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THE NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST July 21, 2024 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto Divine Service Setting III (Pages 184 – 202) Lutheran Service Book OPENING HYMN: 666 “O Little Flock, Fear Not the Foe” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mIu4H6pO3A Confession and Absolution Page 184-185 The Introit Psalm 147:7-11; antiphon Ps. 145:16 You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. 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. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing. 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, though we do not deserve Your goodness, still You provide for all our needs of body and soul. Grant us Your Holy spirit that we may acknowledge Your gifts, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and he holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible Texts – Frist Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm 23 (antiphon v.6) Epistle Reading: Ephesians 2:11-22 Gospel Reading: Mark 6:30-44 THE NICENE CREED Page 191 HYMN OF THE DAY: 644 “The Church’s One Foundation” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh_shvHCLTA THE SERMON – What do we do when we doubt our own sufficiency, our own spiritual adequacy? Who or what do we turn to? The Word of God in today’s Bibe readings guides and reassures us. The prophet Jeremiah lived in a broken world, like our own. Idolatry, false religious practices, and violence were rampant. The people killed prophets so they didn’t have to listen to God’s Word concerning sin. Jeremiah conveys the Lord’s warning to Judah and Jerusalem about the impending Babylonian captivity. Their conquest and destruction at the hands of a foreign nation are imminent if they do not repent and return to Him. Jeremiah speaks hard things to a wicked, unbelieving people. The message will be ignored. Yet the Lord also promises He “will raise up for David a righteous Branch . . . . And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’” God gives His prophetic Word as Law and Gospel. The righteous branch, Jesus, offers us His grace, forgiveness, and salvation. He alone is the sinless one. We neither earn nor merit his forgiveness. (Ephesians 2:8-9) Eternal life and salvation was purchased for us on the cross by the only truly righteous man who ever lived – Jesus. And even faith in Him is a gift worked within us by the Holy Spirit using God’s means of grace: His Word and Sacraments. (Philippians 1:28-29; Romans 4:4-5) For those who stubbornly refuse this gift, eternal spiritual captivity awaits. As Martin Luther wrote of his time, people “simply persecute everything that accords with the will of God and disregard all the threatening signs until, as St. Paul says in 1st Thessalonians 5, destruction suddenly surprises them and destroys them before they know it. But Christ will be able to sustain His own, for whose sake He causes His Word to shine forth in this shameful world of ours, just as at Babylon He sustained Daneil and those like him, for whose sake Jeremiah’s prophecy had to shine forth.” In today’s Psalm reading we have some of the best loved, and most comforting verses in the Bible. David declares in the 23rd Psalm that, “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” Our Good Shepherd, Jesus, supplies all we need in this life, and to life eternal. Therefore, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” The psalm makes clear, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Our righteousness is only in, and through, the crucified and risen Christ. In our Epistle reading, the Apostle Paul speaks of the unity Gentile and Jewish believers have in Jesus. He has made us to be His One Body. I started today’s reading at verse 8 to give us both context and two of the foundational verses in Scripture on salvation by grace, through faith, in Christ alone: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Martin Luther’s Large Catechism explains, “So you see plainly that there is no work done here by us, but a treasure, which God gives us and faith grasps . . . . It is offered to us and received by faith. (LC IV 37) Our works are not the cause of salvation, but evidence of faith in Christ that God works within us through the means of grace: God’s Word and Sacraments. The Word we read in the Bible, that is preached and taught by the Pastor. The water of Baptism included in God’s command and combined with His Word, a work of God, not our own, and thus for both infants and adults. The true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, which was instituted for us Christians to eat and drink. (Matthew 26:26-28) In our Gospel reading we see an event recorded by all four evangelists – the feeding of the 5,000. Christ asks the disciples to provide food for those hearing the Gospel. They reply that to purchase enough food it would take 200 denarii, the equivalent of over half a year’s salary for the average person. Our Lord wants them to ultimately look to Him for provision, sustenance, help, and salvation. Through a miracle, Jesus turns the five loaves of bread and two fish into a meal that will feed the multitude. Upon His ascension, Christ will commission the Apostles to Baptize all nations and feed them with His Word. The Lutheran Divine Service follows the essential liturgy of the early Church. The congregation is given God’s Word and then fed the body and blood of Christ in communion. In the Sacrament of the Altar, we see a similar sequence to events described in verse 41 of Mark Chapter 6: taking the bread, speaking a blessing, breaking, and then distributing it. Today, when daily problems confront us, even the ultimate enemies of sin, death and the devil, we can feel overwhelmed. Yet our Lord asks us to look not to our own strength, but to Him, to His cross, to His glorious resurrection, and receive the gift of salvation He alone offers. When the weight of God’s Law crushes us and our self-righteousness, the answer lies in in the sinless Lamb of God and His true righteousness. As the Apostle Paul told the Philippians: “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith – that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Christ still pours out His gifts and Holy Spirit upon us. The One who is the very bread of life feeds us today. He has offered Himself as the sacrifice that we may live. He opens our eyes to see that this is not only a thing of the past, but His present work with us now, and until His return. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 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 Our Communion Hymn is: 627 “Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9spT8LCCbng Post Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 201 Salutation and Benedicamus Page 201-202 Benediction Page 202 CLOSING HYMN 642 “O Living Bread From Heaven” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_iVw0RCzUE