Funeral Sermon for the Rev. Alvin Jeske

 In the name of Jesus. Amen.

God is good. God is good to Alvin Jeske. All his days, God is good. For 91 years, 8 months, and 26 days. God was good to Alvin giving him the new birth, to newness of life when he was baptized into Christ at Holy Ghost Lutheran Church in Milwaukee. The Holy Spirit of God was good to Al. He taught him and grew faith in him so on April 2, 1944, Al publicly confirmed his faith and this was his confirmation verse: Romans 1:16: I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. God was good to Al, by setting him apart to be a pastor and a preacher of that Gospel, the power of God for salvation.

            God was good to Pastor Al, giving him a blessed and peaceful death on October 11, 2021.

All along the way, God gave him good gifts. He gave him people. There’s a woman, who loves him. Four beautiful children. Then grandchildren and great grandchildren. God gave him congregations, hearers for his preaching, students of his teaching, sinners to be absolved with that gospel that he and they need never be ashamed of. I don’t know how to calculate how many men, women and children over the years have heard Pastor Al preach God’s Word. I count myself blessed as one who heard his last time preaching God’s Word, when on his death bed he recited Psalm 130 with strength and breath that one would think he should have been saving.  He spoke that Psalm, including this verb “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” And with those words he preached the gospel to his family, to me and to himself.

God has been good to Pastor Al. God gave him unique skills. Skills of the hand. Pastor Al made this bail for me. He bailed it from a bailer that he had made, one of the many machines that so many of us have marvelled at and been entertained to watch. I enjoy having this as a keepsake. And I suspect that Pastor Al had more joy in making it and giving it than I do from receiving it. 

But I'm getting off topic and Pastor Al didn’t want me to talk too much about how good he was, what he accomplished. That wasn't his point shouldn't be ours either today. Pastor Al would rather I talk to you today about His Savior, Jesus and the gospel of God.

Pastor Al planned ahead, for this day. It’s a good thing for a godly man or woman to do, to consider what will happen when your short time in this life is over. Prepare for your funeral. A couple of years ago, he gave me this outline of the sermon I'm supposed to be preaching.

 

(Read the outline)

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So a truly wise man will understand himself and status before the Almighty with fear and reverence. It is wise of Pastor Al to confess his sins, weaknesses and failures. You who know him better than I, will perhaps know weaknesses and failures I didn’t witness. If there are any regrets today, any disappointments that he was everything you thought you needed in a father, a grandfather, a pastor, a colleague, a friend and neighbor. It’s because he was like you and me a sinner. Let’s please forgive him. God has. Like the dead body is covered with the beautiful garment, so weaknesses and failures are covered by the life, death and resurrection of his Savior, Jesus Christ. When Jesus suffered and died, the ugly cruel death on the cross, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. . . the Lord has laid on Jesus the sins of us all (Isaiah 53). My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

            That righteousness of Jesus is for us to have now. This is the righteousness that is revealed in the gospel of Al’s confirmation verse. “The righteous shall live by faith.”  That’s what we have to believe now. That the righteous live by faith. As we walk through the valley of death, as weakness overcomes our mortal body and the ages take their toll, we look beyond our earthly experience and hear the promise that the righteous live by faith. Those who believe the gospel, the power of God for salvation, who have departed from this earthly time, live. Pastor Al, who you can take at his word when he said what his hope was, he will not perish but has eternal life.

And we who are left will see him again, and share with him in the joy promised us. Believe that when you place his earthly remains in the earth, like we sang just now in the hymn:

And so to earth we now entrust
What came from dust and turns to dust
And from the dust shall rise that day
In glorious triumph o’er decay.

That will be the gospel at the cemetery, the gospel we are not ashamed of. Pastor Al wants you to hear that gospel. The power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. You got to believe this.

Pastor prayed for those who would hear his preaching. and he prayed regularly for his beloved parishioners and his beloved family, that they would believe. Now, none of us can see who believes.  No one can know except God. Pastor Al was gracious and charitable in thinking about those he was preaching to at church or at home that they took to heart what was said and taught. But I know it pained him, when those he loved demonstrated that they cared little about such a powerful thing as the gospel-- the gospel that is power to salvation. For those who believe.

