The lutheransermons's Podcast

The Scriptures this week give a number of warnings about false prophets and teachers, and the need to test what we hear by the Word of God. Above all, we are to rejoice in being the “adopted” children of God through the Father’s saving work for us, in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Old Testament lesson is from Jeremiah 23:16-29. The Lord warns, through Jeremiah, about false prophets who despise Him and His Word and follow their own thoughts and dreams and lead people to forget Him and follow false gods and wicked ideas. The “storm” of the Lord’s judgment is coming, and His Word will be like a fire and a hammer against evil deeds and ways. These same Words are repeated in Jeremiah 30:23-24, and judgment against His rebellious people did come during the Babylonian Captivity and at other times when they strayed far from the Lord. God knows what is said and done “in secret places.” This will be seen most clearly in “latter days,” when the coming Savior, our Lord Jesus, would speak and live out the true Word of God faithfully and give it to His disciples to share with others.

In Psalm 26, the psalm for the day, David speaks of what he wishes to do and tries to do: “to walk in integrity  and trust the Lord without wavering.” We know from David’s life story that he failed and fell far short of God’s will, at times. Near the end of this psalm, he has to pray to the Lord, “redeem me and be gracious to me,” as He trusts, not in himself, but in the Lord’s “steadfast love and faithfulness” and forgiveness for him. David does know what will help him, though - to avoid sitting with “false” and “hypocritical” and “evil” people, who could influence him and cause him to be “swept away with them by sin.” Rather, he needs to “go around the Lord’s altar” in worship in “the great assembly” of fellow believers and “bless” and “thank” the Lord. “In the Lord’s house His glory dwells,” and there, David can both hear His Word and remember and “tell, with others, of the Lord’s wondrous deeds.” David’s “hands can be washed clean,” and he can be declared “innocent” in the Lord’s mercy and forgiveness. Then “his feet can stand on level ground,” and He can walk in the Lord’s way, in a better way. (This is important guidance for us all!)

The Gospel lesson is Matthew 7:15-23. In this portion of His “ Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus also warns about false prophets, who look like fellow “sheep,” but turn out to be “ravenous wolves.” "Look at their fruit,” Jesus says. What are they interested in - themselves and their own ideas and their glory and getting ahead, or in pointing people to Jesus and His love for people and gifts He gives and things that build up His people and His Kingdom in love? Jesus also talks about doing the will of His Father and not works of lawlessness. On another occasion, people asked, “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent”  - believing in Jesus Himself as Lord and Savior (John 6:27-29). When Jesus had begun this sermon, in Matthew 5:11-12, He also said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of things against you falsely - on My account.” That is how “earlier prophets were persecuted too” - for simply pointing forward to the coming Savior. That’s who Jesus was and is - and the One we are called to believe in, too, along with the Father Who sent Him and the Holy Spirit Who enables us to believe in Him.

Look now at one of the possible Epistle lessons for this week, Acts 20:27-38. Paul is meeting with elders, leaders of early church congregations. He too warns them of false teachers, “fierce wolves,” - “men speaking twisted things to draw people away after them” - and away from “the church of God, which Christ obtained with His own blood.” The faithful leaders and their churches are to stand with “God and His Word of grace, which is able to build them up and give them their eternal inheritance” in Christ. Paul also encourages them not only to care for the strong, but also to “help the weak” and sacrifice for their good, for Jesus taught, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

The other possible Epistle reading is from Romans 8:12-17. Paul reminds his fellow believers that they are not to follow the desires of their “flesh,” their old sinful nature, but to be led by the Spirit of God to be what they now are, “sons,” “children of God.” Paul says that they are now  “adopted” as God’s children through the Holy Spirit bringing them to faith and new life through the Word of God and their baptism. (See again Romans 6:1-11.) Along with Jesus, all believers, including us, can say, “Father, dear Father!” to our Heavenly Father. We know we are cared for, even if we have to suffer in this life - and even sometimes just for being Christians. And we have an eternal inheritance, being with Christ in heaven when we die. We don’t deserve it and haven’t earned it, but it is ours through the love of our great God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (See also passages like Galatians 4:4-6, Ephesians 1:5, and Romans 9:24-26.) How comforting for us!

The Scripture readings this week remind us of the abundant love and mercy of our Lord God, from the time of creation on down to this very day, in His care for people, including us.

