Proper 7
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
The church year theological clue
Only the name of this Sunday, the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, gives any theological clue from the church year; the church is moving eschatologically and continues to anticipate the last times and the return of Christ. The Pentecost cycle/season is roughly one-fifth completed today, so there's a long way to go, as well as a long time to wait for the eschaton. The business of the church continues to be proclaiming "the Lord's death" - in worship, preaching, witnessing, and working - until he "comes again," as he said he would.
The Prayer of the Day (LBW) - Liturgical revision has completely overhauled the collect for this Sunday (perhaps it was thought to be unrealistic, as well as theologically inept: "Grant ... that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness"). The prayer now is realistic ("storms rage about us and cause us to be afraid") and dependent upon God ("Rescue your people from despair, deliver your sons and daughters from fear, and preserve us all from unbelief"). It catches the theological flavor of Pentecost and, in particular, speaks to God on behalf of those who hear - and would respond to - Christ's instructions in the Gospel for the Day.
The Psalm of the Day - Psalm 69:1-18 (E); 69:1-20 (L); 69:7-9, 13, 16, 32-34 (R) - A song of the passion that is considered to be second only to Psalm 22 in the Psalter. It finds a response in the instructions that Jesus gives to the first apostles in the Gospel for the Day. Clearly, it could be put - parts of it, at least - in the mouths of many of the martyrs, who might have said:
Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs on my head; my lying foes who would destroy me are mighty.... Surely, for your sake have I suffered reproach, and shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my own kindred, an alien to my mother's children.... Those who sit at the gate murmur against me, and the drunkards make songs about me.
Those who faced crucifixion, the headman's sword, or the stake could have prayed:
Hide not your face from your servant; be swift and answer me, for I am in distress. Draw near to me and redeem me; because of my enemies deliver me.
There is a ring of confidence and true faith in God that runs through the psalm, and becomes the promise of victory, in the face of the anguish and suffering that the psalmist - and Jesus and the martyrs - endured on behalf of God.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
God our Father, you fulfilled the ancient prophesies in Christ's passover from death to life. Through the contemplation of his healing wounds, make us zealous for your Church and grateful for your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 91:1-10 (C) - "He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence" is the key verse of this psalm. It is one of those psalms that many of us said, if not learned, in Sunday church school, maybe in this version (King James):
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
The readings:
Genesis 28:10-17 (C)
The LBW places this reading in the propers for the Second Sunday in Lent of Year/Series B; the Roman and Episcopal lectionaries omit it altogether from the Sunday lessons. It is the story of Jacob's journey from Beersheeba to Haran, with a "campout" under the stars at "a certain place." There Jacob had his dream about a ladder reaching from earth to the very heavens, with angels ascending and descending upon it. God "stood above it" and spoke to Jacob, promising him and his descendants the land on which he was lying. His descendants would multiply and be a blessing to all families on earth. And God also promised to go with him on his travels and bring him back safely to "this place." Jacob awakened from his dream and remembered the presence of the Lord; God had come to him and made a promise. His response has been recorded for all time: "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it.... How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
Jeremiah 20:7-13 (L); 20:10-13 (R); 20:(16-23) 24-33 (E)
This could be called "The Lament of a Martyr," as it issues from Jeremiah's mouth as a result of his own persecution. Persecution became the lot of a prophets, because "the Word of the Lord," as delivered by the prophets - and later the preaching of the gospel in terms of repentance - was greeted by opposition and outright rejection of both message and prophet. This reading complements the Gospel for the Day, in which Jesus warns the disciples about the problems they will encounter when they preach the good news to the house of Israel. The "woe is me, if I preach not the gospel" is in Jeremiah's lament: "If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones." That sort of evangelical zeal always got the apostles into serious trouble wherever they went; Paul, in particular, experienced the wrath of people who were so hard-hearted that they refused to receive the good news about Jesus Christ. God began to recruit the "noble army of martyrs" in the days of the Old Testament prophets, and that any army grew by leaps and bounds with the beginning of the Christian era.
Romans 5:12-15
For all practical purposes, this is one of those rare occasions on which a passage of scripture is read twice in one year. The first reading for the First Sunday in Lent is Romans 5:12 (13-16) 17-19; the longer reading, which includes verses 13-16, insures that the lesson would be read in Lent and in Pentecost, which is not all bad, because it has an extremely important theological message. Sin came into the world through one man's - Adam's - disobedience, and with it came death (hence, the appropriateness of this reading for Lent 1, "remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return"). And although sin was not "counted" until the giving of the Law, death reigned "from Adam to Moses," because, like Adam, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." God's free gift in Jesus Christ reversed the course of sin and death; by the one man sin and death were overcome and "the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many." For Paul, the gospel is the liberating force that frees us from the law, which can only condemn people to death; the gospel, therefore, and not the law, is the means of salvation that God has given to the world in Jesus Christ. God's grace is abundantly sufficient to wipe out all of our sins - and death!
