Worship Notes for Pentecost 22, 2014

Thursday in the week of Pentecost 21

November 13, 2014

The Lord be with you

This coming Sunday will be 22nd Sunday after Pentecost. Back in The Lutheran Hymnal days, this would be called the Second-Last Sunday of the Church Year. Some liturgical calendars will identify this Sunday as the Second Sunday of the End Times. As I said last week, the appointed lessons for these last three Sundays in the Church Year focus us on “end times” issues.

For our liturgy Sunday we will use Matins (page 219). This service uses the appointed Psalm for the Day. Sunday’s readings are: Psalm 19:1-12 (antiphon verse 17), Zephaniah 1:7-16, 1 Thessalonians 5:14-11 and Matthew 25:14-30.

Our opening hymn will be “Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying” (LSB 516). The sermon hymn will be “Christ Is Surely Coming” (LSB 509). Our closing hymn will be “Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer” (LSB 918). Yesterday I posted a Bible study inspired by the sermon hymn.

The sermon will be titled “The Day Is Coming.” The sermon text will be 1 Thessalonians 2:2.

Our opening hymn is one of those hymns that have spread across many Christian denominations. It is also a favorite of choirs. This leads to many YouTube videos from which I can  choose for this post. The one below is the Wartburg Choir singing at St John’s Lutheran Church (I don’t know which St John’s it is).

Our Sunday morning Bible hour begins at 9:00 am. We will continue our consideration of the biblical themes of Witness, Mercy and Life Together. Last week I brought a handout about the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. Extra copies are available if anyone else is interested.

The study of God’s word is a key way to keep the Third Commandment which Luther explains as meaning, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” Our Sunday morning Bible study is a great opportunity to “gladly hear and learn” God’s word.  

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

God’s Gift of Forgiveness Engenders Our Forgiveness of Others

The Day of the Lord is “near and hastening fast,” and it will be “a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation” (Zeph. 1:14, 15). The Lord will search out and punish “the men who are complacent” concerning His Word, “who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud” (Zeph. 1:9, 12). Then all their works and efforts will be for nothing: “Though they build houses, they shall not inhabit them; though they plant vineyards, they shall not drink wine from them” (Zeph. 1:13). But those who fear, love and trust in the Lord are “good and faithful” stewards of His property (Matt. 25:21). They live by faith in His free gift of forgiveness, and they multiply His goods in the loving forgiveness of their neighbor, and “the master of those servants” settles His accounts with them by the gracious reckoning of His Gospel (Matt. 25:19). Likewise, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). Therefore, let us also “put on the breastplate of faith and love” in our dealings with one another (1 Thess. 5:8).

Psalm 90:1-12 (17)

¹           Lord, you have been our dwelling place

                        in all generations.

²           Before the mountains were brought forth,

                        or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

                        from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

³           You return man to dust

                        and say, “Return, O children of man!”

⁴           For a thousand years in your sight

                        are but as yesterday when it is past,

                        or as a watch in the night.

⁵           You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream,

                        like grass that is renewed in the morning:

⁶           in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;

                        in the evening it fades and withers.

⁷           For we are brought to an end by your anger;

                        by your wrath we are dismayed.

⁸           You have set our iniquities before you,

                        our secret sins in the light of your presence.

⁹           For all our days pass away under your wrath;

                        we bring our years to an end like a sigh.

¹⁰          The years of our life are seventy,

                        or even by reason of strength eighty;

            yet their span is but toil and trouble;

                        they are soon gone, and we fly away.

¹¹          Who considers the power of your anger,

                        and your wrath according to the fear of you?

¹²          So teach us to number our days

                        that we may get a heart of wisdom.

¹⁷          Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,

                        and establish the work of our hands upon us;

                        yes, establish the work of our hands!

Zephaniah 1:7–16

⁷           Be silent before the Lord God!

                        For the day of the Lord is near;

            the Lord has prepared a sacrifice

                        and consecrated his guests.

⁸           And on the day of the Lord 's sacrifice—

            “I will punish the officials and the king's sons

                        and all who array themselves in foreign attire.

⁹           On that day I will punish

                        everyone who leaps over the threshold,

            and those who fill their master's house

                        with violence and fraud.

¹⁰          “On that day,” declares the Lord,

                        “a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,

            a wail from the Second Quarter,

                        a loud crash from the hills.

¹¹          Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar!

                        For all the traders are no more;

                        all who weigh out silver are cut off.

¹²          At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,

                        and I will punish the men

            who are complacent,

                        those who say in their hearts,

            ‘The Lord will not do good,

                        nor will he do ill.’

¹³          Their goods shall be plundered,

                        and their houses laid waste.

            Though they build houses,

                        they shall not inhabit them;

            though they plant vineyards,

                        they shall not drink wine from them.”

¹⁴          The great day of the Lord is near,

                        near and hastening fast;

            the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter;

                        the mighty man cries aloud there.

¹⁵          A day of wrath is that day,

                        a day of distress and anguish,

            a day of ruin and devastation,

                        a day of darkness and gloom,

            a day of clouds and thick darkness,

¹⁶                      a day of trumpet blast and battle cry

            against the fortified cities

                        and against the lofty battlements.

1 Thessalonians 5:1–11

^5:1         Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. ²For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. ⁵For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. ⁶So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

Matthew 25:14–30

¹⁴          “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. ¹⁵To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. ¹⁷So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. ¹⁸But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. ¹⁹Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ ²¹His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ ²²And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ ²³His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ ²⁴He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, ²⁵so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ ²⁶But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? ²⁷Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. ²⁹For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

A Couple of Quick Notes:

• The Church Council will meet Sunday, after the worship service.  
• If you missed worship for some reason, remember you can listen to the sermon by going to the sermon page on this blog. I have learned how to post the sermon as a video so, while the video isn’t of me preaching, you still have something to look at while you listen to the message.
• For those who are contributing something for the newsletter, your information is due November 23.
• Earlier this week I posted something I found about the liturgy. It is worth reading. 

Well, I pray we will see you Sunday morning.

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor John Rickert