"With One Accord"

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Today we gather, as did the apostles, after the fact of our Lord's ascension into heaven, beyond the sight and sound of humanity. He is risen from the dead – at this fact we rejoice. He is ascended into heaven – this fact is cause for rejoicing, but is just as likely to cause some melancholy. For what comes now? The apostles were told to go back to Jerusalem and wait. And what should they do while they waited? What should you do while you wait for the Lord?

“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers.” Note two things about this verse. First, the apostles were of one accord. They were literally “of the same thymus”, that is, of the same soul, life, or desire. That is to say, the apostles were united in desire and will, and certainly in action. For with one accord they were devoting themselves to prayer. As one Greek lexicon renders it, they were “persisting obstinately” in prayer. They were united, and they were stubborn about adhering to the prayers of the brethren. Nothing could divide the apostles in those days, while they waited for the will of the Lord to be made manifest.

But what is the nature of this accord with which the apostles, the women, and the brethren of Jesus were united? Is it merely a bond of affection? A mutual consolation and wish for similar goals? Is it a common bond of grief for the One whom they all loved and lost?

No. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament speaks of this accord as something external to those who experience it. “This common material concern is not based upon a similarity of inclination or disposition but upon an event which comes on a group from without … and provokes a common reaction” (TDNT V:186). Unity is external to a group, resulting from a common action and reaction.

Notice what the common event is for the brethren: the prayers. They were of one accord devoting themselves to the prayers. That is, they were worshiping the Lord. They were not sitting around staring at their own navels or moping about the loss of their Lord, but they were praying and devoting themselves to the prayers of the Church. And of course, since no one can pray without the Word of the Lord, they were devoted also to the Scriptures as the voice of the Church's prayers. And as the Scriptures speak as one, so the voice of the Church's prayer is one.

Does this mean that there were no arguments, no debates, no conflict in this closed little corner of Jerusalem? Does this mean that the apostles were in perfect agreement as to all the details of their life together, and everything was hunkey-dorey? Would that it were! No, the apostles were men like yourselves, and Mary and the women were only human. They surely had disagreements and debates, and they surely struggled to understand the meaning of the events of the past week, and the past few months, and the past few years.

But they were united because they were one in Christ. Recall the prayer that our Lord prayed for His people in the Upper Room: “Holy Father, keep them in Your Name, which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one.” The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – into whose Name you are baptized and whose Name we invoked upon our worship and even upon this preaching – they are One in substance, will, power, and majesty. And those who are in Christ are members of that unity, being united both to God and to one another.

What Jesus prays the Father to grant, has been granted, and continues to be granted to His Church in heaven and on earth – perfectly in heaven, imperfectly on earth. We are united in heart, mind, soul, and body, because we are in Christ. Just as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son, and nothing can separate them, so are you in Christ and Christ is in you, and nothing can separate you. And so also are you in your brother and your brother is in you, and nothing can separate you. For you are united to Christ, and so is your brother, and if A equals C and B equals C, then A equals B.

St. Paul tells us that “There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Eph. 4:4-6) You are all baptized into Christ, united to Him, and members of the one Body of Christ. You have all been covered by the same blood of the One Lamb who was slain and now is raised. Your sins have been forgiven by the one righteous Judge who reigns over heaven and earth. There is no division among you, because you are all united by the one and the same Head and Lord.

You are not united by common affection or inclination, but by Christ. “Unanimity is an event; it constantly needs a new [becoming]. This unifying worship is not the expression of a religious disposition of man; it is the response to God's action for the world and the community in Christ. Unanimity is thus a gift of God to the praise of God” (TDNT V:186). You are united in worship, because you as the Church speak with the one voice found not in your own throats or hearts, but in the Word of the Lord made manifest in Writ and in the Flesh.

Such faith must be confessed “For … when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.” (1 Cor. 11:18-19)

You are united one to another in Christ, having been baptized into Him by one and the same Spirit, having been marked with the Name of the One God. And therefore, you confess the one faith once given to the saints. “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith,” as we confess in the Ecumenical Creeds. You are united in Christ, and your unity is made evident by your unified confession of Christ, not just with your own individual voices, but with the collected voice of the whole Church of God in heaven and on earth. When you speak the Creeds, you speak the Truth of the revelation of God to His creation. Jesus says, “I have manifested Your Name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world.” The Name of God is manifest to you, and so you believe, and so you confess.

But there are divisions in the Church on earth. Some follow this or that teaching of men. Some follow cleverly devised fables. Some forsake the faith once given to the saints, the faith confessed everywhere, always, and by all, the faith revealed in Sacred Scriptures, for the inventions of the hearts and minds of individuals and the whims of the world. Some would have you leave off from your confession of “one Lord, one faith, one Baptism” because it excludes people. Some would have you cease confessing “I believe in Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God” because it excludes those who believe in another way of salvation. Some would simply have you drop the confession of “one Baptism for the remission of sins” or “the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins” because they presuppose that the Church has both the right and the rites to accomplish the forgiveness of sins.

Repent of your waffling. Repent of your lukewarm confession. Confess your sins with all the strength you can muster, and cling to the absolution which sets you free. Then confess your faith in the One who has revealed Himself to you in the blessed washing of regeneration, in the faithful Word of forgiveness, in the breaking of the Bread.

