Manuscript for the October 11 Service

 + October 11, 2020 +

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church

 

INVOCATION

P In the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C Amen.

 

INTROIT Psalm 122:1, 6, 8–9; antiphon: Liturgical Text

Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you,
and let your prophets be proven faithful.
Hear the prayer of your servants,
according to the blessing of Aaron upon your people.
I was glad when they said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
May they be secure who love you!
For my brothers and companions’ sake
I will say, “Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will | seek your good.
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.
Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for you,
and let your prophets be proven faithful.
Hear the prayer of your servants,
according to the blessing of Aaron upon your people.

 

P O God, because without You we are not able to please You, mercifully grant that Your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

C Amen.

 

694 THEE WILL I LOVE, MY STRENGTH, MY TOWER

1 Thee will I love, my strength, my tower;
    Thee will I love, my hope, my joy.
Thee will I love with all my power,
    With ardor time shall ne’er destroy.
Thee will I love, O Light divine,
So long as life is mine.

 

2 Thee will I love, my life, my Savior,
    Who art my best and truest friend.
Thee will I love and praise forever,
    For never shall Thy kindness end.
Thee will I love with all my heart—
Thou my Redeemer art!

 

3 I thank Thee, Jesus, Sun from heaven,
    Whose radiance hath brought light to me;
I thank Thee, who hast richly given
    All that could make me glad and free;
I thank Thee that my soul is healed
By what Thy lips revealed.

 

4 O keep me watchful, then, and humble;
    Permit me nevermore to stray.
Uphold me when my feet would stumble,
    And keep me on the narrow way.
Fill all my nature with Thy light,
O Radiance strong and bright!

 

5 Thee will I love, my crown of gladness;
    Thee will I love, my God and Lord,
Amid the darkest depths of sadness,
    And not for hope of high reward,
For Thine own sake, O Light divine,
So long as life is mine.

Text: Public domain

 

 

OLD TESTAMENT READING Deuteronomy 10:12–21

¹²“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. ¹⁵Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. ¹⁶Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. ¹⁷For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. ¹⁸He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”

 

A This is the Word of the Lord.

 

 HOLY GOSPEL

P The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the twenty-second chapter.

 

 ³⁴When the Pharisees heard that [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴²saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?

⁴⁵If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” ⁴⁶And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

 

P This is the Gospel of the Lord.

 

APOSTLES’ CREED

 

SERMON

 

Matthew 22 

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”

What do you think about the Christ? That was the question for the Pharisees and the Sadducees. That’s the question for you and for me. That’s the question for every man, woman, boy and girl on this planet. What do you think about the Christ? As the end of the world gets ever closer, we will soon enough see that day when Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. This question, “What do you think about the Christ?” is as pressing now as it was when Jesus first put it to those Pharisees that day.

 The Pharisees were a certain kind of Jews in that day. There were other kinds, or parties, like the Sadducees, for example. But the Pharisees were the biggest and longest lasting group within the Jews. They were real sticklers on the law, all those commandments and regulations of the Old Testament: when you should pray, when you should fast, how much you could do on a Sabbath Day without “working”, even down to the detail of when you pick herbs in the garden, how you should give a tithe of them. They were just obsessive how much they fussed over the religious regulations. And Jesus pointed that out to them on several occasions.

 The problem was that in all their focus on details like these they were going around the most important point. “What do you think about the Christ?”

 Jesus tells the Pharisees gathered around him that day, to look at Psalm 110 where David writes about the Christ, who was to come.

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
    until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

 The Psalm speaks of two persons: The Lord and the Lord. These two divine personalities, communicate. They speak to one another. God is one. And yet, there is within the One God, the Father and the Son, who is the Christ, who with the Holy Spirit are worshiped and adored and loved, forever, one God. The Christ is the Lord, the person of the United God, who came down from heaven, and was made man and suffered, died and was buried for us and for our salvation. And on the third day, God raised Him from the dead, and then He elevated the Christ, the Son, to the highest place, the right hand of God the Father, having put down all the enemies, like the devil, and the sinful nature of human beings, and that ultimate enemy, death.

 David, long ago, was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God to write a Psalm about this glorious Trinity of the Father who is Lord, the Son who is Lord and the Holy Spirit who is Lord, even while there is one Lord and one God.

 At this explanation, the Pharisees are taken aback. They’re speechless -- not so much because the doctrine of the Trinity is disturbingly confusing. But the problem for them was, by accepting this, they would have to believe and trust in Christ. They were used to going around the idea of the Christ, the Savior sent from God to save His people. They were sticklers for the law, each thinking to himself, I can do this, I can tithe my mint and my herb. I can keep the Sabbath regulations. I can fast, I can pray. I can impress everyone, even God, with how good I am. No need for the Christ to come from God and save me.

