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Series III
The weekly rhythm of the church year should be clearly perceived by the preacher by this time of the year. It has been established by the regular celebration of the resurrection of our Lord, the "Little Easter." During Pentecost, it is reinforced by the days of saints and martyrs which occur during the cycle and season. They are "kerygmatic accent marks" which remind the preaching pastor of the context within which the proclamation of the Gospel always occurs: the death, resurrection, and promised return of the "Lamb who was slain (who) has begun his reign." The preacher should remember that Mark's perspective is positively that Jesus will return as he said and that his Gospel is written from that point of view, a point of view which, in worship, he shares with St. Paul: "As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again." The Gospel has to be preached and witnessed until that day, first by the disciples and apostles, then by the saints and martyrs throughout the ages, and now by the faithful followers of Christ in the contemporary world.
The Prayer of the Day
Those who use the prayers in the Lutheran Book of Worship might want to read both of the prayers assigned to this Sunday. The combination is particularly appropriate to the thrust of the Gospel for the Day:
Almighty God, we thank you for planting in us the seed of your word. By your Holy Spirit help us to receive it with joy, live according to it, and grow in faith and hope and love; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The second collect gives more emphasis to the note of obedient response to the grace of God in Jesus Christ:
Lord God, use our lives to touch the world with your love. Stir us, by your Spirit, to be neighbor to those in need, serving them with willing hearts; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Psalm of the Day
Psalm 85 or 85:7-13 (E); 85:8-13 (R, L) - For once the liturgical churches agree on the psalm that is to be used as a responsory to the first reading. Of course, they do not agree on which parts of it ought to be read, but divergence is limited to the first half of the psalm. The Book of Common Prayer appoints the entire psalm for worship, while the other liturgical churches, joined by the alternate in the Book of Common Prayer, concentrate on the latter half of the psalm. All three of the liturgical churches assign this entire psalm to the Second Sunday in Advent, Year B, but oddly enough the Book of Common Prayer retains the same alternate reading (verses 7-13). As a psalm, which speaks of the return of the exiles to their homeland, it has overtones for Christians who perceive the act of restoration, which God accomplished in Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 8 speaks directly to those to whom the word of the Lord will be read: "I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him."
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
God of love and faithfulness, you so loved the world that you gave your only Son to be our Savior. Help us to receive him as both Lord and brother and freely celebrate him as our gracious Redeemer now and forever.
The readings:
Amos 7:7-15 (E); 7:10-15 (L); 7:12-15 (R)
The moral and ethical condition of Israel was at such a low level, unrecognized and even abetted by the spiritual deviation of the priests and prophets who supported a type of civil religion, that God had to raise up a new prophet from among the people, Amos, an ordinary herdsman. The parallel here is found in the Gospel for the Day, where Jesus sends the ordinary men he has called to himself into the world to preach the Good News to people. Amos was called to prophesy to Israel at Bethel, which was the residence of the king and the religious center of the kingdom, and to speak the word that would restore Israel to the right relationship with God. The preaching of the Gospel has always had this same restorative function, reestablishing the relationship of God to all of his people, in Jesus Christ. In both cases it was God who took the initiative and called people to do his work in the world.
2 Samuel 7:18-29 (C)
The story of David's assumption of the kingship of Israel continues after he is told that not he, but one of his offspring, will build a temple for the Ark of God. David is honestly puzzled that God has picked up a person who was engaged in a very common activity - a shepherd - to become king of Israel. He speaks directly to the Lord God and expresses his amazement that God has so blessed him. He makes a speech to God about God's mercy and goodness and the uniqueness of Israel, God's people among the nations of the earth. He dares to speak to God because God has assured him that he will "establish his people forever" - and he can't really understand why God is doing this. But he accepts God's Word and asks God for this blessing upon "the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee...." He knows that his "house," and his "line," can only continue through the enduring blessing of God.
Ephesians 1:1-10 (C); 1:1-14 (E); 1:3-14 (R, L)
Beginning with this Sunday, Ephesians will be the second reading for eight weeks, until the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. No longer thought to be a letter composed directly by Paul, it is fairly well established that the first part of this reading is a liturgical hymn, probably a baptismal hymn composed and utilized in the worship of the early church. "Paul" thanks God for all of the blessings received by the faithful in Jesus Christ - for the "precreation" election of the believers, a destiny guaranteed by the "glorious grace" bestowed upon people in Jesus Christ, working through his bloody sacrifice and the forgiveness of all of our sins. He also speaks of God's plan to unite all people in Christ, in heaven and in earth to himself, aware that God has spoken first to Israel and then to the Gentile world, sealing his people into this new covenant and a lasting relationship with him and each other in the church through the work of the Holy Spirit. One baptismal formula surfaces: "_______, child of God, you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever."
Mark 6:7-13
This first mission of the Twelve to Israel, as disciples of Jesus Christ, seems to have been something of a trial run. After all, the disciples were not really ready to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord, partially because they did not always understand what Jesus was saying to them,
and also because the critical part of his life and ministry - his death and resurrection - had not yet occurred. But Jesus makes it clear to them that: 1.) theirs is an important and urgent mission; 2.) they are to engage in the same kind of ministry that Jesus is performing; 3.) they are to preach repentance to people (and later, to baptize); and 4.) they are to exorcize and anoint the sick with oil to heal them. Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits before he sent them out two by two. In this manner, Jesus prepared the Twelve for the larger mission to the entire world which would be theirs after his resurrection and ascension. For now, they were to do what he had been doing. Mark says (chapter 1:14) that Jesus began preaching the Gospel of God in Galilee after John the Baptizer had been arrested: "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel." To this proclamation, Jesus added exorcism and anointing with oil to their healing ministry.
A Sermon on the Gospel, Mark 6:7-13 - "Driving Out the Devil."
That's what Jesus charged the disciples to do; they were to drive out the Devil with the Word of God, declaring to people that the Kingdom of God had broken into their world with Jesus Christ, calling them to repentance, and exorcizing the Devil and his demons and healing people by anointing them with oil in the name of Jesus Christ. Satan had to be driven out of human hearts before there would be room for Christ, genuine repentance, and God's healing activity in their lives.
A recent headline announced: "Doctor linked with exorcism has new job." The article began: "A physician reprimanded by the Minnesota Board of Medical Examiners for recommending exorcism to patients has moved to northwestern Minnesota, where he has the support of the Falls Clinic." It seems that the physician, Dr. Paul Patterson, an orthopedic surgeon, had prayed from 1980 to 1982 with some of his patients with chronic pain. Dr. Patterson had discovered that "pain could be relieved through prayer," and Dr. Jerome Bray, a member of the board of the Falls Clinic, where he has been practicing for almost a year and has proved himself to be a capable physician and surgeon, has supported him: "It's not a distasteful thing to do. It's even therapeutic in many ways."
1. Jesus has no chance of influencing and becoming the center of people's lives until the Devil is driven out. Since the beginning of the human era, Satan has had a way of ingratiating himself upon people and taking control of their lives. After thousands of years of human history, people still declare, "The Devil made me do it." The more modern and sophisticated form of this is simply, "I couldn't help myself."
2. There is no room for God in human hearts and lives until Satan has been exorcized, one way or another. People have to recognize that there is a very personal force working to control their thoughts and actions, an insidious spirit that strives to deceive them into thinking either that there is no God in the world, or that, if there is a God, they don't have to pay any attention to his word and his will. The Devil attempts to make people believe that they are gods in themselves!
3. Repentance brings about the defeat of the Devil and drives him - at least temporarily
- out of the lives of penitent sinners. The full gospel of the Lord - his teaching and preaching that culminated in his death on the cross - has the power to bring us to our knees. It makes us realize that "all of us are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God." We act more like the Devil than God, even though we have been made in God's image.
4. There is a place for exorcism in our lives - but not so much in a physician's office as before the table of the Lord, who said, before he died, "This is the blood of the New Testament, shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins." Exorcism really begins when we are baptized - sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. It is renewed in the preaching of the Word and the meal he has prepared for those from whom the Devil has been driven out - those who are truly contrite and sorry for their sins are forgiven in the Lord.
5. The mission of the church today, in consideration of the complete Gospel, is to go forth proclaiming and witnessing to Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior of the world. The church is to preach salvation in the death of Christ on the cross, driving people to their knees and banishing Satan from their lives, and in that way allowing the Word to bring the healing power of God into their lives. Amazingly, he uses ordinary people like you and me to do this!
A Sermon on the First Lesson, Amos 7:7-15 (E); 7:10-15 (L); 7:12-15 (R) - " 'Ordinary' Prophets."
1. The case for prophecy: prophets are necessary to point out sin and evil - the apostasy - of the people of God. Without the voice of the prophets, the human race would destroy itself.
2. Prophetic voices sound all around us today - voices that call our attention to pollution, to the depletion of unrenewable resources, to the possibility of destroying the earth by accident and ignorance, to the uneven distribution of wealth and food and poverty and economic opportunity in the world. Without prophetic voices, the human race is likely to destroy the earth, itself, and possibly all life before much more time has elapsed.
3. Prophecy gets to the heart of the matter - that is, what is wrong with, or lacking in, the human heart. God has prophets who speak to humanity's deepest needs. Some speak with a "hammer of judgment" (Luther), and others hold up "mirrors of existence" to allow people to see themselves as they really are. Either or both can bring people to their knees in true repentance and so open the way for new life.
4. And so, God calls ordinary people, as Jesus did, to become pastors and preachers, to proclaim the Good News in Christ, and to call them to repentance and faith in and through this Gospel of the Lord. The Christian pastor has this dual role - prophet and preacher - and that's what he or she has to be doing: calling people to repentance and assuring them of forgiveness and new life in the Lord.
2 Samuel 7:18-29 (C) - "I Don't Deserve It."
1. One of the refreshing characteristics about King David was that he knew he didn't deserve any of the blessings that God had given him. That's amazing, isn't it? To people who live in a world that is constantly telling them, "You deserve them" - every blessing and benefit that you can get for yourself, that's amazing.
2. The trouble with the "You deserve it" attitude is, at least in part, that people with that attitude are out to get everything they can possibly accumulate for themselves and try to experience everything that life has to offer. Generally, they have little or no concern for the plight of others who are not as well off as they are, or who may even be in dire straits. I have a good friend who has a son who is every bit the yuppie. He is making more money than any twenty-five-year-old should be earning - mostly through good looks, personality, and a large amount of luck - and, with his wife, is enjoying life to the fullest. They have no deep concern for others, nor any interest in helping people. They are living for themselves and no one else. Are there many people living that way in our community?
3. We are equally adept at declaring, "I don't deserve it," when we encounter unwanted difficulties and complications or disabling illnesses that threaten to take away the good life we think we deserve. The trouble is that when we encounter impossible situations and problems in our lives, there is a sense in which we do deserve them - for we are all sinners and really deserve all untoward events and situations that life may visit upon us.
4. Our response to the Gospel of our Lord - for we know that Christ and salvation are a gift, a totally free gift, of God - puts us in the "I don't deserve God's blessings" camp of King David. When we get there through the grace of God, we really belong to God and his kingdom - and we are ready to do the work of the Lord here on earth.
A Sermon on the Second Lesson, Ephesians 1:1-10 (C); 1:1-14 (E); 1:3-14 (R, L) - "Blessings from the Beginning."
1. Actually, God blessed the human race before the world was actually created. He intended to create creatures in his own image who would be his own people, and he did just that.
2. God has provided for the blessing of his people in his care of Israel and by providing a Savior, Jesus Christ, for the whole world. In the radical action of the cross, Jesus Christ became God's eternal blessing for everyone on the face of the earth.
