Thursday after Pentecost 9
August 2, 2012
The Lord be with you
This coming Sunday is the 10th Sunday after
Pentecost. The assigned lessons are: Exodus 16:2-15, Ephesians 4:1-16, and John
6:22-35. For our liturgy we will be using the Service of Prayer and Preaching,
which begins on page 260. This is one of the services where we use the
appointed Psalm for the Day instead of the Introit of the Day. That Psalm is
Psalm 145, and the antiphon is verse 15. This is a non-communion service.
Our opening hymn is “The Gifts Christ Freely Gives” (LSB 602). This is the hymn we are
learning this month. Our sermon hymn is “What Is the World to Me” (LSB 730). Our closing hymn is “My Soul,
Now Praise Your Maker” (LSB 820). Our
sermon text is John 6:26. The sermon is titled “The Attractive Belly.”
In our prayers on Sunday we have been remembering different
denominations and their leaders as we accent the Communion of Saints this year.
So far, we have only remembered “partner” churches of the LC-MS. However, as of
last week, we have remembered all of them. The Church, though, is not
circumscribed by the LC-MS and those denominations with which we are in alter
and pulpit fellowship. So we will continue to remember other denominations in
our prayers. This week we will remember the Evangelical
Lutheran Church
in America, and
their Bishop, Mark S. Hanson. For many this may be an even bigger surprise than
last week, when we remembered the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. While we
certainly have many significant differences with the ELCA, nonetheless we are
called to pray for them and ask God to guide them into the way of truth. There
are, indeed, many faithful Christians in the ELCA. We will also remember our
missionary, Emily Goddard, who serves in South
Africa. We will remember the persecuted
believers in Pakistan.
Christianity is the largest religious minority in Pakistan,
numbering almost 3,000,000. Tradition holds that St.
Thomas first brought the Christian Faith to the area.
We do know for sure that, by the time of the establishment of the Second
Persian Empire (226 ad), there
were bishops of the Church of the East in northwest India, Afghanistan
and Baluchistan (including parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan), with
laymen and clergy alike engaging in missionary activity. However, the Church
today is mainly the results of missionaries from the 18th and 19th
centuries. Blasphemy laws (the country is mostly Islamic) are used to persecute
Christians and other religious minorities, like Asia Bibi, a mother currently
in jail for three years for blasphemy. Christians are also murdered, like the
family that was murder in Okara. Another example is the nine Christian nurses
who were poisoned at a government hospital. Young girls are kidnapped and
forced to “convert.” This problems could go on and on. In general, the
Pakistani Moslems are growing more and more intolerant of minority religions,
especially Christianity. We will also remember our sister SED congregations: Trinity,
Richmond, VA; Good Shepherd, Roanoke, VA; Grace Ethiopian, Springfield, VA;
Prince of Peace, Springfield, VA; and Good Shepherd, Charleston, 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.
I could not find any videos for any of our hymns this coming
Sunday. That seems odd to me as both our sermon hymn and our closing hymn have
been around for centuries. The first verse of our sermon hymn is:
What is the world to me
With all its
vaunted pleasures
When You, and You alone,
Lord Jesus, are
my treasure!
You only dearest Lord,
My soul’s delight
shall be;
You are my peach, my rest.
What is the world
to me!
Our adult Bible class
meets at 9:00 Sunday morning. We are
currently in Matthew 24, a chapter that has been misused by many as they
distort what the Bible teaches concerning the “Last Days.”
Preview of the
Lessons
Exodus 16:2-15: This is part of the account when God
determines to give the Hebrews manna. It begins with the people grumbling
against Moses and Aaron, saying it would have been better if they had stayed in
Egypt and died
there. At least then they would have had plenty to eat. Quickly forgotten were
the miseries of slavery. Now I expect none of the Hebrews thought of themselves
as grumbling against God, just Moses and Aaron. However, Moses tells them that
by opposing God’s appointed leaders, who are faithfully fulfilling their
calling, they are really complaining against God. A sober reminder for all of
us who are prone to complaining. God promises quail and manna. The people see
“the glory of the Lord.” This is
interesting as the “glory of the Lord”
seems to be a manifestation of the Lord, but distinct from the Lord to whom
Moses is speaking. What this reflects is that the one God is more complex that
the number one would imply. We know today, thanks to the New Testament, that
the one God is also three Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When the
manna appeared, the people didn’t know what it was, so they asked “What is it?”
