Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Deuteronomy 6,4-6. 1. Sunday after Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Deuteronomy 6,4-9 3514

1. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 046

Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, Italy ✠ 431

22. Juni 2014

1. O God, the Strength of all them that put their trust in Thee, mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without Thee, grant us the help of Thy grace, so that in keeping of Thy commandments we may please Thee both in will and deed. (The Book of Common Prayer 156). Amen.

2. »Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.«

3. In Jesus’ Parable of the rich man and Lazarus, it is obvious that the rich man does not believe or follow the great commandment: »You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might.« In the Holy Gospels, Jesus summarized the Ten Commandments with two: 1. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets« (Matthew 22,37.39-40). Moses exhorted the people to keep these commandments before their eyes, practice them and teach them to the next generation. This does not seem like a difficult or burdensome task, and yet the rich man in this parable is proof that this simple exhortation remains unfulfilled. Based on his plea for his five brothers, it seems that the parents of these rich men treated the Law with contempt and failed to teach their sons to love Yahweh and their neighbors. The five brothers of the rich man were just like him and have treated their neighbors just as he had treated Lazarus.

4. We see the rotten fruit of the rich man’s callousness born out in our midst too. Have you noticed how young children kick and scream in a store or a restaurant? How often do their parents correct their behavior? It is more common to see parents placating the temper tantrums of their children rather than discipline them. In the schools it is often the case that parents side with their children rather than the teacher when their child has some disruptive behavior brought to their attention. O, no, my child doesn’t do that! Or consider the rash of seminars held at schools dealing with bullying. We have become a society content with passive behavior rather than dealing with the issue at hand. In many homes, simple discipline has broken down, and thus it should come as no surprise that children today grow up with no sense of respect for others. We have a whole generation of rich men in our society, and they will treat each other just as the rich man treated Lazarus in the parable. Even the Church is not immune to this. How many children are brought up to fear, love and trust God? How many are taught discipline, the Bible stories or basic teachings of the Christian faith? And what will we expect the outcome to be? We will have Christian people who do not know the Scriptures, and therefore cannot make and defend simple apologetic arguments against those who are not Christians. When trials and persecutions arrive, they will not be able to give an account or be a witness for the faith. And how about you and me? How often do we neglect to help our neighbor because we are too busy, do not want to be bothered or simply do not care about their well-being? Our very inaction is proof that we do not love God, nor our neighbor, but the only true love we consistently have is the love for me, myself and I.

5. Our Heavenly Father is not pleased with our narcissistic attitude and behavior. The Apostle Paul describes God’s reaction in his Epistle to the Romans: »For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and women, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator! And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness and malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil and disobedient to parents. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them« (Romans 1,18.21.24-25.28-30.32).

6. Like the rich man, we cannot escape God’s punishment and condemnation upon those who are unrighteous, unloving and uncaring for the plight of their neighbors. The Law and the Prophets pronounce the judgment of God upon us. Again the Apostle Paul: »Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His Divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the Justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus« (Romans 3,19-26).

7. God the Father is just in His judgment upon us sinners. He punishes the sinner for His or her sin, but we do not bear that punishment because Jesus has taken our place as the Sinner who has been punished for the sinfulness of the world. Jesus became like Lazarus. He suffered the trials and tribulations of this fallen world. He was ridiculed, mocked, and rejected. Yet again the Apostle Paul: »It will be counted to us who believe in God the Father who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God« (Romans 4,24-25; 5,1,2). God is likewise gracious in His mercy upon us who are sinners.

8. The Law and the Prophets teach us that: Yahweh our God loves us with all His heart, with all His soul and with all His might. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of that love in our midst. Thus, we share in the glory of Lazarus. We will be in the presence of Abraham and the Divine fellowship of the Triune God, the angels and all people who believe on Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee of this eternal life of salvation. Moses and the Prophets, the Evangelists and the Epistles, proclaim the judgment of sinners has been born by Jesus, and that His judgment results in our justification. We have this grace now, it strengthens us throughout our life and leads us to everlasting life in the new heavens and earth. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Your testimonies are righteous forever; give us the pure gospel so that we may live eternally. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Deuteronomy 6,4-6. 1. Sunday after Trinity

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