Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 149, the Psalm for All Saints Day

Psalm 149

Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
    his praise in the assembly of the godly!
Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
    let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
Let them praise his name with dancing,
    making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
    he adorns the humble with salvation.
Let the godly exult in glory;
    let them sing for joy on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their throats
    and two-edged swords in their hands,
to execute vengeance on the nations
    and punishments on the peoples,
to bind their kings with chains
    and their nobles with fetters of iron,
to execute on them the judgment written!
    This is honor for all his godly ones.
Praise the Lord!

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Psalm For All Saints Day is Psalm 149.

Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly. Let Israel be glad in his maker. Let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre, for the Lord takes pleasure in his people, He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exalt in glory, Let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written. This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord.

This Psalm is a little bit of a challenge for us in the American church. It begins with things that we're fine with. Praise the Lord, Sing to the Lord, a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly. The new song is something that happens a lot in the Psalms talking about praising God for something new that he has done. Now many people when they say that they sing, sing to the Lord, a new song, they think, contemporary worship versus traditional worship. What it's really talking about is singing about the new thing that God has done, the new salvation he has brought to his people.

It continues, let Israel be glad in his maker, let the children of Zion rejoice in their king, Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and liar. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with salvation.

This is us saying let's praise God, praise God with all our instruments with all our singing, because God takes pleasure in his people. And we know he does that because he has sent His Son Jesus to die for us. And all who are baptized into him, have received the robe of Christ's righteousness, and he has pleasure in us. Because he said to his son, you are my beloved son with you, I am well pleased.

The psalm continues, and it moves into a different sort of a different kind of idea. Let the godly exalted glory, Let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands. What, wait a second God, swords. Now you have to look back at the history of ancient Israel. Back when the Psalms were written, The kingdom of God had borders, and it had armies. And God punished the people of his kingdom with invasion. And he protected them with soldiers. And so defending the kingdom of God was not a metaphorical thing. It is sometimes the thing that you did with swords look at the story of Gideon, how they destroyed all of the Moabites when, when battle happened that was defending God's kingdom, or how King David conquered all of these areas from the Philistines. This is God's work defending his kingdom. It's a little different today. But this image gives us a question right, especially as it goes on, where it says to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute on them the judgment written. This is honor for all his godly ones.

This continues the idea of of God's people having a military in the Old Testament to defend themselves and go after the nations that oppressed them.

We have to ask ourselves in the church, who is our enemy?

Who are the ones that God fights against? Now?

On a spiritual level, we definitely say that this is not human beings. The Christian Church is not called to go out with two edged swords in their hands to execute vengeance on the nations.

God has already fought for us and he's defeated our true enemy, sin, death and the devil. And he did it when he went to the cross Jesus Christ to die for us, as Colossians tells us that he nailed the our sins the cross and made a mockery

of the devil, as we consider that though, we also have to consider that many Christians find that there are human beings working on the side of Satan to oppress the church. It's a big challenge to separate these two. The Christians in facing a hostile Rome, like it describes in the book of Revelation sees a challenge right there. As Christians are dragged into the arena, and the Romans are shouting kill the atheists, which is what they called us.

Often the Christians would respond, you're judging us now. You will be judged on the last day. And we see that judgment in the Psalm as well. Not a two edged swords in our hand, but a calling on God to come and judge the whole world and give justice to his people and take out all the forces of sin, death and the devil. And on All Saints Day, what we do is we celebrate the communion of saints that we have and look forward with joy and hope for the day that God returns to bring his judgment to Earth. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Revelation 7:2-17 The First Reading for All Saints Day

Revelation 7:2-17

Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
    and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
    the sun shall not strike them,
    nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
    and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The first reading for All Saints Day comes from Revelation chapter seven, verses two through 17. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God. And he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, Do not harm the earth, or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of the sealed 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad, 12,000 from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Isa car 12,000. From the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, Who are these clothed in white robes? And from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know, and he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation, they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence, They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Here ends the reading. This first reading is from Revelation, and it's for the readings for All Saints Day, All Saints Day is a day when we remember all the Christians who have gone before us all those who have died and the faith, which is why we have this reading about all nations gathered around the throne. I think the first thing that is interesting and possibly confusing, is the number of people who are sealed. And being from the tribes of Israel, we see this number of 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. And then it goes on to say 12,000 from each tribe Judah Rubin, gab, Asher, Naphtali, Manasa, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. We have to remember that in the book of Revelation, it's something called apocalyptic literature. And so the numbers and ideas and images and visions we see all represent other things. In the Bible, the number 12 is the number of wholeness or fullness. And so we get this 12,000, which is the number 12 times 1000 from each tribe, which means we get 12 times 12,000, or 144,000. And so it's not just it's not a number, that is to say, only 144,000 are saved, but something very simple and wonderful. The whole fullness of God's people. It's the full number 12 times 12,000, which is the full number times 1000 To make the full number, a massive, complete everything number of all of God's people who've been gathered together around the throne. And we see again that they come from every nation as it were beads. After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, and from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And so on All Saints Day, we celebrate that God gathers all his glorious people together around the lamb, from every nation, that these are all people in history, every nation, tribe, language and people. And to reminds us that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not about the your ethnic origin, or skin color or anything like that. It is all about the gospel. And it breaks through all of these barriers to gather us around the throne of the Lamb, and addresses us in white robes of Christ's righteousness. And everybody sings and shouts, they say Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Later on, we see one of the elders go up to the author, John, and it asked him a question, Who are these clothed in white robes? And from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The Great Tribulation, well, that's life. These are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation, we are all facing the Great Tribulation, the challenges and difficulties of facing a world filled with sin, death, and the devil. And all of us who have been baptized into Christ had been baptized into our Savior, which means that we have washed our robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. Jesus has come to save us. And so all of our loved ones who have died in the faith that we remember on this All Saints Day, all of them go on before us and have made it out of the Great Tribulation, they stand around the throne of God, and they wait for the day that Jesus will return. And that is what this final song ends up pointing us to. It says, Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them in his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. And he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Now, many of you know that I came from northern Wisconsin, and I didn't really understand the biblical allusions to the sun being scorching until I moved to California. Out there we get we get clouds, it must be like 300 300 days a year, it feels like sometimes. And so when the sun comes out, we love it and we go out and we bask in it, we enjoy it. And if, if you're going to be out there all day, you start to put on sunscreen, but here in California, the sun is out to kill you. Like I put on sunscreen every single day. And I think that's what I'm thinking of when we we see this, this look forward to the day that Christ returns. And it's not just the sun, but there's no hunger, no thirst, no scorching heat. And God will lead us to springs of living water and wipe away every tear from every eye. Both those who are in heaven around the throne of the lamb right now and we who's who are waiting for his return. Know that that is what's coming when Jesus returns on the last day. That's it for this reading. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Just and the One Who Justifies. A Sermon for October 29th, 2023

Romans 3:19-31

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Today we're celebrating Reformation Day. It's the celebration not of nailing a particular bullet thing on a bulletin board. It's not really the celebration of a man, Martin Luther, or even all of the historical events that happened during those days. Reformation celebration is a celebration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that from Martin Luther and the work that he did, a church grew, that is so focused on being saved by grace through faith on account of Christ, that that is the center of our work, that God's great gift of salvation through Jesus is the very center of all of our theology and practice. And the readings today are chosen to reflect that. Today, we're going to take a look at what St. Paul writes in Romans chapter three, about God and His justice, I think is very interesting about this passage is the passage where he writes, so that he God might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. We may be used to hearing that phrase, but I think it's, it's interesting, because how does one be both just and a justifier? It's an important question, because in many times, times in places this, these things are opposites. So let's ask, what does it mean to be just? What does it mean to uphold justice? Now we have a justice system that includes the idea of being just right. We have officers, police officers who go out into the world who are charged with enforcing the law. In a perfect world, a police officer is there to help the victims of crimes and to arrest or punish the guilty, right? They are there to protect the innocent, and get the bad guy that is justice. The innocent are safe, the guilty or imprisoned. our court system is also charged with being just and the outcome should be the same. The guilty punished, the innocent, protected. I think that is what justice means. And God is just for God to be the perfect, almighty Holy God that he is he must also have perfect justice so that the guilty are punished, and the innocent freed. And St. Paul reminds us of what that means for human beings. He says. Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. This is God's justice. When we look at what God demands of every human being, he demands innocence, total and perfect innocence. When we look at his law, and all the things He commands us to do, we can only say that we have failed at that. Because God demands perfection. And we have a very simple phrase that reminds us. Nobody's Perfect, right? And we all know it. Because each and every one of us feels guilt for the things that we have done. And God's perfect justice is very simple. Each and every one of us must be perfect, as he is perfect. And if we are not, then we are guilty. We deserve nothing but wrath and punishment, Death and Hell. And it goes all the way back to the very beginning when God gave a single command to Adam and Eve, do not eat of this tree and the first thing they did was eat it, of course, kind of reminds a parent of having a young child, doesn't it? First thing you do is say, Don't do that, and they do it immediately. Except in that case, the parents are much nicer than a truly just God would be a truly just God just gives us the punishment, Death, and Hell. And that is what we deserve. That is why St. Paul says every mouth may be stopped. Because when we are presented with our sin, we simply have nothing to say, No excuse counts. No justification gets in the way. We are sinners, and we deserve punishment. Now God also wants to be the one who justifies the justifier. That means someone who gives excuses for the guilty, right? We justify ourselves all day long. Don't wait. We know that we do bad behavior that there are times when we do things, we make mistakes. And all the time, we have excuses. I come up with excuses why I didn't clean up after myself after I cook. I'm tired. I didn't want to. Yeah, that's a really good one, right? That just grunting. It doesn't mean that I get to get rid of my mistakes. Because I just give an excuse. I'm just trying to get out of what I'm supposed to do. That's justifying. Now sometimes in our world, when we justify ourselves, we have a good excuse. If you are on the road, going 90 miles an hour, and a police officer pulls you over. And it's because the baby is coming out. That might be a good excuse. Right? If you are going 90 miles down the road, and the police officer pulls you and pulls you over and you say I was a little late. Not so good excuse. God wants to be the one who justifies who gives an excuse, who allows the guilty to go free as it says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift. What that means, then is sinners are given righteousness as a gift. The guilty are freed, the guilty or not punished. Not only that, the unrighteous are called righteous as if they are innocent, as if they are perfect. The real question is, how can God then be just as we confess that he is a perfect judge who has the holy standard that Nan can live up to? And also someone who justifies the sinner as a gift? How can God give that to someone without work? Without making up for it without doing anything? These things would seem impossible, in fact, but God does it through his son Jesus Christ, by sending His Son to die on the cross for us, he gives grace to the guilty. This is what it says. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

There are a couple of words in that that are really important for understanding how this works. The first one is a one we might know pretty well. Redemption. This is an economic term. Sometimes you would redeem some thing with a coupon, right? You, you redeem a coupon by turning it in and you get 25 cents off a can of whatever, right? Redemption is also a word that we would use in ransom. you redeem someone when you buy them out of a condition. One of the ways they would use this in ancient Rome is if someone is in slavery, and you bought them, to free them, you would say they are redeemed from slavery. And here, Paul says that this gift of grace is through the redemption of Jesus Christ. Jesus buys us out of our guilty condition, by the amazing sacrifice of His blood on the cross. He spends the most precious thing that has ever been made the perfect blood of the Son of God sacrificed on the cross for you and me, to give in exchange for us. So that we can be freed so we can be treated as innocent. We are redeemed by Jesus Christ. The other word is propitiation. Now, this one is one that we don't normally hear. In fact, when we get to it in the Bible, I always have to pause and say, Have you heard this one before? Everybody says, No. It propitiation is a sacrifice that pleases a God. Now, if you use this term in in the pagan gods around the area, they would offer these things as a sacrifice, and the smells of it would please the gods up in heaven, and it would feed them and their worship. And it's a similar idea, not the smell, but a similar idea that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ appeases God's wrath. And it does, because the perfect justice of God requires that someone be punished for guilt, that when the guilty sin, there must be consequences. And what happens is that that wrath was poured out on Jesus Christ who took on himself the sin of the whole world. So that with that sacrifice, God's wrath could be vented on Jesus in our place. And his sacrifice becomes the propitiation for us. So that God no longer punishes us, no longer condemns us, but gives us His grace. In this way, God's justice can be expended it can be fulfilled, God can be truly just because he punishes the guilty in the form of Jesus Christ, who took on our guilt. And God can also be gracious and loving, and be the one who justifies all of those who believe. Because Jesus spent his blood for you, to save you from your guilty condition. And the amazing sacrifice of Jesus Christ, with the just God and the justifying God helps us to see exactly what our position is. What it means to be a Christian who believes we are saved by grace. St. Paul says, then what becomes of our boasting, it is excluded by what kind of law by law of works, no, but by the law of faith, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the law. This is an important piece of what it means to be saved by grace through faith on account of Christ, that we can never boast in who we are. We Christians, we can never say that we are good, because we are Christians. We can never say that we are better than anyone else. Or look at what we do and say, Look how amazing I am. Because we're all in the same position. We all stand before God and we hear what the law says and our mouths are stopped because we're sinners, and nothing we can do could change that. Our prayers don't make us holy. Our habits don't make us holy. Our offerings don't make us better. The times we give to charity don't make us more more wonderful. Because none of these things could ever outweigh the sin that we have. And so there is no boasting. We simply say, over and over. I am a poor, miserable sinner. But then we can know that with confidence, we are still saved, because we're not justified by our actions, or by our prayers or our giving or our volunteering or anything else that we do. We're justified by Jesus who delivers us salvation through faith. In his name, amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: John 8:31-36

John 8:31-36

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for reformation Sunday, October 29 2023, comes from John chapter eight, verses 31 through 36. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered him, We are the offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, you will become free? Jesus answered them. Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the sun remains forever. So if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. Here ends the reading. Jesus begins with a plain statement. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. So if we listen to Jesus, and we study and hear and remain abide, dwell in His Word, we will be His disciples. And then that leads to a result. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So if we abide in Christ's word, Christ's word fills us and we live in it. And if we dwell in it, then we will know the truth about the world. And the truth will set us free. What is that truth about the world, that we live in a dark world that can only be saved by the light of Christ, that the forces of sin are always calling towards us, calling us away from God, all we have to do remain with him, we will be His disciples and we will be saved. Now this brings about a response in the Jews who believed in him because that's who Jesus is talking to, not not strangers. But the Jews who were following him. They say, We are the offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you can say you will become free? I can imagine American saying something similar, where the freest country in the whole world, how can you say you will become free, we don't have tyrants, we don't have anybody who's in charge, we are ruled by the people. Both of them are making a claim. They say, Abraham is our Father, and we've always been free with him. We've never been slaved by Romans or anybody else. We're not owned by anyone. We can't become more free than we are. And Americans might reply, we have political freedom. We can make decisions and do things without asking for a tyrant to rule over us. How can we become free? What they're missing is the spiritual freedom that Jesus offers them. And he goes on to say, Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin, is a slave to sin. Yikes. Sometimes the idea of freedom that we have in our hearts is actually the freedom to sin. Like, we don't want to be oppressed by the desire to do good. We want to be free to do evil. Ah, the oppression of wanting to do good, right? When we practice in when we practice evil, we're a slave to it. And so much of our hearts and our desires, it's like that. And Jesus says something about what happens when you're a slave. He says, The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever. So if the sun sets you free, you will be free. Indeed. A slave is not a member of the household. But the Sun is. And if the sun sets us free and welcomes us into the house, we're part of God's household. We who are who were once slaves to sin, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, if you receive Him through His Word and Sacraments, He sets us free. And we will be truly free free not just like in a political sense in America or free like the children of Abraham sense that the Jews are talking about, but truly free from the most enslaving thing of all our slavery to sin. And Jesus sets us free from that. What a great passage. That's it for day. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Romans 3:19-28

Romans 3:19-28

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for reformation Sunday, October 29 2023, comes from Romans chapter three, verses 19 through 28. It reads, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins, it was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just, and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus, then what becomes of our boasting, it is excluded by what kind of law by a law of works, no, but by the law of faith, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. here since the reading. This is all about the law and the gospel of fantastic division about the way God speaks to us that Lutherans are at the heart of the way we speak about God's work among us is dividing what the law can do, and what the gospel can do. And St. Paul begins with something about the law. He says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So here we see what God's law is. God's law is the demand that he makes on all human beings to be obedient to His Well, now is this isn't so much demand that is like, tyrant, up in Heavens shouting, you will obey me. It's more about being the people that God created us to be like, he has a purpose for each of us, for all of us, for all of humanity, and we're all to live up to it. And when we fall short, we are falling short of his law. And so when we see the law, then this thing that God calls us to be he says, We must be to be perfect, to be holy to be His people. The only thing it does is point out our sin, as St. Paul says, Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So when we look at the 10 commandments, we say to ourselves, whoa, I am not a good person. Because when God says You shall not murder, he also says to me, murder is not just killing someone, but God calls me to love to love with my whole heart, that makes me a sinner. And so when the law speaks, it's perfect demands on our obedience, it means that every mouth is stopped. That is, before the law, no one can boast about our holiness. Everyone is a sinner, and everyone is held accountable to God. Now, if this were the only thing that God said, we'd all be lost and condemned to hell. But God has a righteousness that is apart from the law. He says that the law and prophets bear witness to it. It is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. So what he's saying there is that the Old Testament has a witness of a righteousness that does not come from God's demands, but comes through Jesus Christ. For all who believe Paul writes, For there is no distinction, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So everyone is a sinner. Everyone falls short. No one does anything that is good. And this is a thing Christians must always remember. And as we look at the world, and we say, Whoa, the world is so crazy, they do so much bad stuff. We must always say to ourselves We are sinners, we cannot boast. We cannot stand and look at the world and say, You sinners, we're sinners to. The only difference between them and us is that we have received this gift of grace through Jesus Christ, through the redemption that he offers us as a gift. While continues, it is in Jesus Christ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. We got to know what that propitiation is, propitiation is a word that talks about a sacrifice that pleases God. And so this propitiation is an offering made to God, so that that he would be pleased for with us because of it. And we receive this this good pleasure that had God has this God's grace, by faith. Paul continues, this was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins, it was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. One of the questions we think about with with this grace that God gives, is that it actually sounds really unjust. I mean, people will think you've been a horrible human, your whole life, you your murderer, drug dealer, all sorts of terrible things, you do the worst of the worst, awful, awful, awful person. And then on your deathbed, you turn and you say, I repent, you receive baptism, and all of a sudden you're in and people go, how is that even remotely fair, that is just terrible. Like people follow God their whole lives, and then turn away at the end. And there. You can do whatever you want your whole life, and then repent at the end and you're in. Well, here's the thing. The The idea here is that God is both just, and the justifier, which means that God actually has to punish sin. And he also wants to justify sinners. And so what we do is we say, the punishment that goes out for sin that was put on Jesus, as this propitiation, the sacrifice to be received by faith, which means that what God does in Jesus Christ is not offer or just a, like a free out for anyone, just so all you have to do is this easy flip of the switch, what it is, the divine Son of God sacrificed himself, for human beings, the infinite God of creation, died, so that every human being could be offered the gift of salvation. That means that it is not a little thing, to turn and receive Christ by faith. What it means is that when we receive this gift of faith, we are all of a sudden given the infinite sacrifice of Jesus. So God can be both just and the justifier just in that he punishes sin on Christ, and justifier for the one who has faith in Jesus. Paul finishes up, then what becomes more boasting is excluded. That means we can't boast. Christian Christians are not good, because we are good. Christians are good because we have Jesus. We're just as bad sinners as anyone else. Everything that is good in us is Christ. What a great way to end the our chapter today. That's it. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 46

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
    God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

Come, behold the works of the Lord,
    how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for reformation Sunday is Psalm 46. It reads, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way. though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river who streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High, God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved. God will help her win morning Dawn's the nation's rage, the kingdoms totter, he utters His voice, the earth melts, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth, He makes or cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress here ends the reading. Psalm 46, is a famous one for the Reformation, because it's the foundation for that him a mighty fortress is our God, you know how it goes. My tea for trust is our God, our trusty shield. And when Luther freely writes a summary of this psalm, in that him it's a wonderful hymn about God's strength. And this Psalm is a wonderful psalm about the strength of God and how He protects his people. Let's dive into it. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way though the mountains be wrought moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, the mountains tremble added swelling. So this begins with an image of God being a refuge, a help in times of difficulty. And it then moves into the cataclysm of being thrown into the sea. For the ancient people with the sea was one of the most dangerous places you could be. I mean, it's still pretty dangerous, even with all our technology, far more dangerous than the land could ever be. But the sea for ancient people being out it was the very definition of chaos. And so God is a refuge and strength in the midst of the worst kind of chaos, chaos that is unbridled and raging, that can tear down mountains that can move away the shore that can make terrible things happen. And yet God is a refuge and strength, even if the mountains tremble at the chaos of the world around us. God is our refuge and strength, even when chaos is all around us, not just because God is powerful, but because he sent Jesus Christ to die for us. That's how we know he's a refuge. That's how we know he is a strength. Let's move on to the next section. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God the holy habitation of the Most High, God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved, God will help her win morning, Don's the river that makes GLAAD the City of God. The idea here is that ancient ancient fortresses cities needed a water supply in case of attack. And you needed a water supply if you were besieged so that you could live right if you had no water, you'd have to store it, and eventually you will die off. One of the great stories is Hezekiah tunnel for Jerusalem, where there was a siege coming. So Hezekiah digs a tunnel to move the river and a reservoir into the city of Jerusalem so they can have water rather than make it available for the enemy to block off. When we consider our own city of God the church, there is a river that makes us glad to its holy baptism. St. John actually in Revelation talks about our river being at the heart of New Jerusalem and how it it makes the city overjoyed. And that river is at the heart of every Christian. When we were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. God fills us with Christ. Psalm 40 Six continues. The nation's raged the kingdoms totter. he utters His voice, the earth melts, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. We return to this idea of chaos, nation's rage kingdoms totter, and then Goddard utters His voice and the earth mouths. What a powerful God that we have, that he can use his voice to bring about chaos and end it. And then it says, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress, the Lord of hosts, god of armies. God is powerful and protects us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Now you have to consider who that God of Jacob is, why would they use that phrase, the God of Jacob? Well, Jacob was part of that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they weren't great people. I mean, you look at the history of that news is Jacob. He begins his life by stealing his brother's birthright and tricking his father into blessing him. And then he runs off, and he ends up working to marry this girl, and he marries the wrong girl. And then he has to work more to marry another girl. And then he ends up doing this weird thing with Esau, and he parades, his whole family ahead of them, and then falls down before Esau. And then right before that he wrestles with God, until the God finally blesses him and he won't let him go. And we get this idea of Israel. He wrestles with God being the name of the children of Israel, the nation of Israel, throughout the Old Testament. And it's the God of that guy, the guy who was weird and stole a blessing. He's the God of Jacob, which I think is great, because we're a people who often wrestles with God, we certainly don't line up behind him and do everything correctly. And yet, that God is our fortress through Jesus Christ. The last passages, talks about all the desolations that God brings, he makes war, see, see breaks the bow and shatters the spear. God is powerful. He destroys the weapons of war. And he says to us, be still and know that I'm I am God. Now, so many people use that phrase to say, here's what you're supposed to do is you're just supposed to wait and listen for God's voice. Be still and know that I am God and you'll hear it. That's not what that means. Be still and know that I am God. When wars are going on around you. When the sea is inter is erupting, and foam and the chaos of the world is shattering. We have one defense, Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth. What does that mean? God will be make himself famous by protecting his people. All we have to do is wait. God is in charge. He is our fortress. He is with us. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Revelation 14:6-7

Revelation 14:6-7

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The first reading for reformation Sunday is from Revelation Chapter 14, verses six through seven, it reads, Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and the springs of water. Here ends the reading. This reading is the reading for reformation Sunday, and it takes place of the Old Testament reading, you'll notice that revelation is not in the Old Testament, but it's one of the traditional readings that we use during rebel during the Reformation text. It begins with an angel flying overhead and it says with an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth. I'm sure this reading is chosen because of that eternal Gospel passage that Martin Luther out of the Reformation, renewed the idea of the gospel that we are saved by grace through faith on account of Christ without works, and that it was a message for every nation and tribe and language and people. The idea is, of course, is that this gospel is for all people, a free gift of grace through Jesus Christ. This comes in the middle of a passage where the 144,000 are gathered together before the living creatures, and everyone is gathering together the fullness of God's people, and what are they gathered around Christ and His gospel, the message of salvation. And that's what we are celebrating on Reformation Day. And it says with a loud voice, Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come and worship Him who made heaven, earth, the sea and the springs of water. And we say, how do we worship that God? How do we truly do what he wants us to do is to hear the gospel, receive His sacraments and believe in Him, so that when he comes we will be counted among his people. That's it for our reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

What Is God's? Sermon for October 22nd, 2023

Matthew 22:15-22

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Matthew 22 is our text. And it starts with a fascinating, ironic seeing Pharisees and Herodians working together. How did that happen? Guys from political parties in opposite spectrums, theological enemies are joining forces, the Herodians word the supporters of the Roman Empire, the Pharisees were a strong opposition to Rome. Then these guys hate each other. They see pretty much everything in religion and society from different perspectives. But here, there's theming. Together, what is making them to do that? They want to put an end in Jesus, they came up with a meal trap. Jesus enemies, they have been trying through other questions before and they will try again, in the sequence. But now, the trap is about politics. They wanted to know what side is Jesus? And what's your favorite political position? Jesus? What's your ideology? I don't even need to say to you how controversial this conversation was.

And still is today?

How much this subject leaves people on the edge? In preaching about it is not easy. I wish I had a different text. I really do. I will proceed cautious than trying to explain what's going on here. There are two main points, if you will, there is a question. And there is an answer. Let's work through this structure. The question, it is right, to pay taxes to Caesar. Have you ever thought about it? What's behind this? What kind of question is this? What they really wanted to know? What is the trap behind the question? Now, one thing that helps us to understand is to see what kind of taxes they are talking about here. Because there were a lot of taxes back then. And the question is about one in a specific, the Imperial tax in the amount of money wasn't too high. But it was symbolic. It was the text paid to Rome, to have the benefit of being a colony. He was the text Rome charge every year to the places that they control. It was like we conquer you. But we will not kill you. We will not destroy everything in everyone. But that's gonna cost you IR B. We know from the history that when this tax was imposed by Rome, to Judea into that area, there was a big insurrection led by a guy called Judas Galilean. You and he did three things. He called everyone not to pay the tax. Second, He cleansed the temple of traders. And three, he said, From now on, we will only obey elap God to be our king will begin the kingdom of God. What happened to him? He was captured. It executed 25 years earlier than this story. And now what's happening? Here comes a guy Jesus. And he comes speaking about the Kingdom of God. Teaching throughout the country that the kingdom of God has arrived second, he cleans the temple. He expels the merchants and he caught the attention. People are intriguing what's happening here. We will have a new insurrection. A lot of people thought so. But there was one thing missing. He talks about the kingdom. He cleaned the temple. What was missing to characterize the revolution of 25 years ago? Yep. Call for a tax boycott. You see, the question goes deeper than just caught in Jesus to one side or the other. It's not just about attacking Jesus popularity. The question behind it is right to pay taxes to Caesars is Jesus? Are you a new revolutionary? In here's the trap. If Jesus says, No, don't pay tax, he will be calling for a revolt just like Judas did 25 years ago, he would be given the green light to the Jews to begin an armed revolution. And the Herodians would immediately report him to the authorities with a supposedly legitimate accusation. And the rebellion will be a nickel plated. And perhaps Jesus would be killed or arrested, before fulfilling his mission in Jesus would become none as only a political martyr, a second Judas Galilean, his work would have been this one more who rose again, the Empire. Now, if Jesus says yes, just go and pay the tax, then everyone who heard him teaching about the Kingdom of God wouldn't conclude his talk was just baloney. Why? Because Jesus could not talk in the first century about a kingdom of God, from a purely spiritual point of view, like something private, avoiding any social or political implication. Why is that? It is kind of difficult for us to understand, because in a way, we're all fruit of the Enlightenment. John Locke and Immanuel Kant, people who a few centuries ago, began to defend the thesis that religion and spirituality are matters of private life. That we should read the Bible, pray, come to church, thinking that Christ only wants to live inside here. He just wants to forgive us and take us to the heaven someday, that our faith in Jesus only serves to calm our consciences or to deal with feelings in has nothing to do with our everyday life, our social and relational life, our professional and political life and public life. When, when that's the case, we don't understand the trap Jesus was in for some today, it kind of would be completely okay for Jesus to say just, you know, I brought the kingdom of God to you come to church on Sunday, in whatever you do with the rest of your week, with your ethical decisions, with your priorities, with your relationships, with your multiple colleagues in your vocations with your money, none of that matters to God, keep God only in your heart, pray from time to time in whatever you do with the rest of your life is up to you. I am not sure if you are tempted to feel that way to think like that. The problem is that if Jesus said in the first century to that people who clung to promises and callings of a kingdom of God, they were much more real and concrete than just God in my heart. If Jesus said that to them, they would see the disconnection between him in the Old Testament and between him and himself in his words, because when he showed up and preached his first sermon, he said, I am the one who Isaiah has announced it. I am the one who came down from heaven to preach the good Gospel to the poor, to bring freedom to the captives, to give food to the, to the hungry, to be the God of the widows and the orphans to heal the sick. Do we understand? If Jesus who have been announcing the kingdom of God, if He now just says it is, it is right to pay taxes to says it? Oh, yeah, sure. Oh, stop doing, keep your heads down. Just pay the tax without any questioning. Keep God in your heart and be satisfied to be a law abiding citizen, enjoying your inner peace. If Jesus said that His followers wouldn't live him. Because this preaching don't match the kingdom of God. The God promise, he would lose credibility. And if he says Don't, don't pay it, don't pay a Texas QB hunt by Rome, and becomes a political prisoner, just like that. That is the drama behind the question. Are you? Or are you not the Messiah? Who will bring the to kingdom of God? That was the question. Let's work on the answer. Now. This is the situation in which Christ finds himself in his response is incredible. Interesting. When politics

when politicians in general, when they hear a controversial question, a question for which there was no prior narrative construction, no rehearsal with the team of advisors. What do they do? They avoid, right? They don't respond. They change focus, and we are disappointed, because we're expecting an answer. But Jesus, trappers were not disappointed. On the contrary, after Jesus entered, they marveled because not only Jesus did not avoid answering, but he said something that was so profound in the wreck in clear at the same time, render to Caesars the things that are Caesar's, and to God, the things there are gods in this answer, just like the question has more elements than we might notice, at first glance, and the best way to analyze is to think about this answer. And notice what Jesus is rejecting, with that answer. What is he benign? With those words, Jesus was cornered. He heard a question in now, in response, he will refuse a couple of things. First, with his answers, Jesus rejects a simplistic point of view, about politics and culture in our life in the world. The question is quite obvious. They wanted a simple answer, yes or no. To pay, you're not to pay one side or the other. Which party? Are you in? Are you going to join the Herodians, supporting Rome? Or the Pharisees against Rome? And in that sense, Jesus answer is disappointing. Because the answer give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God that things are God's to that question about our relationship to the state, our relationship to the Empire, our relationship to the politics, our relationship to the Texas was not a yes or no answer. But yes, no. It's not this or that. But this, in that both M. Jesus gives notice a balanced answer of nuances. On the one hand, he resisted what is on the court. On the other hand, he accepted. They wanted to know which side Jesus is, whether he's right or left in he refuses to see the situation in those terms.

He resists simplistic politics Next,

he resists polarized politics, we could say, the Gospel may not fit 100% into this, for that agenda, an implication

for us about this,

we should today, be careful to co opt Jesus into the agenda of one side, we can surely say, this value. This proposal seems to be in tune with the principles and values of God and Jesus in the gospel. But we should be cautious on saying, Jesus is on my side. I stand on the platform of Jesus. Anyone who does not vote like I do. I don't consider a Christian. I don't know. Jesus is inviting us with his answer to see the complexity of some things, to resist the temptation of oversimplify social and cultural and political matters. That's the first point of Jesus, he's refusing that simplistic answer to every question. Some questions. Sure. There is a yes or no. But not every question. Remember, brothers and sisters, the gift of the Holy Spirit, which one pastor, the gift of moderation, exercise moderation, on conversations about stuff happening in the world? Because sometimes they are not simple. Because maybe sometimes our brothers or our friends or our family members, maybe the little ones in faith, we're starting to walk with Jesus. Maybe they need patient, maybe they need a fraternal conversation, maybe because they don't know a lot of things yet, maybe because we may be wrong in this question, that's why Jesus is teaching first of all, humility, and moderation in these things. Don't be a mother zealot, how the zealot resolves their questions, they count, they cancel. They explore things. We don't need to be on the fence. We don't need to be always in a central position. Not necessarily. We can have our strong opinions about things. But whatever you find yourself, find yourself using moderation. Second thing on Jesus response, he resists both political admission and political idolatry. How so? I explained the details on the text, don't lose that. Jesus begin his answer asking for something. You see it. He asked for what a particularly coin to pay that specific Imperial text. It was a denarius. We know that currency. There are some examples in museums around the world. They are silver, and they have an icon printed in them. And Jesus then asks, Who is imaging is on the denarius? You have the emoji. And the scription, Jesus asked for the inscription to Tiberius Caesar, Son of God, Augustus, maximum pontiff, high priest. Jesus takes out a coin that says that the Roman Emperor is king, Son of God, in high priest. Jesus asks for this coin, and he's asked about the image and says, Give it to him. What's his pay him taxes? Not necessarily. It's not what he's saying. He said, Give to him. What his kids and to God, what is God's? Well, what is or what was Caesar's, so to speak. That which has his image, which is coins. There he is. They were minted from his wealth. Give Caesar whatever has his image printed on it. And we're talking about coins. We're talking about money. Now, give to God Whatever has his

image printed in it,and what has God's image printed in it? You

to Caesar the coin to God, all of it yourself entirely. It's Jesus way of saying, pay the tax, okay? Now, total commitment, total Alliance, your entire life, no way that belongs to God and only God. Until that time, Jesus in one way or the other by force, or rhetorically all human governments had asserted that they were representing God on earth, that they have divine authority to be unquestionable, God chose us we are Gods every empire said that. And therefore we have the authority. No one can speak against us. No one can stand against us. Jesus is saying No way. Don't you dare to give to Caesar or any other ruler, this kind of covenant, give him the things with his image imprinted on it, give him the coin. But don't give you your wedding ring. Don't idolize

your ruler.

Another detail the verb Jesus used. They asked if they should pay. Caesar, the verb to pay is to give a gift. Jesus respond with another verb, a slightly different meaning. Jesus talks about not giving a gift but giving something back, giving back what whatever he gives to you. It's giving good government, give it back. If the government is unfair, resist, go to the streets, go to the polls, open your mouth vote reported in the proper way, of course, but call out the government when they are doing something wrong. Make no mistake, there is something you can and should give to Caesar. That scenarios there is political involvement, participation, contribution, but we cannot give him the same things if he exceeds his limit and becomes a beast of the revelation. If he ultimately is demands towards our total Alliance. Are uncritical support, there are situations we have the responsibility to stand against it. become a citizen of the kingdom of God has this political social involvement in the sense, as sinners, we're all part of the problem. But as Christians, we are all part of the solution. We don't want to be an zealot who is revolting. But we don't want to be an s sin. Don't run to the desert running away from the problem and leaving everything behind. Let's not become a lineated or distracted by things. But find out where is our place, our vocation, that God has placed us with our gifts and responsibilities and experiences in society. So we cannot say that Jesus was a political agitator. If he was one, he would have taken the advantage of that opportunity and call for rebellion. But we cannot say that Jesus advocates for a completely spiritual kingdom without any political social engagement without any participation or criticism, because by publicly declaring that no one should give Caesar His covenant. In his idolatry. Jesus is declaring that the government it's not supposed to be our God in so we can question if the government needs to be questioned, but we can and should support if the government needs our support. With this answer gives to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's Jesus was saying, on the one hand, I am not a politician. On the other hand, I'm credible, engaged in the life of the world. On the one hand, I don't have a government platform, at least not a detailed one. On the other hand, I do have a kingdom platform, because I am a king, not a king, like all of the other kings. Because my kingdom is dealing with the real poverty, with the real suffering, with the real injustice and the real disease with real conflict with real evil. I will bring peace and reconciliation with God, with others and with yourself. Life, abundant life, real, eternal life. There were two kings in this story, a king without a coin. In on the coin, another king. One had all the coins in the world, both claimed to be the Son of God, the high priest, the savior of humanity. But look how different they are. One King Caesar is doing his thing through conquest and colonization, and killing and by force. The other King, Jesus, do not conquer, do not colonize. He converts by love. And this one, Jesus, thy kingdom doesn't come to replace Caesar. He says, I am better than Caesar. I am different. My work is to solve yours and the world's problems, one by one, each in their own time. And I'm going to start by solving the biggest problem of all, the monster that lives inside all of you. Your sin. And I will do that. Not with a sword, nor with power, nor with the crease. I will do it with a sacrifice with a donation. My life, my blood in ransom from all of you. I will die for you. Without any coin, without any penny. Without a political party supporting me. Without a legion of fans supporting me. I will die empty, naked, totally offered to you. A king without a coin. A king who came to give, to serve to wash feet to die for us. That's your king.

That's our King. Give to him. What is yes, he deserves it.

It's not a coin. Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 22:15-22

Matthew 22:15-22

Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, October 22, comes from Matthew chapter 22, verses 15 through 22. It reads, then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle Jesus in his words, and they sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians, saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you're not swayed by appearances. Tell us then, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? But Jesus aware of their malice said, why put me to the test, you hypocrites, show me the coin for the tax. And they bought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, Whose likeness and inscription is this, they said, Caesars, then he said to them, therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are gods. When they heard it, they marveled, and they left him and went away. He runs the reading. So a reading begins with a plot. And it's a plot that's quite interesting. What we see is the Pharisees and the Herodians. Team up to go against Jesus. Now, you know that this is a big deal. What you get is, on one side are the hardcore Jewish legal lists the people who are leaders of the religious parts of of God's people, they are upfront, they are hardcore, and pretty likely against the idea that there would be this this king who is not a son of David on the throne, a king who was propped up by the Romans, and that King's name was, you guessed it, Herod who the Herodians support. So the Herodians were the people who are on the side of King Herod. And so you get together, the Pharisees, one team, who often fight against the Herodians on the other team, and they all join up to put Jesus in a bind. So they begin by buttering them up. Teacher, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully. And you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. What a great way to start a conversation. There's sort of like back and trying to back Jesus into a corner, like oh, yeah, you are always wise and truthful. And you would never try to get out of a difficult situation by evading the question, Jesus, here's the here's some buttering up for you. And some of its true, Jesus is certainly wise and he would not try to evade questions. He's not swayed by appearances is what this means. Jesus did not bow to authority, but just because other people liked it. And he did not shy away from people just because other people disliked them. And now they get the question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? This is what they think they think they've got him. On one hand, Jesus, if he says, Yes, you have to pay taxes to Caesar it means that he is supporting the, the Romans, and he is on the side of the Herodians. And all of the people, the Israelite nationalists, the people who are about the Kingdom of God and the throne of David, all of those people, they want to throw off the Roman oppressors, and Jesus has just made them mad. Now, on the other hand, you could say, I side with Israel, it is not lawful, we need to throw off the oppressors. And then the Herodians get mad, and the Romans get mad. And all of a sudden, he is a true usurper, who is trying to take away the Romans and fight against them. Jesus will become a criminal. So what they're thinking is, no matter how you ask, answer this question, Is it lawful? Yes. Is it lawful? No. No matter what you do, Jesus is stuck between someone. But he sees their trick. He says, show me the coin for the tax. They bring him a denarius, and he says, Whose likeness and inscription is this? So if you looked at a coin, the tax the denarius, Caesars face was stamped on that. And so they say, Caesars, and he replies, therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's I do love that sometimes we do the we hold on to the old just because it's traditional render. It's not like we're making soap here. It means give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God. And this is where Jesus establishes the separation between church and state, right? No, not at all. You see, what Jesus is doing is he's making a joke. Jewish people now, even if, if Caesar's image is on this, this coin, it still doesn't belong to him. If you give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Caesar gets nothing. If you give to God, the things that are God's God gets everything. And we have to remember that when we use the image and likeness is who are we Christians made in the image of we are created in the image of God. And then we are stamped into the image of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Which means that everything that we are is Christ, everything that we are is God. So Jesus isn't coming down on the separation of church and state here. What he's doing is he's showing how awful these Pharisees are, and reminding us that we all belong to God in everything we do, whether it's paying taxes or the rest of our lives. This is Jesus showing his wisdom and his power. And it's helping us to see that we are made in God's image following a Savior who was formed us after him as well. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for Sunday, October 22, comes from First Thessalonians chapter one, verses one through 10. It reads, Paul Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians, and God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Grace to You, and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith, and labor of love, and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in Word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, for you receive the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in a Kea, for not only as the word of the Lord sounded forth from you, and Macedonia and new Kea, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. Here ends the reading. Paul and the others Silvanus. And Timothy, begin this letter, the way they normally begin letters, it begins with the people who are writing it. So we know Paul Silvanus, and Timothy are writing it. And then it mentions the the addresses the people that are hearing the letter, the church of the Thessalonians. And it's it mentions they are in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul continues on where he says, We give thanks to God always for you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers. This is another regular facet of Paul's letters is that he begins by telling them how he gives thanks to God for them in in their prayers. And it reveals individual things for each individual letter. And I think for Paul, he's looking at the at what's coming up to show something about the Thessalonians. He says, remembering before our God and Father, your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, for so he's pointing to their steadfastness, we'll get to that in just a little bit. Now, he continues, for you know, brothers loved by God that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in Word, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. Now, this forces us to go back and say, Well, what do we know about Paul's visit a visit to the town of Thessalonica. Well, we can go to Acts chapter 17, and see it, Paul, and others go to Thessalonica. And they begin doing their thing. It says, and Paul went in as was his custom and on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, this Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. Now, what happens then is some are persuaded and some are not.

But the Jews get jealous. And what they do is they start a raffle and they form a mob, and they start trying to go after Paul and Silas and all of the people who are there, now they sneak away. But the Thessalonian Christians who have only had Paul and Silas there for three weeks, get the worst of it. And they find this man named Jason that Paul and Silas had been staying with, and they beat him up and arrest him and do all sorts of bad things to him. And then Paul and Silas, scoot out and head off to the town of Berea after that. Now, what I want you to think about as we consider this letter, then, is that Paul and Silas had gone to Thessalonica for only three weeks before they were forced out. And so they've got all of these brand new Christians. Like super brand new Christians, and yet somehow, the power of God was at work among them to withstand this kind of immediate and powerful persecution. And I really think that's what it means when it says the Holy Spirit, in power, and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Now very often coming in the Holy Spirit and power means that there were miracles accompanying it. And I think that that may have been the case Paul and Silas certainly were known to have bring miracles along with them. But what greater miracle could there be than Baby Christian brand new to the faith, with standing this kind of torment and persecution, when their leaders are gone? Praise God for their amazing faithfulness. And Paul continues to say things like that, he says, and you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake, and You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you receive the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in a Kea. So, he says that they proved to be a certain kind of person. And then that is associated then with the other, the people of Thessalonica, receiving affliction as well. And so I think this, this idea is we proved to be people who are willing to suffer for the faith. And then you became imitators of us, you Thessalonians that, and then, by imitating us imitated the sufferings of our Savior. And that's really what Christian aspires to, when we face suffering for the sake of Christ, is what we see is meaning in that is that we are living in the wounds of Jesus, living the affliction of Jesus. And so, with their their young faith, they became examples for everyone. And because of their bravery, because of their steadfastness, even in the face of not knowing anything about the gospel, only a few weeks, they became an example for everyone in Macedonia, and a Kea. And what a joy that is right, to see how it is not knowledge alone, that makes a Christian a lesson. Paul and Silas and Timothy and all those people who are out and about doing their thing they could preach they could teach. But the powerful lesson that came out of Thessalonica was not the word of God or the the miracles or a doctrinal treatise. It was the fact that when God came by the power of the gospel to these people, they stood up to persecution right off the bat, and remain faithful to Christ, even to torture and death. And what an example that can be for us, as we wait as St. Paul says, To for the true the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to the calm and the Thessalonians. They turned from their false idols to serve the true and living God who will save us on the last day. And we do the same. We turn to the true and living God, who is coming Jesus Christ, who will come with the clouds in great power and might raise us from the dead and deliver all the wicked unfaithful into eternal condemnation. That's the end of our reading. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 96:1-13

Psalm 96:1-13

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
    sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
    tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
    his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
    he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
    strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth!

Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
    Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
    he will judge the peoples with equity.”

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
    let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
    let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
    before the Lord, for he comes,
    for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
    and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, October 22, is Psalm 96. Oh Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord bless his name. Tell him his salvation from day to day. declare His glory among the nations is marvelous works among all the peoples. For Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are worthless idols. But the Lord made the heavens, splendor and majesty are before him. strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD or families of the peoples of Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength, Ascribe to the LORD the glory, do his name, bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness trembled before him all the earth, say among the nations, The Lord reigns, yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved, he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exalt, and everything in it, then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord for He comes, for He comes to judge the earth, He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. Here ends the reading. The Zone begins, oh, Sing to the Lord, a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth. Now often when people see this in the Psalms, they see this passage Sing to the Lord a new song as a call to sing new kinds of worship songs. But if you look at the Bible, the places where it says Sing to the Lord, a new song, it does this when when God does a new kind of thing in his salvation history. And so we see this parallel being done in the book of Isaiah before our the reading that we had, for the Old Testament for this same Sunday is a couple of chapters before Isaiah 45. Isaiah says to sing to the Lord, a new song, about the salvation that God is going to deliver through Cyrus and we see coming up that Cyrus is going to save Israel. And that calls for a new song because it's a renewed salvation event, thing to the Lord, a new song. That means when God does something new, we sing in a new way about that. And that can be using the old songs, but also new using new songs, especially we can see that in the salvation we have through Jesus Christ is that all things become new. And we have come up with so many new songs and new ways of talking about Jesus since the day he ascended into heaven. It continues, Sing to the Lord bless his name, tell of His salvation from day to day, declare His glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. One of the great ideas about singing these new songs, these these new salvations is to share the message that God is truly the one who's in charge, that our God is God and not all the worthless idols as a talks about. One of the reasons Isaiah pointed us to Cyrus was to show Cyrus and the rest of the world, that it is truly God and God alone, the one the father of Jesus Christ and and the one with the Holy Spirit. He is the only one who has control who has power. Everything else is worthless. And so this the song that we're singing extols the majesty of the only God who has power to save. The next section begin to this Ascribe to the LORD or families of the peoples Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength, describe to the Lord the glory, do his name, bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness, tremble before him, all the earth. When we sing our song, what do we do? We Ascribe to the LORD the glory to his name. Now, one of the ways that the Lutheran Church has always dealt with the praises of God is that we praise God not for his qualities, but for the things he does. And so if you Look through our hymnody we don't do so much like praising God for being all powerful or a mortal or wise or anything like that. Most of our praising comes by repeating the things he did does for us through Jesus. And so we praise the Father, we praise the sun was praised the spirit for the work they do, which not only gives us the ability to sing about what God has done for us, but it also norms our praise, so that it molded and reflects, and even teaches us why we love God so much. Because we don't love God because he's all powerful. We don't respond with joy to God, because he's mighty, or eternal. We respond with joy to God because He sent His Son Jesus Christ. And that's why we worship. That's why we praise. And so our praise in our singing is constantly about the work that God does for us. So that we can we can do our praise by reflecting what God has already given us. And that leads us into the next section where it says, say among the nations, The Lord reigns, yes, the world is established, it shall never be moved, he will judge the peoples with equity. The kingdom of God, is a big piece of what Jesus came to bring when he he comes in the Gospel of Matthew and Mark and Luke, after his baptism, he goes around preaching the kingdom of God is at hand. And that's what it means. The Lord reigns. Or if you're translating directly, Yahweh reigns. It means that God is in charge. He is the king over all creation. And we can rejoice in that, as it says, Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it. Let the field exalt, and everything in it, then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord for he comes. For He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. This, this closes with some prayer, prayer and praise. But it also talks about God's judgment. Earlier it says he judges the people with equity, and he judges in righteousness later and with faithfulness. What this means is that God judges with impartiality. One of the pain points of the prophets is that God blamed the judges and the kings, for judging people based on bribes is that the widows and the orphans were taken advantage of the wealthy got the justice because they could give money to the judges. And that was not equity, that was not faithfulness. We have to be careful that when we look at this we don't see is God has a preferential option for the poor because he doesn't do that either. He judges people based on his standards, and that alone, the rich, the poor, the wise, the foolish, all are equal before God and they are judged equally before he the standard of Him who is the King of all creation. And for us who are Christians, we rejoice that we are judged not based on what we have done, but on the faithfulness of Christ and His actions for us. That's the end of our reading for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Isaiah 45:1-7

Isaiah 45:1-7

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
    whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him
    and to loose the belts of kings,
to open doors before him
    that gates may not be closed:
“I will go before you
    and level the exalted places,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
    and cut through the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness
    and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord,
    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
For the sake of my servant Jacob,
    and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
    I name you, though you do not know me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
    besides me there is no God;
    I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun
    and from the west, that there is none besides me;
    I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and create calamity;
    I am the Lord, who does all these things.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, October 22, comes from Isaiah chapter 45, verses one through seven. Thus says the Lord to His anointed to Cyrus whose right hand I have scratched, to subdue nations before him, and to loosen the belt of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed, I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces, the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name, for the sake of my servant, Jacob and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, there is no other. beside me there is no God. I equip you, though you do not know me that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the West, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord. And there is no other, I form light and create darkness, I make well being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. Here ends the reading. Isaiah is calling out to a guy named Cyrus, it says, Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped. If you know about Isaiah, Isaiah spends much of his time looking forward from the eighth century BC, round 740 BC, to the days of the Babylonian exile. And then even farther on when Cyrus the Great King of the Persian Empire, sends the Jews back to Jerusalem. And so Isaiah has predicted that someone would come in destroy the city of Jerusalem and take them off into captivity. And that happened in 598, B C ish. It's during that time that they do all sorts of stuff to destroy the city. And Isaiah is looking ahead to that. And but he's even more specific here, where he says even beyond that, he's going to call out the very guy who is going to send Israel back, that is to Cyrus, the great king of Persia. Notice what Isaiah says that the Lord is saying, he calls Cyrus God's anointed, and says, whose right hand I had grasped. The idea of anointed means Messiah chosen one, the same word they would have used for Jesus, the same word chosen for any any king who would have been anointed to lead God's people are the judges of the Old Testament. This time, it's going to a pagan king, who is going to be born hundreds of years later. Interestingly, the whose right hand I have grasped reflects a tradition that the Persian kings would grab the hand of Marduk, the god of Babylon, and that hand would then guide the king during this time. Here God is saying that he is the one who has grasped Cyrus's right hand, and he's going to do it to do all sorts of terrible things to the world, sued new nations lose the belt of Kings destroy stuff, Cyrus is going to have all of this amazing success. Destroy doors of bronze breakthrough bars of iron, he gets the treasures and secret places all of that is going to happen, and why it's for Israel. He chooses Cyrus for the good of his people. says, For the sake of my servant, Jacob, and Israel, my chosen, I call you by your name. And we see what happens is that when Cyrus does come to power in the Babylonian Empire, he allows the Jewish people to go home and helps to fund rebuilding their temple and rebuilding the walls. And so the city of Jerusalem becomes a new and a vibrant city by the time Jesus is born. And it's all because of this guy named Cyrus. What this offers for us Christians today is an interesting view of how God works through history is that God chose Cyrus, a pagan king, someone who didn't know him who didn't understand who who never called upon him. And he used this king, as, as a tool to free Israel and bring them to the promised land. And God still arranges all of history today, to point all of us to the end, to the day when Jesus our king will return and raise us from the dead. All of history is moving towards that point, and God arranges it all for the good of his church. So we can trust in Him knowing that God predicted hundreds of years before a king would come. His name was written in the Bible. And Isaiah was recognized as a prophet because of this. And we too can see this pattern working out that God uses the the people of this world for the good of the church, and bringing us to the resurrection on the last day. God truly is powerful, that he can use all of these people for the good of the church. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Growing in Grace: Nurturing Active Faith in Children

James 2:14-26

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. These past three weeks, we have been doing a sermon series on raising children in the faith. Today is the third Sunday in our three week series. The first one was called planting the seed nurturing faith in the hearts of children. And we talked about the role of parents as the primary person for raising a child in the faith, how the Christian faith is passed on as parents talk about who Jesus is, establish patterns in the home and share that with their children. And that no amount of work that a congregation can do can really overcome the challenges of that. Parents are the primary people who begin this life in faith. Last week, we did a sermon called gathering in the name. And it discussed how the role of the worship service, the divine service is central to the life of every Christian, from the youngest to the oldest, because it's here that God comes to us, as a body, delivers his word and Sacraments and empowers us by the Holy Spirit, that every Christian, no matter how young or old, belongs in the divine service, to receive from God, His grace, and mercy. And today, we are talking about how parents and a congregation can come together to help them raise their children in the faith and make that faith a living an active faith through their lives as they grow into adulthood. And as we do that, I think it's good always to back up one step. And remember, what is the goal of a children's ministry? Or a youth ministry? What is the goal of the ministry that we do together to help these parents? And it is very simple. We ask every confirmation student in fact, we ask our new members to come into the congregation as well this question, do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession? That is the confession of the Lutheran Church in this confession and church and to suffer all even death rather than fall away from it? That's our goal. The goal of a children's ministry is the same as the goal of an adult ministry to grow adult lifelong Lutherans who are faithful to their savior, Jesus Christ, who returned to their their church, to receive the Word and the sacraments, be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and live lives of service wherever they go. Now, that may mean, they remain here for their entire lives, it may mean that we send them off, they head out to college or jobs or anything. And that we transfer them on to other Lutheran congregations where they continue in their life of faith. The goal is to make them faithful Christians their entire lives. And the only way that can happen is through the power of the word and the sacraments. The same way it happens with the adults, because the Holy Spirit comes to you, the same way to them, as they gather together, hear the word partake of God's grace, and are empowered by the Holy Spirit. But as we consider what that means for our children, as they as they grow from very young children all the way up until adulthood, we understand that very often this means they get approached in ways that are different than adults do. As we help these children understand their faith and grow in their ability to live it out. We have to ask, what does a congregation do in partnership with their parents? And I think it falls under two broad themes. The first of them is one that every I think most churches do. Training and understanding the doctrines and the content of the faith. What that means is, we teach them the word of God, plain and simple. They learn Bible stories. They hear from the from God's word, they understand the themes and the arc of the plot of the Bible. And as much of that as also, what it means for them. But the grace of God has been applied to them in their baptisms, and that they can continue to receive it every Sunday here in worship. But we also have an opportunity as a congregation, to encourage children of all ages from very young all the way up to just before adults for active service. And leaving out of that faith. Because active participation in the work of a congregation is also part of training and growing, and understanding what the faith means. Because faith is not just something that is in our heads, or in our hearts. Faith is something that produces works. And to understand what that means we have to teach children to do it. The same way we have to teach adults to be living and active in their service. And so congregation's job, is to help everyone grow in this ability, by giving them opportunities to build connections with each other, to do things of service acts of good works. And that's one of the reasons why I chose the Epistle reading for today from James, is to remind us that faith is not just something that is internal. but faith is something that produces works, that when the Holy Spirit works in us and builds us up and changes us to be like Christ, the evidence shows in your life. faith produces works. A long time ago, a professor of mine used this analogy to help us understand what James is trying to say. He was a kind of a car guy. And so he had like model teas that he owned. And back when he was a young pastor, the way he would greet people in his new town, very small town, they'd move in, he drove up his Model T to their house. Instant conversation starter, right? And what he said is, how do you know a car is running? The look? Can you go inside and see the flames? Do you look at the gas as it pumped into the cylinders? And go Oh, yes, I can see that. There's the fire. There's the pistons. You have to look at external things to understand. Unless you're willing to open up the entire engine as it burns fuel, kind of dangerous. You have to ask, Do I hear the sound? Do I see the smoke. That is how I know a car is running. And very often, what we do is we see faith that produces works is a way of expressing the faith that is inside us. As we can see that God is changing us and molding us to live in the world. And so faith without works, as James says, is dead. So our job is to help Christians understand what the faith is, and live that out in our lives. For us, I think we do a good job on training the knowledge of the faith. We have lots and lots of programs for our children, the children can be involved in our Sunday School meets for a whole hour right during my Bible study time, or all of our kids can come in and get an hour of lessons and hear God's word and do activities and talk together. It's a great way of understanding and growing in the faith. as they age out of elementary school, our confirmation classes, we have two years of training for one hour a week. The first year is a year of understanding the entire story of the Bible. The idea is that rather than teaching individual stories, we teach them how they all piece together as you go from Genesis all the way through Revelation as we prepare for the day that Jesus returns. And then the second year is understanding the Catechism that Martin Luther wrote, that gives us the basic doctrines and teachings and habits that set the Lutheran church apart from the Protestant churches around us to help us understand that God comes to us through these sacraments to justify us and give us the Holy Spirit.

We do these things. And these are part of of how we do this. And in that, in that Information class, we also learn from our songs as well. We lately have started singing this hymn called these are the holy 10 commands. You heard that one? No it? Did you know that Martin Luther wrote a hymn to help people memorize the 10 commandments. Isn't that kind of cool? That's great. It helps us do these things. But they're not done after confirmation. We also have a youth group that meets every Sunday, after our worship services, for our teenagers, all the way up through high school. These are all great ways that we have for training and the knowledge of the faith classes, helping them understand who Jesus is, what he does for us how he works. They are there to help us. Let these these students encounter God's word, receive the Holy Spirit, ask questions on their own, so that they can begin to understand and grow in their faith, almost independently of their family, especially as they as they begin entering into these middle school and high school years, becomes more important for them to do that on their own as they transition into adulthood. These cannot replace what you do at home, parents, but they do help. And they're a big piece of, of the life of the congregation. Where our congregation and I think many of our congregations need work, is incorporating children into the life and ministry that we do, how we take them as they as they grow, and we give them knowledge and classes and we help them. And I think we do a great job with that. It's as they age out of these elementary school years. How do we incorporate them with relationships with adults in the congregation, into the life and service of the church. That's an important piece of training. An important piece of, of developing an active and living faith is actually living it out. Jesus did that with His disciples. In Matthew chapter 10. We see Jesus sends out his 12 disciples, he had spent a whole lot of time teaching them preaching with them. Jesus went out and heal the sick, and he cast out demons and he did all this cool stuff. And then he said, now it's time for you to practice. You sent them out into the world. And while Matthew chapter 10, isn't a manual for training, it does offer us some help to understand that the faith is not just in our heads, but active in our lives. How can we, as a congregation, enable children and youth to serve alongside us to build relationships between people so that they can feel included not just as children of parents, but as equal members of the Body of Christ? We are currently going through a process of understanding and trying to figure out where we're going some strategic planning. And I think this is a big piece of what we need to think about. How do we incorporate these people into our lives? And personally, I am especially concerned about that transition from late elementary age in through confirmation. Historically, confirmation has been a time of teaching and training, where they hear the word of God and they think about it and then we stand them up in front of the congregation, we ask them a bunch of very serious questions like, well, you suffer all even death rather than fall away from the Lutheran Church in Christ. And the idea is, it's supposed to be a rite of passage, almost like you're stepping into adulthood in the faith. But we do this with 14 year olds. And in our society, you don't step into an adulthood when you're 14. And so it's almost like they go through this big ritual, two years of preparation, they stand up, they put on the robes, they do that thing. And then they go back to being the same as they were before. And I wonder what can we do to make that not the case? To take children who've gone through our confirmation, who are growing in their independence and treat them as slightly more independent, encourage them to interact in our congregation in ways that are unique to that person. So they can live out the Holy Spirit's work in their life. Where it becomes difficult, is what happens as they, as they begin to grow as they gain through high school, and eventually they turn 18. If we don't offer them a way to transition from childhood to adulthood, all of a sudden they become 18. And we say that's not for you, no more youth group have a great life. You go, Oh, now you're an adult, you've graduated Great. What do you do? We can use that time, as a way to grow in the faith to transition into more and more adult like responsibilities. So that when they turn 18, it is not like, what do I do now. But there's a clear path into our congregation as a full adult member. There are lots of ways we need to think about how we do this. I don't have all the answers. I'm just some guy up in front. You guys know your congregation, you know us much better than I do. Most of you have been here longer than me. And so you can think through how does this work here in this place? How can we as God's people love and help and build relationships with the young children, the older children and the high schoolers and incorporate them into our lives? But we do need to think about it. How can we build these organic relationships, to build up the faith that has been passed down to us? How can we tie them to the congregation through these person to person relationships where the word of God can be shared? And support can be given? How can we encourage faithful actions? One of the things that I've I've done historically as a pastor is that when people leave my congregation to go off to school somewhere, I will sit down with them, and walk through their options of where to go for church nearby. I think it's a great way for them to think through this. And I want to talk about one student who really typifies how a congregation can take a young adult and embrace them and build these kinds of relationships. It's this young boy named Nathan. He went off to school in Michigan, and I called up the nearest congregation and I said, Hey, I've got this Lutheran student, great kid. I want him to come to your church he wants to come to Can you get him there? First Sunday, he was there. Some old lady shows up at his door and says, given you a ride to church, that's how it starts, right? Faith in Action, God's love going out. He already had a friend in that congregation. He gets in the car, she gives him a ride every Sunday. He gets there. Not too long later, I see a photo of him carrying the processional cross into the sanctuary. The new guy, college student, he's got the robe on with the cross and he's walking in and everybody sees him. He's involved. He's doing stuff. You never missed a Sunday, at least as far as he told me. You know, what do you say to your pastor? But we can think about that sort of thing, as a way that congregations gather together people into their midst and build these ties that the Holy Spirit uses to bind them to the Word and Sacrament. And it's something we need to think about. How can we do that as our children grow? How can we do that as our youth transition into high school and adulthood? How can we build these relationships that then live out what we teach them every Sunday? In Jesus name, Amen.

Getting Ready for Sunday: Matthew 10:1-15

Matthew 10:1-15

And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. Hey, everyone, we're finishing up our sermon series on raising children in the faith this week, and I've chosen Matthew chapter 10, verses one through 15 as the Gospel reading for Sunday, October 15, it goes like this. And he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the 12 apostles are these first Simon, who is called Peter and Andrew, his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent out instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and proclaim as you go saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons, received without paying, give without pay, acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or to tunics, or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it, and stay there until you depart. As you entered, the house greeted, and if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace returned to you. And if anyone will not receive you, or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet, when you leave the house, that house or town, truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. Here is the reading. So our reading begins with Jesus calling the 12 disciples and it lists out who they are. Simon, Andrew, James, John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddeus, Simon, Judas. And Jesus takes them all out. And he sends them out to the the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, as an interesting note, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, to the disciples to only go to the house of Israel, and he changes that, finally, at the very end, when he says, go make disciples of all nations, not just the house of Israel, but all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son in the Holy Spirit. Now, Jesus sends them out, and he gives them a task, proclaim, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers and cast out demons. So what he's doing is he's telling the disciples at that time, to do the same things that Jesus has been doing. Jesus has been proclaiming the kingdom of God, and healing, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, casting out demons. The idea is Jesus here is training them for the ministry, by having them do the things that he's doing. So the disciples have been with him for a while. And then he says, Now, you go, you've seen me work, you go do it. It's an interesting way of teaching people, right. You teach them they follow along, they hear the master doing it, and then they're supposed to mimic him, go out and do the thing. Now for the disciples, at that moment, he sends them out without any any preparations, without any any extra supplies, no bags, no belts, no extra coppers or silver or gold or anything like that. When they go out, they're supposed to rely on the hospitality of strangers. They get to a town they proclaim the kingdom of heaven is at hand and someone is supposed to take them in, as he says, For the laborer deserves his food. If they find no one who in the town who was willing to take them in, is supposed to take the dust and shake it off their feet as judgment against them. Now the reason I chose this one when we're talking about raising children in the faith is it shows a good example of the way Jesus brought up his disciples in this pattern that he was trying to teach them that he walked with them. He taught them He gave them knowledge, they watched him work, and then at some point They had, he decided to give them some practice. And later on, we'll see them come back and they debrief over it and they talk about it. This is a thing that that we need to do as congregations and as families trying to raise Christians in the faith is that there becomes a time when it's less about Bible study and about gaining knowledge. But we also need to help them practice it, especially as they as they transition from being children into almost adults, there's a time where they have to start taking more and more responsibility and do more and more things for themselves. And one of the things that I think the church has really struggled with, is thinking about how do we transition children into being adults in an appropriate way? Sometimes I think it's almost like they hit a teen and they're like, Fine, you've graduated now go out and be adults, you're ready for it, right? And they go, wait, wait, Yesterday, you were still emailing my dad to ask permission for me to go on events. It's an interesting thing that we have to think about is this transition. It's like, do we just sort of drop them into adulthood? Or is there a better way? And I think churches need to think through that. Just like Jesus thought through this, this growth in this practice, before they actually were sent out into all nations. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: James 2:14-26

