A Year of Grace, Volume 2: Collected Sermons Covering the Season of Pentecost/Trinity

By Bo Giertz and Bror Erickson

A Year of Grace Vol. 2 is a collection of Bo Giertz's sermons from the second half of the liturgical calendar following the day of Pentecost. He preached the earlier sermons in his ten years as a parish pastor at Torpa, a small rural town in Sweden where he began his pastoral career and wrote such books as The Hammer of God and With My Own Eyes. These early sermons are strongly influenced by the ordo salutis (order of salvation) that he took over from Henric Schartau, yet always with an emphasis on salvation by grace rather than the order. His later sermons were preached as the Bishop of Gothenburg throughout his diocese and as a guest preacher elsewhere. These retain the influence of Henric Schartau in that they seek to directly address the "three hearers"--unbelievers, those awakened to the law, and mature Christians--yet his style takes on more subtlety in when, where and how these hearers are addressed in the context of the sermon. The result is a collection of sermons that provide both great weekly devotions (as the collection was intended) and a program of study for pastors and others wanting to learn how to "rightly handle the word of truth." (2 Tim. 2:15)

• Language: English
• Publisher: 1517 Publishing
• Release date: Nov 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781948969208

Book preview

A Year of Grace: Volume 2, Collected Sermons Covering the Season of Pentecost/Trinity

© 2020 Bror Erickson, for the English translation

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published by:

1517 Publishing

PO Box 54032

Irvine, CA 92619-4032

Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data

(Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

Names: Giertz, Bo, 1905–1998, author. | Erickson, Bror, translator.

Title: A year of grace. Volume 2, Collected sermons covering the season of Pentecost/Trinity / by Bo Giertz ; translated by Bror Erickson.

Other Titles: Söndagsboken. Trefäldighetstiden. English | Collected sermons covering the season of Pentecost/Trinity

Description: Irvine, CA : 1517 Publishing, [2019] | Translation of: Söndagsboken. Trefäldighetstiden. Göteborg : Församlingsförlaget, 2007. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: ISBN 9781948969215 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781948969222 (softcover) | ISBN 9781948969208 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Giertz, Bo, 1905–1998—Sermons. | Church year sermons. | LCGFT: Sermons.

Classification: LCC BV4254.2 .G54213 2019 (print) | LCC BV4254.2 (ebook) | DDC 252.6—dc23

Cover art by Brenton Clarke Little

Contents

Translator’s Preface

Holy Trinity: Matthew 11:25–30

First Sunday after Trinity: Matthew 3:11–12

Second Sunday after Trinity: Luke 14:16–24

Third Sunday after Trinity: Luke 15:1–10

Fourth Sunday after Trinity: John 8:1–11

Apostles’ Day: Fifth Sunday after Trinity: Luke 5:1–11

Sixth Sunday after Trinity: Matthew 5:20–26

Transfiguration Sunday: Matthew 17:1–8

Eighth Sunday after Trinity: Matthew 7:15–21

Ninth Sunday after Trinity: Luke 16:1–8

Tenth Sunday after Trinity: Matthew 18:15–22

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity: Luke 18:9–14

Twelfth Sunday after Trinity: Mark 7:31–37

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity: Luke 10:25–37

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity: John 17:9–17

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity: Luke 10:38–42

Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity: Mark 5:35–43

Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity: Luke 12:13–21

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity: Mark 10:17–27

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity: Mark 12:41–44

Twentieth Sunday after Trinity: Mark 3:31–35

Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity: Luke 19:1–10

Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity: Matthew 23:34–39

Twenty-Third Sunday after Trinity: Matthew 18:23–35

Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity: Matthew 24:1–14

Sunday before the Last Sunday: Matthew 25:1–13

Sunday of Judgment: Matthew 25:31–46

Midsummer: Acts 17:22–31

Saint John the Baptist Day: Luke 1:5–25

Saint Michael’s Day: Revelation 12:7–12

Thanksgiving Day: Luke 19:37–40

All Saints’ Day: Matthew 5:13–16

Sunday after All Saints’ Day: Luke 12:4–7

About the Author

About the Translator

Translator’s Preface

In the introduction to his work Homiletics, J. M. Reu says of the preacher who takes his job seriously,

He will rather strive with all that is in him to apprehend ever more completely the laws that govern the sermon and make them the basis of his own preaching, until he is ruled and directed by them as though they were his second nature. He will endeavor to learn from the God-gifted preachers of the church’s past the secret of their power, the rules and directions that they followed. He will ponder the nature and purpose of the sermon, he will seek out whatever directions have been laid down concerning its subject matter and its structure. In other words he will give himself to a thorough and painstaking study of the science of Homiletics.¹

It was with this in mind that, as a young pastor, I set out not only to read Reu’s incredible book on the subject (a book I cannot recommend highly enough to those who make their living from the gospel) but also to do an in-depth study of the sermons and homiletical style of Bo Giertz, and I resolved to do this by translating these sermons into English.

