Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: August 2022

Saturday, August 27, 2022

2. Samuel 12,1-10.13-15a. 11. Trinity

2. Samuel 12,1-10.13-15a 4122

11. Sn. n. Trinitatis 58

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo Regius, Algeria, † 430

28. August 2022

1. ℣ God is in His holy habitation:

℟ He is God who setteth the solitary in families. (Psalm 68,5)

Our narrow-mindedness, our short-sighted vision, these we bring before You, O Lord; change and broaden our mind and eyes, so that we understand and see through the lens of Your mercy. (Meine engen Grenzen elkg 620,1 2021 Eugen Eckert 1981)

2. »And Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He went to him and said to him: „There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms,and it was like a daughter to him. Now there approached a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had arrived, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had visited him.“«

3. »You are the man!« Those 4 words cut King David to his heart. He had sinned against Yahweh and his neighbor. David was guilty and his sin had been exposed, but he was also a man who sought after God’s heart (1. Samuel 13,14). David was a talented musician (1. Samuel 16,18). After the Prophet Nathan had confronted him, David wrote Psalm 51; it is a psalm of repentance that we still us 3000 years later.

4. »Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, You delight in truth in the inward being, and You teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit« (Psalm 51,1-12).

5. O that the Holy Spirit would give us a heart that epitomizes those words and sentiments! Sin is not merely a collection of bad things we do, but it is ultimately a severing of the relationship we have with God and our neighbor. it is this relationship that God desires to restore. David had become lost, and Y sent Nathan to find him. God is the one who finds sinners and restores them. In today’s parable, both the Pharisee and the tax collector needed redemption> the Pharisee who boasted in his works righteousness and the tax collector who admitted his total depravity (Luke 18,11.13).

6. David knew the sorrow expressed by the tax collector: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner! (Luke 18,13). »David said to Nathan: „I have sinned against Yahweh.“ And Nathan replied to David: „Yahweh also has put away your sin.“« And so we confess in the Divine Service: I, a poor, miserable sinner. David reminds us: »The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise« (Psalm 51,17). God is loving, merciful and forgiving; He finds lost sinners and restores them to fellowship with Him. John the Baptizer declared this of Jesus when he proclaimed: »Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!« (John 1,29). Jesus has made propitiation for our sin; He has purchased our redemption with His very blood.

7. The core para. 11 2sam12,01 2014

8. Oh, how blest it is to know:

Were as scarlet my transgression,

It shall be as white as snow

By Thy blood and bitter Passion;

For these words I now believe:

Jesus sinners doth receive (Jesus Sinners Doth Receive tlh 324,6 Erdmann Neumeister 1718).

This is most certainly true.

13. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

14. Let us pray. O Lord God, we pray Thee to keep us from all self-confidence and vainglory. Bestow upon us Thy great grace of humility and self-forgetfulness; to Thee may we look up, in all that we do, alike for the will and for the power; and to Thee may we ascribe with a sincere heart all the praise. Amen. (The Week of Trinity 11, Vespers Collect 1. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.)

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 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

2. Kings 25,1-22. 10. Trinity

2. Kings 25,1-22 4222

10. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 57

Bonosus and Maximilianus, soldiers, Martyrs 363

21. August 2022

1. ℣ Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh:

℟ And the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. (Psalm 33,12).

O God and Father, behold us poor and miserable sinners, who have done great evil with our hearts, mouths and hands; lead us to repentance and seal it in Christ, Your Son, so that we may be made perfect in salvation. Amen. (Auf tiefer Not laßt uns zu Gott elkg 258,2 2021 Michael Weiße 1531).

2. »In the fifth month (Ab/Av/August), on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar (587 bc), king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of Yahweh, the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem. And the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.«

3. On 10. August 587 bc Nebuchadnezzar ordered the temple burned; in ad 70 on the exact same date General Titus, soon to be Emperor Titus, ordered the temple burned. Both temple destructions were prophesied. The Prophets time and again implored the people of Israel to repent, lest Yahweh destroy the temple with fire (Jeremiah 7,12-15; Hosea 8,14; Amos 2,5). Centuries later, Jesus prophesied the destruction of the temple (Matthew 24,1-3; Mark 13,1-4; Luke 19,44; 21,5-7).

4. Why was the temple destroyed in 587 bc? The great, generational sin that plagued Israel and Judah was idolatry; they tolerated idols alongside the temple worship of Yahweh. Moses had told them: »Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that c is God in heaven above and on earth beneath; there is no other God« (Deuteronomy 4,39). »If you will not obey the Voice of Yahweh, your God …, then He will cause you to be defeated before your enemies« (Deuteronomy 28,15.25).

