Because the land is Yours, we are likewise Your inheritance; therefore, You, God, will build a dwelling, temple, and habitation there, where You will be found.
Bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance. (Exodus 15:17)
This blog post is excerpted from Luther’s Works, vol. 62, Sermon on Exodus Chapters 1–20.
God has always provided a physical sign—a person or place—on earth where He wanted to be found with certainty because if we are not bound and held by an outward, physical sign, then we will each seek God wherever we feel like it. That is why the holy prophets wrote a lot about the tabernacle, about the dwelling or tent where He would be present. This is how God always acted. Similarly, He also built a temple for us Christians where He wants to dwell, namely, the spoken Word, Baptism, and the Supper, which are physical things. However, our false prophets, sectarian spirits, and fanatics scorn and reject these, as if they were worthless, and say, “I will sit and wait until a flying spirit with a revelation from heaven comes to me.”
Beware of that. We, too, know very well that water, bread, and wine do not save us, but how do you like this? There is not just bread and wine in the Supper, nor is there nothing but water in Baptism. On the contrary, God says that He will be in Baptism, which will cleanse us of our sins and wash them away [cf. Eph. 3:2–6; Titus 3:5]. And in the Supper, the body and blood of the Lord Christ are given under the bread and wine. Do you really want to scorn God and His sign here and regard the water in Baptism the same as water flowing in the Elbe River or water that you cook with? Or do you want to regard the Word of the Gospel just like the words that peasants speak in an inn or tavern? God has said, “When you preach the Word of Christ, I am in your mouth and go with the Word through the ears and into the heart.”
Therefore, we have a certain sign and know that when the Gospel is preached, God is present in that place; He wants to be found there. That is where I have a physical sign by which I can find and recognize God. Thus He is also in Baptism and the Supper because He has pledged to be there. However, if I run to St. James or Grimmenthal, enter a monastery, or seek God elsewhere, then I will fail [to find] Him. And if the sectarian spirits preach now that “the monastic life, invocation of the saints, the Mass, and pilgrimages are nothing; therefore, Baptism and the Supper are nothing too,” that is far from making sense because there is a big difference between when God ordains and institutes something and when man establishes something. To be sure, you ought to believe God’s ordinances and institutions, revere them, and highly cherish them. He also commanded Moses to do the same.
Bring them into the land.
That is, establish and designate a particular place so that whoever is unable to worship in that place can turn his body and worship while facing in that direction. Likewise, I also have God in a particular place, namely, here in the Word and Sacraments. Therefore, even if you are in Rome, or wherever you might be, if only you turn to face the Word and Sacraments and worship, that is where you will find our Lord God. And even if He wanted to be found in a stack of hay, that is the place we ought to seek and glorify Him. This is why the prophets have said, “Let us come to His footstool, for He is holy; that is where we will worship Him” [cf. Ps. 99:5].
However, our prophets (who are far smarter than those in whom the Spirit of God was seen to be working), say, “Do you think that this wood, water, bread, and wine are holy?” I know quite well by myself that without the Word of God and with respect to their nature, they have no holiness, but when God wants to give these things holiness and power through His Word, they shall not be lacking. On the contrary, God, who insists on this and sanctifies these things, is in His Word if only He says, “I am here, and My Word is here.” This is where you will find God; it will be sanctified by Him. Therefore, since He wants to be there, I will not despise Him or the outward sign.
Blog post adapted from Martin Luther, Luther's Works, American Edition, vol. 62 © 2022 Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.