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Pastor Tom Steers on July 20, 2025

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THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

July 20, 2025

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

Our Opening Hymn is: “Blessed Jesus, at Your Word”

Lutheran Service Book 904 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhbTXFHv5Uc

Confession and Absolution – Page 184

Lutheran Service Book

The Introit –

Psalm 119:57-60, 64; antiphon, verse105

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path. The Lord is my portion;

I promise to keep your words.

58 I entreat your favor with all my heart;

be gracious to me according to your promise.

59 When I think on my ways,

I turn my feet to your testimonies;

60 I hasten and do not delay

to keep your commandments.

61 Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me,

I do not forget your law.

62 At midnight I rise to praise you,

because of your righteous rules.

63 I am a companion of all who fear you,

of those who keep your precepts.

64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love;

teach me your statutes! 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. Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path.

The Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy upon us.

The Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest) – Page 187

The Collect Prayer of the Day –

O Lord, grant us the Spirit to hear Your Word and know the one thing needful

that by Your Word and Spirit we may live according to Your will;

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 Readings –

Old Testament: Genesis 18:1-14

Psalm 27: 1-14

Epistle: Colossians 1:21-29

Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

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.

On 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 thence 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: “Let Us Ever Walk with Jesus”

Lutheran Service Book 685 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0DWsdnQ-eU

The Sermon –

How would we react if Jesus came to dinner one evening?

In our Gospel text, we see some very human reactions, as well as important spiritual lessons, when Jesus comes to Mary and Martha’s home.

We know from our readings in Luke the last few weeks that Jesus had set His face to go to Jerusalem.

Mary and Martha's house was on the way.

They lived in Bethany, which is about 2 ½ kilometers or a mile and a half east of Jerusalem on the slope of the Mount of Olives.

Martha is busy serving.

We read that “Martha was distracted with much serving.”

The original Greek means she was literally being pulled one way and another by people who wanted things from her.

Mary, on the other hand, was busy learning from Jesus instead of helping Martha.

So, Martha saw this as laziness on her sister’s part.

People were still people, even 2,000 years ago.

She asks Jesus to rectify the situation, and expects Him to send Mary on her way, maybe back to the kitchen.

The surprise is Jesus commends Mary and instead says, "Martha, Martha, you’re anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

Once again, we see Jesus turning everything upside down.

Christ uses a play on words here to get his true meaning across to Martha, and to us.

He uses the word “portion,” in reference to Mary’s listening to Him.

It’s a word generally used with food and serving.

Jesus says Mary has chosen the “good portion” -- the right food from the right server.

But there we’re stopped.

We thought Jesus was being served, and that Martha and Mary were doing the feeding.

Yet Jesus explains, He’s the one who’s really serving, as He’s said before.

He’s come to serve and not be served.

He’s come as the true bread from Heaven.

He’s explaining very clearly here, that before anything else His Word matters, for this life, and the life eternal.

Without it we starve, we perish.

And before we can serve, we need His Word first.

That’s why what we receive from Jesus, is far more important than what we can give.

Before we can serve others – we need His Word of life, of salvation.

As the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write in Romans Chapter 10, verse 17, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

The Word of God works faith, and it’s faith that receives the blessing of God’s salvation.

In the real world there are times when we place the urgent things over the important.

People do get sick on Sundays.

Accidents and catastrophes come our way on the Lord’s Day, as well.

Yet in reality, are urgent situations the reason most people miss out on Jesus?

How many people miss God’s Word, miss Church, because they stay out too late on Saturday night?

How many people ignore Jesus because it’s a good day to see friends, or because sleeping in is easier?

Regular absence from Church throughout the year is an indication to Christ that something is more important than meeting with Him and receiving His gifts.

What He felt that day with Martha, He feels every day for people He loves, and that He went to the cross for.

Do we sometimes believe other things can, or should be done, like Martha when Jesus is preaching in the other room?

We can speak with absolute confidence that what happens in Church is more important than what happens anywhere else on Sunday morning.

Church is where Christ proclaims His message -- the same message He gave to the 12 disciples, and to the 72 who went out ahead of Him, who He told to say, "The kingdom of God has come near to you." (Luke 10:9)

The Church is the body of Christ, as the Apostle Paul wrote many times.

Paul said that sinners meet Jesus and hear the Gospel here.

The Good News that God loved them so much He became one of them.

In His love for sinners, He lived the perfect life for us.

In His love for sinners, He suffered the pain of crucifixion, forsaken at that moment even by God the Father.

Yet His perfect life and sacrificial death bought forgiveness and righteousness for everyone who believes.

He showed all of us this was true by rising from the dead and ascending to the Father.

And people hear that truth here, in the true Church.

Both God’s Law and the Good News that the law-breakers are forgiven and saved.

That the end of the story for believers isn’t death, but eternal life.

Important things.

Not trivial, not worth missing.

Christianity is about Christ.

He’s not only the most important thing that’s ever happened to the world, but the most important thing that’s ever happened to us.

Only Christ will remain with us through life and death.

Only Christ has the keys to Heaven.

There was nothing inherently wrong with Martha's activity.

It was just wrong at the time simply because Jesus was teaching.

There are many good and wonderful things to do in this world.

There are many things God has given us to do for the benefit of our neighbour.

But our best works become useless if we use them as an excuse for not listening to Jesus, and receiving His gifts.

It’s risky to ignore Christ and reject His Word.

Risky because we’re like batteries.

A battery can keep its charge for a short time, but eventually it will weaken.

In a similar way, our faith can continue for a time, but can weaken with everything life throws at us.

If it’s not recharged with the Word of God, and fed with the Sacrament of Communion, faith can wither.

Christ’s Word promised that the Holy Spirit would to come to us, and sustain our faith.

We receive that visible Word by mouth as the body and blood of Jesus Himself enters us in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

We’ve had the Holy Spirit enter us as well in the water and Word of our Baptism.

Word and Sacrament.

We have no promise that the Holy Spirit works in any other way.

We find these gifts in and through the Church Christ gave us.

And these gifts are so unique they have a special name.

We call them, "The Means of Grace."

There are people who say it would be easier if they could just listen to Jesus at home, on their own, and be a solitary Christian.

But that’s the reason the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write his Gospel – so that we could listen to Jesus and understand we find Christ in His body, the Church.

Matthew, Mark, John, and the Apostle Paul were inspired to tell us the same.

Jesus doesn’t come to us through meditation.

He comes to us in His Word preached and taught correctly, and in the Sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism that He instituted Himself, and that He commands.

In the Gospel passage we read a couple of weeks ago, Jesus said, "The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me." (Luke 10:16)

With these words, Christ promises that when we hear God's Word preached properly as Law and Gospel in a Church with Christian love, where the Holy Spirit dwells, we’re sitting and listening to Him.

And Christ wants that.

Very much.

So, in the telling of the account of Mary and Martha that God inspired Luke to write, Jesus is saying, let me feed you with the real bread from Heaven.

Take some time, and let me serve you.

He’s saying I didn’t mean you to be a Christian separated from Me and others.

I want you to live in a caring Christian family, which is the Church.

A Church where the means of God’s grace are found: His Word, and the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

God’s gracious, loving gifts to us.

So may the God who saved us and serves us every day, especially in the Divine Service, keep your heart and mind in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

The Service of the Sacrament – Page 194

The Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) – Page 195

The Lord’s Prayer –

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,