Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Psalm 95,1-3.6-7; John 16,24b. Rogate

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Psalm 95,1-3.6-7; John 16,24b 3017

Rogate (5. Sonntag nach Ostern) 040 weiß

Helena, Empress and mother of Constantine, ✠ 328

Hospitius, hermit, 681

21. Mai 2017

1. О Lord God, Heavenly Father, who through Your Son did promise us so that whatsoever we ask in His Name You will give us: We beseech You, keep us in Your Word, and grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that He may govern us according to Your will; protect us from the power of the devil, from false doctrine and worship; also defend our lives against all danger; grant us Your blessing and peace, so that we may in all things perceive Your merciful help, and both now and forever praise and glorify You as our Gracious Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for the Rogate)

2. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full. O let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us enter 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. O 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.

3. Jesus told His apostles on Maundy Thursday: »Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full.« This statement is part of a larger teaching Jesus presented to them in the context of the Passover meal, the institution of the Lord’s Supper and hours before His Passion would begin ending with His crucifixion. His statement is sandwiched in the context of God blessing His people, thus His conditional statement is: when you ask, My Father will give you complete joy.

4. The rest of Rogate’s Introit is verses from Psalm 95 that comprise the Venite (O come), which is liturgically sung in morning Matins. The Venite begins: »O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation!« The object of our singing is the Rock of our salvation. Recall the conversation Jesus had with Peter: »Jesus said to His disciples: „But who do you say that I am?“ Simon Peter replied: „You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.“ And Jesus answered him: „Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hades shall not prevail against her“« (Matthew 16,15-18). The rock of confessing is to confess Jesus to be the Rock of salvation, and immediately Jesus tells His disciples what it means to be this Rock, this Christ: »I must be killed and on the third day be raised« (Matthew 16,21). In John 16, Jesus is on the cusp of fulfilling this. He tells His apostles: »A little while, and you will see Me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see Me. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you« (John 16,16.20.22).

5. Jesus grounds this promise upon His very own resurrection from the grave. The Apostle Paul tell us that Jesus’ resurrection is the certainty and cornerstone of our faith: If Christ has been raised, then your faith is certain and your sins are forgiven (1. Corinthians 15,17). Yes, Jesus is the guarantee that our joy will be full. The Venite assures us that »The Lord is a Great God, and a Great King above all gods«. The Apostle Paul proclaimed our Great God to the Athenian Greeks at the Areopagus (Acts 17,16-34). The Areopagus is the Hill of Ares (Mars, to the Romans, the god of war); it served as the chief court where murderers were tried (the Greeks believed this is where the Pantheon tried Ares for the murder of Poseidon’s son, Alirrothios). By Paul’s time, the Athenians had built a temple to the unknown god on the Areopagus. This temple represented any god not honored by the Greeks. The Greeks believed the gods punished those who neglected to worship and sacrifice to them, so this temple covered any god or goddess the Greeks may have not known about due to ignorance.

6. Paul proclaims from the Areopagus: »Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: To the unknown god. What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, so that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for In Him we live and move and have our being;[Epimenides of Crete] as even some of your own poets have said: For we are indeed His offspring.[Aratus’ poem Phainomena] Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead« (Acts 17,22-31). Paul told the Athenians: yes, you have been ignorant of a god, the Most High God, higher and mightier than your beloved Zeus. This unknown god is the God of the Jews and He sent His Son, not to punish you like Zeus’ sons Apollo and Ares were apt to do in fits of rage, but to die for you and rise again for you. Many of the Athenians who heard this mocked Paul for at that time Greek philosophy generally denied the resurrection of the dead. Rather they held to the Platonic ideal that one’s soul lived on after death and forever left behind the inferior and corrupt body of flesh. Nevertheless, some Athenians accepted Paul’s teaching about Jesus and His resurrection.

7. The Introit exhorts us: »When you hear God’s Voice, do not harden your hearts.« The Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are replete with examples of people hardening their hearts to God. Some harden their hearts because they cannot believe the miracles performed by God and through God in the Holy Scriptures. Others can’t accept some of Jesus’ teachings so they reject Him completely. Most reject God over the fact that the Scriptures claim that Jesus has redeemed us and we need do nothing in regards to our salvation but believe and trust in Christ. The Apostle Paul says it quite clearly in his Epistle to the Romans: »Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life« (Romans 5,1.10). The voice of God’s bishops cry out: Behold, Jesus is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world, yes, He has taken away your sin!

8. Jesus tells us: »Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full« (John 16,24). We all have petitions and concerns that we take to the Lord in prayer; do so with confidence that our Lord hears your prayers and answers them. Sometimes God’s will and our will are not in sync, but rest assured that God answers our prayers so that His Name is ultimately glorified. The Church’s joy is that the gospel be preached to all and that all who hear it receive it in faith. We know that does not always happen, yet the Church continues to preach Christ to a world that needs Him. May you likewise pray to the Lord that His will be done in your lives and in the lives of all for whom you pray. »Let us sing to the Lord and bless His Name. For the Lord goes forth to judge the world in righteousness and the people in His faithfulness« (Psalm 96,2.13). Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, who does not reject our prayers nor removes His steadfast love from us, teach us to remember that You have risen indeed, and in rising have made our joy complete. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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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

Monday, May 22, 2017

Psalm 95,1-3.6-7; John 16,24b. Rogate

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