German-American Lutherans

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Exodus 34,29-35. Last Sunday after Epiphany

Exodus 34,29-35 1222

Letzter Sonntag nach Epiphanias 18

Dorothea, Virgin, Martyr at Caesarea in Cappadocia 287

Amand, Pastor and Apostle to the Franks in the Low Countries ✠ 675

6. Febuar 2022

1. ℣ Thy lightnings lighted up the world:

℟ The earth trembled and shook (Psalm 77,18).

O Lord, Thou transfigured sun of grace; shine upon us even and guide us through the field of tears into the land of sweet delight, so that Your delight that exalts us never fades. Amen. (Morgenglanz her Ewigkeit elkg 693,5 2021)

2. »When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.«

3. When Yahweh appears, creation responds to His presence At Sinai, there was lightning, thick clouds and an earthquake At Bethlehem, there was a star and a host of angels. When Moses spoke to Yahweh, His face radiated the Divine Glory.

4. Israel trembled in fear at Sinai. They did not desire to approach the mount. Moses’ shining face made them afraid. They recognized they were in the presence of the Holy and Almighty Yahweh. They were consciously aware of their sinfulness and unworthiness to be in His Divine presence.

5. In his explanations of the 10 Commandments, Luther writes that we should fear God. Sin is an affront to His holiness. Like Adam and Eve, we often hide from God because of our sin, and that hiding often makes things worse because, try as we might, we can’t atone for our sin or cleanse ourselves before the Holy God. Thus we often fear His wrath and punishment.

6. Luther then writes in his explanations to the Commandments that we should love God. But how can we love Him if we are in fear of Him? That is the sinful, human dilemma. When Jesus was transfigured, God the Father spoke from the Cloud: »This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased« (Matthew 17,5). God serves us. God shows us love. His love conquers our fear. God the Father loves His creation and His only Son. He sent Jesus to show us His love. John records the very words of Jesus in his Gospel where he writes: »For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life« (John 3,16). This love is shown at Jesus’ vicarious sacrifice on the cross for us to pay the redemption price for our sin.

7. Luther finally writes in his explanation to the Commandments that we should trust God. Since we see the love of God the Father manifested for us in the crucifixion of Jesus, we trust in Him and His vicarious sacrifice. Furthermore, when we pray Our Father who art in heaven, with these words God tenderly invites us to trust that He is our true Father and that we are His true children (Small Catechism Lord’s Prayer Introduction). To trust God is to believe that His gospel and promise to us is true.

8. Jesus is the epiphany of God in our midst. He manifests Himself among us to be our Savior, Redeemer and Friend. By taking upon Himself a human body, men and women can be in the presence of the Divine without the fear Israel exhibited at Sinai. When Jesus bids us draw unto Him so He may give us rest, we are able to do so and let Him bear our heavy laden burdens We do not draw nigh to Him in terror, but we approach Him with trust, for He who first loved us will always be our comfort sure (Lord Jesus Christ, with Us Abide lsb 585,6).

9. Yahweh enters our midst through His Word and Sacraments. We do not tremble in fear, but receive Him with reverent awe as we fear, love and trust Jesus who gives us forgiveness and salvation through His preached Word, the water of Baptism and the bread and wine of His Lord’s Super. Let us receive Him and the gifts of eternal life that He graciously offers to us.

10. For the joy Thine advent gave us,

For Thy holy, precious Word;

For Thy Baptism which doth save us,

For Thy blest Communion board;

For Thy death, the bitter scorn,

For Thy resurrection morn,

Lord, [we] thank Thee and extol Thee,

And in heaven we shall behold Thee. (Thanks to Thee, O Christ, Victorious lsb 548,3)

This is most certainly true.

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

12. Let us pray. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have sown the good seed of Your holy Word in our hearts. By Your Holy Spirit cause this seed to grow and bear fruit, and defend us from the enemy, so that he may not s0w weeds among us. Keep us from worldly security, help us in all temptations and at last give us eternal salvation. Amen. (Veit Dietrich, Summaria christlicher lehr, Epiphany 5, 1548; Stratman 33-34).

