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43 7 Sermon in Castle Pleissenburg, Leipzig (1539) Luther preaches here on the eve of Pentecost at festivities marking the official establishment of Lutheranism in Leipzig, Saxony.Though ill, the Reformer preached to a crowded chapel before Duke Henry, who had recently succeeded his Roman Catholic brother, George. In the polemical style of the day and with rhetorical references to the audience and the place where they gathered , Luther describes the “true church.” For Luther, the word of God, the apostolic witness to Jesus Christ, constitutes the church. Ecclesiastical structures are important, but they do not in and of themselves make the church the church.Therefore,Luther identifies the importance and role of the word of God as the issue at stake between Lutheran and Roman Catholic ecclesiologies. Ironically, twenty years before, Luther famously debated John Eck in the castle’s great hall. Because I cannot depend upon my head, owing to physical infirmity, to venture upon expounding the doctrine in its entirety,I shall adhere by God’s grace to the text of the Gospel which is customarily dealt with in the churches on the morrow. These words of the Lord Christ,“If a man loves me, he will keep my word, etc.” [John 14:23], were occasioned by the fact that shortly before this the Lord Christ had expressed himself in almost the same way: “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me...and I will love him and manifest myself to him” [John 14:21]. For this reason the good Judas (not Iscariot) asked, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” [John 14:22]. It is to this question that the Lord Christ is replying here.And here one sees the fleshly and Jewish notions which the apostles held; they were hoping for a worldly kingdom of the Lord Christ and they wanted to be the chief ones in that kingdom. Already they had disputed about who should be the greatest in that kingdom [Mark 9:34] and had divided it up into provinces.To this day the Jews have this same attitude and they hope for an earthly messiah. Thus since the Lord Christ said here,“He who has my commandments and keeps them, him will I love and manifest myself to him” [John 14:21], Judas says: Are we to be the only ones? Is it to be such a meager revelation and manifestation? Will it not be manifest to the whole world, including the Jews and the Gentiles? What is it going to be? Are we to be the only ones to inherit you, and the Gentiles know nothing? This false Jewish delusion was in the apostles and that is why this Gospel here describes the kingdom of the Lord Christ and paints a far different picture of it for the disciples. It is if he were saying: No, the world has a different kingdom, my dear Judas; that’s why I say: If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and I will be with him along with my Father and the Holy Spirit and make our home with him.This home is God’s 44 Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings dwelling, as Jerusalem was called the dwelling of God, which he himself chose as his own: Here is my hearth, my house and dwelling [Isa. 31:9]; just as today the churches are called God’s dwellings on account of the Word and sacraments. Here I think that Christ is pronouncing a severe judgment, here he is prophesying and forgetting the dwelling of Jerusalem, of which all the prophets said: Here will I dwell forever.This dwelling the Lord Christ pulls down and erects and builds a new dwelling, a new Jerusalem,not made of stones and wood,but rather: If a man loves me and keeps myWord,there shall be my castle, my chamber, my dwelling. In saying this Christ gave the answer to the argument concerning the true church; for to this day you hear our papists boasting and saying: the church, the church! It is true that Christ wants to have his home where the Father and the Holy Spirit want to be and to dwell.The entire Trinity dwells in the true church; what the true church does and directs is done and directed by God. Now the new church is a different dwelling from that of Jerusalem ; he tears...

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