The Old Testament lesson takes us back to the creation, in Genesis 2:7-17. God had created our marvelous universe, then formed the first man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into him the breath of life. Though the whole universe was perfect, God also made a very special garden for the man, the Garden of Eden, with abundant water, food, and other good and beautiful things. The man, "Adam,” had purpose and responsibility, too, in working and keeping the garden, as a kind of steward and manager. Martin Luther also suggests that this was a way for him to worship and serve his Lord, with only one specific command - not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden. (Of course, we know that the Lord also created the first woman, “Eve,” and both rebelled against God and His will and sinned. There was both judgment and forgiveness given to them, but there was now also a sinful, fallen nature in them and in the human race. See Genesis 6:5, but also that there were some who remained faithful to the Lord, Noah and his family, who were spared in the great flood, by the grace and mercy of God. They were still sinners, too, though, and finally in Genesis 12: 1-3, God repeated the promise of Genesis 3:15, with the promise of a coming Savior, from the line of Abraham, to be the blessing for ”all the families on the earth.”)

The psalm is Psalm 33:1-11, where the psalmist calls upon God’s people to “shout for joy in the Lord” and to “give thanks” to Him with all kinds of instruments “in a new song.” “The Word of the Lord is upright…” and “the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.” This is seen in God’s work of creation by “His Word” and that “the counsel of the Lord stands forever… to all generations,” while “the counsel of the nations is brought to nothing” because of conflict with the Lord and His will. As this psalm ends, we hear that God’s people “trust in His Holy Name” and “His steadfast love is upon those who hope in Him” (Psalm 33:20-22).

When our Lord Jesus came, His love and “compassion” were clear to all kinds of people. In Mark 6:30-44, He teaches and miraculously feeds 5,000 people, mostly Jews. In Mark 7:24ff, Jesus had gone outside of Israel to Tyre and Sidon, and healed the daughter of a Gentile (non-Jewish) woman. In Mark 7:31, he returns to the region of the Decapolis (10 cities where there were many non-Jews, too). Jesus heals a man who could not hear or speak well, and a great crowd then came to hear Him teach and stayed for 3 days, in a desolate area (Mark 8:1-9, our Gospel lesson for this Sunday). These people seemed to be largely Gentiles, and Jesus teaches them and says He has “compassion” on them, also, because they had had little or no food for several days. Jesus feeds them in a miraculous way, four thousand people this time, and there were seven large baskets of leftover food to help them with the trip home and help His disciples carry on, as well. (And, of course, later on in this same chapter of Mark, Mark 8:31, Jesus predicts that He would suffer and die at the hands of His own religious leaders, in payment for the sins of the whole world, Jews and non-Jews, as we know from other Scriptures, and then He would rise from the dead in victory. His care is for all.)

In our Epistle lesson, Romans 6:19-23, Paul is writing to people in Rome, where some Jews lived, but also a great majority of Gentiles, non-Jewish people from many nations. Paul reminds them (and all of us, no matter our cultural background) that we were all sinners by birth and “slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness” if left to ourselves. And “the end of all those things is death,” both physical and spiritual. But now we “have been set free from sin” through the sacrifice of Christ for our sins on the cross. As we heard last Sunday, in Romans 6:1-11, we have died to our old life of sin and risen to a whole new life with our Lord through our connection with Him in our baptism. We consider ourselves “dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). We still struggle with sin and do not always follow God’s will, but “sin and Satan no longer have dominion over us” (Romans 6:14) because we are now under the grace and forgiveness of God, in Christ and His merciful work for us, and we are “slaves,” servants of Christ. The “wages” we were earning before were “death.” But now we have the free gift of God. We did not earn or deserve this gift, but it is ours by Christ and by the faith worked in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God and our baptism. Remember also that Paul says in Ephesians 2:8 that “your faith is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” in himself or herself. As we begin, we end, boasting only in the Lord and His abundant mercy and care for us, in Christ and by the Holy Spirit, by which we are in faith and will be saved. To God be the glory, now and always!

The Scriptures this week take us to the Ten Commandments and to God’s Word at work in the Old Testament and then to our Lord Jesus, speaking about and living out that Word, and finally, what that means, related to our own baptism.