 They shouldn’t have been so reluctant to believe that Jesus was the Christ. King David in the Psalms, and all the prophets had told them that the Christ would come from God. They had studied all the prophets and their writings. These were learned men, but they were selective in their learning, in their attention and their focus. They would always lean toward the law, and what I mean by that is they were always putting their hope there, in the regulations and commandments. They thought that by keeping all these laws and commandments, they could make God pleased,they could impress God. They could be and remain God’s favorites.

But God, the Lord, gave the law to show humans their sin. That’s what Jesus was doing when He listed off the greatest commandment and the second one that is like it. The law condemns us of our sins when it says you should “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Not just love the Lord your God. Not just think He’s a good idea, a positive thing for the universe. No, you’re supposed to love him with everything. And you sinner don’t do that. You love other things too much. You love yourself, you love your heart your soul and your mind too much, and you fail to love the Lord most.

 The commandments of God show you your sin when they say love your neighbor as yourself. We know we should but we get angry, we get impatient, we get lustful, we covet our neighbor’s stuff, and despise our neighbor. These laws condemn us and shame us. They are not friendly to us.

 The Pharisees doted on all their little laws and thought they were doing just fine. They could one-up each other with their herb picking and their spending the Sabbath with great effort to avoid work. With so much attention on these things, they missed the true point of Scriptures. They seemed to miss the point that we heard in Deuteronomy just a little bit ago. Did you hear how God is described to the Jews of old? “the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe” (Deuteronomy 10:17).

He doesn’t show favoritism. He won’t take a bribe. You can’t try to impress him by your showy works that you think are righteous. He says, you aren’t loving me with your all. You aren’t loving your neighbor as you should.

 The Pharisees didn’t want to listen to that. They didn’t want to hear that they were sinners. They didn’t want to repent and ask for help and for a Savior. They didn’t want Jesus. They didn’t want that kind of a Christ, who dies for sinners and saves the sorry, repentant ones.

 I feel as though I’m talking a lot about Pharisees. To hear Jesus and understand him, you need to know some about who he was talking to. And besides, you need to know what’s going on in your heart. Pharisee ideas can pop up in any age and any place. It’s much more comfortable on human pride and selfishness to say, “I’m doing just fine with the commandments.” That feeling is much more pleasing to the sinful nature than to say, “I have sinned. I’m a sinner. I need my Savior.”

 But Jesus, the Christ sent from God, comes to call sinners to repent and to call repentant sinners to faith. What do you think about the Christ? For us who are being saved, He is the satisfaction to the law. He is our forgiveness. He is our Salvation, our hope and our life. Amen.

 

OFFERTORY LSB 192

C Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me with Thy free spirit. Amen.

 

 PRAYER OF THE CHURCH

P Let us pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs.


Almighty God, bless Your Church here in this place and scattered throughout the world. Fill all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with His love, that they might strive diligently to love You, one another and all their neighbors. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer.

 

P Gracious Lord, enrich all pastors in Christ in all speech and knowledge, that they would preach the Gospel in its purity and administer the Sacraments according to Christ’s institution. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer.

 

P Merciful Lord, You know how Satan prowls like a roaring lion, seeking to devour Your children. By the power of Your Word and Spirit, protect and defend those who are under Satan’s attacks. Send Your holy angels to be with them, that the evil foe may have no power over them. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer.

 

P Generous Lord, we thank You for You delight in giving us all good gifts. Continue to bless us in both body and soul. Grant us generous hearts, that we would support Your ministry and mission among us and around the world with our tithes and offerings. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer.

 

P Eternal Father, give guidance, wisdom and safety to our President Trump; our Governor Reynolds; and to all who make and judge our laws. Bless all civil servants as they carry out their offices and protect them in the line of duty. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer.

 

P Loving God, continue to be merciful to all those who are suffering under the burden of any illness or ailment of body, soul or spirit [especially ____________]. Strengthen and heal them, according to Your will, and bless all the hands that care for them. Lord, in Your mercy,

C hear our prayer.

 

P These things and whatever else we need, we place into Your hands, O Father, for You have instructed us to call upon You. Hear our prayer for the sake of Your Son, Christ Jesus, our Lord, who with You and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever.

C Amen.

  

LORD’S PRAYER

 

BENEDICAMUS

A Bless we the Lord.

C Thanks be to God.

 

BENEDICTION

P The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and T give you peace.

C Amen.

  

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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.