This Sunday's Bible Lessons:
Isaiah 49:8-16a
Psalm 131
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Matthew 6:24-34
The Prayer of the Day:
God of tender care, like a mother, like a father, you never forget your children, and you know already what we need. In all our anxiety give us trusting and faithful hearts, that in confidence we may embody the peace and justice of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Some Comments:
1. This is the Second Sunday after Pentecost, effectively beginning the longest season of the Church Year. The Pentecost season runs until we begin a new Church Year with the Advent Season which, this year, will fall on November 30.
2. Falling after the three great festivals of the Church--Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost--have been celebrated, the themes of Bible lessons appointed for the Pentecost season, are basically, living each day with Christ and growing in our faith in Christ. The latter theme is why the color of the season is green. Like plants that grow green and strong the more they depend on the water, soil, sun, and nutrients, we grow in our faith the more we depend on the God we know in Jesus Christ. Those who grow green in their faith grow in all of the eternal blessings of God, blessings like hope, joy, peace, and assurance of God's grace. Those who grow green in their faith also more readily and, with less self-concern and self-absorption, pass on God's blessings to others, blessings like forgiveness, compassion, and loving counsel.
3. Last Sunday, Holy Trinity Sunday, is always celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. It still has the hint of a festival about it. But this Sunday, we get down to the business of living faith in the "in between times" in which we live, the times between the ascension of the risen Jesus and His return one day, when He will fully establish His Kingdom.
4. We certainly get down to brass tacks in the lessons for this Sunday. They address, first of all, what have been for centuries and remain for today, the primary impediments to faith taking root in us and growing: (1) The difficulty we have with trusting the God, a difficulty reflected in our penchant for worrying. (2) The difficulty we have with trusting that God will provide for our material needs, a difficulty reflected in our penchant for worrying about whether we will have "enough" of food, clothing, shelter, and the like. These issues inhere in all of the lessons, though they are most overtly addressed in Jesus' words in the Gospel lesson from Matthew.
5. Another theme, of course, is trust in God. Trust in God is the opposite of worry. When we allow the Holy Spirit to build our trust (faith) in God, we are freed from worry. We know that God is our God for all eternity. We know that God, in the three Persons of the Trinity, is intimately aware of our daily needs: The Father knows from having designed us. The Son knows from having been one of us. The Spirit knows from living with us day-in and day-out.
A bit about each of the lessons...
6. Isaiah 49:8-16a was originally addressed to the Judeans who, following the conquest of their country, had been exiled to Babylon. Many others had fled the country and were living in other places, members of what we still call the Jewish diaspora (dispersion). Through Isaiah, the prophet, God is promising that He will gather His people together again. God can be trusted.
The imagery of v. 15 is interesting. God is compared to a mother who never forgets the children once issued from her womb or nursed at her breast. This certainly conveys both the tenderness and the resilience of God's love for us.
Syene was a region of southern Egypt.
7. Psalm 131 is, as the superscription at the beginning indicates, a "psalm of ascent." It was sung by religious pilgrims come to Jerusalem for one of the great Jewish festivals as they ascended Mount Zion, the site of the temple.
Verse 1 says that the worshiper understands that God is higher than they. Here, we see genuine humility exhibited. Humility isn't having a low opinion of one's self, but a right opinion. A humble person understands that they have eternal value, value conferred upon them by the God Who made them, redeemed them, and lives with them.
Verse 2 has something of the same imagery as the Isaiah passage. The worshiper sees himself or herself as "a weaned child," able to make decisions and function, yet still dependent on God.
The bottom line: Hope (trust, have faith) in the Lord!
8. 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 may, at first, not seem to fit in with the other lessons. The apostle Paul is addressing the dysfunctional church in the Greek city of Corinth. Among the many issues in this congregation was the penchant of its members to identify themselves as followers either of Apollos, a Christian preacher; Paul; or Jesus. Paul points out that neither he nor Apollos are worthy of "following," only Jesus, God-in-the-flesh. He says that he and Apollos are only "servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries." Trust in the God revealed in Jesus Christ, nothing else.
9. Matthew 6:24-34 contain words of Jesus from His Sermon on the Mount. It would be wrong to conclude that Jesus is condemning money or work. The birds, in His illustration, work to gather in their food. But they're not paralyzed with worry over whether there will be food. If God cares about inferior creatures like birds, think how much more God can be trusted to provide for your real needs. (More on this in my sermon on Sunday, I'm sure.)
Instead, we should make seeking or striving for God's Kingdom the focal point of our daily living. God can be relied upon. God can be trusted.
Jesus says we must choose who our master will be. Will it be money and possessions? Will it be God? Whatever has our highest allegiance is our master and our God. Money and possessions can get us through this life and a certain amount of it constitutes "our daily bread," which God wills for each of us to have. But only God can give life, today and in eternity.
[Each week, I present some thoughts on the Bible lessons for the succeeding Sunday. In doing so, I hope to help the people of the congregation I serve, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, to prepare for worship. And because, we will almost always use the appointed lessons for the Church Year, I also hope that these thoughts can help others prepare for worship too.]
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