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Thursday, September 02, 2021

Genesis 4,1-16. 13. Trinity

Genesis 4,1-16 4621

13. Trinitatis 058

Beheading of John the Baptizer

29. August 2021

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, we most heartily thank You that You have granted us to live in this accepted time, when we may hear Your holy gospel, know Your fatherly will, and behold Your Son, Jesus Christ! We pray, Most Merciful Father: Let the light of Your holy Word remain with us, and so govern our hearts by Your Holy Spirit, so that we may never forsake Your Word, but remain steadfast in it, and finally obtain eternal salvation. Amen. (Veit Dietrich)

2. »And God looked upon Abel and his gift, but for Cain and his offering He paid no attention. So Cain was greatly grieved, and his face was downcast. Yahweh God said to Cain: „Why are you deeply sorrowful, and why has your face become downcast? If you brought rightly, rightly but not divided/distributed, you sinned?Be still, for sin desires your submission, and you will rule over it.“«

3. We learn from the Small Catechism: you shall not murder. What does this mean? A: we should fear in love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but help and support him in every physical need.

4. In Genesis 4, we hear of Cain and Abel, the first murder and the consequences of this horrible crime. The story is told to us in such a way that we can very well recognize ourselves in Cain (Martens ¶4), as Jesus taught us in that even if we are angry with our neighbor then we have broken the Commandment (Matthew 5,22). Among many things that the story teaches us, 3 in particular stand out:

i. sometimes we cannot understand God,

ii. sometimes we want to correct God and

iii. sometimes we cannot bear God’s questions.

5. The age-old question is: why did God regard Abel’s sacrifice and not Cain’s? The text simply states: but for Cain and his offering Yahweh paid no attention. Yahweh did not look upon and notice Cain’s sacrifice. The language in these verses describing their offerings implies both Abel and Cain prayed to God; and God gave Abel what he had prayed for but He did not give Cain what he had asked for. Cain became greatly grieved at this, so much so that his emotions were visibly seen upon his face; Cain was devastated that Yahweh did not notice his sacrifice or give heed to his prayer. Did Cain do something that offended Yahweh so that He ignored his sacrifice? Verse 7 indicates that Cain seemed to have offered his sacrifice but that there was something Cain did or did not do in regard to his sacrifice that caused Yahweh to ignore it. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that by faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain (Hebrews 11,4). As a result, Cain was sorrowful and downfallen that Yahweh had no regard for his sacrifice.

6. Like Cain, we don’t understand many things that God does or allows to happen in this world. Why is there still evil in this world? Why does God allow tragedy and distraction to occur as you did a few days ago in Kabul, Afghanistan? Why did God answer someone else’s prayer but did not answer mine? We often struggle with these and similar questions.

7. How one response to God in regard to things we don’t understand is key. Cain ignores what Yahweh tells him. His eyes go from lifted up in prayer to God in heaven to lowered inside himself, and in doing so Cain severs his communication with God. This breaking off of communication with God has the consequence that Cain now directed his rejection against his brother Abel (Martens ¶10). Cain cannot hurt God so he hurt his brother whom God had favored. Abel bears the brunt of Cain's revenge. How often do people do this even today. Many times revenge shown against someone is displaced vengeance toward God or another person whom they cannot direct it. So a person close by bears the revenge that seeks a release. Sometimes that misplaced vengeance costs people their lives, and Yahweh warned Cain not to walk down that dark path.

8. We easily set out on this dark path. God warns us to stop: don’t listen to your emotions, don’t fed the desire for revenge, but seek God’s will and be comforted by His words. But this is easier said than done. We convince ourselves of what we want even when it goes against what God wants. When we sin, God questions us. Cain, where is your brother? What have you done? Like Adam did, Cain attempted to hide his horrible sin but he cannot for God already knows and is aware of the tragedy. God confronts Cain with his guilt and with the punishment Cain knows he deserves (Martens ¶13). When we ponder the 10 Commandments, our conscience is troubled. We know we have sinned and there is no hiding it from God. We feel alienated from God and that we no longer have a place in His presence.

9. Our sinful deeds mark us as sinners. We know it. Everyone knows it. We know everyone else is a sinner too. The common response is to run away and alienate ourselves, particularly from God. That Old Cain in us is always the wanderer in fugitive from God and His presence.