5. The nation’s idolatry turned the temple, the house of God, into a den of violent tyrants, robbers and insurrectionists (פּוצים; ληστων). Their idolatry lead to a disregard toward their neighbors: they treated one another unjustly, unkindly and oppressively (Micah 6,8). Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We act the same way in the 21. century. First, table violations of the covenant lead inevitably to second table violations. When Yahweh is not loved, then neither is the neighbor.

6. Israel’s/Judah’s idolatry was punished in the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. Jesus told His disciples that the second temple would also be destroyed, and it was in response to the Jewish rejection of Yahweh. Jesus said the generation in which He lived was an evil generation (Luke 11,29). They seek a sign that Jesus speaks for Yahweh, and the sign that God gives them is Jonah: repent, lest you be destroyed (Jonah 3,4)! But His generation did not repent, and this destruction fell upon them within their generation, 40 years later, when Rome burned the temple and sacked Jerusalem.

7. The people had the signs of Jonah, John the Baptizer and Jesus. By and large they rejected, particularly the religious and political leaders, these signs, refused to repent and remained unbelieving. Those same signs are before our current generation. Will this generation heed and believe the signs or will it reject and remain unbelieving? Refusal to repent has consequences. Judgment is nigh, and only Jesus can avert it.

8. The other sign of Jonah is his 3 days and nights in the belly of a fish. Unlike Gentile Nineveh, the Jewish generation of Jesus’ day would not accept the sign of Jonah and actively rejected the Word of God, nor would they keep His Word. Jesus is the sign to His generation (Just 482). Rejecting this sign lead to Judah’s destruction.

9. Now, if we consider these things, we will find that God takes care of mankind, and by all ways possible foreshows to our race that which is for our preservation (Josephus War 6.5.3-4; Whiston 743). God in Christ foreshows humanity the sign of His eternal love and mercy. Jesus is the antitype of Jonah in the fish, for it is His crucifixion and resurrection that reveals beyond a doubt the depth of God’s grace upon His fallen creation.

10. The physical temple in Jerusalem is no more, but God still has His temple, a better and more faithful Temple that is His Only Son Jesus Christ. Jesus told the Jews that He would destroy this Temple and raise It up in 3 days. He was talking about Himself: His body was crucified and killed, but 3 days later He raised It up again from the grave. This the old testament has been fulfilled and the new testament has been established by the shed blood and risen body of Jesus.

11. God’s temple was always His house were prayer and forgiveness were the centerpiece. Every church is such a house for it is there that Christ’s Word is preached and His Sacraments of Holy Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and Absolution of sin are administered. Yahweh’s house is a house of prayer and forgiveness because it is built upon Christ who is our mediator and propitiator. Here we gather to receive from Christ His gifts forgiveness. This New Temple will never be destroyed for this Temple is Christ. He is the very sign that judgment is averted, wickedness is atoned for and mercy is available for all people.

12. The dying Lord our ransom paid,

One final full self-offering made,

Complete in every part.

His finished sacrifice for sins

The covenant of grace begins,

The [gospel in] the heart. (No Temple Now, No Gift of Price, Timothy Dudley-Smith b. 1926 lsb 530,2)

This is most certainly true.

13. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

14. Let us pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, from whom without ceasing we receive exceedingly abundantly all good gifts and by whom we are guarded daily from every evil? Grant us we beseech Thee by Thy Spirit that we in true faith may acknowledge this Thy goodness with our whole heart and my now and ever more thank and praise Thy loving-kindness and tender mercy. Amen. (Martin Luther; AE 53,139 © 1965 Fortress Press)

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

Saturday, August 13, 2022

Luke 16,1-9. 9. Trinity

Luke 16,1-9 4122

9. Sn. n. Trinitatis 55

Athanasia, Widow Abbess at Timia, Greece, 860

14. August 2022

1. ℣ Behold, God, is mine Helper:

℟ Yahweh is with them that uphold my soul. (Psalm 54,4)

O Yahweh, give us Thy heavenly wisdom, so that we do not repose and stand up on our own wills, and be Thou our Friend and Faithful Counsel, so that we do what is good. (Ich weiß, mein Gott, daß all mein Tun elkg 768,8 2021 Paul Gerhardt 1653)

2. »Jesus said to the disciples: „There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ²And he called him and said to him: ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³And the manager said to himself: ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first: ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶He said: ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him: ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷Then he said to another: ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said: ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him: ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. ⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.“«

3. Jesus uses the verb διασκορπιζων: squander in back-to-back parables. In chapter 15, with the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus tells us that the prodigal διεσκορπισεν (Indic Aor Act): he squandered his wealth (15,13); and in the next parable He tells, Jesus says the steward διασκορπιζων (Par Pre Act): squandering his master’s wealth 16,1). Whereas the prodigal cannot save himself from his recklessness, the steward was shrewd enough to save himself from destitution; but the steward did so by dishonesty and injustice: he changed the ledger books for some debtors so that it appeared that they had paid part of their bill to his master! He was willing to lie to and steal from his master in order to gain favor with his master’s debtors. In doing so he ensured there would be people who owed him favors after he was dismissed as a steward. Unscrupulous business people and politicians do this sort of thing all the time.

4. In this parable, Jesus reveals how corrupt our sinful hearts truly are. We will devise all sorts of ways to appease God. One of the most common methods is to bargain that enough good works will offset our sins recorded in God’s Divine ledger book. If we can just get one more good work that tips the scales in our favor or changes our account of debit and credit from red to black, then we will have been successful in righting our account before God; but it doesn’t work that way.

5. Nevertheless, even Christians are prone to this deception. If I do enough penance, pray enough prayers and give enough arms or charitable works, then I will be storing up enough good credit to tip the balance in my favor or at the very least show God that I am trying to reconcile the sinful debt I owe to Him. It was this very attitude that inspired Martin Luther to write this thesis in his 95 Theses in 1517: our good works do not free us from sinful penalties nor do our good works save us (Thesis 21).

6. The reality is: to put forth our good works before God as means or methods of salvation or appeasing Him is to lie and cheat God just as the unrighteous steward did to his master in today’s parable. What saves, forgives and pardons is Christ alone. To put anything above Christ, on equal footing with Christ or under Christ as something we can add to Him is to rob God of His grace and mercy! We want to say: „‘We will do it! We will show God what splendid people we are and claim our reward.’ … [We] would transform the gracious, giving God into a spectator who would applaud [our] achievements“ (Galatians 3:15 1955 Nagel ¶ 8) or our attempt to achieve something. Such is the approach of the Pharisees and the prodigal son: „I will do it; I will earn my way back into God’s favor.“ Truly we are exactly like the prodigal who utterly fails each time he gives it a go of appeasing himself before his father.

7. The core teaching in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that we will always fail to appease God; we are lost and can never get restored back into the relationship we have broken with Him. One of the teachings in the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward is: even if you think you can bribe some favor, it always comes through deceit and lying; you still remain unrighteous in the eyes of the rich man and will never be welcome back into his household.

8. The gospel at the heart of the Parable of the Prodigal Son is the father’s love, compassion and mercy he has for his lost younger son. The prodigal tried to redeem himself, but he utterly failed. He remained lost; even his scheme to appease his father failed … because his father would not hear of it. „No, you aren’t redeeming yourself, my son, because I have already found you. I am running to you; I am giving a feast for you; my love, my compassion and my mercy have found you and restored you.“

9. The irony is, the Parable the Prodigal Son didn’t play out the way the Jews expected it to play out; but in God’s salvation plan the parable plays out as it was expected to. In the parable, the older brother should had been the mediator and redeemer to his brother to restore the broken relationship. This is exactly how it plays out in the Gospels! We are the younger brother, God is the father and Jesus is our older brother. We became lost and Jesus does what the older brother is supposed to do: He goes and finds us; He mediates us before our Father; He redeems us. In doing so He reveals to us the loving, compassionate and merciful heart of our Father. We were lost, and God found us.

10 The gospel at the heart of the Parable of the Unrighteous Steward is that Christ is the righteous steward who saves us from our unrighteous attempt to garner favor with God. 11. „In Christ it is all clear. He is the fulfillment of the promises, and He sets aside the condemnation of the Law. God’s promises cannot be repeated or replaced. The Law that uncovers sin and condemns Christ put Himself under with us. He was „made of a woman, made under the Law“ (Galatians 4:4). What we could not do, Christ did for us. He kept the Law in our place, and He endured its condemnation on our sin. Christ took our sins on Himself and on Calvary bore their condemnation in our place. He was made a curse for us, so He redeemed us from the curse and condemnation of the Law. Christ has done it all. The gift God gives is, above all, His Son. Here is the height of giving. For those who rebelled and refused His gifts, God gave His Son to die and rise again so to us He might give the forgiveness achieved by Christ’s atoning death and the risen triumphant life victorious over sin, death and hell. From all the wretched unrest of getting and wanting and getting and wanting again, we have been made free. We are God’s own, living from the gift of His hand. From our glad and grateful hearts we sing, „Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!“ There it is. Is it yours? Do you receive it, that is, do you believe?“ (Galatians 3:15 1955 Nagel ¶ 10.13).

12. Lord, Thee I love with all my heart;

I pray Thee, ne’er from me depart,

With tender mercy cheer me.

Earth has no pleasure I would share.

Yea, heav’n itself were void and bare

If Thou, Lord, wert not near me.

And should my heart for sorrow break,

My trust in Thee can nothing shake.

Thou art the portion I have sought;

Thy precious blood my soul has bought.

Lord, Jesus Christ,

My God and Lord, my God and Lord,

Forsake me not! I trust Thy Word

(Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart lsb 708,1 2006 Martin Schalling 1532-1608).

This is most certainly true.

13. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

14. Let us pray. O God of our fathers, who keepest Thy mercy, … give us wisdom …; that being present with us she may toil with us that we may learn what is well-pleasing before Thee, that in our doings she may guide us in ways of soberness and guard us in her glory, henceforth and always. Amen. (The Week of Trinity 9, Vespers Collect 1. The Daily Office. Copyright © 1965 Concordia Publishing House.)

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Mark12,41-44. 8. Trinity

Mark 12,41-44 4022

8. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 54

Afra, Martyr at Augsburg, Bavaria 304

7. August 2022

1. ℣ We have thought of Thy loving-kindness, O God:

℟ In the midst of Thy temple. (Psalm 48,9).

O Yahweh, let us behold Your Glory in this time and give us strength to prectice good chivalry/stewardship. Amen. (Sonne der Gerechtigkeit elkg 297,6 2021 Christian David 1741).

2. »And He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And He called His disciples to Him and said to them: „Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.“«

3. In today’s Gospel pericope, Jesus contrasts the rich to a poor widow. This teaching occurred during Holy Week in the temple courtyard where the Jewish women would gather to pray. The treasury consisted of 13 chests to receive alms and these funds would purchase the incidentals needed for the altar of burnt offering, particularly the wood and other items.

4. Mark is relating to us the freewill offering given before the Passover. This offering was in addition to the annual temple tax that was usually paid at Passover, Pentecost or Tabernacles. This tax was not a large sum of money; it was a half-shekel that was equivalent to 2 days wages. The freewill offering, however, allowed the rich to give more and the poor less according to their means.

5. Sinful humans tend to give out if their abundance whereby it is no consequence to them because they have more. This is regardless of income; both the rich and poor can give out of their means and keep some back. Rare is the individual who gives everything and relies on God to sustain them. The widow in Mark 12 is one such example: all she had that day in her possession was a penny, and it was what she gave. There is proper worship under the old covenant, and the poor widow has displayed it (Voelz 940).

6. We see in this widow a type of the nature of God. Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb for the forgiveness of our sins: He is the antitype, the fulfillment, of the widow, for put in more than all at the temple, for He put in everything He had. Paul says it this way in his Epistle to the Philippians: »Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross« (Philippians 2,5-8). Jesus told His disciples this 3 times in Mark’s Gospel: »Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock Him, spit on Him, flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise« (Mark 10,33-34).

7. Christ gives all of Himself to us for our sins and to deliver us from this fallen, sinful world. This is the gospel and it is given to us in full in the Word and Sacraments. What comes from this is the Church and individual congregations in towns and nations throughout the world. The gospel dispenses grace, and with grace comes peace. By grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith expresses that all our righteousness is to be sought outside of us and all men’s merit, work, virtue and worthiness (Pieper Vol. II,630). All this is freely given to us by Christ.

8. O Lamb of God, my faithful, loving Savior,

You I embrace in faith and holy love;

Grant me the strength to show by my behavior

A life now hidden in Your reign above,

A life now hidden in Your reign above. (O Gracious Lord, I Firmly Am Believing, Spanish or Latin American, 20th cent.; tr. Stephen P. Starke 1955 lsb 635,4)

This is most certainly true.

9. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

10. Let us pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, who createst holy desire, good counsel and right works: Give to Thy servants peace which the world cannot give so that our hearts may cling to Thy commandments, and that by Thy protection we may live our days quietly and secure from our enemies. Amen. (Martin Luther; AE 53,138)

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Saturday, August 27, 2022

2. Samuel 12,1-10.13-15a. 11. Trinity

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

2. Kings 25,1-22. 10. Trinity

Saturday, August 13, 2022

Luke 16,1-9. 9. Trinity

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Mark12,41-44. 8. Trinity