Bulletin -- Matins for the 5th Sunday in Lent

The 5^th Sunday in Lent

March 29, 2020

Matins

L    O Lord, open my lips,

C    and my mouth will declare Your praise.

L    Make haste, O God, to deliver me;

C    make haste to help me, O Lord.

C    Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Praise to You, O Christ, Lamb of our salvation.

+ PSALMODY +

L    Blessed be God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

C    O come, let us worship Him.

VENITE       LSB 220

C    O come, let us sing to the Lord,

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving,

let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise.

For the Lord is a great God

and a great king above all gods.

The deep places of the earth are in His hand;

the strength of the hills is His also.

The sea is His, for He made it,

and His hand formed the dry land.

O come, let us worship and bow down,

let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.

For He is our God,

and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning,

is now, and will be forever. Amen.

L    Blessed be God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

C    O come, let us worship Him.

                                                                                                                                       

Psalm 43

1Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
   against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
   deliver me!
2For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
   why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
   because of the oppression of the enemy?

3Send out your light and your truth;
   let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
   and to your dwelling!
4Then I will go to the altar of God,
   to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
   O God, my God.

5Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my salvation and my God.

430 MY SONG IS LOVE UNKNOWN

1     My song is love unknown,
    My Savior’s love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
    That they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I
    That for my sake
    My Lord should take
Frail flesh and die?

2     He came from His blest throne
    Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
    The longed-for Christ would know.
But, oh, my friend,
    My friend indeed,
    Who at my need
His life did spend!

3     Sometimes they strew His way
    And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
    Hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!”
    Is all their breath,
    And for His death
They thirst and cry.

4     Why, what hath my Lord done?
    What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
    He gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries!
    Yet they at these
    Themselves displease
And ’gainst Him rise.

5     They rise and needs will have
    My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
    The Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He
    To suff’ring goes
    That He His foes
From thence might free.

6     In life no house, no home
    My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
    But what a stranger gave.
What may I say?
    Heav’n was His home
    But mine the tomb
Wherein He lay.

7     Here might I stay and sing,
    No story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
    Never was grief like Thine.
This is my friend,
    In whose sweet praise
    I all my days
Could gladly spend!

Text: Public domain

+ READINGS +

READING      Genesis 22:1–14

   1After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” 2He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

   9When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” 12He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

                                                                                                                                             John 8:46–59

   46“Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

   48The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

SERMON

The Lord Provides

Genesis 22:8

    Abraham said to Isaac, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son."   

In today’s Gospel reading from John 8, the people gathered at the temple in Jerusalem seem to overreact. “They picked up stones to throw at Jesus” (John 8:59). That was a crazy reaction. Outrageous! But it was their response to the outrageous thing Jesus had just said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).

Abraham was the Father of the Jewish people, the Father of all believers. Historically, Abraham lived 1600 years before Jesus. Jesus said He was before Abraham, He is before Abraham. That would be an outrageous statement, if it weren’t true. Jesus is basically saying He is eternal. No person is eternal, except for God. So Jesus is either lying, crazy, or God. The crowd of Jews in Jerusalem that day would never believe the latter, that Jesus was God. Jesus, to them was an outrageous liar, blasphemer. He had a demon. He was too crazy to let live.

On the last day, when Jesus comes again with glory, all eyes will see him, every knee will bow before Him, and all will have to admit that He was telling the truth, He always tells the truth. He is God and He is before Abraham and indeed, the eternal Son of God, before all worlds.

And when we get to heaven we can ask Abraham, and Abraham will be happy to admit, yes, He is before me. In fact, Abraham knew Jesus. Maybe not that name Jesus Christ. But the name Jesus means, “the Lord saves”. Abraham knew that, for sure. The title Christ means “the “Anointed One”. And Abraham believed God’s promise that one of his descendants would be anointed savior of all nations.

Abraham learned to know the anointed Savior especially through suffering, the testing described in today’s Old Testament reading and this bitter horrible sacrifice. I’d like for you listeners to consider that you, in a similar way, will especially come to know Jesus through suffering, testing and sacrifice.

God told Abraham, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you" (Genesis 22:2).  Now this was not about some ancient ritual of child sacrifice. You have to understand who Isaac was. He was the child of the promise, the blessing of God, the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that He would be a great father.

Abraham and his wife Sarah had suffered for years with infertility and childlessness. And all along God kept promising he would be the father of nations. His descendents would be as numerous as the stars of the heavens and the sand of the seashore. And most importantly Abraham’s Seed, One Descendant in particular, would be the blessing for all nations, the Savior of the world. So Abraham and Sarah kept waiting and fretting until finally, when they were both pushing 100 years old, baby Isaac came along.