Matthew 10:26-33
Jesus continues his charge to the disciples who are about to begin their apostolic ministry. He had to warn them about the opposition and outright persecution that they would experience when they attempted to preach the gospel to Israel. They would be among the first followers of Jesus to suffer death for their bold witness to the faith; they were the first recruits in "the noble army of martyrs" - and Jesus wanted them to know that they had nothing to fear. God, he was telling them, would never forget them; they were precious to him and, he told them, "even the hairs on your head are all numbered." His final word to them was simply that "every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven." He also added a warning: "... whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." Tradition has it that eleven of the twelve were faithful - ten as martyrs and one, John, as a "confessor," who faced persecution, was willing to die, but was spared a martyr's death and lived long enough to die from natural causes.
Sermon suggestions:
Matthew 10:26-33 - "Marching Orders."
In less than two weeks, my wife and I will attend a high school class reunion; there is, usually, nothing special about that. This one is special, partly because half a century has gone by since my classmates and I were graduated from a suburban Philadelphia high school; many of them died, beginning with World War II, and can't attend. It will be special for me for the usual reasons, but also for a kind of hidden agenda; my wife and I will be staying in a motel with several of our classmates, one of whom I have not seen for over thirty years. This man was the Air Force colonel who led the rescue mission that was sent to bury the missionaries who were killed in the attack by the Auca Indians in South America almost thirty years ago. I intend to ask him for his story about the Aucas and the missionaries, who gave their lives as they attempted to make contact with the Aucas in order to preach the gospel to them. It is one of those stories which reminds us that the proclamation of the gospel continues to be met with distrust, hostility, and violent action - now, just as Jesus predicted it would in the first century A.D.
1. All people - of every age - need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, Jesus continues to give "marching order" to the faithful, commanding the church to preach the Word to all the world.
2. Resistance to the word and spirit is to be expected. Some people refuse to hear and believe, because they are enemies of God and have no faith in Jesus Christ. Most of us have something of Augustine in us, "make me a Christian, Lord, but not yet." Opposition by indifference may be the more rampant form of resistance to the gospel today.
3. Boldness is required of the church that claims to be apostolic in its creeds and actions. Jesus continues to assure his followers, who obey his command to go and preach and minister in his name, that they have nothing to fear. God, who is with them, will be faithful and receive them into eternal life.
4. The bold, for Christ, will overcome! God will see to that, for his will is that all shall be saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the end, all people on earth will have the opportunity to hear the gospel, to believe, and be saved. And the martyrs, who line the way to the very gate of heaven, will - with Bunyan - be singing, "Come in! Come in! Eternal glory you shall win."
Genesis 28:10-17 - "Ceiling Zero."
The clouds must have been very low - ceiling zero - or the ladder was very long in Jacob's dream, if the angels were ascending and descending between earth and heaven. What happened to their wings? Angels always are pictured with wings, aren't they? Are they only decorative? Or is there a species of "wingless angels?" These must have been rather common angels, nothing like the six-winged seraphs, the highest of the nine orders of angels spoken of in the Bible. Imagine, angels that had to climb from earth to heaven, from heaven to earth!
1. The angels were delivering a message to Jacob. They are primarily messengers, and in the Bible they often came to people in their dreams. They were trying to make Jacob aware of the presence of the Lord God.
2. God stood at the top of the ladder and spoke to Jacob: "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac...." According to Genesis, God spoke for himself, instead of employing angels to convey his message to Jacob, and made his "land promise" to him and his descendants. God is still able to speak for himself - through his everlasting word.
3. Jacob really heard what God had to say! That's why he could acknowledge the presence of God; heaven was really close to the earth when he awakened from that "ceiling zero" kind of dream, and he declared, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it."
4. Jesus made "ceiling zero" a reality for all people. Didn't he say, "he that has seen me has seen the Father"? And he has replaced the ladder with a cross, from which he was removed, placed in a grave - dead and buried - only to rise again on the third day. Indeed, in the cross, Jesus brought God down to earth so that we can say with Jacob, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
Jeremiah 20:7-13 (E, L); 20:10-13 (R) - "The Lot of the Prophets."
