Thursday in the week of Lent 2
February 28, 2013
The Lord be with you
This coming Sunday is the Third Sunday in Lent. With March
we begin the second quarter of the year and we are making a switch in our
Sunday worship pattern. For the first quarter we rotated between Matins and
Divine Service 1. We will rotate between Prayer and Preaching and Divine
Service 3 for the second quarter. That means that we will be using the Service
for Prayer and Preaching (page 260) for our liturgy Sunday. Because it is Lent, we will use the Lent
otions for our versicles and responsory. We will also substitute the First Song
of Isaiah (LSB 927 for the New Testament Canticle. The Latin name for
this canticle (and therefore the traditional name) is Confitebor tibi,
Domine, which are just the first three words in Latin. This is chanted like
a Psalm.
The appointed lessons are: Ezekiel 33:7-20, 1 Corinthians 10:1-13,
and Luke 13:1-9. The appointed Psalm is Psalm 85, antiphon verse 8. Our opening
hymn will be “Today Your Mercy Calls Us” (LSB 519). Our sermon hymn will
be “Not All the Blood of Beasts” (LSB
431). Our closing hymn will be “Chief of Sinners Though I Be” (LSB 611).
The choir will be singing a very special arrangement of “My Faith Looks Up to
Thee.”
The text for the sermon will be Luke 13:5. The sermon will
be titled “A Christian Walk.” Okay, so it isn’t all that exciting a title.
Maybe I should have titled it “Walk Like a Christ-t-ian” like “Walk Like an
Egyptian” or, for those of us who are a little older, “Walk Like a Man.”
In our prayers Sunday we will continue to remember American
citizen and Christian Pastor, Saeed Abedini, unjustly sentenced to 8 years in
prison in Iran. We will remember the persecuted believers in Egypt, where they
have brought crucifixion back for Christians. We will pray for the Lanka Lutheran
Church in Sri Lanka and their president, Rev. Govindan Nadaraja. We will
remember missionaries Anthony and Jamie DiLiberto, who work in Peru. Anthony
writes, “Please pray that as the team and I reach out to Peruvians with the
Good News of the Gospel, we would ‘resolve to know nothing but Christ and Him
crucified’ for the free forgiveness of our sins (1 Cor. 2:2) as we proclaim the
Good News that God has mercifully reconciled the world to Himself through the
death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus (2 Cor. 5:18-20). Please pray for me
as I search for ways our mission team and new members of the church can be
merciful, just as our Father in heaven is merciful (Luke 6:36). May every single human care activity
we’re involved with point people to Christ, whose death on the cross was the
ultimate manifestation of God’s mercy for all of humankind.” We will continue
to remember those who have been mislead by our cultures advocacy of sexual
immorality and abortion, asking for healing in the lives damaged by these sins
and those who are trapped in modern-day slavery (often now called Human
Trafficking). We will remember our sister congregations: Peace,
Franklin, NC; Peace, Goldsboro, NC; Cross of Christ & Ebenezer, Greensboro,
NC; Mt. Olive, Irmo, SC
Below is a video of our final hymn Sunday, “Chief of Sinners
Though I Be.” It is played and sung by the Lutheran Warbler.
Our adult Sunday school class will continue the study “together with all creatures: caring for
God’s living earth.” As a bonus, a listing of all the animals found in the Bible
will be available.
Preview of Lessons
Ezekiel 33:7-20
What a powerful passage with a warning and encouragement for
all walks of life. Verses 7-9 are for the Church, specially the ministers. Of
course, in this reading God is speaking to Ezekiel. But what is said to him is good for the Church
and her ministers from every age to hear, using the principle found in places
like 1 Corinthians 10:11 and 2 Timothy 3:16. In these verses the
Church/ministers are warned that they will be held accountable and that our
work has eternal consequences. We are called to proclaim God’s Word, not our
own fictions or pop-psychology or current cultural trends. Needless to say,
this is often not well received, but to those who do receive it they are called
out of the darkness of sin and into the marvelous light of God’s grace in
Christ Jesus.
Verses 10 through 20 turn to those to whom the word is
proclaimed. It is not as simple as saying “the laity” for Ezekiel addressed
both the laity and the ordained. First we should note that, even though Ezekiel
has corrective words for the ordained and the temple in general, he never calls
the people to separate from corporate worship. To do so would be to increase sin,
not remove oneself from it, for it would be encouraging people to break the
commandment “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.” To sum up these
verses I might just quote the first of Martin Luther’s famous 95 Theses: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Mt
4:17), he willed the entire life of
believers to be one of repentance.” Oddly enough, fallen human nature rejects
this as unfair. God has a different take. It is how we receive eternal life.
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
It is possible to misconstrue
God’s grace, twisting it to mean that God doesn’t care how we live. He does.
Paul reviews the gracious working of God with the Children of Israel during
their exodus and wilderness wandering. “Nevertheless, with most of them God was
not pleased.” As Ezekiel found out, fallen humanity simply doesn’t like God’s
way. Those Israelites, though, should be an example for us. God’s grace is great, so don’t
reject it. Live in it for by it we are able to battle temptation. The Devil is
not an original thinker. There is nothing new in the way we are tempted. In
Jesus, we are able to stand up to the wiles of Satan, the world, and even our
sinful nature. Notice how escaping temptation often means enduring it (verse
13). God doesn’t mean we will never be tempted, but that we will be able to
stand in the face of temptation. We will certainly need to repent and receive
forgiveness, but in doing so we find life eternal and a fresh start in the eyes
of God here on earth.
Luke 13:1-9
There are always those who equate earthly prosperity with
being in God’s favor and earthly calamity with being out of favor with God. Some
from the crowd came to Jesus with this view and he told them they were wrong. If a hurricane slams
into your coast, or an earthquake destroys your downtown, or a lightening bold fries
your car, you are not, automatically, out of favor with God. In the same
fashion, if your stocks go through the roof, or you discover oil on your property,
or you win the Super Bowl, you are not automatically in favor with God. The
fruit which is evidence of God’s favor has nothing to do with temporal success
or failure. As you might correctly guess from our first two lessons, the fruit
of a repentant life is what God is looking for.
Lesson Synopsis
from the Synod
Jesus Calls You to Repentance
“Unless you repent, you will all likewise
perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). By this warning, the Lord would turn us away
from wickedness and bring us to life in Himself. For He is patient with us, that
we not be cut down in our sin but live and bear fruit in Him. As He lives, the
Lord has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from
his way and live” (Ezek. 33:11). So the Scriptures have been “written
down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1
Cor. 10:11), that we
should not desire evil but trust in Christ. He alone is faithful, the Rock who
feeds us with His “spiritual food” and pours out His
“spiritual
drink” (1 Cor. 10:3–4).
Tidbits
- Daylight Savings Time begins Sunday (Spring forward.) Set your clocks forward one hour before going to bed (we lose an hour of sleep).
- As most of our members surly know, our heater is broken, and I mean broken. We will need a new one. We have a number of space heaters, which will make the place okay, but certainly not warm. You might want to dress warmer than usual, but do so in layers so you can take off a layer or two as the place warms up.
- Our Stations of the Cross have been posted. They will remain up throughout Lent.
- Each Wednesday throughout Lent we will have two worship services (12:15 and 7:00 PM). The evening service is preceded by a soup supper (6:15 PM). All are welcome.
- Choir practice follows the Wednesday evening Lent service.
Well, I pray I’ll see you Sunday.
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert
