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THE TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST October 13, 2024 Pastor Tom Steers, Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto Lutheran Service Book – Pages 184 - 202 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 Pages 184-185 Our Opening Hymn is: “Jesus, Priceless Treasure" Lutheran Service Book, 743 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t7jhdxZFgE The Introit – Psalm 112:3-6; antiphon: Psalm 112:1 Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. 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. Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest) Our Collect Prayer – Lord Jesus Christ, whose grace always precedes and follows us, help us to forsake all trust in earthly gain and to find in You our heavenly treasure; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible readings this Sunday: Old Testament – Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 Psalm 90:12-17 Epistle – Hebrews 3:12-19 Gospel – Mark 10:17-22 The Apostles’ Creed – Page 192 Hymn of the Day 555 “Salvation Unto Us Has Come” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLX699wYJ9I The Sermon – Brothers and sisters, peace, grace, and mercy be to you through God our Father, and our Lord & Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen. I’m going to read a portion of the Gospel lesson for today, and when I do, see if it strikes you if something is missing, because it's what’s absent that’s important. Here’s a hint, it’s one of the first things you learned in Catechism in confirmation class. So, listen as Jesus gives a Catechism lesson to a certain young man. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” Did you catch what’s missing? There are a few Commandments skipped over. Jesus speaks of the Second Table of the Commandments as we know them from the Bible. These are the Commandments dealing with how we treat other people. But the first three Commandments are missing, and we might ask ourselves, why? You know these Commandments. The first is: “You shall have no other Gods.” Why are these first Commandments so important? Because they talk about our relationship with our Creator and Redeemer. The rich young man would have been familiar with the Commandments, and I’d guess he caught what was missing. But here was a Jewish man who sought out Jesus and wanted to know what he could ‘do’ to improve himself in God’s eyes. By not mentioning the First Commandment, Jesus was telling him that the one thing he lacked was a true relationship with God . . . a relationship with Him, Jesus Christ, his Saviour, even though He was in the man’s presence. The young man addresses Jesus as ‘good.’ He has an inkling of who this man is, but he wasn’t quite sure enough to overcome the concerns of his heart. Jesus didn’t tell the rich young man to go and sell everything he had because it was the one thing this fellow needed to do to make himself perfect, as the young man worries about. Christ wasn’t interested in this fellow earning merit, some sort of spiritual tax receipt, a way to justify and self-perfect himself. No, that’s not it at all. Jesus told him to go and sell what he had. He did that so the young man could discover what he lacked – and that was a proper relationship with God that his money and possessions had gotten in the way of. Christ isn’t saying to us, either, to give away everything we have. God gives us possessions to help us in our lives, serve others, and contribute to His Church. But when our possessions take us over, and block our relationship with our Saviour, when our possessions become an idol to us – that’s the problem. The young fellow had so much stuff that his possessions possessed him. So, Jesus tells him to sell them so he could see who was in front of him. The One who really was in the process of doing the only thing that must be done in order for the young man, in order for us all, to have eternal life. Someone had to die to make payment for the sins of the world, and that someone was Christ, the One anointed by God as Saviour of us all. The young man needed to see that the only One who could DO something to save him, wasn’t himself, but Jesus. It’s something we can’t accomplish on our own, this act of salvation. Only God could work that through Christ, and it’s humbling to us. We can’t save ourselves. But that’s Good News, because we don’t have to save ourselves. The day Jesus met the young man Christ was on His way to the cross. Jesus asks this fellow to give up the false ‘god’ he’s obsessed with – material wealth. For us it could be many things: power, pride, people. There was a father of the early Christian Church named St. Cyprian. Cyprian was a very wealthy man of distinguished background, but he was a pagan. He was well into middle age when he converted to Christianity. After his Baptism, around 250 A.D., Cyprian gave away a large portion of his wealth to the poor. He was an ordained deacon, and eventually became a Bishop – the Bishop of Carthage in North Africa. He was popular among the poor, but Cyprian became a martyr. He was put to death for speaking the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in fact he was killed in his own home. Cyprian said the fear of, and faith in, God, can help make you prepared for everything: the loss of personal property, cruel treatment by others, the agony of losing loved ones, even death itself. He said, “let not losing these things be offences to you, but battles, do not let the troubles of this life weaken or break your Christian faith, but instead let them show your strength in the struggle, since all the injury inflicted by present trouble is to be despised in the assurance of future blessings.” Cyprian said that unless the battles of our lives happen, there can’t be ‘earthly’ victories. He said a ship’s helmsman is recognized for his skill in the face of a storm. Cyprian said it’s in warfare, in our case spiritual warfare, that the soldier’s skills are proved, otherwise it’s a meaningless display when there is no danger. He said that struggle and adversity are the trials of the truth -- but a tree with deep roots isn’t moved, the well-built ship survives the storm. These adversities are the things by which God is testing our faith. He uses these struggles to turn us back to Him, to receive the One needed thing we don’t have, that we only possess through our Saviour Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:4-7) Paul wrote: “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:11b-13) The one thing we can lack, the one thing needful to rejoice, the one thing needful to be strong, is the one thing the rich man lacked. And the irony is, if we have this thing it ultimately doesn’t matter if we have nothing else. The thing missing, that the young man missed, is the relationship with God we have through faith in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, our Redeemer. Christ loved sinners, that’s why He came into this world. He loves the people whose sin will cause Him to go to the cross and make payment for them. So, who is the rich young man? In a sense, he is you, and me. It’s everyone, anyone who is reluctant to give up one thing, or for some people, anything that gets in the way of their relationship with God. Like the rich young man, we lack something: the ability to gain eternal life on our own. To receive that, you need the Redeemer who promises you salvation by faith in Him alone. God looks at us, loves us, and tells us we need Jesus. We have Him here today in Spirit, and in His Word and Sacraments. May the peace of God that truly does pass all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. Amen. PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) Page 195 The Lord’s Prayer Page 196 Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Hymn 962 Post-Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 201 The Benediction – The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. CLOSING HYMN: 733 “O God, Our Help Our Help in Ages Past” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgYzLdZ-_uw