Worship Notes for Holy Cross Day 2014

Thursday after Pentecost 13

September 11, 2014

The Lord be with you

This coming Sunday we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper, using the fourth setting of the Divine Service (page 203). This is the setting we have been learning this quarter. The congregation is now familiar with settings one, three and four, which are used when the Lord’s Supper is offered. We are also familiar with Matins and the Service of Prayer and Preaching, which are used when the Lord’s Supper is not offered. We are learning all the services, slowly, so that we can worship with our sister congregations when the opportunities present themselves. This may be while some of us are on vacation. The opportunity is certainly present when we join in joint services with our fellow up-state LC-MS congregations.

This coming Sunday is Holy Cross Day, which is a festival. This is actually one of the earliest Festivals established as a celebration for the Church. To learn more just click on the name of the festival and follow the link to a post I did a couple of years ago.

We will be sharing the Lord’s Supper Sunday. The appointed lessons are, Numbers 21:4-9, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, and John 12:20-33. The sermon text is 1 Corinthians 1:18. The sermon is titled “Hair of the Dog.”

Back when we were considering whether or not we would go to the new hymnal (Lutheran Service Book) we had a “hymnal review committee.” Our decision to go with the new hymnal was due, in no small part, to the recommendation of this committee. As we desired that this committee represent all, no musical skill was required to be on it. The committee met after Sunday worship and slowly worked through the entire hymnal. Besides recommending that we go with the new hymnal, the committee also recommended quite a few hymns as worth learning, and we have slowly learned many of them. Starting this coming Sunday we will begin learning another hymn they selected, “Make Songs of Joy” (LSB 484) To introduce this hymn, I will post a Bible study inspired by it tomorrow.

“Make Songs of Joy” will be our opening hymn. Our sermon hymn will be “In the Cross of Christ I Glory” (LSB 427). Our closing hymn will be “Lift High the Cross” (LSB 837). Our distribution hymns will be “Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness” (LSB 636), “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today” (LSB 457) and “O Jesus, Blessed Lord, to Thee” (LSB 632).

Below is a video of our sermon hymn, “In the Cross of Christ I Glory,” sung by St. Lorenz Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Our Sunday morning Bible hour begins at 9:00 am. This past Sunday we began considering the biblical background for the three emphasis of our Synod: Witness, Mercy and Life Together. This we will continue Sunday.

What follows are the lessons for Sunday.

Numbers 21:4-9

⁴         From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. ⁵And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” ⁶Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” ⁹So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

¹⁸        For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written,

          “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

                   and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

²⁰        Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. ²²For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

John 12:20-33

²⁰        Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. ²¹So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²²Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

²⁷        “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. ²⁸Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” ³⁰Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. ³¹Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Some Quick Notes:

• The board of Evangelism is scheduled to meet Sunday following the worship service.  

• The LWML has rescheduled their meeting for this Sunday following the worship service.   

Well, I pray we will see you Sunday morning.

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor John Rickert