As Lutherans, we have a collection of documents known as the Book of Concord, or simply as The Lutheran Confessions. It contains the Three Ecumenical Creeds, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession and its Apology, the Smalcald Articles and the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, the Small and Large Catechisms of Martin Luther, and the Formula of Concord. These documents, written in the 16th Century, were collected and codified in 1580, and Lutherans throughout the world since then have pledged to these writing faithfulness in doctrine and practice. Our congregation pledges itself to these confessions, confessing that they are “true and genuine expositions of the doctrines of the Bible.” Your pastor pledges himself to these confessions, saying “Yes, I make these Confessions my own because they are in accord with the Word of God.” and thereupon binding all his teaching, preaching, and administration of the Holy Sacraments to this confessional standard.

Why do we do such a thing? There are many churches and denominations who do no such thing, and indeed would condemn us for binding ourselves to man-made writings. Do we bind ourselves to the Lutheran Confessions because of historical inertia, because we always have? Or because of nostalgia, because it is what our fathers did? Or because of intellectual laziness, because we cannot think for ourselves and simply glom onto what someone else tells us to believe and confess? No! We bind ourselves to these writings because we believe, teach, and confess that they are in accord with the Word of God, and are true and correct expositions and exhibitions of the teaching of Christ.

Notice that word again: “accord”. We believe, teach, and confess that the Creeds and Confessions are in accord with the Word of God. That is, they teach nothing other than what our Lord has revealed to us in Holy Scripture. They display for us the most clear and comprehensive understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Do you have to bind yourself to the Lutheran Confessions? No, you do not. We confess that the Church of God has members in many and various places, even in the midst of congregations that err in their confession of the Faith. You could choose not to subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions. But then you are in the wrong place. For we believe, teach, and confess that the Lutheran Confessions are in accord with – of one voice with – the Word of God. Therefore, we read them, we believe them, and we act according to them.

And so do you, because that is what you promised in your confirmation vows, when you confessed the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church to be faithful and true, and vowed to continue steadfast in this confession and Church. So when you pledge yourself to the Lutheran Confessions, you are not attaching yourselves to something foreign, but to the faith of our Fathers, which is the Faith of the Church.

And what is the Faith of the Church? “And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance … But it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ … This is the catholic faith; whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved.”

That is to say, we believe in one God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – three Persons in one Divine Substance. We believe that God the Father has created all things purely out of His divine goodness and mercy, and continuously enlivens and sustains all things by His Word and Spirit. We believe that Jesus Christ is “God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age”, and that He has died the death to sin once for all, and is risen from the dead to proclaim to you that forgiveness, life, and salvation are His free gifts to you. We believe all this by the Holy Spirit, who creates in us faith.

We believe, teach, and confess these things, not because the writings of men are infallible, but because these Symbols of the Faith we believe to be correct, to be of one accord with the Word of God. We confess these things because we confess such a God as has been made manifest to us. If we are to confess God as He is and His Gifts as He has given them, then we must confess what He has said and done truthfully and purely.

These are not merely our words, but they are the voice of the Church displaying her adherence to the Gospel. Christ our Lord says, “For I have given them the words that You gave Me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.” We blend our voices with the one voice of the Church in every time and place, confessing the “words of eternal life” which our Lord Christ has given to us, adding only our “Amen! Yes! Yes! It shall be so!”

The unity of the Church is not found in the hard wishing of men. The unity of the Church is not found in the writings of men. The unity of the Church is not found in the working together of men. The unity of the Church is found in Christ alone – Christ crucified for sinners, raised for our salvation, and ascended to prepare a place for us in His Father's house. The unity of the Church is found in the Baptized, redeemed children of God receiving the blessed Gifts of our heavenly Father, which Christ has won for us and which the Holy Spirit joyfully delivers to us.

The unity of the Church is created by the same God to whom the Church is united. The unity of the Church is created by the one Baptism into Christ with which you all are baptized. The unity of the Church is heard when you with one accord voice your “Amen” to the blessed Absolution, the forgiveness of your sins for Christ's sake. The unity of the Church is created, fostered, and displayed when you kneel at the rail and receive the forgiveness of sins in the flesh and blood of Christ, given and shed for you and for all Christians to eat and to drink.

The unity of the Church is something invisible to the unbelieving eye. Because the forgiveness of sins is invisible to the human eye. You bear no weird scar on your forehead. You speak no arcane language, nor do you traffic in esoteric secrets or mysterious rituals. Therefore, you make plain your faith in the forgiveness of sins by receiving it, by going to where Christ has promised to be and keeping His commands, whereby He has promised to manifest the Name of God for your salvation. And you make plain your faith in the forgiveness of sins by confessing it with your mouth, just as St. Paul bids us do.

When you confess the Faith of the Church, you are not inventing something new. You are merely putting on display for the world to see your confession of the Faith, that you believe the Truth of the Lord Jesus manifested in the flesh for the forgiveness of sins. Rejoice to confess with one accord that Jesus Christ has died your death, and you now live His eternal life.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!