Moses told them, “It is the bread that the Lord
has given you to eat.” So the people called it “What is it,” which in Hebrew is
“manna.” In part because Moses called the manna “the bread the Lord has given you to eat,” in part
because the whole image is a meal image, and, of course, because of what our
Lord says in our Gospel lesson, many have seen in this story overtones of the
Lords’ Supper.
Ephesians 4:1-16: This is another exceptionally rich passage
from Paul. The overall theme is unity. This implies that there was some trouble
in this area. It seems the Hebrews of the OT were not the only ones with
“grumbling” issues. Paul teaches that, as we are all part of the same body, we
should manifest that unity in our lives. The Triune nature of God is also
present in this reading. We have the Holy Spirit in verses 3 and 4, Jesus in
verses 5 and 7, and God the Father in verse 6. The ascension of Christ into
heaven and his descent into hell are referred to in verses 8-10. This forms the
foundation for Jesus as the dispenser of God’s gifts to his people. The gifts
spoken of are the leaders of the Church. Often we think of God’s gifts only in
inanimate terms, job, home, food, etc., or in personal terms (my faith, my
talents, etc.) Here, clearly, some of God’s most precious gifts are the
church’s leaders, those who faithfully
share the Word of God with us. This also ties into our OT lesson, where the
gifts God gave included Moses and Aaron. Notice the importance of humility,
gentleness, and patience. These traits are quite counter-cultural in America
today. They run directly against sinful human pride. We are to bear with one
another in Christian love. Sometimes we feel, “I’m right therefore I can be
obnoxious.” That is not how Paul sees things. Finally (and I could keep writing
for some time on this text), Paul is very plain about how many times we are to
be baptized (verse 5), which is once. One baptism is a proclamation of one Lord
and one faith. To be baptized more than once is to say your first baptism was
not a baptism into the one Lord Jesus and the one Christian Faith.
John 6:22-35: In a three-year lectionary, like we use at
Lamb of God, the Gospel lessons for the first year (A) are mainly drawn from
Matthew, for the second year (B) mainly from Mark, and for the third year (C)
mainly from Luke. These three Gospels were written relatively early in the life
of the Church, as it was spreading beyond the Jerusalem
context. While each has its own distinctive character and accent, nonetheless
they tend to cover the same events. John’s Gospel was written decades later,
near the end of his life. While his congregation had Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
John would often share words of Jesus, or things that he did, which were not in
the other Gospels. His Ephesians congregation, seeing he was getting old, encouraged
him to write down this information before he died. This he did and it is the
Gospel of John. Now John covered much of what the other Gospels did (but
certainly not all), and also included much that they didn’t. In a three-year
lectionary John’s Gospel is used to supplement each of the first series (A, B,
C) with this additional information. That is what we have in Sunday’s Gospel
lesson. This reading is part of our Lord’s “Bread of Life” discourse, found
only in John’s Gospel, but occurring right after last week’s Gospel lesson from
Mark, when Jesus fed thousands.
The people follow Jesus because he had fed them (26). In
this verse Jesus says the people followed him, not because they saw a “sign”
but because they had eaten their full. Jesus intended the feeding to be a
“sign” but the people only saw bread. A sign, in John’s Gospel, always points
to Jesus as the fulfillment of the OT promise. If you don’t see that, then you
don’t see the real meaning of his work. These people didn’t see the real
meaning behind the miracles of Jesus. As is so often the case with people, they
were so earthly minded that they couldn’t see the reality right in front of
them. The people bring up the manna given the Hebrews in our Old Testament
lesson. Jesus reminds them that this gift wasn’t from Moses but from Jesus’
Father (thus identifying himself as the only-begotten Son of the Father). Jesus
identifies himself as the “bread of life.” Those who “eat” this bread receive
life from God, that is, eternal life.
We will be reading from this “bread of life” discourse for
three weeks in a row, so we will get the full message. There are those who feel
very strongly that this message from Jesus has nothing to do with the Lord’s
Supper. “Eating” the “flesh” of Jesus and “drinking” his “blood” (53) are, they
believe, metaphors for believing in Jesus. Others feel just as strongly that
John is referring to the Lord’s Supper. If this isn’t about the Lord’s Supper,
then John has no teaching concerning this sacrament, which would be very odd considering
how important it was in the life of the Apostolic
Church. So pay special attention to
the Gospel lessons for the next three weeks and see what you think.
Tidbits
- The LWML has a meeting scheduled for Sunday after the worship service.
- The Elders will meet Monday
- Our Lutheran Malaria Initiative group will meet Wednesday.
- Tomorrow, on this blog, will be a post about the New Testament saints, Joanna, Mary, and Salome.
Well, I pray I’ll see you Sunday.
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert
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