Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Exodus 32,7-14. Rogate Sunday

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The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Exodus 32,7-14 3014

Rogate 040 pray

Urban, Bishop of Rome, Martyr 231

25. Mai 2014

1. O Lord, from whom all good things do come; Grant us, Your humble servants, that by Your holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by Your merciful guiding may perform the same (The Book of Common Prayer 142). Amen.

2. »And Yahweh said to Moses: „Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said: ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let Me alone, so that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.“ But Moses implored Yahweh his God and said: „O Yahweh, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people, whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say: ‘With evil intent did He bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and relent from this disaster against Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own Self, and said to them: ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’“ And Yahweh relented from the disaster that He had spoken of bringing on His people.«

3. Jesus teaches in our Gospel Lection for this morning: »I tell you the absolute truth:, whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My Name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full« (John 16,23b-24). This teaching gives us the theme of the day, for rogate means to „ask“ or „pray“.

4. Our First Lection from Exodus 32 relates the peril of praying to false gods and idols. Yahweh had redeemed Israel from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 20,3). They had journeyed to Mt. Sinai where they received the Mosaic covenant and the Ten Commandments. The 1. Commandment states: »You shall have no other gods except Me« (Exodus 20,4), but, while Moses was on Sinai for forty days to receive the testament carved upon stone tablets, the people of God had broken the testament by violating that 1. Commandment. Yahweh tells Moses: »Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said: ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’« Instead of praying to Yahweh in His Name, they substituted the Canaanite idol known as Baal, made a golden image of him and prayed to him as their redeemer.

5. Israel was just as pluralistic and multicultural as any 21. century American. They reasoned: If Yahweh leaves us stuck here at Sinai with Moses missing-in-action, then we will turn our prayers to Baal and see what he can do for us. Such is the nature of religious pluralism: we line up our gods along our wall and start praying. If god A doesn’t do our bidding, then we can just go down the line of our idols, one by one, until one of our idols answers our prayer. By our sinful nature, we are polytheists and idolaters. Only the Triune God turns us into monotheistic children of the One True God.

6. Israel, however, was loathe to leave behind the idols they had collected unto themselves during their long sojourn in Egypt. Now they were not Yahweh’s people, and to cease being His people negates the testament God had made with them. They risked losing everything: their freedom, their inheritance, the promised land and redemption. Yahweh wanted to start over and start fresh with Moses and raise up a new people from the stump of Abraham, but Moses reminded Him of His promise, and God does not go back on His word. Moses stood in the breach, interceded unto Yahweh on behalf of idolatrous Israel, and God relented from the disaster that He had spoken of bringing upon His people.

7. In John 16, Jesus encourages, yea, commands, His disciples to pray to Him. To pray to Jesus would be idolatry on par with the events of Exodus 32, unless Jesus Himself is God. The question needs to be answered: Is Jesus God, or is he merely a man? If Jesus is not God, then he is a man on par with the likes of Moses, a great man indeed, but certainly not worthy of worship and prayer. But if Jesus is God, then He is something new, God and man in one person and body. This question of Jesus’ Divinity was the source of great discussion among the Jewish people of His day and the decades following in various Church circles. The Holy Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus is the 2. Person of the Holy Trinity, the Only-begotten Son of God the Father, who is to be prayed to and worshipped. Thus the Church formulated creeds that confess that Jesus Christ is the Only Son of God. Like Moses, Jesus brings a testament from on high. This new testament is manifested in Jesus Himself who fulfills and brings to an end the old Sinai testament. In Jesus, all mankind is redeemed and forgiven through the merit of His perfect life lived in complete obedience to the 10 Commandments and the Sinai testament, through His suffering, death on the cross and resurrection from the grave three days later.

8. King David the Psalmist writes: »Hear my prayer, O Yahweh; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In Your faithfulness answer me, in Your righteousness! Enter not into judgment with Your servant, for no one living is righteous before You« (Psalm 143,1-2). David prays to Yahweh for mercy, salvation and righteousness. David’s own son, descending from his lineage, fulfilled this very prayer, and that son is Jesus the son of David. Jesus satisfied the wrath of God the Father that threatened to descend upon idolatrous sinners such as you and me. We threaten to sever ourselves from our Father’s love and providence, turning to other idols or our own strength in times of need, but Jesus stood in the breach, hung on the cross and interceded for us. His meritorious action has mediated a new testament with our Heavenly Father that cannot be broken by our sinful disobedience, for Jesus has sealed that testament with His perfect obedience.

9. Rogate. Pray. Ask. God the Father will answer your prayer for He is a kind, loving Father. You can be certain of this on account of Jesus, who like His Father, shows us kindness and love. There is much in this world to pray for. We live at a time when Godliness and virtue are shunned, turned on their heads and ungodly philosophies and vices are lauded and praised as good, tolerant ideals and practices. Our culture remains comfortable with murdering the unborn, accepting unnatural unions and turns a blind eye when good Christian men and women are tortured, imprisoned and persecuted around the world. Pray for the Holy Spirit to change the hearts of our corrupt culture and return our culture to Godly virtues and standards of living. Many faithful churches suffer from laziness, financial hardship and apathy as they accommodate to the cultural vices pressing upon them. Pray for the Holy Spirit to raise up and strengthen faithful bishops and ministers to preach the gospel of Christ crucified and risen for salvation and redemption. Pray that He would turn the hearts of those who bear the Name of Christ, but have forsaken their church with their worship and their offerings, and restore them in good fellowship and stewardship so that our church, and all churches, would be bountifully blessed. Pray that He would raise up the voices of pastors and lay people to stand in the breach, draw a line in the sand and say „No further! We will not tolerate the killing of our infants, the persecution of our brothers and sisters around the world on account of their faith in Jesus nor any unnatural unions among people that violate God’s good and created order of creation.“ Let us pray for God to work in our lives and our nation to hold the line, and then to put to flight those who have advanced such ungodly and idolatrous ideals and practices. God created this world and set us as good stewards of this earth, so let us who bear the Name of Christ be good stewards, find our courage and our voice so that we stop being dictated to by idolatrous and pagan people and put forward the love, mercy and joy of Christ who redeems all from sin and slavery, sets those free from addictions and base lives and live as people who truly are redeemed and liberated by the gospel.

10. Our Heavenly Father is looking for someone to stand in the breach before Him for the land, so that He should not destroy it (Ezekiel 22,30). You and me, yea, all Christians, are those who are to stand in the breach and intercede for our church, our nation and our world. Pray to Jesus with confidence, for He promises us: »Ask, and My Father will give it to you. In Me you have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart for I have overcome the world.« (John 16,23b.27-28.33). Amen.

11. Let us pray. Come now, O Christ Jesus, Thou King of men, and tarry not too long. We need Thy gentle grace, deliver Thou us and grant us verily Thy healing gift, so that from now henceforth we may forevermore while in this world, attempt the better things, and work Thy will [1] (Cynewulf 372-377). Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

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.

Cynewulf, Crist.

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

]1] 372 hwearfiað heanlice. Cym nu, hæleþa cyning,

ne lata to lange. Us is lissa þearf,

þæt þu us ahredde ond us hælogiefe

375 soðfæst sylle, þæt we siþþan forð

þa sellan þing symle moten

geþeon on þeode, þinne willan.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, June 2, 2014

Exodus 32,7-14. Rogate Sunday

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