“Do you believe this?” That’s what Jesus asked Martha at the time of her brother Lazarus’s death and burial. When Jesus or his preachers ask that, “Do you believe?” He’s not nagging, not manipulating, not guilting you into it. The Lord Jesus is inviting, giving the Gospel, the power of God, the Resurrection and the Life, namely Jesus Christ. With the Gospel, Jesus is giving Himself and His all to you. “Do you believe this?” He says, inviting you, calling you by the gospel, to put your trust in him through life, through death.

If you ever find yourself having trouble believing it, remember that it is a gift and an invitation the Savior has to give you. When you get an invitation, you put it on the phone stand or hang it on the refrigerator where you can see it again later, so you can hear it again if any of the details get fuzzy or forgotten. You read the invitation again, or play the voice mail again, and graciousness of the invitation is renewed.

In this way, keep hearing the invitation of Jesus. Keep listening to His preachers.

Hebrews 13 says, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” Those who have gone before us in this journey of life and faith, are examples to follow, teaching us how to live and how to die. Imitate their faith. Share their hope.

 

O brother Pastor Al.

O blessèd saints in bright array
Now safely home in endless day,
    Extol the Lord,
    Who with His Word
Sustained you on the way.
The steep and narrow path you trod;
You toiled and sowed the Word abroad;
    Rejoice and bring
    Your fruits and sing
Before the throne of God.
The myriad angels raise their song;
O saints, sing with that happy throng!
    Lift up one voice;
    Let heav’n rejoice
In our Redeemer’s song!

Amen.

Prayers, Readings and a Sermon for the 17th Sunday after Trinity

 

Manuscript for the service on September 26

 

+ Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity +

 

579 THE LAW OF GOD IS GOOD AND WISE

1 The Law of God is good and wise
And sets His will before our eyes,
Shows us the way of righteousness,
And dooms to death when we transgress.

 

2 Its light of holiness imparts
The knowledge of our sinful hearts
That we may see our lost estate
And turn from sin before too late.

 

3 To those who help in Christ have found
And would in works of love abound
It shows what deeds are His delight
And should be done as good and right.

 

4 But those who scornfully disdain
God’s Law shall then in sin remain;
Its terror in their ear resounds
And keeps their wickedness in bounds.

 

5 The Law is good; but since the fall
Its holiness condemns us all;
It dooms us for our sin to die
And has no pow’r to justify.

 

6 To Jesus we for refuge flee,
Who from the curse has set us free,
And humbly worship at His throne,
Saved by His grace through faith alone.

Text: Public domain

  

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

C    Amen.

 

COLLECT OF THE DAY

P    Let us pray.

Lord, we implore You, grant Your people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil and with pure hearts and minds to follow You, the only God; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

 

 

EPISTLE                                                                                                                                        Ephesians 4:1–6

   1I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

 

A    This is the Word of the Lord.

C    Thanks be to God.

 

 

HOLY GOSPEL                                                                                                                                                   

P    The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the fourteenth chapter.

 

 

 

   1One Sabbath, when [Jesus] went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. 2And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. 3And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” 4But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. 5And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” 6And they could not reply to these things.

   7Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

P    This is the Gospel of the Lord.

 

 

APOSTLES’ CREED

C    I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

     maker of heaven and earth.

 

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,

     who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

     born of the virgin Mary,

     suffered under Pontius Pilate,

     was crucified, died and was buried.

     He descended into hell.

     The third day He rose again from the dead.

     He ascended into heaven

     and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

     From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

 

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

     the holy Christian Church,

          the communion of saints,

     the forgiveness of sins,

     the resurrection of the body,

     and the life T everlasting. Amen.

 

 SERMON

On The Third Commandment

 

Grace, Mercy and Peace are yours from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Jesus said to the lawyers and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” (Luke 14:3)

                Here Jesus teaches the Third Commandment.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

What does this mean? 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.