All Christian preaching, be it missionary or pastoral, has to have a prophetic element in it. To preach the gospel in such a way that people are called to repentance requires one to preach the law and, in that sense to preach prophetically. Preachers/prophets, Jeremiah could tell us from personal experience, will make enemies and will be persecuted; very few people want to be called "sinners," nor do many persons feel the need to repent of their sins and change their ways, especially if they think they are "good" and "godly" people. Jeremiah may have shaped Jesus' preaching about this, according to what he said to his disciples as they were about to embark upon their apostolic ministry of preaching the Word in the world. Opposition and persecution are the lot of prophets and preachers in every generation.
1. Evangelical witnesses will encounter resistance when they speak the good news to the world. This "goes with the territory" and should be expected by lay or ordained witnesses to the gospel.
2. Some will be wounded and killed, but more will be laughed at - especially today. It may take as much as fortitude and faith to face ridicule and scorn as it does to face a sure and painful death as a martyr. More than one person has felt as did Jeremiah, when he said, "I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me." But not God, nor Jesus Christ.
3. Zeal for the word of the Lord consumes true disciples of the Lord. With Luther, we are compelled by the Spirit to declare, "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer" - because we just have to tell the story, regardless of the consequences.
4. All will be well for God's witnesses. He has promised to deliver us from "the hand of evildoers" - and he will. Praise the Lord!
Romans 5:12-15 (R, L); 5:12-19 (C); 5:15b-19 (E) - "One for All."
Jesus is the one who died to save all people; all are dependent upon him to reach and enter the kingdom of heaven. The death of Christ on the cross means life for all who believe and are baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Eternal life comes through one man, Jesus Christ.
1. Sin came into the world through disobedience - by one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve. With Adam and Eve, all have sinned - and die as a consequence of sin.
2. One man - Jesus - lived in perfect obedience - without sin - and died for it. He opened the gates of eternal life for all people by being "obedient unto death."
3. Grace reigns in this sinful world. The cross tells us so. Without Christ, the world can only destroy itself.
4. Receive God's gift - life in Jesus Christ - and live the new life of loving service expected of those who have been redeemed and saved by God himself.
Only the name of this Sunday, the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost, gives any theological clue from the church year; the church is moving eschatologically and continues to anticipate the last times and the return of Christ. The Pentecost cycle/season is roughly one-fifth completed today, so there's a long way to go, as well as a long time to wait for the eschaton. The business of the church continues to be proclaiming "the Lord's death" - in worship, preaching, witnessing, and working - until he "comes again," as he said he would.
The Prayer of the Day (LBW) - Liturgical revision has completely overhauled the collect for this Sunday (perhaps it was thought to be unrealistic, as well as theologically inept: "Grant ... that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness"). The prayer now is realistic ("storms rage about us and cause us to be afraid") and dependent upon God ("Rescue your people from despair, deliver your sons and daughters from fear, and preserve us all from unbelief"). It catches the theological flavor of Pentecost and, in particular, speaks to God on behalf of those who hear - and would respond to - Christ's instructions in the Gospel for the Day.
The Psalm of the Day - Psalm 69:1-18 (E); 69:1-20 (L); 69:7-9, 13, 16, 32-34 (R) - A song of the passion that is considered to be second only to Psalm 22 in the Psalter. It finds a response in the instructions that Jesus gives to the first apostles in the Gospel for the Day. Clearly, it could be put - parts of it, at least - in the mouths of many of the martyrs, who might have said:
Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs on my head; my lying foes who would destroy me are mighty.... Surely, for your sake have I suffered reproach, and shame has covered my face. I have become a stranger to my own kindred, an alien to my mother's children.... Those who sit at the gate murmur against me, and the drunkards make songs about me.
Those who faced crucifixion, the headman's sword, or the stake could have prayed:
Hide not your face from your servant; be swift and answer me, for I am in distress. Draw near to me and redeem me; because of my enemies deliver me.
There is a ring of confidence and true faith in God that runs through the psalm, and becomes the promise of victory, in the face of the anguish and suffering that the psalmist - and Jesus and the martyrs - endured on behalf of God.
