Thursday after Pentecost 7
July 19, 2012
The Lord be with you
Because we are recognizing all the alternate days this year
on our calendar, this coming Sunday will be the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene.
There will also be a post dedicated to her on this blog, which will be posted
Sunday. (For those not using the alternate days, this coming Sunday is the
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost.)
The appointed readings for the Feast Day of St Mary
Magdalene are Proverbs 31:10-31, Acts 13:26-31, and John 20:1-2, 10-18. The
appointed Psalm is Psalm 73:23-28 and the antiphon is verse 1. We will be
celebrating the Lord’s Supper, using the first setting of the Divine Service
(LSB, page 151), and therefore will be using the appointed Introit instead of
the appointed Psalm.
Our opening hymn will be “For All the Faithful Women” (LSB 855). This hymn has 13 verses but we
are not expected to sing all 13 at any given time. Verses 5-13 are each
dedicated to specific women of faith throughout biblical history. Verse 11 is
about Mary Magdalene. Therefore we will sing verse 1, verse 11 and then verses
3 and 4. Our sermon hymn will be “By All Your Saints in Warfare” (LSB 518). This 28 verse hymn has the
same sort of set up as “For All the Faithful Women,” only it is restricted to
New Testament individuals. Verse 20 deals with Mary Magdalene, so we will sing
verse 1, verse 20, and then verse 3. Our closing hymn will be “Rise, Shine, You
People” (LSB 825). Our distribution
hymns will be “The Death of Jesus Christ, Our Lord” (LSB 634), “O Sons and Daughters of the King” (LSB 470), and “Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” (LSB 643).
The text for the sermon will be John 20:18. The sermon title
will be “A Woman’s Place.”
In our prayers on Sunday we will remember The Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Haiti (ELCH) (Eglise Evangelique Lutherienne D’Haiti) and their
President, Rev. Marky Kessa. We will remember our missionary, Emily Goddard, who
serves in South Africa.
Emily writes, “I would appreciate prayers for God to open the hearts of the
community where I serve and that He would use me as a tool to spread His love
and the Gospel to the people of South Africa.
I also ask for prayers to prepare me for all that lies ahead. And, please pray
for the school, including its teachers, administrators, students and families.”
We are grateful to God for the opportunity to support Emily by responding to
her request in our Sunday worship. We will remember the persecuted believers in
North Korea.
Communism has never been friendly towards the Church, and North
Korea is a Communist nation. However the
LC-MS has been able to make some very positive strides there with an
international school. We will also remember our sister SED congregations: Christ,
Norfolk, VA; Trinity, Norfolk, VA; Unity, Norfolk, VA; Redeemer, Portsmouth,
VA; Bethlehem, Aiken, SC. We will continue to remember those who have been
misled by our cultures acceptance of abortion and sexual immorality, asking
God’s grace for their lives that they may be healed and restored by the Holy
Spirit. We will also continue to remember those trapped in the modern practice
of slavery and ask God to bless all efforts that are pleasing in his sight to
end this sinful practice.
Below is a recording of our first distribution hymn, “The Death
of Jesus Christ, Our Lord” (LSB 634).
It includes the words in a sing-a-long fashion. Those words are not exactly
like the ones in our hymnal, which have been “updated.”
Our adult Bible class
meets at 9:00 Sunday morning. This Sunday
we will finish Matthew 23 and begin chapter 24. This teaching of our Lord
occurred during Holy Week. As always, everyone is invited to come.
Preview of the
Lessons
Proverbs 31:10-31: I must admit, this is one of my favorite
Bible passages to give people who think they have a good handle on what the
Bible has to say about women. It just doesn’t fit anyone’s stereotype. First,
though written down by “King Lemuel,” the opening verse clearly identifies his
mother as the source of the chapter. The opening verses, which are omitted in
our reading, have some general advice for rulers, including to watch out for women,
but clearly she does not mean the type of women spoken of beginning with verse
10, a woman with a “noble character.” The feminist will object that such a
woman brings her husband “good, not harm,” and that her husband is “respected
in the city gate,” saying why should the husband be the recipient of her hard
work. The traditionalist will object that this woman is engaged in the work
force, which certainly should be the husband’s duty. The beauty queen will
object to the words “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting.” One thing
that comes through loud and clear to me is that women are individuals. To use
modern vernacular, women are people in their own right. However, God has made
humanity as social beings, and this is true of women as well. So, while they
are individuals, they are not islands. This also comes through in Proverbs 31. Finally,
Proverbs 31 lets you know that you can’t pigeon hole women any more than you
can pigeon hole men. In both cases, the one who “who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
Acts 13:26-31:
Paul is on his first missionary journey. He and his company have arrived in
Pisidia Antioch. Invited to speak at the local synagogue, Paul launches into a
review of Jewish history, culminating in Jesus as the fulfillment of all the
promises made to the Hebrews. The leadership didn’t recognize this, and had him
crucified. But God raised him from the dead, and the witnesses to this are
still alive. It is this reference to the witnesses that earned this reading a
place during the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, for she was one of those
witnesses. Of course, the witnesses are not the main focus of the text. That
focus belongs to “the message of salvation” which is focused on Jesus.
John 20:1-2, 10-18: This is a portion of the Easter story told
by John. Mary Magdalene is prominently featured as the first person to see the
resurrected Lord. After seeing Jesus, Mary is commissioned to tell the
disciples, which she does. John doesn’t tell us the response of the disciples.
His accent is on the resurrection and the multitude of witnesses as he
continues to report post-resurrection appearances. Mary is privileged to be the
first to see Jesus and to be the first to be commissioned to share the message.
Many have pointed out that this account screams authenticity because a woman,
in a male dominated culture, is the first to see Jesus and the first to
faithfully tell about his resurrection. If the story was a fiction, the writer
would have made the first witness someone believable, like Peter. Because women
were considered unstable, their witness wasn’t allowed in the courts, but Jesus
selects a woman to be his witness. How is that for a special place for a woman?
Tidbits
- Information for our August newsletter is due Sunday.
- Our Voters’ Meeting went well this past Sunday. Some of the reports were clearly looking towards the future. Jill Snow reported on the Lutheran Malaria Initiative. The general attitude of the voters was that this was something we should find a way to support. The Elders reported on a proposed Spiritual Life Survey to assist in planning for our future. This was also well received and the Elders are moving forward in finalizing the form, which will be given to the congregation, hopefully, sometime in August. Thanks to the efforts of many, we are still paying our bills. Kitty reported on the Southeastern District’s Convention, to which she was our lay representative. All in all, a good meeting.
Well, I pray I’ll see you Sunday.
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert
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