photo #6795918

THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOSTJune 30, 2024Pastor Tom SteersChrist the Saviour Lutheran Church, TorontoDivine Service Setting III (Pages 184 – 202) OPENING HYMN: 461 “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH17ko_QHBY Confession and Absolution Page 184-185Introit Psalm 121:5-8; antiphon 1-2I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. 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. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy)Congregation:Lord have mercy upon us.Christ have mercy upon us.Lord have mercy upon us.The Salutation:Pastor: The Lord be with you. Congregation: And with thy spirit.Our Collect Prayer:Heavenly Father, during His earthly ministry Your Son Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead. By the healing medicine of the Word and Sacraments, pour into our hearts such love toward You that we may live eternally; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible Texts – Frist Reading: Lamentations 3:22-33Psalm 30 (antiphon v.10)Epistle Reading – 2nd Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15Our Gospel Reading – Mark 5:21-43 THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192 OUR HYMN OF THE DAY: 846 ”Your Hand, O Lord, in Days of Old”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqmoNJJz5OQTHE SERMON --Our Gospel text is a record of one miracle nested inside another.But at the heart of these accounts lies the promise of eternal life, for you, and me. Jairus comes to Jesus because his daughter is deathly ill. Then, while Jesus is on His way to heal the girl, He encounters a woman suffering from a long-standing illness. From a human standpoint, there seems to be a dilemma. Should Christ stay and deal with the woman, or continue on with Jairus? If He remains, Jairus’ daughter may die. Fortunately, Jesus isn’t limited by human constraints, or viewpoints.He was, and is, God in human flesh.Lord and Creator of life, at the beginning of time, in Biblical times, and today.When Jesus stops and turns around in a crowd that day, no one was more surprised than the woman who had touched His clothing. The verses make clear she wanted the healing to go unnoticed. Yet Jesus turns and asks , “Who touched my garments?” (Mark 5:30) The woman, knowing what had happened to her, comes in fear and trembling. She falls down before Him and tells the truth. (Mark 5:33) She was terrified that she’d be punished.You see, the nature of her bleeding disorder rendered her just as unclean as a leper. The Old Testament ritual law concerning a woman with her condition was outlined in Leviticus. (15:25) Technically, the woman had sinned against every member of the crowd. Yet Mark’s account tells us Jesus had nothing but Gospel words for her. He says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:34)Christ understood the ailment was among the least of the woman’s problems. If Jesus had let her go her way, she would still carry the guilt of her sins. The words of Jesus comfort her.Yet He also gave her His grace and the reassurance of the Gospel – salvation through faith in Him.Every one of us enters life with the same fear this woman had. Deep down, we know we don’t measure up. God’s Law, that the Bible tells us is written on our hearts, has convicted us of sin. (Jeremiah 31:33)We know we need help.We also know, from the Bible, that help can only come from one source -- the Lord. The Apostle Paul explained, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved . . . . “ (Ephesians 2:4-5)Many without Christ in their lives find themselves in the painful situation of needing help from a source that terrifies them. They need help from God when they’re in trouble, but want Him to otherwise stay away.This fear began in the Garden of Eden, after the Fall.Adam and Eve heard the footsteps of the Lord, but they knew they’d sinned.They were guilty, ashamed. In Genesis, “The Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’” (Genesis 3:8–10) Since the day of the Fall, humanity has laboured under the false notion that we must ‘earn’ our way back into God’s favour. Somehow, we must fix what went wrong in Eden. That’s the reason most people believe religion is all about becoming a ‘better’ person to win God’s approval and forgiveness. Of course, anyone who is honest will readily admit they can’t pull this off. They know they can’t meet God’s standard of perfection. The Bible tells us that the fate of non-believers, of unrepentant deniers of Christ, is hell.Yet, the sad thing about those terrified of their eternal future is that they have the idea of religion all wrong. True religion is not about you living a perfect life for God. It is about God taking on human flesh in Christ and living a perfect life for you. It is not about you getting right with God. It is about God, the Second Person of the Trinity, coming to earth in the Incarnation and dying on a cross so He can give His righteousness to you. It is not about you, paying the penalty for sin. It is about God paying that price for you when He goes to Calvary and endures the punishment we deserve. It is not about a God who demands and takes. It is about a God who offers forgiveness and eternal life to those who believe He has done this. And even that faith is a gift worked within us by God’s means of grace: His Word and His Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.The Sacraments instituted and commanded by Christ Himself.God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)In our Gospel text, Jesus doesn’t allow the woman to sneak off with mere physical healing. He wanted to heal her in body, mind, and spirit. So, He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” (Mark 5:30)He asked the question for the same reason He asked Adam where he was in Eden. Christ knew exactly where Adam was, so He also knew all about this woman who touched Him. In Eden, the Lord asked in order to call Adam to Himself. In the same way, Christ asked, “Who touched my garments,” to call this woman to Himself. She comes forward.And it’s then that Jesus gently and lovingly presents the Gospel to her. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:34) The woman didn’t seek out Jesus for spiritual healing, only physical relief. Once her body was healed, she wanted to slip away. Nevertheless, the woman received spiritual healing because Christ spoke His powerful Word to her. The other miracle in today’s text demonstrates this even more clearly.Jairus’ daughter did, indeed, die. As a dead person, she could do nothing to help herself. It is Jesus who called and raised her. It’s easier for Christ to wake a person from death than it is for us to get someone up in the morning.Jesus still offers His words of peace and healing today. We have His law and promises given through the prophets before Christ was born. We have His Gospel given to the Apostles. The Apostle Paul wrote: “. . . even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ . . . And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Like Jairus’s daughter, we also were once dead to God because of sin.But Christ raised us.Jairus’ daughter didn’t make a ‘decision’ to have Jesus bring her back to life.Just as we don’t make a decision to choose Christ.It is all His work. Or as our Lord once had to say to the disciples, ‘You didn’t choose me, but I chose you.’ (John 15:16)Just as Jesus gave peace and healing to a woman who was ill and a child who had died, He wants to give peace and eternal life to you.Christ took all our sins to the cross.He then rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and will come again. He has earned your salvation, and gives it to you freely out of love and grace. Don’t be afraid.Receive the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith.Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. (Acts 16:31). Amen.PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 THE LORD’S PRAYER Page 196 THE WORDS OF OUR LORD Page 197 THE DISTRIBUTIONPost Communion Collect (Right-hand column) Page 201 Salutation and Benedicamus Page 201-202 Benediction Page 202CLOSING HYMN 818 “In Thee Is Gladness” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW-bHmiis0M