The Old Testament lesson in Exodus 20:1-17. Note that these are the Words of God Himself, and that He begins by reminding His people that He loved them and rescued them from slavery in the land of Egypt. It is for their own good that He now gives them these Words, which are called in two other places the Ten Commandments, with commentary (Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 4:18). (Some groups and churches number them differently from others, but the overall content is the same.) The first three Commandments have to do with love, honor, and worship only for the God revealed in the Old and New Testaments, the One True God and yet Three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as accurately described in our three Christian creeds, following all of Scripture. We are to worship only this One True Triune God and not anyone or anything else. We are not to use His Name in any vain, worthless way, and to worship Him only. The other seven Commandments concern love for our neighbor (the people God has placed around us, our parents and family, and others): not hurting or harming others, not speaking falsely about them, and not coveting what they have. How wonderful this world would be if all followed all of these Commandments.

The Psalm is Psalm 19, a commentary on God and how we find more knowledge of Him and His will and His plans and His care for us. David begins this psalm by speaking of the natural knowledge of God, when many people see the beauty and complexity of us and our natural world and our universe and conclude that there must have been some supreme being, some intelligent designer of all this. It couldn’t have all happened by random accidents. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Other Scriptures speak of this, and Paul does, too, in the New Testament in Romans 1:19-23. The problem is that this natural knowledge does not lead people to know the One True God, trust in Him, or seek to follow His will. More is needed, and so David then focuses on “the testimony” of the Lord, His Word given in the Scriptures. There are “commandments” and “rules” that show us what is “right” and “sinful” and “warn” us when we are going astray and committing “transgressions.” We can’t even “discern all of our errors” and need the continuing "wisdom” of the Lord’s Word. David prays that he will “meditate acceptably” on that Word. Above all, he needs the Words of God that “are sweeter than honey” and “revive the soul” and “rejoice the heart” (as we do, too) with the “redeeming” forgiveness and promises and work of the Lord Himself, the “Rock” of all of our lives.

God showed that redeeming love most clearly in the gift of His own Son, our Lord Jesus. The Gospel lesson for this Sunday is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:17-26. Jesus tells us that our “righteousness needs to exceed” that of those who thought they were the best followers of God’s will, the religious leaders, “the scribes and the Pharisees.” Jesus then takes an example from the Ten Commandments - the commandment that tells us, ”You shall not kill,” or as some put it, “You shall not murder.” Few people have ever murdered someone, in the sense we tend to use that term today, and we would likely say that we have never murdered anyone. Jesus takes the meaning much farther, though, and says, as God’s own Son, “I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the (ruling Jewish) Council; and whoever says “You fool” to someone else is “liable to the hell” in which there is eternal “fire.” (Remember the parable of Jesus that we heard a number of weeks ago, in Luke 16:19-25, where Jesus said that a rich man who ignores and refuses to help a poor man on his doorstep, and has no repentance and faith, ends up in hell.) Who among us has not called someone a “fool” who cuts us off in traffic and nearly causes an accident? Who among us has not become angry with someone and called him “You fool,” insulted him, and spoken of him in an unkind way? Think of what the media and politicians say of each other every day, and we at least think some of the same thoughts, too quickly. Jesus even says that if we are in church and realize that we have an unsettled problem with someone, we should leave the church and be reconciled to that person, and only then return to worship. Who among us has ever done that?

Jesus is also reminding us that our greatest Judge is the Lord God Himself, and if left on our own, all of us fall short and deserve to be condemned forever, because of our many sins against God and others. But we are not left on our own. Jesus began this portion of Scripture by saying, “I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them” perfectly for us, in our place. His whole life, Jesus was doing everything correctly that we should have done and fail to do, all too often. We would, too often, like to relax and lessen God’s expectations for us and others. But Jesus says that we can’t do that. He came to live perfectly for us and then to suffer and die and pay the penalty we deserve for all of our sins, also in our place. Our attempts to be righteous could never be enough to get us into the kingdom of heaven. But the perfect righteousness of Jesus is enough, through His life, death, and resurrection in our place. We are not righteous enough, but we are counted righteous through the perfect work of Jesus in our place, in His great love for us. He has paid every penny and the last penny for us, so that we are set free for a new and eternal life with our Lord.

