Our Service for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost August 25, 2024
Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto
Our Opening Hymn is: “O Christ Our True and Only Light”
Lutheran Service Book, 839 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITcK0kBrrHg
We begin our service with the Invocation:
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Confession and Absolution LSB page 184
The Introit –
Psalm 26:1-2, 6-7; antiphon: Ps. 26:8
O Lord, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells.
Vindicate me, O Lord,
for I have walked in my integrity,
and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
2 Prove me, O Lord, and try me;
test my heart and my mind.
I wash my hands in innocence
and go around your altar, O Lord,
7 proclaiming thanksgiving aloud,
and telling all your wondrous deeds.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen.
O Lord, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells.
Our Collect Prayer:
Almighty and merciful God, defend Your Church from all false teaching and error that Your faithful people may confess You to be the only true God and rejoice in your good gifts of life and salvation; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Our Bible texts: Old Testament – Isaiah 29:11-19 Psalm 14 (antiphon v. 7a) Epistle - Ephesians 5:22-33 Gospel – Mark 7:1-13
The Apostles’ Creed –
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of God
the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Our Hymn of the Day is: “Lord Help Us Ever to Remain”
Lutheran Service Book, 865 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJn7dxm3eI8
The Sermon,
The Word of God verses the word of man --
This morning Mark the Evangelist describes a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees.
A confrontation between the Word of God and the word of man.
A confrontation that will bring Christ one step closer to the cross.
The encounter is also an occasion for Mark to paint the picture of Christ and His people persecuted for the faith.
Behind all this Mark ultimately sees the hand of our real enemy, satan.
As you hear the dispute with the Pharisees, see this as more than a historical record.
It is, as well, the opposition Jesus continues to face today, through false Christian doctrine, and in persecuted Christians such as our Brothers & Sisters in Afghanistan.
When Christ confronts Saul on the road to Damascus, He asks, “Why do you persecute me?”
Jesus, of whom Mark writes, is truly and actively present in the people of God, then and now.
We see Christ in conflict with the teachers of the Law.
The issue is human thinking versus the “spirit” of God’s Word, which they violate.
Our verses from Isaiah come from a section where the prophet tells of a great calamity to befall the people because they’ve fallen away from God.
We read this passage today because it connects so well with our Gospel text.
In Isaiah, God is frustrated with His people.
He says it’s been like giving them a book they either won’t open or can’t read.
They have His Word, the truth is right in front of them, but it does no good.
The Israelites are blind, deaf, not on the same page as the Almighty.
Surrounded by the love of God and His gracious teaching, they ignore it.
God promises to take action, and that’s actually grace on God’s part, although a frightening grace.
He’ll pry their ears open so they can hear His Word.
God will do wonders and signs before them, just as He did of old.
The ‘human’ wisdom of the wise will perish.
Isaiah 29:14 is the exact verse Paul has in mind when he writes Chapter One of his first letter to the Corinthians.
The people try to hide their ways from the Lord, try to do things in secret, away from Him who knows all.
Their wisdom is foolishness, it doesn’t reflect reality.
In their world the roles of the potter and clay have reversed, with the clay making the potter.
The same is true today.
The false religion of our culture, secular materialism, would have us believe the universe, matter, created itself.
God is considered a myth, or His image and Word distorted.
The basic, simple logic of first cause, that someone brought this vast universe into being, is a reality ‘science’ has no answer for, so it ignores it.
Our society does as well, because many would rather be their own ‘gods,’ making up rules that suit them.
Isaiah warns God will answer this foolishness, and every eye will see and knee bow, as Paul declares in Philippians 2:9-11.
In our Psalm reading we hear this again:
“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good.”
Through the Psalmist God asks: “Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the LORD?”
Paul quotes the third verse of this Psalm in his indictment of humanity in Romans Chapter 3.
These words of God put an end to any thought of human-based righteousness, of ‘do-it-yourself’ salvation in whole or part, of hypocritical self-sanctity.
The image of the rich, the powerful devouring the poor like a loaf of bread is horrifying, and tragically accurate.
Human, secular reasoning is used today to justify the murder of unborn children, this despite God’s Word, despite the Fifth Commandment, ignoring Bible teaching that unborn children are God’s creation, loved by Him.
We see God’s call to protect and respect the unborn in verses like Jeremiah 1:4-5; Job 31:15; Psalm 22:10-11; Psalm 139:13-16 and so many others.
Isaiah and history tell us ignoring God’s Word isn’t new.
But the results of falling away from God are tragically the same.
Untold millions have died.
It didn’t matter if it was a government of the so-called left or right; whether it was Hitler, Stalin, or Mao Tse Tung; whether today it’s North Korea or Iran or for that matter North America.
Since abortion was allowed in Canada and the U.S., more than 65 million people, unborn children, have been killed.
It’s a Holocaust.
