✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ
Psalm 143,1-2.6.8.10; Psalm 96,13 5617
Vorletzter Sonntag des Kirchenjahres; 26. Sn. n. Trinitatis 071
Elisabeth, Landgravine of Thuringia, ✠ 1231.
19. November 2017
1. О Lord Thou Creator of the heavens and the earth, bring justice to Your creation, so that the wicked are judged and the righteousness are vindicated. Amen. (Gradual)
2. The Lord, arrives to judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness. O Lord, give ear to my pleas for mercy! Answer me in Your faithfulness and righteousness! Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for no one living is righteous before You. I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Let me hear in the morning of Your steadfast love, for in You I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God! Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground!
3. The Psalmist proclaims that »The Lord arrives to judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness.« Such Divine action occurs a number of times in the Bible. Mankind’s banishment from Eden (Genesis 3), the Flood (Genesis 7) and the Division of the Earth/Tower of Babel (Genesis 10,25; 11) are examples of Divine judgement on a global scale; Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), the Exodus (Exodus 6-14), the Assyrian Captivity (2. Kings 19; 721 bc) and the Babylonian Captivity (2. Kings 25; 587 bc) are examples of Divine judgment on a local or national scale. Last week’s Gospel pericope (Matthew 24,15-28) cited Jesus prediction of Jerusalem’s destruction that would soon occur in ad 70; Jesus said this tribulation would be an example of a future tribulation that ultimately ushers in the last day.
4. Before the Lord judges He sends messengers to urge people to repentance. Sometimes those prophets are ignored and His judgment commences, like Noah and the Flood; other times those prophets are heeded and His judgment is averted, like Jonah to Nineveh. One reason the Church has a rite of confession and absolution is to call Christians to examine their lives, repent of their sin and receive the Lord’s forgiveness. »If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world« (1. John 1,8-9; 2,1-2). Another reason is the Church intercedes on behalf of the wicked world and asks the Lord to be merciful. »The Lord said: „Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to Me. And if not, I will know“« (Genesis 18,17.20-21).
5. Responsive Prayer 2 uses the Versicles as a meditative prayer of repentance: »Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry ascend to You. In the day of my trouble I call upon You, for You answer me. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and taken to Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit« (Psalm 102,1; 86,7; 51,9-12). The Versicles conclude with the assurance of the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness, and in doing so they echo the words of today’s Introit wether we are reminded that the Lord mercifully answers our prayers and exchanges judgment with justification. By this gracious activity, the Lord creates in us an eager waiting for adoption as children of God (Romans 8,23).
6. As His children, theLord creates in us a desire to love and help our neighbor. We see this bear fruit in today’s Gospel pericope where Jesus announces to all mankind how His Christians have helped those in need, fed them, clothed them and simply showed them mercy ( Matthew 25,35-39), and in doing this unto others we have truly done it unto Christ. »A disciple is not above his teacher; it is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher« (Matthew 10,24-25). »Whoever receives you receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward« (Matthew 10,40.42).
7. The Introit makes it clear that the Lord loves mankind: »Let me hear in the morning of Your steadfast love, for in You I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God! Let Your good Spirit lead me on level ground!« The Lord’s love for men and women is also our love as well. To walk the path of the Lord is to walk the path of loving mankind. The Apostle Paul tells us: »The love of Christ urges us on because we are convinced that One has died for all; therefore all have died. Thus we are ambassadors for Christ« (2. Corinthians 6,14.20). Our neighbors need to hear the gospel and to receive our good works. As Christ does for us so we do for others. Amen.
8. Let us pray. O Lord, the heavens declare Your righteousness and justice; give us the assurance that as Your children we love our neighbor, so that in showing this love we more importantly show them Your holy love for them. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
✠
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.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Vol. 4. © 1963 Henry Regnery Co.
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
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