3. Through the preaching of the Word and holy baptism, God makes us his children, sealing us into his kingdom by the Holy Spirit and marking us with the cross of Christ forever. It is through baptism that the blessings God prepared for people before the earth began are made available to his people now.
4. As forgiven sinners, God enables us to live a new life in Jesus Christ and, thereby, enables us to enjoy the richest of his blessings - life with him in time and eternity.
The Prayer of the Day
Those who use the prayers in the Lutheran Book of Worship might want to read both of the prayers assigned to this Sunday. The combination is particularly appropriate to the thrust of the Gospel for the Day:
Almighty God, we thank you for planting in us the seed of your word. By your Holy Spirit help us to receive it with joy, live according to it, and grow in faith and hope and love; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The second collect gives more emphasis to the note of obedient response to the grace of God in Jesus Christ:
Lord God, use our lives to touch the world with your love. Stir us, by your Spirit, to be neighbor to those in need, serving them with willing hearts; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Psalm of the Day
Psalm 85 or 85:7-13 (E); 85:8-13 (R, L) - For once the liturgical churches agree on the psalm that is to be used as a responsory to the first reading. Of course, they do not agree on which parts of it ought to be read, but divergence is limited to the first half of the psalm. The Book of Common Prayer appoints the entire psalm for worship, while the other liturgical churches, joined by the alternate in the Book of Common Prayer, concentrate on the latter half of the psalm. All three of the liturgical churches assign this entire psalm to the Second Sunday in Advent, Year B, but oddly enough the Book of Common Prayer retains the same alternate reading (verses 7-13). As a psalm, which speaks of the return of the exiles to their homeland, it has overtones for Christians who perceive the act of restoration, which God accomplished in Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 8 speaks directly to those to whom the word of the Lord will be read: "I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, for he is speaking peace to his faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to him."
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
God of love and faithfulness, you so loved the world that you gave your only Son to be our Savior. Help us to receive him as both Lord and brother and freely celebrate him as our gracious Redeemer now and forever.
The readings:
Amos 7:7-15 (E); 7:10-15 (L); 7:12-15 (R)
The moral and ethical condition of Israel was at such a low level, unrecognized and even abetted by the spiritual deviation of the priests and prophets who supported a type of civil religion, that God had to raise up a new prophet from among the people, Amos, an ordinary herdsman. The parallel here is found in the Gospel for the Day, where Jesus sends the ordinary men he has called to himself into the world to preach the Good News to people. Amos was called to prophesy to Israel at Bethel, which was the residence of the king and the religious center of the kingdom, and to speak the word that would restore Israel to the right relationship with God. The preaching of the Gospel has always had this same restorative function, reestablishing the relationship of God to all of his people, in Jesus Christ. In both cases it was God who took the initiative and called people to do his work in the world.
2 Samuel 7:18-29 (C)
The story of David's assumption of the kingship of Israel continues after he is told that not he, but one of his offspring, will build a temple for the Ark of God. David is honestly puzzled that God has picked up a person who was engaged in a very common activity - a shepherd - to become king of Israel. He speaks directly to the Lord God and expresses his amazement that God has so blessed him. He makes a speech to God about God's mercy and goodness and the uniqueness of Israel, God's people among the nations of the earth. He dares to speak to God because God has assured him that he will "establish his people forever" - and he can't really understand why God is doing this. But he accepts God's Word and asks God for this blessing upon "the house of thy servant, that it may continue forever before thee...." He knows that his "house," and his "line," can only continue through the enduring blessing of God.
Ephesians 1:1-10 (C); 1:1-14 (E); 1:3-14 (R, L)
Beginning with this Sunday, Ephesians will be the second reading for eight weeks, until the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost. No longer thought to be a letter composed directly by Paul, it is fairly well established that the first part of this reading is a liturgical hymn, probably a baptismal hymn composed and utilized in the worship of the early church. "Paul" thanks God for all of the blessings received by the faithful in Jesus Christ - for the "precreation" election of the believers, a destiny guaranteed by the "glorious grace" bestowed upon people in Jesus Christ, working through his bloody sacrifice and the forgiveness of all of our sins. He also speaks of God's plan to unite all people in Christ, in heaven and in earth to himself, aware that God has spoken first to Israel and then to the Gentile world, sealing his people into this new covenant and a lasting relationship with him and each other in the church through the work of the Holy Spirit. One baptismal formula surfaces: "_______, child of God, you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever."