 

Consider now 1.) the meaning of the 3^rd Commandment, 2.) the history of the 3^rd Commandment 3.) and the Promise of the 3^rd Commandment.

                First the 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.” Higher than all concerns about certain days and times set aside for religious ceremonies, even high above certain holy places, and buildings and altars dedicated to worship stands the Word of God. God’s command is that we hear his word, and gladly learn it. When we gladly hear and learn God’s word we come to know our God and Savior and we come to know ourselves as his people, the sheep of his pasture.

                True religion must never be reduced to accomplishing the bare minimum of going to a certain place at a certain time to go through the motions and perform the ceremonies. Things happen, Lord knows, like when the ox falls in the pit or when a pandemic disrupts our peace and our regularly scheduled duties. Hearing and learning God’s word helps us to be ready when such things happen to do the compassionate thing. Get the poor beast out of the well. Help the sick, have compassion on the suffering. And trust God that he will provide time later for us to again gather together, hear his word, sing joyful songs and pray together.

                Secondly, for understanding it is good to remember the history of the 3^rd Commandment. When God spelled out the commandments for Moses and the people on Mt. Sinai, he said this about the third commandment. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20).

                God’s good order was for people, and also their beast of burdens, to have a day off each week. For rest, and for remembering the gifts of the God who created them. These people who had come to Mt. Sinai and were first hearing this commandment had just come out of Egypt where they were slaves, under cruel taskmasters who demanded unending labor from them. What a good commandment now! You are free. Do your work in six days and then take a healthy rest. Be compassionate on your servants, employees and beasts, let them have a day to rest up as well.

                But then as the history progressed, the leaders of the Jews began to make this pleasant commandment harsh and burdensome.  They complicated it unduly, setting strict limits on the activities one could do on the day of rest. You could walk only so many steps, no farther, you had to eat only leftovers, cooking would not be resting. So Jesus suggests they go ahead and debate it further, Can you even show compassion on some dear sick person on the Sabbath? Or does that break God’s law.

                These freed slaves, were being put back into the shackles. This time the taskmaster was the law of the commandments.

                Jesus frees sinners from the bondage of the law’s demands. God has having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14-15). You are free. Live in that freedom.

                Now the history of the 3^rd Commandment goes on from there. And you know the history. We got tractors and machines to do our heavy labor. We don’t work our livestock anymore; they get to lay around every day, just getting fat and tasty for us. We have cushy jobs and entertainment and diversions, for more than we have time to take advantage of.

                People, as lazy as pigs, no longer needing a Sabbath observance, despise preaching and God’s word. We think to little of this commandment, as also the other nine.

                This Third Commandment is the command of God. He says do this. Hear the Word of God.

“You shall observe the worship day

That peace may fill your home, and pray,

And put aside the work you do,

So that God may work in you.” (LSB 581)

Which brings us to the promise of the 3^rd Commandment. When God created the heavens and the earth in six days, he created day and night, times and seasons. The 3^rd Commandment reminds you that God is in control of time. We hustle and hurry all through every day, as if we were in charge of making everything happen.  Your days and your moments are in God’s hands. He gives you your days for you to manage. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3).

             Manage your time, for it is a gift of God on loan to you. Work when you are to work. Play when its time to play. Sleep with a peaceful mind when it is time. Pray when it is time to pray.

                Go to church when possible. We want you here. We want you to encourage others to be here and bring them here with you. This is a congregation. The root word of that is Latin for flock. God’s sheep flock together here around the good shepherd, as “one body, one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). 

                The promise of the Third Commandment is that God gives you time to worship, to pray and to hear His word. God gives you all of your days. And when your time is full, and you close your eyes in the final sleep and faith, God will fulfill all his promises to you, taking you to himself into his final joyful eternal rest.

 

 

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 Father, unite Your Church in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Lead Christians who are at odds with one another to seek reconciliation in Christ and, as brothers, to bear with each other in love. Lord, in Your mercy,

C    hear our prayer.

