who could bear such majesty for an instant in this poor and sinful flesh? As Moses says, “Man shall not see me and live” [Exod. 33:20]. If the Jews could not endure even the shoes of his feet on Mount Sinai, that is, the thunder and the clouds, how could they, with their feeble eyes, have endured the sight of the sun of his divine majesty and the clear light of his countenance? No, he wants to work through tolerable, kind, and pleasant means, which we ourselves could not have chosen better. He has, for instance, a godly and kind man speak to us, preach, lay his hands on us, remit sin, baptize, give us bread and wine to eat and to drink. Who can be terrified by these pleasing methods, and wouldn’t rather delight in them with all his heart?  (Luther’s Works, v.41, p.171)

Picture:  A banner “Die Ev. Luth. Dreieinigkeits Kirche, U.A.C. St. Louis, Mo,”  The Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church. Unaltered Augsburg Confession, destroyed by a tornado on May 27, 1896 and rebuilt and reopened May 28, 1897.