Proper 11
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III
Two saints' days that occur this week remind the church what its theological task should be on Sunday. On July 22nd, the day of Mary Magdalene is celebrated, stirring up memories of the resurrection of our Lord, for Mary Magdalene and the other women were the first to hear the Good News that Jesus Christ had risen from the grave. In John, it is Mary Magdalene alone who went to the tomb, found it open, hurried to tell Peter and John, and later had the first encounter with the risen Lord. She speaks to the church today, with the same words spoken to the disciples after Christ's appearance to her in the garden, "I have seen the Lord." Her message - from the Lord - tells us that the risen Lord reigns over heaven and earth: "Go and tell my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." The kerygmatic task of the church is to worship and serve the risen and reigning Lord until he comes again. Also during this week (on July 24th), the festival of St. James the Elder will be observed as the first "kerygmatic accent mark" made on the calendar of the church. According to tradition, St. James the Elder, the first of the disciples to be martyred in the name of Jesus Christ, was executed on this day. With Mary and James the church celebrates the beginning of the heavenly reign of the risen Lord "until he comes again."
The Prayer of the Day
The collect for this Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer concentrates on the last ten verses of the Gospel for the Day (peculiar to the Episcopal lectionary) when Jesus, after the "report meeting" with the disciples, is almost mobbed, teaches the people, and then feeds 5,000 "men" with five loaves and two fish:
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
The Psalm of the Day
Psalm 22:22-30 (E) - The psalm appointed as a responsory for this day in the Book of Common Prayer differs from the selection of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran lectionaries simply because Psalm 22, which might be called the Good Friday psalm par excellence, speaks to the perceived need for food by the people in the longer Gospel of the Episcopal lectionary. In this segment of the psalm, the Psalmist says: "the poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: 'May your heart live for ever!' All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow before him." (verses 25, 26)
Psalm 23 (R, L) - This psalm was selected for this Sunday because Jesus assumes the role of the Good Shepherd, feeding the people who follow him into the "lonely place" with the word of God because they were "like sheep without a shepherd." He "spread a table before" them, first by teaching them, and then, in the second part of the pericope, by actually feeding them on five loaves of bread and two fish. Additional comments on this psalm are contained in the material for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, which is Good Shepherd Sunday in all three years of the church year and its lectionary.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
The prayer attached to the 22nd Psalm combines the kerygmatic note of Sunday with the tender concern of Christ for the spiritual and physicial welfare of all people:
Father, when your Son was handed over to torture and felt abandoned by you, he cried out from the cross. Then death was destroyed, and life was restored. By his death and resurrection save the poor, lift up the down trodden, break the chains of the oppressed, that your church may sing your praises; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The readings:
Jeremiah 23:1-6 (R, L)
This reading points to the contrast between the shepherd/kings of Judah, who "destroy and scatter the sheep" of God's "pasture," and the good shepherds, who will really care for the sheep. Jeremiah was speaking a word of prophecy, as well as condemnation, toward the end of the reign of Zedekiah preceding the exile, and anticipating the emergence and rise of "a righteous Branch" for David, the ideal king/shepherd of Judah and Israel. This shepherd, according to Jeremiah, would be called, "The Lord is our righteousness." The connection to the Gospel for the Day is located in the observation which Mark attributes to Jesus' concern for the people who followed him and the disciples into that "lonely place:" they were "like sheep without a shepherd." Then and there, he became that Good Shepherd of the sheep.
Isaiah 57:14b-21 (E)
The first verse of this reading seems to provide the reason for its choice: "Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way." One has appeared (in the Gospel for the Day) who does just that by speaking for God and teaching his people those truths they need to know as children of God. "Isaiah" anticipates that this person will be "contrite and of a humble spirit," and that he will "revive the heart of the contrite," which is what Jesus was doing at the beginning of his ministry, preaching, as did John the Baptist, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The image of the "builder" is set alongside the image of the "shepherd," and, functionally, it is built into the role of the Good Shepherd.
2 Samuel 11:1-15 (C)
This reading tells the tale of the terrible "double sin" that King David committed in his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, her husband. David seems to have been completely bewitched by the beauty of Bathsheba, so that he forgets his special relationship with God and his sworn duty as king of Israel to be the sort of shepherd/king that God has ordained him to be. The adultery leads to pregnancy, which in turn prompts David to attempt to trick Uriah into spending the night with his wife when he returned from battle, thereby covering up his sin with Bathsheba. Foiled by Uriah's sense of duty to the king and to God, David goes from bad to worse and arranges for Uriah's certain death in battle. This part of the story ends with the letter David prepared and sent to Joab, ordering him to carry out the last stage of the king's plot and his terrible treachery, the murder of Uriah. This reading has nothing to do with the Gospel for the Day, but it does make for interesting preaching and "connects" with verses 13 and 17 of Ephesians 2.
Ephesians 2:11-22 (E, C); 2:13-18 (R); 2:13-22 (L)
All of the lectionaries concur on the use of Chapter 2 of Ephesians for the second reading, and all of them share verses 13-18, despite the fact that three of the four churches use additional verses in this pericope. "Paul" points out in these "verses in common" that Jesus Christ has united Jew and Gentile into a single body, his church, by "breaking down the wall of hostility" between them in his death on the cross. He has also destroyed the bondage that the law had placed upon people who were unable to fulfill its demands, supplanting the law with the cross, which by God's grace freely gives salvation to those who believe that Jesus is their Lord and Savior. The united body of Christ is made up of Jews and Gentiles, who are now Christians, and who live out the law as a consequence ofsalvation, not to earn it as a good work. And, says "Paul," in this one body, both Jews and Gentiles have access to God through the commonality of their worship of God, which builds them up more and more in that body of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, who functions in the name of Father and Son. Sermonically, this is a theologically "loaded" text, offering several sermon topics and themes, whose choice and development would depend upon the parish pastor and the perceived needs of his/her people.
Mark 6:30-34 (R, L, C); 6:30-44 (E)
This reading starts out as a report to Jesus of the experiences that the disciples had when Jesus sent them out two-by-two on their first mission for him. Mark says that they "told him all that they had done and taught," which goes back to verse 13, "And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." When they attracted a crowd of people, Jesus took the disciples by boat on a mini-retreat, but they still didn't get away from the crowds. When Jesus saw that they were "like sheep without a shepherd," he "fed" them for the first time, with the Word. The "feeding of the five thousands" follows immediately after this pericope in the Gospel, as well as in longer reading of the Episcopal lectionary. Reginald Fuller is probably responsible for the additional ten verses of the longer reading, possibly because he sees the shorter pericope as a "link" between the mission of the Twelve and the feeding of the large crowd. In both cases, Jesus acted like the Good Shepherd, caring for and actually feeding the people who had followed him and his disciples to that "lonely place."
A Sermon on the Gospel, Mark 6:30-34 (R, L, C); 6:30-44 (E) - "The Sheep and the Good Shepherd."
If there is any image of the Christ that is out of date today, it is that of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Ours is an urban-oriented society, in which people are rather unfamiliar with the roles of shepherds and their sheep. It is in the Middle East that one can not only see this relationship, but also can discover how precious the sheep are to the shepherd. It is possible to see "multiple-shepherds" guarding a flock of sheep, one person posted at each corner of the flock, with a fifth person "floating" from place to place to keep the flock together for protection and direction toward food, water, and shelter. Every single sheep, as well as the lambs, is precious to the shepherds - and that is an image of Christ, the Good Shepherd, and his sheep. Those in the Gospel who "were like sheep without a shepherd" are, today, people outside the fold - and they are like "sheep going astray." But the Lord "feeds" those who belong to him through his Word and the sacraments of his body, the church.
1. The Good Shepherd who died for us and rose for our salvation cares for us, his sheep, and provides for our every need. As the risen Lord, who reigns over heaven and earth, he really "shepherds" us, so that we may be fed and nurtured in the name of God the Father.
2. Christ continues to feed us with his holy Word, especially when the body of believers, his sheep, comes together in his name to worship him. Although we are his, he perceives that we will always need to be fed on the Word so that we may be built up in faith toward him and the Father.
3. The living and reigning Lord also feeds us on himself at the meal he instituted in remembrance of hIs death on our behalf. He is the host, through the Holy Spirit, at this meal which he has spread before us. He feeds us on his body and blood when we cannot feed ourselves - and that is the sustenance which is sufficient to meet the needs of all people.
(Note: The longer reading almost "insists" on developing this aspect of the pericope, even if one reads only the shorter version. Verses 35-44 are not considered in any of the lectionaries besides that of the Book of Common Prayer, possibly because all of them move to the 6th Chapter of John with John's story of the feeding of the great multitude of people. John 6 will provide the Gospel for the Day for the next five weeks.)
4. Those who follow the shepherd in faith will assuredly be fed by Christ; he will be their shepherd. The sheep really do have a shepherd, and he is the Lord.
A Sermon on the First Lesson, Jeremiah 23:1-6 (R, L) - "The Shepherd's Crook - and the Crooked Shepherds."
Nearly every person who has visited the Holy Land has returned with one or more olive and wood carvings of the Good Shepherd. My wife and I have a couple of them, one which is the same size as the figures in a creche which came from Bethlehem, and a second figure, larger in size, who stands by himself. We use the first Good Shepherd with Christmas decorations to remind us and others that it was our Good Shepherd, not the Christ child, who worked out our salvation - and that his crook was a cross. It is put away when those decorations are stored in a closet until the next year. But the other Good Shepherd stands out all year round, moving from one place to another in our den, and occasionally it surfaces in the living room. He looks more like David, I suspect, but he symbolizes the role that the Lord took upon himself and fulfilled in that very special way at the end of his earthly life.
One of the odd things about these two carvings is that the shepherd's crook, in each case, may be removed, so that the shepherd has no staff. I have often thought that it would be well to replace the staff with a cross that would be over his head and over the sheep draped on his shoulders. But this removable staff has been a symbol to me of how some pastors have laid down their crosses and become agents of destruction for their people - much like the shepherds spoken of by Jeremiah - rather than shepherds who feed their people by the word. Without a staff that is shaped like a cross, the pastors and prophets of God are likely to become crooked shepherds, who "fleece" the sheep in various ways for their selfish ends.
1. The shepherd's crook of the servant of the Lord is in the shape of a cross, the cross of Christ.
2. The shepherd carries that cross faithfully in the ministry that was begun by the Lord himself. It is a cross-shaped ministry that is beneficial to the sheep, God's people. The crook/cross is the shape of the ministry of faithful Christian pastors.
3. Beware of crooked shepherds who have discarded the cross of Christ and, accordingly, have corrupted their ministry in the parishes they serve. The true pastor will feed - not fleece
- the flock; the crooked pastor serves himself/herself.
4. The true Christian pastor leads the flock to the Lord, the Good Shepherd of the sheep, who died on a cross so that he might take up his crook/staff and be the shepherd of all the sheep in the world.
Isaiah 57:14b-21 (E) - "For Access to God."
1. Jesus has opened up the way to God so that every person might approach the "mercy seat" of the Lord and find the comfort, strength, and assurance necessary to face life and live it victoriously. God is a God of comfort and hope, and "a very present help in trouble."
2. The business of the church is to keep open that access to God - to engage in building up the body through the Word and to seek the assistance of the Holy Spirit in this work. The church builds up the body through worship and prayer, through reading and listening to the Word, and by being a servant-church in the world, a church in which people love and care for one another in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. The building up of the Christian community is a process that is never completed; it is always going on and it will continue forever. God himself has ordained that it must be this way, and our Lord - through his Word and the Holy Spirit - participates in the building. That's why it will be successful and the ultimate benefit for all people.
2 Samuel 11:1-15 (C) - "King David's Downfall."
1. Blame it on Bathsheba? Was she David's "Eve?" Or was David's perception of his office so distorted that he thought himself to be above the commandments of God? Did he think he could do anything he wanted to and get away with it? "The king could do no wrong," could he?
2. A word might be said for David: He realized that adultery was a sin when Bathsheba became pregnant - and that this could be his undoing. His very "modern" attitude about sexual conduct and misconduct came under the aegus of the law then and there. He really wasn't concerned about Bathsheba, was he? He seemed to be thinking primarily of himself. Don't you wonder what might have happened if contemporary sexual mores and attitudes had been in effect when David lived? This much we know: he was aware that he had sinned with Bathsheba - which is more than most of us know or are willing to admit when we commit adultery.
3. Had David and Bathsheba been living today, the whole thing might have been avoided. She could have been on the "pill," or she might have gone and had a secret abortion - but would they have gotten away with it? The problem was that David went from bad to worse and instead of throwing himself upon the mercy of God, he plotted - and accomplished - the murder of Uriah (also involving other persons, Joab and the soldiers who were part of the plot). The action he took to cover up his sin has a familiar sound to it, doesn't it?
4. David and Bathsheba didn't get away with their adultery. Their "it's okay, as long as we don't hurt anybody" fling blew up in their faces - and God made them pay the price. He always does, one way or another. But that's another story.
A Sermon on the Second Lesson, Ephesians 2:11-22 (E, C); 2:13-18 (R); 2:13-22 (L) - "Why Christianity Is a Radical Religion."
1. Jesus did a radical thing - He died that human beings might be reconciled to God; he did for people what they could not do for themselves.
2. Jesus' death had a radical result - It unified all people (Jews and Gentiles, red and yellow, black and white) in the cross before God. He breaks down prejudice and hostility - racial and religious - between all peple.
3. Jesus created a radical church - It is the only church there is which can guarantee salvation to those who call Jesus; there is no other church that can make the claims of this church.
4. Jesus makes radical people in his church - They are people who are made new, renewed in his love to live for him and each other in the world.
The Prayer of the Day
The collect for this Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer concentrates on the last ten verses of the Gospel for the Day (peculiar to the Episcopal lectionary) when Jesus, after the "report meeting" with the disciples, is almost mobbed, teaches the people, and then feeds 5,000 "men" with five loaves and two fish:
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
The Psalm of the Day
Psalm 22:22-30 (E) - The psalm appointed as a responsory for this day in the Book of Common Prayer differs from the selection of the Roman Catholic and Lutheran lectionaries simply because Psalm 22, which might be called the Good Friday psalm par excellence, speaks to the perceived need for food by the people in the longer Gospel of the Episcopal lectionary. In this segment of the psalm, the Psalmist says: "the poor shall eat and be satisfied, and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: 'May your heart live for ever!' All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow before him." (verses 25, 26)
Psalm 23 (R, L) - This psalm was selected for this Sunday because Jesus assumes the role of the Good Shepherd, feeding the people who follow him into the "lonely place" with the word of God because they were "like sheep without a shepherd." He "spread a table before" them, first by teaching them, and then, in the second part of the pericope, by actually feeding them on five loaves of bread and two fish. Additional comments on this psalm are contained in the material for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, which is Good Shepherd Sunday in all three years of the church year and its lectionary.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
The prayer attached to the 22nd Psalm combines the kerygmatic note of Sunday with the tender concern of Christ for the spiritual and physicial welfare of all people:
Father, when your Son was handed over to torture and felt abandoned by you, he cried out from the cross. Then death was destroyed, and life was restored. By his death and resurrection save the poor, lift up the down trodden, break the chains of the oppressed, that your church may sing your praises; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The readings:
Jeremiah 23:1-6 (R, L)
This reading points to the contrast between the shepherd/kings of Judah, who "destroy and scatter the sheep" of God's "pasture," and the good shepherds, who will really care for the sheep. Jeremiah was speaking a word of prophecy, as well as condemnation, toward the end of the reign of Zedekiah preceding the exile, and anticipating the emergence and rise of "a righteous Branch" for David, the ideal king/shepherd of Judah and Israel. This shepherd, according to Jeremiah, would be called, "The Lord is our righteousness." The connection to the Gospel for the Day is located in the observation which Mark attributes to Jesus' concern for the people who followed him and the disciples into that "lonely place:" they were "like sheep without a shepherd." Then and there, he became that Good Shepherd of the sheep.
Isaiah 57:14b-21 (E)
The first verse of this reading seems to provide the reason for its choice: "Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people's way." One has appeared (in the Gospel for the Day) who does just that by speaking for God and teaching his people those truths they need to know as children of God. "Isaiah" anticipates that this person will be "contrite and of a humble spirit," and that he will "revive the heart of the contrite," which is what Jesus was doing at the beginning of his ministry, preaching, as did John the Baptist, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The image of the "builder" is set alongside the image of the "shepherd," and, functionally, it is built into the role of the Good Shepherd.
2 Samuel 11:1-15 (C)
This reading tells the tale of the terrible "double sin" that King David committed in his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, her husband. David seems to have been completely bewitched by the beauty of Bathsheba, so that he forgets his special relationship with God and his sworn duty as king of Israel to be the sort of shepherd/king that God has ordained him to be. The adultery leads to pregnancy, which in turn prompts David to attempt to trick Uriah into spending the night with his wife when he returned from battle, thereby covering up his sin with Bathsheba. Foiled by Uriah's sense of duty to the king and to God, David goes from bad to worse and arranges for Uriah's certain death in battle. This part of the story ends with the letter David prepared and sent to Joab, ordering him to carry out the last stage of the king's plot and his terrible treachery, the murder of Uriah. This reading has nothing to do with the Gospel for the Day, but it does make for interesting preaching and "connects" with verses 13 and 17 of Ephesians 2.
Ephesians 2:11-22 (E, C); 2:13-18 (R); 2:13-22 (L)
All of the lectionaries concur on the use of Chapter 2 of Ephesians for the second reading, and all of them share verses 13-18, despite the fact that three of the four churches use additional verses in this pericope. "Paul" points out in these "verses in common" that Jesus Christ has united Jew and Gentile into a single body, his church, by "breaking down the wall of hostility" between them in his death on the cross. He has also destroyed the bondage that the law had placed upon people who were unable to fulfill its demands, supplanting the law with the cross, which by God's grace freely gives salvation to those who believe that Jesus is their Lord and Savior. The united body of Christ is made up of Jews and Gentiles, who are now Christians, and who live out the law as a consequence ofsalvation, not to earn it as a good work. And, says "Paul," in this one body, both Jews and Gentiles have access to God through the commonality of their worship of God, which builds them up more and more in that body of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, who functions in the name of Father and Son. Sermonically, this is a theologically "loaded" text, offering several sermon topics and themes, whose choice and development would depend upon the parish pastor and the perceived needs of his/her people.
Mark 6:30-34 (R, L, C); 6:30-44 (E)
This reading starts out as a report to Jesus of the experiences that the disciples had when Jesus sent them out two-by-two on their first mission for him. Mark says that they "told him all that they had done and taught," which goes back to verse 13, "And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." When they attracted a crowd of people, Jesus took the disciples by boat on a mini-retreat, but they still didn't get away from the crowds. When Jesus saw that they were "like sheep without a shepherd," he "fed" them for the first time, with the Word. The "feeding of the five thousands" follows immediately after this pericope in the Gospel, as well as in longer reading of the Episcopal lectionary. Reginald Fuller is probably responsible for the additional ten verses of the longer reading, possibly because he sees the shorter pericope as a "link" between the mission of the Twelve and the feeding of the large crowd. In both cases, Jesus acted like the Good Shepherd, caring for and actually feeding the people who had followed him and his disciples to that "lonely place."
A Sermon on the Gospel, Mark 6:30-34 (R, L, C); 6:30-44 (E) - "The Sheep and the Good Shepherd."
If there is any image of the Christ that is out of date today, it is that of Christ as the Good Shepherd. Ours is an urban-oriented society, in which people are rather unfamiliar with the roles of shepherds and their sheep. It is in the Middle East that one can not only see this relationship, but also can discover how precious the sheep are to the shepherd. It is possible to see "multiple-shepherds" guarding a flock of sheep, one person posted at each corner of the flock, with a fifth person "floating" from place to place to keep the flock together for protection and direction toward food, water, and shelter. Every single sheep, as well as the lambs, is precious to the shepherds - and that is an image of Christ, the Good Shepherd, and his sheep. Those in the Gospel who "were like sheep without a shepherd" are, today, people outside the fold - and they are like "sheep going astray." But the Lord "feeds" those who belong to him through his Word and the sacraments of his body, the church.
1. The Good Shepherd who died for us and rose for our salvation cares for us, his sheep, and provides for our every need. As the risen Lord, who reigns over heaven and earth, he really "shepherds" us, so that we may be fed and nurtured in the name of God the Father.
2. Christ continues to feed us with his holy Word, especially when the body of believers, his sheep, comes together in his name to worship him. Although we are his, he perceives that we will always need to be fed on the Word so that we may be built up in faith toward him and the Father.
3. The living and reigning Lord also feeds us on himself at the meal he instituted in remembrance of hIs death on our behalf. He is the host, through the Holy Spirit, at this meal which he has spread before us. He feeds us on his body and blood when we cannot feed ourselves - and that is the sustenance which is sufficient to meet the needs of all people.
(Note: The longer reading almost "insists" on developing this aspect of the pericope, even if one reads only the shorter version. Verses 35-44 are not considered in any of the lectionaries besides that of the Book of Common Prayer, possibly because all of them move to the 6th Chapter of John with John's story of the feeding of the great multitude of people. John 6 will provide the Gospel for the Day for the next five weeks.)
4. Those who follow the shepherd in faith will assuredly be fed by Christ; he will be their shepherd. The sheep really do have a shepherd, and he is the Lord.
A Sermon on the First Lesson, Jeremiah 23:1-6 (R, L) - "The Shepherd's Crook - and the Crooked Shepherds."
Nearly every person who has visited the Holy Land has returned with one or more olive and wood carvings of the Good Shepherd. My wife and I have a couple of them, one which is the same size as the figures in a creche which came from Bethlehem, and a second figure, larger in size, who stands by himself. We use the first Good Shepherd with Christmas decorations to remind us and others that it was our Good Shepherd, not the Christ child, who worked out our salvation - and that his crook was a cross. It is put away when those decorations are stored in a closet until the next year. But the other Good Shepherd stands out all year round, moving from one place to another in our den, and occasionally it surfaces in the living room. He looks more like David, I suspect, but he symbolizes the role that the Lord took upon himself and fulfilled in that very special way at the end of his earthly life.
One of the odd things about these two carvings is that the shepherd's crook, in each case, may be removed, so that the shepherd has no staff. I have often thought that it would be well to replace the staff with a cross that would be over his head and over the sheep draped on his shoulders. But this removable staff has been a symbol to me of how some pastors have laid down their crosses and become agents of destruction for their people - much like the shepherds spoken of by Jeremiah - rather than shepherds who feed their people by the word. Without a staff that is shaped like a cross, the pastors and prophets of God are likely to become crooked shepherds, who "fleece" the sheep in various ways for their selfish ends.
1. The shepherd's crook of the servant of the Lord is in the shape of a cross, the cross of Christ.
2. The shepherd carries that cross faithfully in the ministry that was begun by the Lord himself. It is a cross-shaped ministry that is beneficial to the sheep, God's people. The crook/cross is the shape of the ministry of faithful Christian pastors.
3. Beware of crooked shepherds who have discarded the cross of Christ and, accordingly, have corrupted their ministry in the parishes they serve. The true pastor will feed - not fleece
- the flock; the crooked pastor serves himself/herself.
4. The true Christian pastor leads the flock to the Lord, the Good Shepherd of the sheep, who died on a cross so that he might take up his crook/staff and be the shepherd of all the sheep in the world.
Isaiah 57:14b-21 (E) - "For Access to God."
1. Jesus has opened up the way to God so that every person might approach the "mercy seat" of the Lord and find the comfort, strength, and assurance necessary to face life and live it victoriously. God is a God of comfort and hope, and "a very present help in trouble."
2. The business of the church is to keep open that access to God - to engage in building up the body through the Word and to seek the assistance of the Holy Spirit in this work. The church builds up the body through worship and prayer, through reading and listening to the Word, and by being a servant-church in the world, a church in which people love and care for one another in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. The building up of the Christian community is a process that is never completed; it is always going on and it will continue forever. God himself has ordained that it must be this way, and our Lord - through his Word and the Holy Spirit - participates in the building. That's why it will be successful and the ultimate benefit for all people.
2 Samuel 11:1-15 (C) - "King David's Downfall."
1. Blame it on Bathsheba? Was she David's "Eve?" Or was David's perception of his office so distorted that he thought himself to be above the commandments of God? Did he think he could do anything he wanted to and get away with it? "The king could do no wrong," could he?
2. A word might be said for David: He realized that adultery was a sin when Bathsheba became pregnant - and that this could be his undoing. His very "modern" attitude about sexual conduct and misconduct came under the aegus of the law then and there. He really wasn't concerned about Bathsheba, was he? He seemed to be thinking primarily of himself. Don't you wonder what might have happened if contemporary sexual mores and attitudes had been in effect when David lived? This much we know: he was aware that he had sinned with Bathsheba - which is more than most of us know or are willing to admit when we commit adultery.
3. Had David and Bathsheba been living today, the whole thing might have been avoided. She could have been on the "pill," or she might have gone and had a secret abortion - but would they have gotten away with it? The problem was that David went from bad to worse and instead of throwing himself upon the mercy of God, he plotted - and accomplished - the murder of Uriah (also involving other persons, Joab and the soldiers who were part of the plot). The action he took to cover up his sin has a familiar sound to it, doesn't it?
4. David and Bathsheba didn't get away with their adultery. Their "it's okay, as long as we don't hurt anybody" fling blew up in their faces - and God made them pay the price. He always does, one way or another. But that's another story.
A Sermon on the Second Lesson, Ephesians 2:11-22 (E, C); 2:13-18 (R); 2:13-22 (L) - "Why Christianity Is a Radical Religion."
1. Jesus did a radical thing - He died that human beings might be reconciled to God; he did for people what they could not do for themselves.
2. Jesus' death had a radical result - It unified all people (Jews and Gentiles, red and yellow, black and white) in the cross before God. He breaks down prejudice and hostility - racial and religious - between all peple.
3. Jesus created a radical church - It is the only church there is which can guarantee salvation to those who call Jesus; there is no other church that can make the claims of this church.
4. Jesus makes radical people in his church - They are people who are made new, renewed in his love to live for him and each other in the world.