For those desiring a scholarly study of Bo Giertz’s preaching style, development, and influences, I might recommend my article in the Eastertide 2018 issue of Logia, Applying the Gospel: The Influence and Interpretation of Henric Schartau in Bo Giertz’s Homiletic. Here, I would only like to highlight a few things that might catch a reader’s attention concerning these sermons of Bo Giertz. They originally appeared in a collection selected and edited by Stig Andersson and were published eight years after the death of the beloved bishop of Gothenburg in 2006 by the Församlingsförlaget (the publishing house of the free seminary in Gothenburg). Their title is Söndagsboken, Advent-Pingst (The Sunday Book, Advent-Pentecost); the second volume, which will also be published shortly, has the same title but deals with the season of Trinity (Trefaldighetstiden).

Bishop Giertz was known for his preaching. As a young man, he served the youth movement in the church of Sweden as a sought-after speaker who made it his business to visit every high school in Sweden. He preached to a minimum of five hundred, and up to five thousand, youth per event, and many remembered his sermons long afterward. Yet it was not until serving his first parish that he realized his sermons had neglected the gospel and the atonement of Christ. Influenced by the Oxford Movement, they had been much too focused on the moral behavior of the audience in question to have any lasting effect. This was not a mistake he would make again, as these sermons show. His main influences in preaching became two men who are often pitted against each other in his homeland of Sweden, Rosenius and Schartau. He liked the emphasis on atonement found in Rosenius and the importance Schartau laid on the means of grace and life of the church. He also liked Schartau’s ordo salutis, though Giertz was quick to say that it was the grace, or salutis, that mattered and not the ordo, or order. Indeed, it is the grace that matters.

One will notice this ordo salutis in these two volumes—especially in the sermons from early in his career, where Giertz follows Schartau in rather starkly demarking his summary addresses to the unbelievers, the awakened, and believers. Here there is perhaps a question as to whom the awakened are if they are not Christians. This controversy is at the heart of the dispute between those who follow Rosenius and those who lean toward Schartau. Yet terms and labels aside, there is overlap between each of these three categories and the three different schools of the law that Luther speaks about in his introduction to the Old Testament: The first hear and despise the law. They lead a reckless life without fear. . . . The second grab hold of the law with their own strength and try to fulfill it without grace. Thus they lead hypocritical lives with external works of the law. The third understand the true meaning of the law and how impossible it is to fulfill. They abandon the law altogether and recognizing their sin hold fast to Christ alone.² Though Bo Giertz addresses these three audiences rather directly only in his earlier sermons, he never gives up his attempts to address them in the more subtle nuances of his later style of preaching. The purpose here is to distinguish law and gospel in such a way as to reach all who might be hearing him and impress upon them the need for Christ’s salvation.

It has been a joy to translate these sermons, which are strong in the simplicity of the straightforward structure with which he addresses the people he loved, the members of his congregation in Torpa and of his diocese in Gothenburg—as well as all the people for whom Christ died wherever he might encounter them. His preaching of the law is almost always directed at sins of the soul rather than outward behavior, sins such as inherent selfishness, malice, lust, and envy. He was not interested in whitewashing tombs. That is to say, he did not go after outward behaviors that could easily be amended by the Old Adam so as to deceive a person into thinking he was a good Christian because he had given up such habits as even the unbeliever can desist with. His preaching of the law was then always followed up with the word of the cross that is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18—a verse that became a motto for him and graces his tombstone today). He knew how to apply the gospel so that it would heal the wounds the law had created in the soul and bring it back to life so that those who heard could once again walk in the newness of life.

I hope you enjoy reading these sermons as much as I have enjoyed translating them. I would like to thank the people at 1517 Publishing for all their hard work in preparing this manuscript for publication, especially Steve Byrnes, Sam Leanza, and Samantha Martin. It is humbling to work with such dedicated people, and it has become a point of great pride for me to be associated with them and all who work behind the scenes and in front at 1517. I am indebted also to Stig Andersson for originally compiling and editing these sermons in Swedish, and I am grateful to the Giertz estate for continuing to support my efforts to translate Bishop Giertz’s work.