Mark 6:7-13
This first mission of the Twelve to Israel, as disciples of Jesus Christ, seems to have been something of a trial run. After all, the disciples were not really ready to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord, partially because they did not always understand what Jesus was saying to them,
and also because the critical part of his life and ministry - his death and resurrection - had not yet occurred. But Jesus makes it clear to them that: 1.) theirs is an important and urgent mission; 2.) they are to engage in the same kind of ministry that Jesus is performing; 3.) they are to preach repentance to people (and later, to baptize); and 4.) they are to exorcize and anoint the sick with oil to heal them. Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits before he sent them out two by two. In this manner, Jesus prepared the Twelve for the larger mission to the entire world which would be theirs after his resurrection and ascension. For now, they were to do what he had been doing. Mark says (chapter 1:14) that Jesus began preaching the Gospel of God in Galilee after John the Baptizer had been arrested: "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel." To this proclamation, Jesus added exorcism and anointing with oil to their healing ministry.
A Sermon on the Gospel, Mark 6:7-13 - "Driving Out the Devil."
That's what Jesus charged the disciples to do; they were to drive out the Devil with the Word of God, declaring to people that the Kingdom of God had broken into their world with Jesus Christ, calling them to repentance, and exorcizing the Devil and his demons and healing people by anointing them with oil in the name of Jesus Christ. Satan had to be driven out of human hearts before there would be room for Christ, genuine repentance, and God's healing activity in their lives.
A recent headline announced: "Doctor linked with exorcism has new job." The article began: "A physician reprimanded by the Minnesota Board of Medical Examiners for recommending exorcism to patients has moved to northwestern Minnesota, where he has the support of the Falls Clinic." It seems that the physician, Dr. Paul Patterson, an orthopedic surgeon, had prayed from 1980 to 1982 with some of his patients with chronic pain. Dr. Patterson had discovered that "pain could be relieved through prayer," and Dr. Jerome Bray, a member of the board of the Falls Clinic, where he has been practicing for almost a year and has proved himself to be a capable physician and surgeon, has supported him: "It's not a distasteful thing to do. It's even therapeutic in many ways."
1. Jesus has no chance of influencing and becoming the center of people's lives until the Devil is driven out. Since the beginning of the human era, Satan has had a way of ingratiating himself upon people and taking control of their lives. After thousands of years of human history, people still declare, "The Devil made me do it." The more modern and sophisticated form of this is simply, "I couldn't help myself."
2. There is no room for God in human hearts and lives until Satan has been exorcized, one way or another. People have to recognize that there is a very personal force working to control their thoughts and actions, an insidious spirit that strives to deceive them into thinking either that there is no God in the world, or that, if there is a God, they don't have to pay any attention to his word and his will. The Devil attempts to make people believe that they are gods in themselves!
3. Repentance brings about the defeat of the Devil and drives him - at least temporarily
- out of the lives of penitent sinners. The full gospel of the Lord - his teaching and preaching that culminated in his death on the cross - has the power to bring us to our knees. It makes us realize that "all of us are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God." We act more like the Devil than God, even though we have been made in God's image.
4. There is a place for exorcism in our lives - but not so much in a physician's office as before the table of the Lord, who said, before he died, "This is the blood of the New Testament, shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins." Exorcism really begins when we are baptized - sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever. It is renewed in the preaching of the Word and the meal he has prepared for those from whom the Devil has been driven out - those who are truly contrite and sorry for their sins are forgiven in the Lord.