And people ask who will stop it?
What’s the answer?
Who has the solution?
It is not ultimately with government.
Governments and politicians come and go.
It’s not with a human strategy or tactic.
The answer is found back in the 7th verse of today’s Psalm reading.
It is when God comes in.
It’s when people turn back to Him.
We know God, His will and way, from His Word, the Bible.
Today secular society turns away from God’s basic social building block: marriage.
The world would have us believe marriage is either not important, or can be something other than the joining of one man and one woman.
Again, this ignores God’s Word in verses like Genesis 2:22-24; Matthew 19:4-6; and today’s reading from Ephesians Chapter 5.
The world sees marriage as a human institution to do with as it will.
The Bible sees marriage as an act of God.
It was intended for us before the fall into sin, and it is the image of something perfect, the relationship Christ established with His Church.
Paul in our passage from Ephesians is speaking of a love relationship where man and woman submit to and love one another as Jesus loves His bride, the Church.
This love and submission mirrors the submission Christ had to the Father when He went to the cross out of love for us.
Paul describes the Church as presented pure, without spot, cleansed by water and Word.
We are cleansed through the water and God’s Word in Baptism.
In marriage a man and woman become one flesh.
We become one flesh with Christ, and other believers, through the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
In our Gospel teaching from Mark, we’re again faced with the imperfect word of man and perfect Word of God.
The Pharisees go after Jesus because His disciples haven’t washed their hands before eating.
This breaks their regulations and human tradition.
Christ calls them hypocrites; they are.
Jesus quotes today’s text from Isaiah.
The Pharisees have allowed people to ignore their needy parents if they contribute to the church establishment they’re part of.
The parents can go hungry if the kids have a donation receipt.
The Son of God says this is wrong.
Jesus cites God’s Word, the Fourth Commandment to honour your parents.
He tells the Pharisees they’ve made, “void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.”
These religious authorities ignored God’s Word and replaced it with man-made regulations.
This is what Martin Luther confronted the Church of his time with.
The ‘catholic church’ had abandoned the Bible, created false human traditions, and taught salvation not through Christ alone but through obedience to rules.
The same is true today of that false church and others, and that’s why the Lutheran Reformation continues.
In our readings we’ve seen strong words of correction.
But there are even stronger words of Gospel.
Today Jesus calls us to remember that God is at the centre of the universe, not ourselves.
Our very Creator sent His only Son down to us to take on human flesh to save us, out of love, and only He could do that.
God defines us and life itself, in this world and the one to come.
Christ reminds us to be guided by God’s Word, His priorities, not our own agendas.
He calls us to a humility manifested in love and service to Him and one another.
To honour life that He alone creates.
To honour His institution of marriage as He defines it.
Jesus is in conflict with the Pharisees.
By the end of the short Gospel of Mark the only perfect man who ever lived will die on a cross to pay for our sins and be raised for our justification.
Christ’s death will be wrought by dishonest men who hypocritically condemn Him because they rely on their own salvation, their own righteousness.
Christ sets the priorities right in word and deed.
In love for His creation, that transcends our understanding, He will die, even for the stubborn Pharisees who confront Him.
As Christians, the first readers of this Gospel were also experiencing persecution.
Mark puts their experience into context.
They’re one with Jesus.
God will work with and through them in just this sort of conflict.
Their suffering is not God’s failure, but a situation God uses for good, for their witness to the Gospel.
It’s painful, even torturous, but so was the cross for Jesus.
We, as well, should not despair from persecution and difficulties the world throws at Christians, because we know that through them God can work His good purposes.
As the Apostle Paul wrote, I do not seek suffering, but I suffer in hope.
In the darkest of days, the light of Christ shines brightest.
Amen.
The Benediction –
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and + give you peace.
Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH
SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 THE LORD’S PRAYER Page 196 THE WORDS OF OUR LORD Page 197
Pax Domini Pastor: The peace of the Lord be with you always. Congregation: Amen.
THE DISTRIBUTION
Post Communion Collect (Right-hand column) Page 201 Salutation and Benedicamus Page 201-202
Our Closing Hymn is: “Lord of Our Life”
Lutheran Service Book, 659 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLnwC-poLEs
1 Lord of our life and God of our salvation,
Star of our night and Hope of every nation:
Hear and receive Your Church's supplication,
Lord God Almighty.
2 See round Your ark the hungry billows curling;
See how Your foes their banners are unfurling
And with great spite their fiery darts are hurling,
O Lord, preserve us.
3 Lord, be our light when worldly darkness veils us;
Lord, be our shield when earthly armor fails us;
And in the day when hell itself assails us,
Grant us Your peace, Lord:
4 Peace in our hearts, where sinful thoughts are raging,
Peace in Your Church, our troubled souls assuaging,
Peace when the world its endless war is waging,
Peace in Your Heaven.