Your Brother in Christ,

Bror Erickson

---

1 M. Reu, Homeletics: A Manual of the Theory and Practice of Preaching (St. Louis: Concordia, 1977), 19.

2 Summary and paraphrase from Die Luther Bibel Von 1534 Vollständiger Nachdruck I. Vorrhede Auff das Alte Testamente (Cologne: Taschen, 2016), 7; translation mine.

Holy Trinity

Matthew 11:25–30

Slottet (The Palace) 1957

At that time Jesus declared, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt 11:25–30)

It is good to give thanks to the Lord. So it is written in Psalm 92:1. It is good to thank the Lord. And there is so much to thank Him for. The Scriptures encourage us, saying, Bless the LORD, O my soul, / and all that is within me, / bless his holy name! / Bless the LORD, O my soul, / and forget not all his benefits, / who forgives all your iniquity, / who heals all your diseases, / who redeems your life from the pit, / who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, / who satisfies you with good (Ps 103:1–5).

But there is something to be even more thankful for than God’s good gifts, and that is God Himself, because He is who He is. The Psalms are all filled with this song of praise: The LORD is high above all nations, / and his glory above the heavens! / Who is like the LORD our God, / who is seated on high, / who looks far down / on the heavens and the earth? (Ps 113:4–6).

This is the purest and deepest thankfulness: not to thank Him for gifts and goodwill toward you but to be thankful for God Himself, to thank God for being who He is. We have heard something of this thankfulness in our text today.

Even if one cannot understand, he can be thankful.

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. There is a grief behind these words of thankfulness Jesus speaks here. The Savior knows that there are men who have not received and will not receive the gospel. And it is not the unintelligent, the insignificant, and the immoral but the wise, the influential, and the learned. Those who understand the mystery of God’s kingdom, they are children, the small and insignificant in the land. Naturally, it grieved the Savior that those who were to be the best of His people would forsake God’s gospel. But now He praises His Father for precisely that. He has seen that the Lord of heaven and earth is also behind this with His infinite wisdom and His eternal righteousness. Jesus says plainly that it is God who has hidden this from the wise and understanding.

And here we now stand before one of the great mysteries for which we can never find answers in this life. We can attempt to guess at explanations. By the wise and understanding, the Bible means those who believe themselves to be smarter than God’s word. They would rather judge Scripture than be judged by it. They think they have a light that is superior to that which illuminated the prophets, the evangelists, and the apostles. They invoke the zeitgeist or human wisdom against Christ and against Scripture so that they try to establish where the apostles speak in the Holy Spirit and where they speak as men who are unable to understand. They mean that Jesus speaks at times as a great and wise teacher and sometimes as a Jewish rabbi, bound by the thoughts of men in His day. He who suffers from such wisdom and understanding, in his heart, he has some of the same sinful pride that was found in the snake in the garden when he said, Did God really say . . . ? (Gen 3:1). Perhaps this is the reason God hides the gospel from such men. They can hear it. They can be religiously minded. They can discuss it eagerly for a long time, but they do not come to saving faith. Jesus applies these words to them: You will indeed hear but never understand, / and you will indeed see but never perceive. / For this people’s heart has grown dull, / and with their ears they can barely hear, / and their eyes they have closed, / lest they should see with their eyes / and hear with their ears / and understand with their heart / and turn, and I would heal them (Matt 13:14–15).

So we can think. And then we must grant that we do not comprehend this. The question remains, and it is a painful question. It is just as painful for a pastor who wants to see his whole congregation live for God, like the trustees or the children of the congregation who long to see their friends and neighbors led to a living faith. And then it is for this, and also because of this, that Jesus thanks His almighty and merciful Father, because He has hidden this from the wise and understanding and revealed it to those who are children. We cannot answer the question of why. But we know that Jesus has seen and understood that it must be so, that it is in some manner inserted in God’s good plans and fits in His fatherly heart. We know that God is always worthy of our prayers and praises. He is righteous in all His ways and wise and merciful in all His work. There is an infinite relief, a great mercy in this: that we do not need to understand everything, that we can leave questions alone and know that God knows the answer. Where we don’t understand, there we can pray. Because we don’t understand, we can believe. Because it goes beyond the limits of our reason, we can bow down and be thankful that God is greater than all our thoughts, thankful that God is a real living God who was not created by the thought of man, and neither can He be comprehended by the thoughts of man. Even when one cannot understand, one can be thankful.