And how does all that come personally to us? Listen to the Epistle lesson, from Romans 6:1-11. We know that “the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). The Holy Spirit works through the Word to bring people to faith in Christ and strengthen and keep them in the faith. But he also works through the Word, connected with water, in the gift of Baptism. Paul reminds us in this Epistle that Jesus lived and died and rose in glory for us. He also says that when we were baptized, we were baptized into His death and resurrection. “Our old self was crucified with Christ,” so that “the body of sin might be brought to nothing.” That does not mean that we will sin no more, but we are “set free” from the consequences of sin, and are “no longer enslaved to sin.” The death that Christ died, “He died to sin, once for all, including us and all of our sins.” And when we were baptized, we were also connected to Him in His resurrection and given the gift of faith and forgiveness, and were raised to newness of life through Him. And Paul says to us, “You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” As a “new creation” in Christ, we can now do some good, in honoring our Lord and helping others, in gratefulness and thankfulness to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:18-21) He has already done all we need for eternal salvation, but we can thank and praise Him and try to follow His will, with the commandments and other Scriptures He has given us, and be more of a blessing to others. Note also Scriptures like Acts 13:38-39, where Paul says, “Through this man (Jesus), forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by Him every one who believes is freed (justified) from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.” We couldn’t keep the Law, but Christ has kept it perfectly for us. And see again John 8:31-36, where Jesus promises, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” And he calls us to continue in His Word of love, truth, and promise.

We don’t have time to get into this in this message, but Christ brought a whole New Covenant for us, too. The 10 Commandments remain, but we are freed by Christ Himself from some of the ceremonial laws and rules - for example, that we must do no work on Saturdays, the Old Testament Sabbath, or that it would be wrong to worship on Sundays, remembering now the day of Christ’s resurrection and new life for us. But the basic moral law is still what we seek to follow. It is the best for us and for others, though we still sin and fail at times and continually ask God’s forgiveness. And we remember our own Baptism, the blessings we already have in Christ, and the hope we have in His perfect love for us.

Some commentators say that it is hard to determine a unified theme for this week’s readings. I agree, but have picked out a theme that fits for most of the readings: We are “unworthy, and yet still called” to be God’s “forgiven, blessed, servant people.”

Just before the Old Testament lesson, 1 Kings 19:11-21, the prophet Elijah had courageously stood up for the One True God and defeated and wiped out the false prophets of Baal by God’s power. Now King Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, who worshipped Baal and supported his prophets, planned to kill Elijah within 24 hours. Elijah ran for his life to southern Judah and even farther into the wilderness. He wanted to die, feeling that he was a total failure. The Lord sent an angel to him to feed him and strengthen him and send him farther south, about 250 miles, to Mt. Horeb, Mt. Sinai, the mountain of God. He is in a cave and still feeling very unworthy, for his people have forsaken the true God, and he thinks he is about the only true believer left. The Lord calls him out of the cave, and then there is a very strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire. (Think of how powerful just an earthquake can be as you hear of the deadly earthquakes in Venezuela and the Philippines, just recently.) Yet the Lord was not in these powerful things, but spoke with a still, small voice, “a low whisper.” The power is in Him and His Word, above all. Elijah complains some more about his failures, but the Lord sends him back to his ministry to do whatever the Lord tells him, including appointing some new kings and calling Elisha to assist him, until his work is complete. He was not a failure, for the Lord was working through him and the Word of God he shared, and there were still thousands of true believers in addition to him. Elisha still seemed reluctant, at first, to follow the Lord’s call, but the Lord would still be working through him, too, even with his weaknesses.

An alternate OT lesson, related to the 250th anniversary of our nation, is Proverbs 14:26-34. Its last verse is: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” The problem is that we are all sinners in a sinful world and nation. God’s Old Testament people had plenty of sins and failings, but the Lord was still working out His saving plan through them, finally with the coming of our Savior, Jesus. The wisdom of God and His Word was still in the hearts of some, known and trusted by God’s grace, even amid the foolishness of too many others. True confidence was never in ourselves, but in fear, love, and trust in the Lord; for in Him alone was the “fountain of life,” shown in the gift of His own Son, the Lord Jesus, who cared about all of us “poor and needy” and “sinful” people. He gave His life for us, paying the penalty for all of our sins, and counting us as “righteous” through faith in what He did for us. So, Proverbs 14:32  says, “The righteous finds refuge even in his death.” Though we do not deserve it, death is now the gateway to eternal life for all believers in God’s saving work in Christ. We can say with Jesus at our own death what He said at His death, to His heavenly Father, quoting from Psalm 31:4-5, “You are my refuge. Into Your hand I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

