St. Laurence, Deacon and Martyr
Dear friends in Christ. Today we remember St. Laurence who was a deacon in Rome and was killed on account of his faith and confession of Christ on 10 August 258 AD. St. Laurence’s feast day was included in the service books of the Lutherans in Europe and in the first service books of our Synod which Walther had put together. Somehow his day was dropped when we made the switch to English but then he was included in our 1982 hymnal but dropped in the new synodical hymnal. Go figure!
St. Laurence is thought to have been born in Spain in a town near the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains. He was ordained a deacon in the year 257. A deacon was responsible for serving and looking out for the “social welfare” needs of the people. Although he was young, the Roman bishop appointed him as one of the seven deacons, the “archdeacon of Rome,” a position of great trust that included caring for the treasury and riches of the church and giving money to the poor.
In August 258, the Roman emperor Valerian ordered that all bishops, priests and deacons were to be put to death. On 06 August the Bishop of Rome, Sixtus, was captured and put to death. The greedy pagan prefect/ the one in charge of Rome thought the church had a great fortune squirreled away so he ordered Laurence to surrender the riches of the church. Laurence asked for and received three days. In those three days Laurence gave the poor the rest of the money he had on hand and even sold more treasures to have more money to give away! Then he went through the city and gathered all the poor and sick the Church supported. On the third day, when the Roman prefect ordered Laurence to give up the Church’s treasures, Laurence presented these poor, crippled, blind and suffering people and said that these are the true treasures of the Church.
The Roman prefect was not amused and condemned Laurence to a slow, cruel death. Laurence was tied on top of an iron grill and placed over a fire that roasted his flesh little by little. How true this next part is, is uncertain but it was said that God had given Laurence so much strength and joy that he said to the judge, “Turn me over. I’m done on this side!” And right before he died, he said, “It’s cooked enough now.” Then he prayed that the city of Rome be converted to Christ. On 10 August 258 Laurence received the martyr’s crown.
This torture and execution of a Roman citizen by Roman authorities made a deep impression on the young Church. In fact, Laurence’s martyrdom was one of the first to be observed by the Church.
This incident from the very early years of the Christian Church emphasizes the mercy shown by Christians. The Christian has a Christ-like love for the weak, helpless and rejected. The Christian recognizes that each person has a dignity because each person is created by God and redeemed by Him. The Christian sees that dignity in the other person, recognizing that God became man to save that person soul and body. That’s why our lives as Christians will be marked by love of the other and by acts of love and mercy toward others.
That’s what St. Paul is talking about in our text today: serving others with our good works, abounding in generous deeds, “sowing” our love and good works. To describe our life as Christians, our life of faith and good works, St. Paul makes a comparison with farming—sowing seed. But this: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Does that imagery sound familiar? It should! Jesus uses the same imagery in today’s Gospel: Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. Here Jesus compares Himself to that seed. The true worth of a seed is first realized when it goes into the ground and seemingly dies and decays; but what really happens? It first then springs to life and produces abundant fruit. Jesus compares that seed with His death and resurrection: like a seed that is planted in the ground, so is He in His death; and His resurrection is like the sprout springing up from the seemingly dead seed—that sprout will bring forth abundant fruit.
Jesus had to suffer and die as He, the sinless God-man took all of our sins upon Himself to the cross and there He paid the price for them all in place of us. There on the cross, all of God’s wrath was poured out on Him and so God’s wrath over our sin has been appeased. God couldn’t just “forget” about our sin, regard them as “no big deal.” Instead sin has to be punished. But the grace of God and the love of Christ is that He bore the punishment/ curse for all our sin and He did so on the cross willingly offering up His life: unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. Had Christ not died, there would be no fruit, no Christians, none of us enjoying the forgiveness of sin, eternal life, peace with God. But Jesus did die—He is that seed sown into death—and now “sprouted”—risen from the dead!
Jesus rose from the dead Victor over sin, death, devil and hell. And now He offers and gives us these fruits of His victory in His holy word and Sacraments. By His Holy Spirit at work in the word and Sacraments He creates faith in our hearts to receive Him and His blessings He won for us by His life, suffering and death. That’s His grace to us! Jesus, the seed, was sown by His death and rose from the dead bringing us life—new spiritual and heavenly life, a life we now have fully, freely and abundantly. We have Christ; we have the blessings He won for us on the cross; we have His Holy Spirit. We are the recipients of His great grace.
That grace of the Lord bringing us full spiritual abundant life is why we as Christians now live lives of faith and good works. That’s why we can be like St. Laurence and joyfully love and serve others. Because Christ was sown for us first and we by faith receive His gifts and blessings, we, then in love and thanksgiving now sow the seeds of good works—abundantly/ generously. He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. This is our life now as Christians—a life of faith and good works; a life of sanctification.
Since Christ died for our sins, reconciled us to God, conquered for us all our spiritual enemies of sin, death, devil and hell and has given us the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and strengthen us into living a life of good works, we then sow bountifully, that is, the fruits of faith just burst forth from us. As it is written: "He has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." Here is a description of the Christian, our response to God’s grace He showed us first in Christ: our lives will be marked by scattering works of love and mercy, of serving others. We have experienced richly and abundantly our Lord’s grace and mercy and we don’t just keep it for ourselves; instead we share, we give to others what we ourselves have been given. Our willingness to love and serve our neighbor is proportional to our love of God, having received His grace and blessing.
Notice, our life of good works is all done freely and willingly! So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. That’s what makes “good works” truly good works—they flow from faith in Christ and love of Christ and our neighbor; that’s why only a Christian truly does good works. They are done as we look only at the glory and will of God and at the need of our neighbor. We don’t try to gain “brownie points” with God by richly sowing the seeds of good works; we don’t try to earn heaven by the good things we do—because we have experienced grace: God in Christ fully and freely forgiving us our sin and giving us eternal life. Instead, we know there’s nothing we can do but that it’s all been done for us. We are freed from having to worry about earning favor before God and salvation—Christ did that for us—so now we can strive to live a life to the glory of God and for the benefit of our neighbor.
So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. We are intentional in doing good works. They are not something that we can choose to do or not to do. We plan on doing them on purpose: So let each one give as he purposes in his heart. Often, yes, good works will be the spur of the moment—the situation suddenly arises. But often we can think about ways that we can help and serve our neighbor. Not being satisfied we strive for more.
Yet, at the same time, even though we are Christians reveling in our Lord’s grace, loving Him, receiving in faith all His graces and blessings, being empowered and led by His Holy Spirit, we find ourselves often lazy and lax in good works; we find our sowing of good works far from generous but rather sparse.
That, too, is why we purposefully/ intentionally plan to do good. It is also for our benefit that we are bountiful in our sowing the seed of good works. Let us not forget that we still have with us our old sinful nature that only looks to serving self. Each time we plan on doing good for the neighbor and carry it out we are putting down, crucifying our old sinful nature with its passions and desires [Galatians 5.24]. We are, through our good works, giving joy to God as we, as His adopted children via baptism, show increasingly His image and likeness. God loves a cheerful giver. And on top of that, as we see and feel our lack of a bountiful sowing of good works, we then sorrow over that, turn again to our Lord’s grace and forgiveness and once again receive them in faith. Rejoicing in His grace and forgiveness and led by His Holy Spirit we then plan all the more to strive to do good works.
What a glorious promise God gives us in our text: he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully and He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, will supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. Do you see God’s grace upon grace to us here? Not only does God forgive us our sin and give us every blessing in Christ, but He promises a rich reward to us as we keep His commands and reflect His love and generosity toward others. And it goes even beyond that! The very seed that we sow comes from God: He who supplies seed to the sower. The very fact that we do good is because the Lord first showed us His grace—grace that made us His dear children and heirs of heaven and grace that now enables us to do good works—to fight against our old sinful nature and live our lives more and more in accord with His holy will. What a glorious promise we have—our good and gracious Lord promises to strengthen us in living lives of holiness and then He rewards us for doing the very thing He led and strengthened us to do!
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. Now as we live our lives as Christians, as imperfect, as full of sin, as lacking in good works as they may be, we are still enjoying our Lord’s grace who for Christ’s sake continually forgives us our sin remembering and holding before Himself our good works as a treasure. On the Last Day, on the day of the resurrection of the body, Christ will say to St. Laurence, to you, me and all Christians: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world[Matthew 25.34]. In the meantime, what a glorious word of comfort for St. Laurence and all Christians from the Lord [Rev. 14.13]: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on…that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them. INJ Amen