Man can do this because God is always God.

Yes, Father, for such has been your gracious will, Jesus says. One remembers that the Savior’s own questions are put to rest here. God has willed it. God has permitted it. God keeps His hand over it. The questions are put aside and praises are taken up: I thank you, Father.

This will remain one of life’s last unfathomable mysteries: God remains. When He alone is high, then the swallow, the bird of a storm-driven heart, finds a nest at God’s altar. And then it says, How lovely is your dwelling place, / O LORD of hosts! / My soul longs, yes, faints / for the courts of the Lord (Ps 84:1–2). And then it says, My flesh and my heart may fail, / but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Ps 73:26). It is said of a man who confesses that he almost lost his faith in God when he saw how incomprehensibly God acted, He who let the wicked prosper while others suffered. But then he stands before God and realizes God Himself, only God and no one but God, is an inexhaustible well of thankfulness. It is the same thing that is taught in the book of Job. When Job drank his cup of suffering and was too exhausted to go on, when he broke out in bitterness and cursed the day he was born, when his friends attempted in vain to comfort him with their wisdom and overcome his reason, then God Himself came in the whirlwind, none other than God Himself, and He spoke. God did not speak to Job’s understanding, but He came suddenly with His unfathomable majesty and His glory that no one can comprehend. Then Job bowed where he was in his ash heap. Destitute and disfigured, he bowed in worship and penance and said, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you (Job 42:5).

When the soul has seen God, then it is rich in its poverty and happy beyond all imagination. But how can the soul see God? The answer is the greatest reason for thankfulness:

Most of all, we thank God for the unfathomable truth that God has made Himself known to us in His Son.

Jesus says, All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. The unknown, unfathomable God can be known to us. Never so that we can comprehend Him and His ways completely. But He can be known so much as we need in order to manage and live this life, live it with the assurance that we are children of God. And it is the Son, no one but the Son, who can make Him known. And this is something that we can always be thankful for.

Perhaps one who trusts in his own wisdom doesn’t think that this is much to be thankful for. He would rather have his own God. He wants to imagine the answers to life’s ultimate questions. He wants to keep his faith to himself. He does not comprehend the most important, the most decisive thing in this whole matter. This is what Jesus says to us today: that there is something that God has revealed, something that no one can know, something that would lie completely outside our experience if it were not so now that God Himself through His Son had made it known to us. This is why such men do not care to read God’s word, go to church, listen to preaching, or receive the Lord’s Supper. Naturally, for them, there is no reason to be thankful that the Son has made God known to us.

So why then did the Son make His Father known? He answers Himself, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. This also applies to all who come to Him and will listen. And particularly those who labor and are heavy laden. Or as it is said in the Sermon on the Mount, those who are poor in Spirit, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who need Him, who do not know what they should believe and cannot sort out life’s mysteries, who are not happy with themselves, their morals, their love, their manner of thinking and speaking about others and their actions against their neighbors. For them, the question isn’t if they can make do with the God Jesus proclaims. But the question is whether such a God can make do with them. They do not listen to the words of Jesus with a critical angle, to ascertain whether or not it corresponds with their own conceptions. They hear God’s word with concern, trying to ascertain if their own life coincides with the demands of the word. It is then that Jesus fulfills the promise He gives us: He gives rest. He gives peace. We find peace for our souls. When one realizes that God has given His own Son so that we should be freed from the whole burden of our guilt, when one sees that for His sake, one has a daily forgiveness, not only for his sins but for himself, for the depraved, selfish, useless creature he is—when one sees that despite all of that, we may be children of God, then the heart finds rest. He lays down all his tortuous questions before the God who cares for us with such love. All this inconceivableness is left in the pierced hands of Christ. Just as God has done and ultimately always does for us. And so one ought to be thankful because God is God, and because we know that He is such that He does not spare His own Son but gave Him for us all and that He can do nothing but give us all things with Him. One is thankful that nothing can separate us from God’s love, and so it ends with this: Whom have I in heaven but you? / And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. / My flesh and my heart may fail, / but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Ps 73:25–26). Amen.

First Sunday after Trinity

Matthew 3:11–12

1935

John the Baptist said, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matt 3:11–12)

This Sunday is Baptism Sunday. Today we are going to talk about baptism. You all know that there has been a lot of uncertainty and quite some dispute about baptism among Christians over the last hundred years. It is easy to see why there is this uncertainty. The Scriptures never expressly speak about infant baptism. Sometimes it is mentioned that the jailer in Philippi was baptized with "his