James 2:14-26

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're finishing up our series on raising children in the faith with the third sermon in our series. So I chose readings that are a little different. The reading for this upcoming Sunday, October 15, for the Epistle reading is from James chapter two, verses 14 through 26. It reads, what good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body? What good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one you do? Well, even the belief, demons believe and shutter Do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar, you see that faith was active along with his works. And faith was completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way, was not also Rahab, the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead. So also, faith apart from works is dead. Here is the reading. This is a tough one for us, Lutherans, brothers and sisters in Christ. faith apart from works is dead. Let's take a look. So he begins with a question. What happens if your faith does not have works? And it goes, What good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If her brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them Go in peace be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body? What good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. I think this is a fascinating look at what it means to have faith. I think for for many of us, Faith seems to be having an idea in our heads or a warm feeling in our hearts. And that kind of faith isn't really a faithfulness so much as just sort of having an inkling about Jesus. But James is doing here is he's saying faith leads to works. And if you don't see the works, maybe we have to ask some questions about the faith. So the example he uses is if a member of the congregation a brother or sister doesn't have food, what does faith do? Does faith say? I'll pray for you? Or does faith say I'll help you? Well, hopefully it actually says both. And what James is saying is that a faithful Christian who's filled with faith in Christ will then go out and give someone who is hungry or cold, warmth, or food. So faith all by itself? Well, it's hard to see. So he says later, but someone will say you have faith and I have work. Show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works. What does that mean? Well, what I think he's doing is again, the works show in the life of a Christian is evidence of their faith. He wants you to go out and be like, point to my faith. Can we do that? Can we point to faith? I'm not sure. But we can point to things that are evidence, things by the works that we do, that faith genuinely leads towards. And that's what I think it means when it says faith without works is dead, is that a Christian who has faith will lead towards the works that are good towards good works towards our brothers and sisters in Christ towards the world and towards God. God, do these works save us? Well, you also see he has like, you have faith. And I have works. Like works apart from faith don't mean anything either. Right. And so the key component is faith that leads to works. Now one of the real challenges is when he goes through this, this big thing about Abraham being justified by works, he says in verse 21, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered up his son Isaac on the altar, you see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. So here is showing a bit of a of an example how Abraham's faith was lived out, by actually trusting in God, Abraham, his faith, he trusted God, which meant then, that he did the work of offering up Isaac on the altar. He believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead, who was willing to offer him as a sacrifice, which means that the faith he had had a chance to be lived out in his works. And similarly, Rahab, the prostitute, when the spies came in, she knew who the God of Israel was. And she knew that he was coming on the march. And she was, well, she knew that he was going to win. And so her knowledge, her faith, was completed. By doing works. From her faith came the act of trusting God, to protect her when the armies came. It's an interesting way of seeing how faith produces the works that that God calls on us to do. Now, what's interesting is when I talk in our Bible studies, and I talk with members about what it means to be justified by grace through faith on account of Christ, and that our works don't save us. I almost always get someone from the group who will raise their hands and say, But Pastor, we have to do works, right. And I go absolutely, Christians, that our faith causes us to do works, they're the natural result of works. And so it flows out of us into the world. What's funny is then when I turn us around, and we start to do the faith without works is dead thing. And people tend to get a little nervous, because when we say things like, well, you know, the historic church would excommunicate people who didn't go to church once a year. We don't do that. I mean, that's pushing it a little far for us, but saying, maybe if you are despising preaching in His Word, and not coming to the church and not receiving Communion and not asking for the sacraments, maybe that is a demonstration about where our faith is. Faith without works is dead. And I think that's where we're going with this. This passage from James, is that when we have faith, we see the works in action. And so faith without works is dead. And James says, show me your faith, you can't see it, right? No, we when we we live out our faith, that faith shows the world and shows goes out into the world in works. You know, I had a professor at an college actually, who talked about this relationship. You said that when you when you look at a car, and it's running, you can't actually see the engine running. What do you do? Well, you listen, and you can hear the engine rumbling. And you can see smoke coming out of the back. Well, hopefully not too much smoke, hopefully just a little smoke. So you know, the engine is running. And that's kind of how this faith and works thing is going on. So that sometimes we see the things that we do and that's the sign of the faith that's in us. And that's I think what James is getting at here. Well, that's it for us today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Psalm 91

Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
    nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
    and see the recompense of the wicked.

Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
    the Most High, who is my refuge—
no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
    no plague come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the adder;
    the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
    I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble;
    I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation.

Everyone I apologize for the recording quality. I'm recording this from home. I'm a little sick, so I don't have my normal equipment from my office. We're continuing the sermon series from about raising children in the faith. This one is from Psalm 91. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust, for He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings, you will find refuge His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noon day. 1000 may fall at your side 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place the Most High who is my refuge. No evil shall befall you. No plague come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. on their hands, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the after the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot because he holds fast to me in love. I will deliver him I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him with long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. Here ends the reading. Psalm 91 is a Psalm of trust. It is a psalm that describes how God is a refuge and a fortress, that he is there in times of difficulty and trouble. The thing about Psalm 91, though, is that it is not a promise that everything will go well. But simply a promise that we can trust in God in difficult times. We begin He who dwells in the shelter of the Most tide will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. Now we know that we can trust in God, our refuge and our fortress. He has promised that in Jesus Christ that we have protection, not just from the evil things of the world, but from sin, death and the devil itself. And so the next few verses list all of the things that God will save the boss from the snare of the fowler deadly pestilence or disease, that God covers us with his his wings, and he is a shield and buckler. These are all examples of the difficulties that an ancient Israelite would have would have faced and examples of things that God protects against. No, of course we know. Sometimes deadly pestilence does get people. Sometimes God's protection doesn't seem like it's there. But we know that God is with us. Because Jesus came and died for us an entered into death so that we can rise with him on the last day. And so 1000 As it says in verse seven 1000 may fall at your side 10,000 at your right hand, but we know that death is not the end. The God is coming, that Jesus Christ will save us and raise us to everlasting life. continues in verse nine, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place the Most High who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you know plague come near your tent, free will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. on their hands, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the after the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot. Similarly, what we see here is another example of all the dangers that God commands His angels to guard us He commands His power to protect us. Not from the day to day dangers of this world, but from death itself. Because it doesn't matter if the lions eat us, or the ad or poison us, poisons us. Doesn't matter if cancer gets us or if we are blown up in a terrorist attack. What matters is that Jesus Christ is coming to raise us from the dead and he shall holds he continues this in the last few verses where God says, because he holds fast to me in love. I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation. What a great promise for us who wait for Christ to return. Even in the midst of difficulties and terrible news all over the world. We know that God will be with us and save us. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Joshua 4:1-7

Joshua 4:1-7

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation.

Everyone sorry for the delay in getting this episode out. I was sick yesterday, still a little under the weather. So you'll notice a difference in the recording quality. Please forgive me for that. This week, we're finishing up the sermon series on raising children in the faith. So the readings are a little different from the lectionary. The reading that I've chosen for the Old Testament for this upcoming Sunday comes from Joshua chapter four, verses one through seven. When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, take 12 men from the people, each from each tribe, a man and commend them saying, take 12 stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan. And from the very place where the priest feet stood firmly, bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight. Then Joshua called the 12 men from the people of Israel whom he had appointed a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to you, then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel, a memorial forever. Here ends the reading. This reading follows up on an important story in the history of Israel. Just before this, Joshua and the people were on the far side of the Jordan. And God instructed the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant and walk into the Jordan River. And where they did this, the Jordan River would stop and pile up on where the the ark was, and everything underneath it would be dry. So the people of Israel crossed into the Jordan River, very similar to the way that they crossed the Red Sea when Moses was around. Now, this time, God has a plan with Joshua, to help the people of Israel. Remember, they didn't do a great job of remembering what God had done when they crossed the Red Sea, or with the manna, or with the quail or anything like that. They just kept fighting against God. So what God tells Joshua to do is pick up 12 stones. And he says, pass on before the ark of the Lord your God in the midst of the Jordan and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, this may be a sign among you, when your children asked in time to come, what did these stones mean to you, then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. The idea behind these stones is that they would take them out and pile them up and make it into a monument that would remind God's people about the event that happened. And God anticipates something here, he anticipates the children going by and seeing these these stones and going, Huh, that's weird. stones don't pile up like that all on their own. What's going on here? And it would be an opportunity for the congregation of Israel, whether the parents or others to say, Do you remember the story? Do you remember what God did for us? This is a way to incorporate the history of God's promises into the life of Israel. And we as a congregation have a number of ways that we do that. We incorporate the history of God's work through our divine service, through reading and speaking about God. And it's the entire congregations efforts along in partnership with the parents to help pass this on and tell these stories. And so, Joshua, and God set up this memorial for all time, that these stones will then be there to remind God's people of his work and his promises. And what a great way to incorporate that into the life of Israel as a physical reminder of what God has done and how he promised to to bring salvation to God's people by bringing them into the Promised Land. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Gathering In His Name: Worshiping as God's Family

Mark 10:13-16

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

We are today continuing in a sermon series on raising children in the faith. This is a three sermon series. Last week we talked about how important it is that the biblical role of introducing the faith and sustaining the faith is for parents, that parents are the primary person who teaches the faith to their children's. The habits and actions of home life, are the ways that we really, they really see what it means to be a Christian. Today, we are talking about the importance of having children and in fact, having everyone in the divine surface. And next week, we're going to talk about how a congregation and parents can partner together to help train a living faith in the lives of those children. Today, as we begin this, I'd like to read from Mark chapter 10. People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them. But the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these, I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God, like a little child will never enter it. And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them, and bless them. Today, as we consider this idea that children belong just as much in the divine servants as adults, we're going to take a look at it in a few ways. First, we're going to talk about the theology of the divine service, and why all of us should be here. Next, we'll talk about some of the practical reasons. Finally, we'll look at some objections. And last, we'll look at ways that we as a congregation can support parents who bring their children here. The beginning, is the theology of what happens here in worship, as we gather together. Now that theology is contained in a phrase that Lutherans have used to talk about worship, called the divine service. And we call it that, because in the divine service, God comes down from heaven, in a special way, and serves us through His grace. We see that in a number of ways. We see it in the confession and absolution, where you confess your sins. And then the pastor forgives your sins, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not just magic words, not just something wishing nice to the Holy Spirit actually is delivered through them to forgive your sin. In Holy Communion, Jesus Christ comes down. In a way he does not come down any other time. It is special. It is unique. Well, God is everywhere. While Christ is everywhere, he only comes in his body and his blood for you, in the divine service. In the word to hear, we have a special moment where all God's people gathered together to hear not just a Bible reading, though, that's important. But also it applied to the life of a congregation, applied to the adults, applied to the children, applied to the people whose memories are fading, whose eyes aren't working to everyone of all different kinds of abilities. In the divine service, all of God's people gathered together around his word, and Sacraments to receive His grace. And what a great joy that is, that we can be here where God says that He is where God gives you salvation, where he delivers his grace to you. And Jesus says, Let the children come to Me. And what's interesting about the story that I just read is that it's in the middle of Jesus's teaching. Right beforehand, he's talking to the Pharisees and right afterwards, there's a little teaching with the crowds, and there's all this stuff going on. And when mothers bring their babies to Jesus, the disciples are like, No, back off. Adults are doing important things. Jesus is teaching. One of the things we get right About this passage is later when Jesus says you have to receive it like a little child. We often say that it's because the children are loving or trusting, or something like that. That's not what's going on here. In the ancient world, children were the least important members of society. Babies, especially because most of them would die before they reached age five children that were to be neither seen nor heard. Adults are the important ones, especially the elders. And that disciples, in any other circumstance, any other teacher would be like, What are you doing bringing these kids here? Jesus is far too important for that. But Jesus says, the lowliest among us, receive His grace. And the most humble among us, must receive His mercy. And isn't that how God's grace works, not just with children, but all of us, that those who come to God with a proud heart he turns away. But when we come to him with repentance, when we come with need, when we say I am not strong, I am too weak, I can't do it God, Jesus Christ comes with His grace and His mercy, and gives you salvation. This is what he does with children. This is what he does. And all of God's people gather together at this special moment where God says, I am here. That is why we bring children here. But there are some practical reasons as well. One, goes back to Proverbs, Chapter 22, verse six, or Solomon writes, train a child in the way he should go. And then when he was old, it will not depart from it. Pretty good wisdom, right. And when you take children out of worship, when you train them not to go to church, you're training them not to go to church, right? When you say, church is not for you, go do something else. You're teaching them that that is their place to be. That that is where they are to go. That they are not welcomed with the adults, they should be with the kids. And if you teach them that they might believe you. Which is a shame, isn't it? We want to be a place that loves them, a place that cares about them, that welcomes them into the body of Christ as equal members. Because they are not the lowest of us. They are just one of us, you children. You are equal members in the body of Christ, not to be tossed out, not to be neglected not to hide away. One of us, full members of the Church fully saved fully in need of God's grace, the same way we are. To train them not to come to church, they will not come to church. The next thing is what you have to ask a question. What happens when they graduate from children's church, they have spent all of this time many years of their life, playing games, reading a story doing crafts, and they love it. It's fun, it's great. And then one day later, they're not allowed to go back anymore. You pull them from their community, from everything they know from their people, from their teacher. And then you plop them into the church. And they go, I don't want to be here. I want to be where the toys are. I want to be where the books are. I want to see Miss Kathleen again. And she does a wonderful job with the kids. But all of a sudden you're taking away their community and their life and plopping them in a bunch of strangers. They don't know the songs, they don't know when to stand, they don't know what to do. I've seen it happen over and over and over again. They're not learning how to be one of us, in our life, and in our church. And one of the things that the divine service does is it passes on our culture and our habits and our practices. Now you might think these kids are too young, there is no way they can pay attention to that. There is no way they can they can get anything out of this.