 

P    Preserve and give success to the preaching of Your Holy Word. Through pastors, missionaries, church workers and the priesthood of all believers, send forth Your Son’s gracious invitation to repent and believe and cause it to be received with joyful faith. Lord, in Your mercy,

C    hear our prayer.

 

 

P    Almighty God, uphold our president Biden, our governor Reynolds; and all our leaders. Direct their work toward the common good of all people, which is found in God’s Law written on our hearts and in Your righteous decrees — especially for the protection of the unborn and those who cannot speak for themselves. Lord, in Your mercy,

C    hear our prayer.

 

P    Merciful Father, spare those who are ill, suffering or in sorrow especially Dale, Sandy and all others struggling with disease or death. Comfort them with Your promise of constant care and mercy. Show compassion also to the bereaved. Comfort them with Your promise of a joyful reunion with Christ and their loved ones who have died in the faith. Lord, in Your mercy,

C    hear our prayer.

P    Into Your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in Your mercy; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

C    Amen.

 

LORD’S PRAYER

P    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.

 

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.

 

580 THE GOSPEL SHOWS THE FATHER’S GRACE

1 The Gospel shows the Father’s grace,
Who sent His Son to save our race,
Proclaims how Jesus lived and died
That we might thus be justified.

 

2 It sets the Lamb before our eyes,
Who made the_atoning sacrifice,
And calls the souls with guilt oppressed
To come and find eternal rest.

 

3 It brings the Savior’s righteousness
To robe our souls in royal dress;
From all our guilt it brings release
And gives the troubled conscience peace.

 

4 It is the pow’r of God to save
From sin and Satan and the grave;
It works the faith which firmly clings
To all the treasures which it brings.

 

5 It bears to all the tidings glad
And bids their hearts no more be sad;
The weary, burdened souls it cheers
And banishes their guilty fears.

 

6 May we in faith its message learn
Nor thanklessly its blessings spurn;
May we in faith its truth confess
And praise the Lord, our righteousness.

Text: Public domain

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Divine Service, Setting Three 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 © 2021 Concordia Publishing House.

No Divine Service for 9/26

 Dear members of St. Paul's Lutheran Church,

We are cancelling our Divine Service for tomorrow morning, September 26.

My wife, Sandy, has contracted COVID-19 and I was, of course, exposed to the corona virus. I had a negative test yesterday. I should be ok. But out of an abundance of caution, the congregational leadership has decided to forego our gathering together this week. 

I will have a video recording of the readings, prayers and a sermon on our YouTube channel tomorrow morning. I will send the link in a separate email.

Thank you for your understanding.

The Lord be with you all.

Pastor Ron Koch

Memory work for 9/29 -- Law and Gospel

 

Sing along with pastor: https://recorder.google.com/share/1c99168a-0480-46d3-9c0b-cee5c0afb665

Sing along with pastor to the Gospel Hymn at: https://recorder.google.com/share/0c713b3a-9d37-4a5d-84a0-608e2b557f97

Sermon for September 19, Living and Dying with Jesus – Luke 7:11-17

 Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother” Luke 7:14-15.

Jesus had compassion on this woman and her family. This was the second time she had to have a funeral for her loved ones. Some time before this day’s funeral of her only son, she had buried her husband. Now she is alone and, in that society, and that economy she would certainly have been destitute.

Jesus raised her son to life again and did this very compassionate thing, “Jesus gave him to his mother.” That’s why he could tell her to stop weeping in the middle of her only son’s funeral, because he was undoing death and the pain and separation that death causes. He was giving her back her only son.

Isn’t it nice to think of the people in our lives that way: our Lord gives them to us? They don’t just happen to bump into us randomly. God provides. He answers our prayers. In the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, we pray for our daily bread and all the stuff we need to make it through life. The Lord answers that prayer by giving us “food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like” (Small Catechism, 4^th Commandment). Usually such gifts from God come to us in very ordinary, unsurprising ways. But by faith we understand that these good things come from God. Some rare times these good things come from God in miraculous and exciting ways as it did that day in Nain when he raised the widow’s son and gave him to her.