The Psalm Prayer (LBW)
God our Father, you fulfilled the ancient prophesies in Christ's passover from death to life. Through the contemplation of his healing wounds, make us zealous for your Church and grateful for your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Psalm 91:1-10 (C) - "He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence" is the key verse of this psalm. It is one of those psalms that many of us said, if not learned, in Sunday church school, maybe in this version (King James):
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
The readings:
Genesis 28:10-17 (C)
The LBW places this reading in the propers for the Second Sunday in Lent of Year/Series B; the Roman and Episcopal lectionaries omit it altogether from the Sunday lessons. It is the story of Jacob's journey from Beersheeba to Haran, with a "campout" under the stars at "a certain place." There Jacob had his dream about a ladder reaching from earth to the very heavens, with angels ascending and descending upon it. God "stood above it" and spoke to Jacob, promising him and his descendants the land on which he was lying. His descendants would multiply and be a blessing to all families on earth. And God also promised to go with him on his travels and bring him back safely to "this place." Jacob awakened from his dream and remembered the presence of the Lord; God had come to him and made a promise. His response has been recorded for all time: "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it.... How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
Jeremiah 20:7-13 (L); 20:10-13 (R); 20:(16-23) 24-33 (E)
This could be called "The Lament of a Martyr," as it issues from Jeremiah's mouth as a result of his own persecution. Persecution became the lot of a prophets, because "the Word of the Lord," as delivered by the prophets - and later the preaching of the gospel in terms of repentance - was greeted by opposition and outright rejection of both message and prophet. This reading complements the Gospel for the Day, in which Jesus warns the disciples about the problems they will encounter when they preach the good news to the house of Israel. The "woe is me, if I preach not the gospel" is in Jeremiah's lament: "If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones." That sort of evangelical zeal always got the apostles into serious trouble wherever they went; Paul, in particular, experienced the wrath of people who were so hard-hearted that they refused to receive the good news about Jesus Christ. God began to recruit the "noble army of martyrs" in the days of the Old Testament prophets, and that any army grew by leaps and bounds with the beginning of the Christian era.
Romans 5:12-15
For all practical purposes, this is one of those rare occasions on which a passage of scripture is read twice in one year. The first reading for the First Sunday in Lent is Romans 5:12 (13-16) 17-19; the longer reading, which includes verses 13-16, insures that the lesson would be read in Lent and in Pentecost, which is not all bad, because it has an extremely important theological message. Sin came into the world through one man's - Adam's - disobedience, and with it came death (hence, the appropriateness of this reading for Lent 1, "remember, you are dust, and unto dust you shall return"). And although sin was not "counted" until the giving of the Law, death reigned "from Adam to Moses," because, like Adam, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." God's free gift in Jesus Christ reversed the course of sin and death; by the one man sin and death were overcome and "the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many." For Paul, the gospel is the liberating force that frees us from the law, which can only condemn people to death; the gospel, therefore, and not the law, is the means of salvation that God has given to the world in Jesus Christ. God's grace is abundantly sufficient to wipe out all of our sins - and death!
Matthew 10:26-33
Jesus continues his charge to the disciples who are about to begin their apostolic ministry. He had to warn them about the opposition and outright persecution that they would experience when they attempted to preach the gospel to Israel. They would be among the first followers of Jesus to suffer death for their bold witness to the faith; they were the first recruits in "the noble army of martyrs" - and Jesus wanted them to know that they had nothing to fear. God, he was telling them, would never forget them; they were precious to him and, he told them, "even the hairs on your head are all numbered." His final word to them was simply that "every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven." He also added a warning: "... whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven." Tradition has it that eleven of the twelve were faithful - ten as martyrs and one, John, as a "confessor," who faced persecution, was willing to die, but was spared a martyr's death and lived long enough to die from natural causes.
Sermon suggestions:
Matthew 10:26-33 - "Marching Orders."
In less than two weeks, my wife and I will attend a high school class reunion; there is, usually, nothing special about that. This one is special, partly because half a century has gone by since my classmates and I were graduated from a suburban Philadelphia high school; many of them died, beginning with World War II, and can't attend. It will be special for me for the usual reasons, but also for a kind of hidden agenda; my wife and I will be staying in a motel with several of our classmates, one of whom I have not seen for over thirty years. This man was the Air Force colonel who led the rescue mission that was sent to bury the missionaries who were killed in the attack by the Auca Indians in South America almost thirty years ago. I intend to ask him for his story about the Aucas and the missionaries, who gave their lives as they attempted to make contact with the Aucas in order to preach the gospel to them. It is one of those stories which reminds us that the proclamation of the gospel continues to be met with distrust, hostility, and violent action - now, just as Jesus predicted it would in the first century A.D.
1. All people - of every age - need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Hence, Jesus continues to give "marching order" to the faithful, commanding the church to preach the Word to all the world.
