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

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Exodus 32,7-14. Rogate

Exodus 32,7-11 3124

Rogate 41

Gotthard, Bishop of Hildesheim, Germany. ✠ 1039

Frederick the Wise, Landgrave of Thuringia & Elector of Saxony, Defender of Luther, ✠ 1525

5. Mai 2024

1. ℣ Announce in a voice of exultation:

℟ Make this heard, and bring it forth to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 48,20b vul).

O Christ, in You we have the redemption through Your blood, namely, the forgiveness of sins. Death cannot harm us, for You have overcome death. Yes, You have changed death into a sweet sleep and made it our departure to our Father in heaven. Whoever believes in You shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3,16). Amen. (Stark 516; English transl. 89).

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, 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. Rogate. Ask. Pray. The old Rogation days (c. 604 with Gregory the Great) in the Western Church are 25. April and the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Thursday. These 4 days are days of prayer: prayers of repentance, for protection from calamity and for a bountiful harvest (Bittage, Bittwoche or Kreuzwoche).

4. As the text of Exodus 32 reminds us, God’s people are prone to sin, even idolatry. The particular idolatry of Israel who weeks earlier had been been delivered out of Egypt was syncretism: Aaron and the people merge together worship of Yahweh and Baal. The Sinai covenant expressly forbade creating an image of Yahweh, so Aaron makes an image of Baal, a golden calf, and says this calf image represents Yahweh, confusing and mingling together Yahweh and Baal, is who lead them out of Egypt. In short order, the people are breaking the first 3 Commandments at the very base of Mount Sinai where they had just received them while Moses is on the mountain receiving the physical tablets of these Commandments. Yahweh is so angry that He ponders annihilating all of Israel and starting over with Moses.

5. The Church and Christians are just as prone to sin as Israel was. In 318, Arius, a pastor and presbyter in Alexandria, took issue with his bishop, Alexander, who taught that Jesus is begotten of the Father. Arius concluded: if the Father begot the Son, then there was a moment in time where the Son had a beginning. Arius wrote: He who is without beginning made the Son a beginning of created things. … For the Son is not equal to, nor is he the same being (ὁμοούσιος) as the Father (Thalia). Thus Arius’ hierarchy became: God the Father begets and creates the Son, then the angels, then all creation and finally mankind. Jesus therefore, as a created being, is similar to the Father’s Divine nature, but is not, and cannot, be of the same Divine nature as the Father.

6. To deny Jesus’ full and complete Divine with that of the Father will inevitably lead to the denial of salvation and justification. If Jesus is not fully God as the Father is fully God, then was Christ’s sacrifice sufficient to redeem the world? Am I saved? Are you saved? The gospel is about certainty and assurance, but Arius’ teaching replaced that certainty with doubt.

7. Contrary to Arius, Jesus proclaimed: »I and the Father are one« (John 10,30). Jesus was speaking of the Divine nature: both the Father and the Son have the same Divine nature and both are fully God. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus consistently teaches that He is Divine, and the Pharisees each time seek to charge Him with blasphemy by equating Himself to God the Father.

8. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God’s people have weathered false teachings, heresies and idolatry. The faithful prayed and asked God deliver them. »My house shall be a house of prayer« (Isaiah 56,7; Jeremiah 7,11). Domine, exaudi orationem meam. ... Et non intres in judicium cum servo tuo. O Yahweh, hear my prayer for the sake of Your faithfulness and do not enter into judgment with Your servant (Psalm 143,1.2). The prayer of a righteous person is able to do much because it is effective (James 5,16). We should be certain that our petitions and prayers are pleasing to God our Father, are heard by Him and that He answers them. Time and again, God sends people to call them back to Him and right doctrine. We pray for the Church for the gospel to create and sustain faith. We pray for the State that we have good government and wise leaders. We pray for good and plentiful harvests.

9. Jesus suffered, died and rose again for us. He told us that the Father hears our prayers and answers them. Jesus is the Yes to our prayers. He is the Answer given by the Father to our petitions. He is our Intercession before His Heavenly Father. Jesus absolves us of our sin. He delivers us from calamities. He provides our bountiful harvest.

10. Give us joy and strength to stand

In battle with Satan’s hand;

His kingdom and his works each day

We face as foes in every way.

Help us fight with honor true

And overcome, as we pursue

A life of service, pure and bright,

No Christian shall surrender in this fight. (Zieh ein zu deinen Toren elkg 482,12 2021 Paul Gerhardt 1653)

This is most certainly true.

11. Et pax Dei, quæ exuperat omnem sensum, custodiat corda vestra, et intelligentias vestras in Christo Jesu. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4,7). Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Almighty God, who hast caused the light of eternal life to shine upon the world, we beseech Thee that our hearts may be so kindled with heavenly desires, and Thy love so shed abroad in us by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may continually seek the things which are above and, abiding in purity of heart and mind, may at length attain unto Thine everlasting kingdom, there to dwell in the glorious light of Thy presence, world without end. Amen. (Rogate, Vespers Collect 2. The Daily Office.)

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 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Septuaginta, Vol. I and II 2. Revised Edition © 2006 Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Exodus 32,7-14. Rogate

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