As for me, I’ve wondered what it must have been like for this young man. What did he experience? What did he do with his added-on bonus time of life? It’s the same with the other people that Jesus brought back from the dead, like Lazarus or even the son of the widow of Zerapheth whom Elijah prayed for and was raised. We are not told much. In the passage about Lazarus, it’s all about his sisters, Mary and Martha, very little about Lazarus. In the passage about Elijah, the son was raised so that the widow would believe the truth of God. So here at Nain, we’re not told much about the dead man, what he experienced, what his future days were like. It simply tells how Jesus gave him to his mother.

He was to spend a few more days and years in this world. He got a little bonus time. But, of course, he would die again. This little resurrection recorded in Luke 7 is not quite complete, final, or permanent. It is only a foretaste of the feast to come, a foreshadowing of the resurrection this man of Nain, and you and I and all believers should look forward to.

So much about our faith, our worship, our learning of God’s Holy Word is just like this, a sign of things to come. By nature we would have a fear of the unknown future. By faith, we have hope for the future. If anyone fears death, let them find peace in the Gospel of Jesus. That’s what we were singing about in the hymn of the day a little bit ago.

758 The Will of God Is Always Best

4    When life’s brief course on earth is run
    And I this world am leaving,
Grant me to say, “Your will be done,”
    Your faithful Word believing.
        My dearest Friend, I now commend
My soul into Your keeping;
        From sin and hell,  And death as well,
By You the vict’ry reaping.

Jesus is the Lord of life. And our hope is in him that one day He will raise us and all our loved ones and give eternal life in His kingdom to all who believe in him. The resurrection of this young man in Nain that day is a foretaste and foreshadow of the great resurrection we are looking forward to.

Now consider this, you are having a common experience as that man had on the day of his funeral. I like to read a passage from Romans 14 at funerals:

⁷ For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸ For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Jesus teaches us how to die and how to live. Like the dead man, Jesus gives us life. We were dead in our trespasses and sin. In your baptism, Jesus has taken away your sins and the condemnation and the punishment they deserve for you. The soul that sins, deserves to die. That’s what divine justice demands. But Jesus stays your execution. He dies instead. And declares you to be worthy of life. Every morning when you wake up you should say, “Thank God, I’m not dead. Today is a bonus day, a new life.”

Jesus has granted us the resurrection from sin and hell. Our life is from him. And it’s eternal. When we have finished our days here, we will have an even better life with Jesus. In the meantime, every day we get is a bonus. So we can live not to serve ourselves and our self-interests. The newly raised man of Nain was not given life so that he could have more “me-time”. He was given to his mother, He had those bonus days to continue on with his vocation as son, and servant of the Lord.

So likewise, you and I don’t need more “me-time”, more selfish pleasures and earthly pursuits. We have been given all. We have eternity before us. We need not live by taking all we can get out of life, as if there’s nothing beyond. With Jesus, we are crucified to self. If we live, we live to the Lord, serving him as he calls us. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.

Amen.

Sermon for August 22 -- "He has done all things well." Mark 7:37

 The people who had seen the miracle Jesus had done, were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Mark 7:37.

 They were exactly right. “He has done all things well.”

 We might think of it this way:  He has done all things well, acceptable, OK. God the Father declares such when He raises Jesus Christ from the dead and then exults him to the highest glory at His right hand in heaven.

 Now, we who have believed in him have all the benefits of this. Jesus has done all things well -- for us and for our salvation. Another acceptable way of saying this statement is, “He has done all things beautifully.” We can say such a thing, rejoicing and praising God for all that our Lord Jesus has done for us in his life, his suffering and death, and his glorious resurrection and ascension to heaven where he now watches over us, loves us and is preparing a place for us.