2. Resistance to the word and spirit is to be expected. Some people refuse to hear and believe, because they are enemies of God and have no faith in Jesus Christ. Most of us have something of Augustine in us, "make me a Christian, Lord, but not yet." Opposition by indifference may be the more rampant form of resistance to the gospel today.
3. Boldness is required of the church that claims to be apostolic in its creeds and actions. Jesus continues to assure his followers, who obey his command to go and preach and minister in his name, that they have nothing to fear. God, who is with them, will be faithful and receive them into eternal life.
4. The bold, for Christ, will overcome! God will see to that, for his will is that all shall be saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the end, all people on earth will have the opportunity to hear the gospel, to believe, and be saved. And the martyrs, who line the way to the very gate of heaven, will - with Bunyan - be singing, "Come in! Come in! Eternal glory you shall win."
Genesis 28:10-17 - "Ceiling Zero."
The clouds must have been very low - ceiling zero - or the ladder was very long in Jacob's dream, if the angels were ascending and descending between earth and heaven. What happened to their wings? Angels always are pictured with wings, aren't they? Are they only decorative? Or is there a species of "wingless angels?" These must have been rather common angels, nothing like the six-winged seraphs, the highest of the nine orders of angels spoken of in the Bible. Imagine, angels that had to climb from earth to heaven, from heaven to earth!
1. The angels were delivering a message to Jacob. They are primarily messengers, and in the Bible they often came to people in their dreams. They were trying to make Jacob aware of the presence of the Lord God.
2. God stood at the top of the ladder and spoke to Jacob: "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac...." According to Genesis, God spoke for himself, instead of employing angels to convey his message to Jacob, and made his "land promise" to him and his descendants. God is still able to speak for himself - through his everlasting word.
3. Jacob really heard what God had to say! That's why he could acknowledge the presence of God; heaven was really close to the earth when he awakened from that "ceiling zero" kind of dream, and he declared, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it."
4. Jesus made "ceiling zero" a reality for all people. Didn't he say, "he that has seen me has seen the Father"? And he has replaced the ladder with a cross, from which he was removed, placed in a grave - dead and buried - only to rise again on the third day. Indeed, in the cross, Jesus brought God down to earth so that we can say with Jacob, "This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
Jeremiah 20:7-13 (E, L); 20:10-13 (R) - "The Lot of the Prophets."
All Christian preaching, be it missionary or pastoral, has to have a prophetic element in it. To preach the gospel in such a way that people are called to repentance requires one to preach the law and, in that sense to preach prophetically. Preachers/prophets, Jeremiah could tell us from personal experience, will make enemies and will be persecuted; very few people want to be called "sinners," nor do many persons feel the need to repent of their sins and change their ways, especially if they think they are "good" and "godly" people. Jeremiah may have shaped Jesus' preaching about this, according to what he said to his disciples as they were about to embark upon their apostolic ministry of preaching the Word in the world. Opposition and persecution are the lot of prophets and preachers in every generation.
1. Evangelical witnesses will encounter resistance when they speak the good news to the world. This "goes with the territory" and should be expected by lay or ordained witnesses to the gospel.
2. Some will be wounded and killed, but more will be laughed at - especially today. It may take as much as fortitude and faith to face ridicule and scorn as it does to face a sure and painful death as a martyr. More than one person has felt as did Jeremiah, when he said, "I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me." But not God, nor Jesus Christ.
3. Zeal for the word of the Lord consumes true disciples of the Lord. With Luther, we are compelled by the Spirit to declare, "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer" - because we just have to tell the story, regardless of the consequences.
4. All will be well for God's witnesses. He has promised to deliver us from "the hand of evildoers" - and he will. Praise the Lord!
Romans 5:12-15 (R, L); 5:12-19 (C); 5:15b-19 (E) - "One for All."
Jesus is the one who died to save all people; all are dependent upon him to reach and enter the kingdom of heaven. The death of Christ on the cross means life for all who believe and are baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Eternal life comes through one man, Jesus Christ.
1. Sin came into the world through disobedience - by one man, Adam, and one woman, Eve. With Adam and Eve, all have sinned - and die as a consequence of sin.
2. One man - Jesus - lived in perfect obedience - without sin - and died for it. He opened the gates of eternal life for all people by being "obedient unto death."
3. Grace reigns in this sinful world. The cross tells us so. Without Christ, the world can only destroy itself.
4. Receive God's gift - life in Jesus Christ - and live the new life of loving service expected of those who have been redeemed and saved by God himself.