10. But thanks be to God that is not the end of our story! Our HeavenlyFather has sent us another Shepherd, a Second Abel, who was killed in spilled His blood for us: Jesus Christ our Savior. With this Shepherd, God is unfolding once again the entire story of Cain and Abel (Martens ¶16). When we cannot understand God or endure His probing questions, we should look to Jesus — the crucified One. On the cross we see that God has drawn near to us, found us and reconciles us back to Himself. Jesus reminds us: My body was given for you and My blood was shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. We know that where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation (Small Catechism).

11. This gospel is never a demand. The gospel doesn’t require anything from us. The gospel is pure gift and promise. For us who are conceived and distressed by our sins, Jesus has brought us the gospel. While the law is written up on our hearts, the gospel comes to us from outside ourselves as a pure gift of God who speaks on our behalf in the face of all our sins of commission and our failures with respect to our neighbors, which accuse us (Bayer 11). He speaks through the Holy Spirit in our place; He speaks were words fail us (Bayer 11). He also speaks for us against the accusation which comes through the law; He speaks as an advocate in our favor (Bayer 11). So Christ speaks to us today in whatever sin we find ourselves. The gospel brings forgiveness and a new life. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, your name is worthy to be praised; daily bless us with the grace and mercy of your gospel, so that we no longer avoid you as fugitives but receive you as our Friend. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

13. Trinity Divine Service III

13. Trinity

Wednesday, October 07, 2020

Matthew 15,21 17. Trinity

Matthew 15,21-28 5420

17. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 062

Francis of Assisi, France. Founder of a monastic order, ✠ 1226

4. October 2020

1. O All-Loving God, Your mercy has no end and Your kindness is new each morning; often we come before You with great grief and a heavy heart seeking comfort from You; be merciful to us and show us compassion, so that our hearts are eased and our joy restored. Amen. (Starck 185-86 ¶ 3)

2. »And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region went out and was crying: „Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.“ But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples went and begged Him, saying: „Send her away, for she is crying out after us.“ He answered: „I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.“ But she went and knelt before Him, saying: „Lord, help me.“ And He answered: „It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.“ She said: „Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.“ Then Jesus answered her: „O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.“ And her daughter was healed instantly.«

3. Last week we heard how Jesus raised a dead man back to life. Today we hear how Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath.

4. In Matthew 15, the evangelist gives us another example of Jesus’ healing ability. A young girl is severely oppressed with a demon, and Jesus heals her and relieves her of that spiritual affliction. What is strikingly apparent is that this woman and her daughter are Canaanites: they are not Jewish and they do not live in Jewish territory. They were Gentiles living in a Roman city, for Rome had exercised rulership over Tyre and the province of Syria (since 64 bc) for nearly 100 years before the events of Matthew 15. Jesus Himself notes in their discussion that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.

5. Yet the mother persists in her plea. She calls Jesus: 1. Lord, and asks for mercy, 2. Son of David, 3. kneels before Him, calls Him Lord again and asks for His help and 4. calls Him Lord a third time and counters Jesus’ statement that even the Gentiles receive crumbs from the table of the Jews. This Gentile mother speaks and acts as one worshiping God: she invokes a Divine title, pleads for mercy and kneels in a position of prayer and worship; she directs these words and acts to Jesus. She essentially prays Psalm 30: Hear, O Yahweh, and be merciful to me! O Yahweh be my Helper« (Psalm 30,10).

6. There is some precedent here as well. 1000 years earlier when David and Solomon were gathering the materials for the construction of the temple, Tyre supported supplied cedar wood and skilled workers. During their reigns, David and Solomon maintained friendly relations and with King Hiram I of Tyre. Whereas Hiram offered help to David in building the temple, now the Son of David, the temple made flesh, gives help to a citizen of Tyre.

7. The Prophet Micah, who ministered to Judah and Samaria, was probably still remembered for his words and deeds by the people of Tyre just miles north of the Galilean border. Micah proclaims that God loves mercy and humbleness (Micah 6,8). This Gentile woman exhibits both humbleness to God and desires His mercy. Yahweh said to the Prophet Isaiah: »Yahweh waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For Yahweh is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for Him (Isaiah 30,18).