 The crowds were talking that day, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” It had become so nicely clear to everyone that Jesus was the fulfillment of all God’s promises, like he had said in Isaiah’s prophecy: “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see” (Isaiah 29:18). These miracles of Jesus were leading people to believe and confess the first and most basic creed: “Jesus is Lord.” He is the God of heaven come to earth. He is one and the same Lord who led the forefathers of old, who now when the time was right came to make everything good and restored between God and sinners, to open the ears of the deaf and the lips of the mute and the eyes of the blind, to bring health to the sick and life to the dying and the dead, to save the lost and return those who have gone astray, in summary, He has done all things well.

 That ought to be a very easy sentence to keep in your mind and in your heart in the days ahead. Happily recall these words, “He has done all things well.” And each time you remember those words, consider the two ways in which it’s so good for you that he has done all things well. First, it’s good because you and I need him to do all things well. We need him to fix what is wrong. We need him to do all those things that he does so well and beautifully. You and I are the sinners for whom he died. We are the dying mortals for whom he came to bring life. We are the ones at enmity with each other and with heaven, so we need him to do all things to bring us peace and reconciliation.

 Secondly, it’s good for us that he has done all things well, because there are so many things that we don’t do well. We need him to do what we can’t.

 Anyone who cares a little to listen to what God says, soon finds that the word of God is sharp like a sword and it cuts, it stings, it leaves a mark. God says you are to love: love God, love each other, love your neighbor. And it stings as you remember all your unloving thoughts, words and deeds. Love God, it says, but we have not been loyal when we should have. Love your neighbor it says, but each loves his own self so much that they are stingy with love toward others. Every sinner must admit, I don’t do things well. So now every sinner should rejoice to say, He has done all things well. If you haven’t loved the Lord, thanks be to God, He loves you. You’ve struggled to love and help your neighbor. Even the closest neighbors who live under your own roof, You’ve too often neglected them, pursuing your own interest and preoccupations. But He has done all things well. And the Lord helps them, cares for them, loves those dear ones better than you ever could.

 Back to the passage from Mark 7. Some people brought to Jesus a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. Because he couldn’t hear words, he had great difficulty producing words. Jesus gave him both hearing and speech, miraculously. The miracle of Jesus is, in doing all things well, he fixes and saves lives. He opens eyes to see. He opens ears to hear. He opens lips to talk. He opens minds to understand and hearts to believe. He still does miracles today. You gotta believe that. Imagine that deaf man’s life before, the disappointment, the frustration of lifelong impairment and disability. Can you picture him with his disability, looking around at all the other people in his town, who visiting and gabbing away, talking about their business, their families, their hopes and dreams. It’s not too hard to imagine, because everyone of us, has had our share of disappointments and frustrations, of hopes never realized, of dreams never to come true. But then this deaf mute is changed and transformed by he who does all things well. It is as if he’s given a whole new life.

 So consider your life without the help of the Lord. Disappointments, regrets, failures on your part, and failures on the part of others that left you suffering and at a loss. Looking back at past mistakes make you feel foolish. Looking back and seeing missed opportunities to be loving, nice, helpful to those in need -- it makes you feel guilty and disappointed in yourself. Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe that he who does all things well, that he is doing great things for you? Even if you don’t see it like the deaf man saw Jesus and felt Jesus touch his ears and tongue, believe that Jesus can and is doing miracles for you, transforming, life-changing miracles. Miracles to forgive your sins and give you a new, fresh start on life; Miracles of forgiveness that take guilt away and overcome regrets.

 In the Matins service we pray for what seems like a small miracle, but it’s powerful. “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise” (Psalm 51:15). Dear Lord, take away our impediments, and we will serve you with our speaking and doing and living. Take away our lovelessness, and we will love you and our neighbor. Take away our doubts, and we will show forth our unshakable faith. Take away our guilt and nagging regrets from the past and we will confidently approach the future with you. Open our lips and we will declare your praise. Open opportunities and we will serve you, here and now in this life and always and forever in your Kingdom to come.

Amen.

Service and Sermon for 7th Sunday after Trinity

 

Divine Service for the 7^th Sunday after Trinity

Setting Four, page 203

+ July 18, 2021 +

INTROIT    Psalm 47

Clap your hands, all | peoples!*
   Shout to God with loud | songs of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, is | to be feared,*
   a great king over | all the earth.
He subdued peoples | under us,*
   and nations un- | der our feet.
Sing praises to God, sing | praises!*
   Sing praises to our King, sing | praises!
For God is the King of | all the earth;*
   sing praises | with a psalm!
God reigns over the | nations;*
   God sits on his | holy throne.
Glory be to the Father and | to the Son*
   and to the Holy | Spirit;
as it was in the be- | ginning,*
   is now, and will be forever. | Amen.
Clap your hands, all | peoples!*
   Shout to God with loud | songs of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, is | to be feared,*
   a great king over | all the earth.

COLLECT OF THE DAY

P    O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth, we humbly implore You to put away from us all hurtful things and to give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

 

OLD TESTAMENT READING   Genesis 2:7–17

   7Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

   10A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

   15The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

 A    This is the Word of the Lord.

C    Thanks be to God.

 

PSALM 33

1Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
   Praise befits the upright.
2Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
   make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3Sing to him a new song;
   play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

4For the word of the Lord is upright,
   and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5He loves righteousness and justice;
   the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

6By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
   and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
   he puts the deeps in storehouses.

8Let all the earth fear the Lord;
   let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9For he spoke, and it came to be;
   he commanded, and it stood firm.

10The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
   he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
   the plans of his heart to all generations.

 

EPISTLE   Romans 6:19–23

   19I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

   20When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

A    This is the Word of the Lord.

C    Thanks be to God.

 

HOLY GOSPEL                                                                                                                                                   

P    The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the eighth chapter.

C    Glory to You, O Lord.

 

   1In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, [Jesus] called his disciples to him and said to them, 2“I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. 3And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” 4And his disciples answered him, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?” 5And he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven.” 6And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and they set them before the crowd. 7And they had a few small fish. And having blessed them, he said that these also should be set before them. 8And they ate and were satisfied. And they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. 9And there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away.

P    This is the Gospel of the Lord.

C    Praise to You, O Christ.

 

The Free Gift

Romans 6:23

 

Grace, Mercy and Peace are yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The free gift of God is eternal life. “Free” may seem like an unnecessary, extra word in this verse. It should go without saying, if it’s a gift, it’s free. It’s sharply contrasted with what you work for, which is wages. But the translators of our English Bible add the word free here as the best way they could find to express the message in English, what was first written in Greek. There are several words for gift in Greek. Some imply that there are strings attached, gifts a person gives with the assumption that there’s going to be some sort of reciprocation. Those are the kind of gifts we most often expect in this world. You scratch my back; I’ll return the favor. But St. Paul is precise in his words here. This gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. God gives gifts to those whom He loves, free gifts, no strings attached.

Life here and now, life eternal beyond here, is the free gift of God.

With faith, the Christian sees everything that is good, everything that is healthy and helpful, anything that makes life, keeps life, enhances life is the free gift of God.

We see our life is a gift from God, every day, every breath. But there is so much more. When the Bible talks about life, as it does here in Romans, it adds the word “eternal”. Forever and ever. On and on, beyond our understanding. Our eternal life is gift from God, dependent upon His forgiveness of our sins for Jesus sake.

In Jesus’ time, thousands saw with their own eyes how the Lord provided them their daily bread. We, by faith, acknowledge the same thing today. As we receive our daily sustenance from the resources he showers upon us, we thank God that all his blessings come to us as a free gift.

Today, after church, we are going to clean up our environment a little bit. The best way to think about the world and the world’s environment is to confess that God is this world’s creator and ruler and that we are to manage the gifts he has given to us. It would be wrong to misuse or waste those gifts. It would also be wrong to have some radical agenda thinking that human attempts to control the environment through regulations and good behavior are the only hope for life on earth. No, we trust God to be good in giving gifts to the earth, to sustain life on the earth. And we do what we should in our limited areas of responsibility.

In the sacraments of the church, we get the free gift of God. Baptism is not the individual’s effort or choice, but it is the gift of God. The Lord’s Supper is the free gift of God. It’s Jesus giving you his holy body and his precious blood and telling you because of this God, my Father and your Father, has forgiven you all your sins, and brought you into his eternal, ongoing feast. That’s all free gift. It’s not up to you to make an effort to do it right. It doesn’t depend on you to imagine or to feel it’s the Lord’s body and blood in the sacrament. It is because he said it is and he freely gives it to you as a gift and it’s for you to just believe what he says it is.

Believe Him when He says it is a gift. That’s the precious Gospel truth. God gives you this wonderful free gift, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Pray God, help us each to believe what He says, because there’s a lot working against us to lead us to doubt, despair and disbelief. As I speak to you in a sermon, I have to keep in mind that there’s a lot going on in your world, in your life, in your mind, that makes it difficult to hear, and difficult to believe.

I get it. I’m talking to people who are flesh and blood humans, living in a world that’s been separated from God and His ways because of sin. I’m called to speak the word of God. You are called to hear and believe it. For example, Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You can hear that. You can believe it. But there is stuff going on in your mind that’s pressuring you not to believe it.

Just turn ahead a page or two in Romans and you'll come to a verse that explains it well.

Romans 8:7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 

Hostile to God -- that’s the way to explain the sinful human nature, which we all have and are struggling with. We each have to admit it, even if it hurts to. When we sin in thought, word or deed, we are hostile to God. Examining ourselves carefully, we find we do such daily.

So what’s a person like who is hostile to God? When you’re hostile towards someone, you’re not going to take their gifts. You don’t want any gifts from your enemy. You expect no gifts. Imagine how you’d speak to your worst enemy, if he had the gall to offer you a free gift. You say, “No, thank you. Just give me what I’ve got coming. Just give me what I deserve. I don’t need you to give me any free gifts, just give me my wages.”

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And hear the response that comes from the sinful nature within you, the sinful mind that is set on the flesh, hostile to God. “I don’t want your free gift; I just want my wages.”

“I want pay and recognition for all that I have done and all that I have made myself to be. Look at me. Look how right I am. Look how much I’m capable of on my own. I don’t want any free gift. I just want what I deserve. And in my judgement, I deserve everything I want.” So says, the sinful mind set on the flesh.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus taught his disciples a lesson. He had compassion on the crowd of people who had been so attentively listening to him, but now the day has gone on and everyone’s getting hungry. Jesus asks the disciples, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven”.

His lesson for them was the futility, the helplessness, the hopelessness that faces them when they try on their own, when they count their own resources, when they consider the imaginable task at hand.

That’s what you must do to confront the conflict in your mind between the word of God which you believe and the sinful mind that is set on the flesh. If your sinful mind ever starts to argue with God, and say, “I don’t need your free gift, no thank you.” Just take a moment and count up your resources. The disciples had to count up their stock of bread. They had this “Uh-oh” moment. “No way do we have enough to feed thousands”. So likewise, you. Take stock of your things. Have you got enough good stuff within you to make it to eternal life? Have you got what it takes to be good, and right, and acceptable?

Any reasonable person has to admit that there is nothing he or she can do to make it to heaven, to gain eternal life.

Problem is, the sinful mind is not reasonable, not so smart in the ways of eternal life. It’s not as easy as just reasoning it out. It’s going to take help from above, from him who is able to put the mind of sin to death, so that the mind of the believer may live eternally.

Jesus our Savior died for us, to forgive us our sins and he rose again on the third day to give us eternal life. In doing this he reconciled us to God. Hear that word at least today: Reconciled. You are reconciled to God. If you have sins in your life and sin in your mind that has made you hostile to God and reluctant to take what he says, reluctant to accept the free gifts he gives, know that Jesus your Savior has reconciled you and God. 

God’s on your side. By faith, you’re on God’s side. Hostility, awkwardness, discomfort is removed when your guilt is removed. Having be justified by the blood of Jesus, we are at peace with God. You’re on such good terms with God, that you can relax and take the free gift He gives. Amen.