5. The mission of the church today, in consideration of the complete Gospel, is to go forth proclaiming and witnessing to Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior of the world. The church is to preach salvation in the death of Christ on the cross, driving people to their knees and banishing Satan from their lives, and in that way allowing the Word to bring the healing power of God into their lives. Amazingly, he uses ordinary people like you and me to do this!
A Sermon on the First Lesson, Amos 7:7-15 (E); 7:10-15 (L); 7:12-15 (R) - " 'Ordinary' Prophets."
1. The case for prophecy: prophets are necessary to point out sin and evil - the apostasy - of the people of God. Without the voice of the prophets, the human race would destroy itself.
2. Prophetic voices sound all around us today - voices that call our attention to pollution, to the depletion of unrenewable resources, to the possibility of destroying the earth by accident and ignorance, to the uneven distribution of wealth and food and poverty and economic opportunity in the world. Without prophetic voices, the human race is likely to destroy the earth, itself, and possibly all life before much more time has elapsed.
3. Prophecy gets to the heart of the matter - that is, what is wrong with, or lacking in, the human heart. God has prophets who speak to humanity's deepest needs. Some speak with a "hammer of judgment" (Luther), and others hold up "mirrors of existence" to allow people to see themselves as they really are. Either or both can bring people to their knees in true repentance and so open the way for new life.
4. And so, God calls ordinary people, as Jesus did, to become pastors and preachers, to proclaim the Good News in Christ, and to call them to repentance and faith in and through this Gospel of the Lord. The Christian pastor has this dual role - prophet and preacher - and that's what he or she has to be doing: calling people to repentance and assuring them of forgiveness and new life in the Lord.
2 Samuel 7:18-29 (C) - "I Don't Deserve It."
1. One of the refreshing characteristics about King David was that he knew he didn't deserve any of the blessings that God had given him. That's amazing, isn't it? To people who live in a world that is constantly telling them, "You deserve them" - every blessing and benefit that you can get for yourself, that's amazing.
2. The trouble with the "You deserve it" attitude is, at least in part, that people with that attitude are out to get everything they can possibly accumulate for themselves and try to experience everything that life has to offer. Generally, they have little or no concern for the plight of others who are not as well off as they are, or who may even be in dire straits. I have a good friend who has a son who is every bit the yuppie. He is making more money than any twenty-five-year-old should be earning - mostly through good looks, personality, and a large amount of luck - and, with his wife, is enjoying life to the fullest. They have no deep concern for others, nor any interest in helping people. They are living for themselves and no one else. Are there many people living that way in our community?
3. We are equally adept at declaring, "I don't deserve it," when we encounter unwanted difficulties and complications or disabling illnesses that threaten to take away the good life we think we deserve. The trouble is that when we encounter impossible situations and problems in our lives, there is a sense in which we do deserve them - for we are all sinners and really deserve all untoward events and situations that life may visit upon us.
4. Our response to the Gospel of our Lord - for we know that Christ and salvation are a gift, a totally free gift, of God - puts us in the "I don't deserve God's blessings" camp of King David. When we get there through the grace of God, we really belong to God and his kingdom - and we are ready to do the work of the Lord here on earth.
A Sermon on the Second Lesson, Ephesians 1:1-10 (C); 1:1-14 (E); 1:3-14 (R, L) - "Blessings from the Beginning."
1. Actually, God blessed the human race before the world was actually created. He intended to create creatures in his own image who would be his own people, and he did just that.
2. God has provided for the blessing of his people in his care of Israel and by providing a Savior, Jesus Christ, for the whole world. In the radical action of the cross, Jesus Christ became God's eternal blessing for everyone on the face of the earth.
3. Through the preaching of the Word and holy baptism, God makes us his children, sealing us into his kingdom by the Holy Spirit and marking us with the cross of Christ forever. It is through baptism that the blessings God prepared for people before the earth began are made available to his people now.
4. As forgiven sinners, God enables us to live a new life in Jesus Christ and, thereby, enables us to enjoy the richest of his blessings - life with him in time and eternity.