8. Whenever we are weighed down with despair, trials, tribulations or ailments, seek Jesus and His mercy. God promises us His grace. »You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake Israel.« (Nehemiah 9,17). »For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more« (Jeremiah 31,34; Hebrews 8,12). »Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful« (James 5,11). „The bread of the Messiah is so abundant and so overflowing that parts of it fall from the table onto the floor.“ (Gibbs 787). And the crumbs are enough for this Gentile woman and her daughter (Gibbs 787). She believes in both Jesus’ mission to Israel’s lost sheep and in Jesus’ abundance (Gibbs 787); even the Gentiles are blessed by the bread that Jesus provides.

9. Christ has shown us mercy. He has redeemed us from sin, death and the devils. His mercy is for all people, both Jews and Gentiles. May our faith in Jesus be as great as that of the Gentile mother from Tyre. Next week we will hear why God is merciful. Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord, Your steadfast love endures forever; help us to make known Your mercy to our generations, so that they seek You and Your grace. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

Monday, August 05, 2019

John 6,30-35. 7. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

John 6,30-35 4219

7. Sn. n. Trinitatis 052

Dominic, founder of a monastic order, ✠ 1221

4. August 2019

1. O Christ Jesus, the Bread from heaven; send to us the Holy Spirit who encourages us to have compassion, so that we may show charity to our neighbors in their time of need. Amen. (Mark 8,1-9)

2. »So the Jews said to Him: „Then what sign do you do, so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.“ [Exodus 16,4.8; Psalm 78,24] Jesus then said to them: „Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who descends heaven and gives life to the world.“ They said to Him: „Sir, give us this bread always.“ Jesus said to them: „I am the Bread of Life; whoever receives Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.“«

3. In Mark 8, our Gospel pericope for today, Jesus feeds a crowd numbering about 4000 people; He did so with 7 loaves of bread and at the end 7 full baskets were collected with the leftovers. One person would normally eat 1/3 of a loaf at a meal, and 7 loaves would comfortably feed 21 people, yet all 4000 are comfortably fed! That would take a little over 1333 loaves of bread. The leftovers were much more than the 7 loaves Jesus started with.

4. John 6 records another time when Jesus fed a large crowd with only a few loaves of bread. After Jesus had performed this miracle, the people exclaimed: This is indeed the Prophet who is come into the world! (John 6,14). The next day Jesus continues to teach the crowd and they make this connection from the Scriptures: Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, for Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat (Psalm 78,24; Exodus 16,4). The Jewish crowd is set in only seeing Jesus’ miracles in temporal, earthly terms. God has blessed them with bread for the day, just as He provided for their fathers in the wilderness many years earlier. Their perception is only two dimensional, that is, horizontal: what satisfies their physical hunger and belly. But Jesus is operating at a third dimensional perception, that is horizontal and vertical: He provides for both their physical hunger and their spiritual hunger. Their Heavenly Father gives more than just manna and loaves of bread; He also sends down the One from heaven who gives life to the world.

5. We are often like the Jews in John 6; we think in simply 2 dimensions: what our eyes see, our ears hear and our hands touch. Our first, and sadly sometimes our only, concern is how God provides for us physically, so that we measure His goodness by our bank accounts, our possessions and the food we have on our table. If our bodies are satisfied, then we think that is sufficient. But human beings are not simply flesh and blood; we are also spirit and soul. We are created in God’s Image and Likeness, and thus we have real spiritual needs, too. People fill that spiritual void through any number of ways: Eastern meditation, communing with nature, various cultural myths that relate stories of the gods interacting in the lives of people and so forth. In all this we are trying to recapture the fellowship God created us to have with Him, that relationship that Adam and Eve experienced at the close of each day as God walked with them in the Garden of Eden. David put this longing to prose in one of his psalms: O God, my God, I earnestly seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me (Psalm 63,1.8), and again: Blessed are those who strength is in You, O God; they go from strength to strength; blessed is the one who trusts in You!« (Psalm 84,5.7.12).

6. Jesus proclaims to us: »I am the Bread of Life; whoever draws near to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise you up on the last day« (John 6,35.40). Jesus abundantly provides for physical and spiritual needs. After this powerful and insightful teaching of Jesus from the Scriptures, Peter and the other apostles reply with their wonderful confession: »Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God!« (John 6,68-69). They confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Matthew 16,16).

7. We are here today, 2000 years later, making the same confession. We will receive the Bread of Life that satisfies both our physical and spiritual hunger. The Apostle Paul says of this Living Bread from heaven: »Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread« (1. Corinthians 10,17). The holy apostle is speaking about the Holy Communion of the Lord’s Supper. The Church, he says, receives and eats the one bread that is offered to all at the communion table. Jesus’ discourse in John 6, while not specifically saying that it is the Lord’s Supper, certainly causes the Christian hearer to think about the eating and drinking of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus and His apostles are clear that the bread and wine in the Holy Sacrament are indeed also His true body and blood given to and received by the communicant. The Lord’s Supper gives us Jesus, the Living Bread from heaven, and when we are given Jesus, we are given eternal life.

8. Luke the Evangelist describes the worship life of the Christians, writing: »And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.« (Acts 2,42). Luke is describing the worship life of the Church. We gather to hear the words of the apostles in the Epistle and Gospel Readings, we devote ourselves to the Christian fellowship of our brothers and sisters in the faith by worshiping together each Sunday, we break bread together in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and we offer up prayers and petitions to our Heavenly Father. There is a great continuity from the apostolic Church and the 21. century Church. We worship the same Jesus, we receive and partake of the same Bread of Life and we are absolved of all our sin in the Name of Jesus. I tell you the absolute truth: Whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life, for Jesus is the Bread of Life. Jesus gives Himself to you this day; receive Him, believe upon Him and you will life forever and ever in His Divine presence. Amen.

9. Let us pray. O Christ, Your Name is praised morning and evening; may our lips and hearts confess You to be our Savior who gives us life, yes everlasting life, so that we put our trust in You our Providence. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Soli Deo Gloria

✠

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.

Thursday, February 07, 2019

Christ, Thor and the Midgard Serpent, para. 2

2. With regard to the question of whether similarities to German myths with Christian ideas are attributed to Christian influence or not, is another, no less interesting and significant, much less respected, question, namely, whether such correspondence in the conversion of the Germans to Christianity became effective and in which way. [Footnote 2] Should the missionaries and preachers of the 1. Christian Era be completely avoided, to establish comparable German ideas, to dress Christian truths in familiar religious images? Or are they seen exclusively in the pagan gods, the Devil, monsters and demons, as the sources confirm again and again?

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Revised 1-Year Lectiony in Protestant German churches

Evangelical Church Year

https://www.kirchenjahr-evangelisch.de/index.php#2019-82-0

A note from the SELK:

Zum 1. Advent 2018 wird im Raum der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) eine neue Ordnung der gottesdienstlichen Lesungen und Predigttexte eingeführt.

Die Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche (SELK) hat durch ihren Allgemeinen Pfarrkonvent und durch die diesjährige Kirchensynode beschlossen, sich an diese neue Ordnung in ihrer Praxis eng anzulehnen. So werden Gottesdienstbesucherinnen und -besucher an manchen Sonn- und Festtagen im Kirchenjahr auf neue Lesungen stoßen. Es handelt sich allerdings um eine äußerst moderate Revision, sodass es zumeist beim Bekannten bleibt.

For the 1st Advent 2018, a new order of Divine Service readings and sermon texts will be introduced throughout the the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church (SELK) has decided, through its General Parish Convention and through this year's Synod of Churches, to closely follow this new order in its practice. On some Sundays and holidays in Church Year worshipers will encounter new readings. However, these are very moderate revisions, so they usually stay close to what we are acquainted.

http://www.selk.de/index.php/top-themen/lesungen

German-American Lutherans

Flags

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Exodus 34,29-35. Last Sunday after Epiphany

Thursday, September 02, 2021

Genesis 4,1-16. 13. Trinity

13. Trinity Divine Service III

Wednesday, October 07, 2020

Matthew 15,21 17. Trinity

Monday, August 05, 2019

John 6,30-35. 7. Trinity

Thursday, February 07, 2019

Christ, Thor and the Midgard Serpent, para. 2

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Revised 1-Year Lectiony in Protestant German churches

ClustrMaps