I'm going to tell you a story. In my first Church in Chicago, I was invited over to a family's house. It was two parents and they had a young boy, he must have been four years old at the time, really young, one of those boys ran around active, barely paid attention. You could see it. I understood it was amazing. When I got there. I walk in the door, Kristen and I are there and he sees me. And immediately he runs to the bathroom and he grabs his white robe, pulls it over, ties around his waist, runs into his dad's closet and grabs a tie, draped it over his neck, like a stole. And then we spent the next 30 minutes doing a mini divine service. He preached the way a four year old can it was, I forget what he said. He handed us crackers and juice. That's how kids pick things up, right? They may not pay attention, they may be doodling they may be moving around, but they can hear. They're not deaf. They can see. And this kid knew exactly what was going on. He knew exactly what happens. The Word of God is proclaimed. And Christ comes to you in his body and blood. I wish adults knew that as well as that kid did, right. And he didn't catch it because somebody taught it to him. He caught it because he was in church. And he saw me do it. And he understood what God is doing. We don't give our kids enough credit, that even when they're squirming or drawing or playing, they still hear and they still see they get a lot out of coming to church. Another another objection is that children are too loud and too distracting. And they can be right. Children can be loud. Children can be distracting. That was the objection that the disciples had, I think, when they were bringing the babies to Jesus just don't get in the way. something important is happening here. I agree something important is happening in the divine surface for the adults and for the kids. And they deserve to be able to hear it too. But even more than that, what do we do as a congregation when someone gets distracting? Do we kick them out? Should I point to Kathleen every time she opens up a hard candy in the beginning of my sermon and be like, Excuse me, ma'am. I told her I was going to tell that story. Don't worry, she gave me permission. Do we give our ushers a red card and a yellow card for noise? Of course not. We've got people who are neurodivergent. We have people who don't shut off their phones. We have people who sometimes say things when they shouldn't. But you know what happens in a family. We welcome all of God's people into this place. That's part of the unity that we have in Jesus Christ, that He binds us together as one. With all our problems with all our distractions with all our weirdness. We wouldn't kick them out just because they're different. We wouldn't kick someone out because they have autism. We welcome. Another objection is that children should be in a more developmentally appropriate setting something that is more on their level. And I agree with you. That is why I'm a fan of the liturgy. When we do the liturgy, a lot of the church service is memorizable. We do the same songs every Sunday with other hymns. But we have pieces that we do every single Sunday. And little kids love repetition. Just asked someone who was raising a girl in the middle of the frozen era. How many times did they watch that? How many times did people watch Finding Nemo? Kids love repetition. And they can memorize it and put the word of God that is part of our liturgy in their hearts. But also, we do have a wonderful time when children can come and be You know, the developmentally appropriate setting. It's called Sunday school. Right now it happens at nine o'clock right before our worship service. Kathleen is there with an excellent lesson. She works with the kids, parents, you can drop your kids off there and have an hour free. No kids, it's great. And they can read a story from the Bible and play the games and do the crafts. And it's awesome. And then they come here and hear the Word of God as well. It's a great way to put together both the lessons that they need to hear with Bible knowledge, as well as the divine service where they get God's grace that we do here. Now I get it. Parents, this is tough. When you have a kid who's squirmy. When you have a kid who doesn't pay attention, maybe who's loud, and you go, Oh, my gosh, they are going to embarrass me so much. It's tough. I get that. But St. Peter, and First Peter, chapter three says this, if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. And sometimes working with kids that are unruly, is suffering, right? Every parent knows that. But it's wholly suffering. Because what you're doing is bringing kids here to hear God's word, so that they can know that we love them, and that Jesus loves them. But they're not to be cast out. But one of us. So what can we do as a congregation to support parents? First, I think we should love the noise. I think we should love the squirms. One of my favorite moments as a pastor here was when I went to the the choir concert right before Christmas, we had a choir concert. My very first year I had been here, oh, it must have been two weeks. And one of the moms from 2911 brought her little son to the concert. And I get up and I'm in front of the congregation giving my greeting and he goes faster. And he races on the middle of the aisle and I pick them up and put them on my hip. And we just keep going. How much fun was that? The same thing during my sermon in the middle. I preached for like 15 minutes with a kid. Hallelujah. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't it great? When we gather them together among us and make them one. The sound of moving kids the action, all of that it's the sound of a living church. It's the sound of of hope of a new generation of joy. I love it. And I think we should too. Another thing we can do is to make parents feel welcome. Make their kids feel welcome. You guys are a loving church. I know what you guys do a great job welcoming and smiling. This isn't a problem, I think. But it's something that we have to be active about. Because sometimes we give a look when a kid makes a noise we should maybe think about because parents are pretty sensitive about that. A look misunderstood or misinterpreted can go and cut pretty deep. The other thing I think we can do is offer to help. Now, I know that there are lots and lots of grandmothers in here who would love nothing more than to sit with a kid once in a while to be able to help and distract and manage so that maybe mom or dad can take a break and listen to the sermon. And the parents if you want that. Let me know. We've got dozens of grandmas who would be joyful, and being able to help that out. And I'm sure we can find someone to do that. God wants all his children to come. He wants everyone to gather together in the divine service. And it's a central part of making a Christian whether they are super young, or super old. It's because here God comes to us with his means of grace binds us together as a people and gives us life. We should welcome the children, all of them. In Jesus name, Amen.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Mark 10:13-16

Mark 10:13-16

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're continuing our sermon series on raising children in the faith. So the Gospel reading that is chosen for Sunday, October 8, comes from Mark chapter 10, verses 13 through 16. And they were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, Let the children come to Me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child shall not enter it. And when he took them in his arms and bless them, laying his hands on them, Here ends the reading. Before we get into the actual tax, let's take a look at what's going on. Jesus has just gone to the region of Judea, beyond the Jordan and a crowd gathers. And so he begins to teach them. During that teaching, Pharisees come up and they asked him a question. And they talk about whether it's lawful to divorce a wife and Jesus weighs in on this question. And in the middle of all this, some women bring up children to Jesus, that He might touch them, and the disciples are mad. Now we get this idea that the disciples were mad, and we get a little confused. Why would they be upset that Jesus is blessing children? Well consider the situation. Jesus is talking with the Pharisees, and he's teaching the crowds. And these people are bringing these babies up to Jesus. They can't talk, they can't learn. They can't do anything. They're not worth Jesus's time. What is going on? No, no, no, no, no. Jesus has got important things to do with important people. They're just going to distract. But Jesus is indignant. He says, Let the children come to Me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God, like a child shall not enter it. We must understand this pretty frequently. Much of the time, we think the idea of being like a child is this simple, trusting faith, like a child trusts their parents. But that's not the way the ancient world would have seen that. In the ancient world, your value to society grew as you aged. When you were a baby, or a young child, you are worth just about nothing. I mean, I'm sure your parents, the parents loved them, and wanted their kids to grow and all of that. But out in society, kids were neither to be seen nor heard. They were to be out of the way. They were the lowest of the low, ignored until they had something to contribute to society until they became adults. And so Jesus isn't saying received the kingdom like a trusting and loving child. He's saying the kingdom of heaven belongs to the lowly, to the least, to the people who are distracting and should be out of the way that maybe the adults don't want in the room because they're noisy and playful, and they make sounds and get in the way when adults are talking. Jesus thinks is important that the lowliest get it. And I think as we consider what it means to be blessed by Jesus, we need to consider what it means to have people in our congregation who are not like adults, the children, the neurodivergent, the people who can't read, maybe have have troubles controlling the volume of their voices or whether they talk or the sounds that they make, or the smells that they have. The people that often we would think, well, maybe they just shouldn't be around distracting us from the sermon. Jesus wants the lowest, the children, to come to Him and be blessed by Him. And where does that happen? It happens in the divine service, as the whole body of Christ gathers where Jesus is to receive his blessing. That's it for our gospel reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Getting Ready for Sunday: Acts 2:42-47

Acts 2:42-47

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're doing something a little different. We're continuing our sermon series on raising children in the faith. So I've chosen a different reading for the Epistle reading for October 8. It comes from Acts chapter two, verses 42 through 47. And they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers, and all came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who are being saved. He rents the reading. This is an interesting passage that I think most people misunderstand. When you look at this passage, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. What we often see are disjointed pieces, like they devoted themselves to the teaching. And later on to getting together and hanging out. Some of them would have dinner, and then others would pray. And there are all sorts of different things. Luke has this interesting theme that he runs through the Gospel of Luke as well as into the book of Acts. That is this idea of table fellowship. And the Gospel of Luke table fellowship is something that happens with Jesus, there's Jesus comes to be with them. He teaches the people they eat, and they're in His presence. And it continues building and building all the way through the book of Luke until you get to the very end, when Jesus appears to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And so Jesus appears to these disciples, it's after he has died and risen from the dead. And they don't know what's him. So he teaches them how the old the whole Old Testament focuses on him and leads to his death and resurrection, to save the world. They don't recognize him. And so they go on and on until they get to the end. They Jesus pretends that he wants to go on and they invite Him in. And it isn't until they he blesses the bread and breaks it that they finally realize who he is, and then he vanishes. And they say that they recognized him in the breaking of bread. What this means is that this prayer for this fellowship, of the breaking of the bread, this table fellowship, is actually part of the pattern of worship that the church began with. And that's what Acts 242 is all about devoting themselves to what you would do in the divine service. It's the apostles teaching, which is what we do in the beginning, the fellowship, communion, the congregation, breaking up bread, and the prayers. Now many translations don't call it the prayers they say and to prayer. The difference there is that it's talking about something, a communal prayer, rather than individual prayer. Luke is describing worship. They devoted themselves to hearing God's word to teaching about Jesus fellowshipping together, receiving Holy Communion and praying together in God's name. And this gathering of believers, all of the believers, top to bottom, oldest to youngest leads to all the wonders and signs and amazing things. And they continue to do this as part of the regular habit of the church. And that is what's going on in Acts 242. Luke is setting up the pattern of worship that the apostle set down of all of God's people gathering together to receive this great gift. That's it for our reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai