Worship Notes for Sunday, Pentecost 7 - 2014

Thursday after Pentecost 6

July 24, 2014

The Lord be with you

This coming Sunday is the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. For our liturgy we will be using setting four of the Divine Service (page 203). We will be modifying the service by including a running commentary (or dialogue) on the various parts of the liturgy. So, Pastor will conduct the liturgy as normal but will pause throughout the service as our commentators share with us about the various portions of the service. Thank you to Karen Hampton, Cyril Kindrick, Wayne Mabb, Lynn Higgins and Kitty Rickert, for agreeing to help by reading the commentary. To accommodate the additional dialogue the sermon will be quite short (under five minutes). The main message Sunday will actually be carried by the liturgy and the dialogue interspersed in the service.

The Scripture readings for the day are: Deuteronomy 7:6-9; Romans 8:28-39; Matthew 13:44-52. The sermon is titled “How Odd”. The text is Romans 8:29.

As with all services named “Divine” in our hymnal, setting four is a Communion service. You may prepare to receive the Sacrament by reviewing the Christian Questions with their answers found in most any copy of Luther’s Small Catechism and beginning on page 329 of Lutheran Service Book. Our opening hymn will be “Lord, This Day We’ve Come to Worship” (LSB 911). This will be the last week we will be learning this hymn and it now moves into the “known” category. I did a Bible study on the hymn back on July 7. You can easily find it by going to the “Bible Studies Based on Hymns” page of the blog. (All pages are listed near the top of the blog on the right-hand side.) The sermon hymn will be “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light” (LSB 411). Our closing hymn will be “Savior, Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise” (LSB 917). Our distribution hymns will be “O Savior, Precious Savior” (LSB 527), “I Love Your Kingdom, Lord” (LSB 651) and “Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” (LSB 643). I posted a Bible study based on “Sent Forth by God’s Blessing” yesterday. You can scroll down to find it, or use the same method used to find “Lord, This Day We’ve Come to Worship.” By the way, currently I’m posting the Bible Studies Based on Hymns by hymn number.

Below is a video of Westminster Presbyterian chancel choir leading their congregation in our final distribution hymn, “Sent Forth by God’s Blessing.”

Our Sunday morning Bible hour begins at 9:00 am. We will continue in chapter three of Ruth. Everyone is welcome.

What now follows is first a of the summary of Sunday’s lessons, provided by the LC-MS, and then the actual lessons.

The Son of God Has Redeemed Us for Himself

with His Holy and Precious Blood

The Lord our God has chosen us to be “his treasured possession,” not because of any strength in us, but solely “because the Lord loves” us (Deut. 7:6–8). He is faithful, and He “keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deut. 7:9). He has searched for us and found us in love, and He has bestowed on us “great value” by the great price that He has paid on the cross (Matt. 13:45–46). In His joy, He has redeemed us by His cross and gathered us into His Kingdom by the Gospel. Now we are “hidden in a field,” covered by the cross and subject to the persecution of the world (Matt. 13:44), not for destruction, but “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). Since we “are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28), and because Christ Jesus died, rose again and lives to intercede for us “at the right hand of God” (Rom. 8:34), there is nothing in all creation that can separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).

Deuteronomy 7:6-9

⁶         “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. ⁷It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, ⁸but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.

Romans 8:28-39

²⁸        And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

³¹        What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶As it is written,

          “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

                   we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷        No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 13:44-52

⁴⁴        “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

⁴⁵        “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, ⁴⁶who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

⁴⁷        “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. ⁴⁸When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

⁵¹        “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” ⁵²And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

Some Quick Notes:

• As I prepare these worship notes the August newsletter isn’t quite finished. However it will be within a day or so and will be posted on the blog prior to Sunday. Paper copies will be available for those who do not have internet access this coming Sunday.

• Our Summer Series, “Resolving Everyday Conflict,” has now met five times. We will continue to meet every Wednesday, through August 13.

Well, I pray we will see you Sunday morning.

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor John Rickert