Now everything was set. Abraham was successful, rich, prosperous and finally a father. He had a name and reputation that would last for all generations. His purpose in life was fulfilled. And all these blessings were represented in the body of Isaac, the son of the promise.

And God said, “Now, I’m taking him from you.”

This was a test of the 1^st Commandment. “You shall have no other gods.” Abraham had left behind all the false gods of his forefathers in the land of Ur. He had settled on the One true God and no others. But the meaning of the 1^st Commandment is that we should fear, love and trust in God above all things.

Abraham could not fear anything more than God. He could not fear what it would be like to lose his only son, to lose everything.

Abraham could not love anything more than God. He couldn’t love Isaac and all that Isaac represented, more than he loved God.

Abraham could not trust in anything more than God. He couldn’t say, so long as I have all these things, and all this reputation and all these blessings in this world I will be alright. God commanded Abraham to trust in God alone.

So, amazingly, faithfully, Abraham took his son and the supplies necessary and headed off. He feared God, loved God and trusted God, even telling Isaac, “the Lord will provide.”

It is at this moment, at the point of losing everything where it can be most meaningfully said, “Abraham believed God.”

We can consider examples like this today. We can’t fear, love or trust in anything more than God. Even the best of what we have been given in this life can become an idol if it gets to be first ahead of God.

Take for instance, the idol of a good, successful career. Many these days define who they are and what they’re good for by what they do for a living. If the economy crashes, when jobs are lost, when businesses fail, what becomes of the idol? What becomes of the poor soul who has invested his or her fear, love and trust in that idol? We hear statistics of how many are dying around the world from a virus. I am also saddened to hear cases of suicides in recent days. I think we should be very concerned that there might be more in the days ahead as people lose the careers they have built their whole existence around, as their net worth is decimated, as their idols crumble and their identity is lost.

You can’t trust in your good health and your own strength, because for everyone there comes a time when God allows that to weaken and fail.

As Abraham and Isaac walked along, Isaac must have been thinking, trying to figure out what was going on. “We’ve got the wood, the fire, where’s the sacrifice?” and Father Abraham’s faithful words were, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together” Genesis 22:8.”

You see Abraham knew Jesus. He knew how the Lord works. The Lord does what we can’t. He fills what we lack. He sacrificed His Son, Jesus, the Lamb, so that Abraham didn’t have to.

Abraham learned from his testing that God loved him, provided for him, covered his shortcomings. And in so doing, God proved Himself to be worthy of Abraham’s respectful fear, exclusive love, and complete trust.

In the Psalm for today, Psalm 43, we had these words,  

    Why are you cast down, O my soul,

        and why are you in turmoil within me?

    Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

        my salvation and my God. (Psalm 43:5)

God will provide. Trust Him. Count your blessings, and examine them carefully. Are any of them worth comparing to the salvation you have been given by God. What can you lose in this life, if you have Jesus who has given you everything?  

Amen.

+ PRAYER +

KYRIE             LSB 227

C    Lord, have mercy;

Christ, have mercy;

Lord, have mercy.

LORD’S PRAYER

C    Our Father who art in heaven,

     hallowed be Thy name,

     Thy kingdom come,

     Thy will be done on earth

          as it is in heaven;

     give us this day our daily bread;

     and forgive us our trespasses

          as we forgive those

          who trespass against us;

     and lead us not into temptation,

     but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom

     and the power and the glory

     forever and ever. Amen.

COLLECTS

L    O Lord, hear my prayer.

C    And let my cry come to You.

COLLECT OF THE DAY

Almighty God, by Your great goodness mercifully look upon Your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C    Amen.

O Jesus, our Savior, have mercy on our fellow Christians and our whole world in isolation and in illness, together with all who suffer in body and soul, [especially those who have requested our prayers, including ___________,] Bless them with patience and strength, that they would receive healing and restoration in accordance with your will, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C    Amen.

L    O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God, You have safely brought us to the beginning of this day. Defend us in the same with Your mighty power and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, but that all our doings, being ordered by Your governance, may be righteous in Your sight; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C    Amen.

BENEDICAMUS        LSB 228

L    Let us bless the Lord.

C    Thanks be to God.

BENEDICTION          LSB 228

P    The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

C    Amen.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Matins from Lutheran Service Book

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.