The psalm for this week is Psalm 16. David, in his own day, also said, “O God, in You I take refuge… You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” David knew “the sorrows of those who run after another god,” and in contrast, the “beautiful inheritance” he would have, because his sins and failings had been forgiven, and the Lord was now “his chosen portion” and “his lot.” Then David becomes prophetic. He knew “the path of life,” eternal life through His Lord, but his body would die and see corruption in the grave. A “Holy One” was coming, though, through his family line, the Son of David, our Lord Jesus, who would take on and die for the sins of the world. His body would not see corruption in a grave, though, as His body would be raised to life on the third day, as the conqueror of death. (See how Peter quotes from this psalm on Pentecost, saying that, unlike David, the body of Jesus was raised from the dead, without corruption, and he was exalted to the right hand of God (Acts 2:23-35). Paul quotes this same psalm and others in Acts 13:32-39, proclaiming the resurrection of Christ and the forgiveness of sins and eternal freedom that come only through belief in Him and His saving work. We don’t deserve it, but this is what Christ has accomplished for us, too, through the Father’s loving, saving plan.

The Gospel lesson is from Luke 5:1-11. Crowds of people were eager to hear the Word of God proclaimed by Jesus at the “lake of Gennesaret,” another name for the Sea of Galilee. Jesus asked the fisherman, Simon, to borrow his boat, so that He could speak from it, a little out from the land. He taught the people, and when he was finished, He asked Simon to put his boat out into the deep and let his nets down for a catch. Simon, an expert fisherman, knew that this was not the right time for a catch and that he and his friends had already fished all night and caught nothing, but at the Word, the request of Jesus, he was willing to put out the nets again. This time, they caught so many fish that the nets broke, and even with two boats, they were almost sinking under the weight of the fish. Simon, later called Peter, knew this was a miracle of Jesus and fell at His feet, saying, “Depart from me , for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Simon knew his unworthiness even to be near Jesus, but Jesus tells him "not to be afraid,” forgives him, and calls this unworthy man to be one of his chosen disciples. Instead of catching fish, he would now be one of God’s instruments in catching people for the Kingdom of God. (If you remember the story of Simon Peter, he was still far from perfect and later even denied three times that he ever knew Jesus, when his own life seemed to be endangered. Jesus forgave and restored him and sent him out in mission to others again and again. He was an unworthy man, and yet was called  to be God’s servant; and God could still work through him.) On another occasion, Jesus taught, “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants: we have only done what was our duty” (Luke 17:7-10). We can also be God’s instruments, but it is He who ultimately brings people to faith, keeps them in faith, and grows them in faith through His Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus, working through the Word of God and baptism, and later through the Lord’s Supper. To Him be the glory!

There are two choices for the Epistle lesson. The first is 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Paul warns here about “the wisdom of this world,” which God calls “foolish.” This foolishness is in “the commandments of men,” hundreds of humanly made rules of Jewish rabbis and others. By keeping these, many thought they could make themselves good and acceptable to God and/or others. (See the warnings about such human rules in Isaiah 29:13-14, from which Paul quotes, and the warnings of Jesus Himself in Mark 7:1-9, as he quotes from the same passage.) This foolishness is also seen in the rational thinking and debating of Greek scholars and others, who think they can determine what is really true in their own minds and observations, and do so, while they actually “do not know God” or His “power and wisdom.” It is the Word of God to which we need to listen for true wisdom, centered in God’s rescue plan for a sinful world through the “weakness” and sacrificial crucifixion (and only then, resurrection) of His own Son. “It pleased God through the folly of what Christians preach to save those who believe” in this Good News, centered not in what we think and do, but in what God, in His great love, has done for us in Christ. Believers are simply forgiven sinners, unworthy, but called to new and eternal life through God’s grace in Christ. There is true wisdom and hope from God, in Christ, “who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” We have nothing to boast about in ourselves, but only “in the Lord and what he has done for us” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).

Simon Peter, too, had learned this reality: being saved only as a forgiven sinner through Christ. It took him a while to give up all the old Jewish rules and regulations he thought he and others also had to follow to be saved. See what he says in Acts 15: 6-11. God gave him the wisdom that Gentiles (non-Jews) could also simply “hear the Words of the Gospel (of Christ) and believe,” through the power of “the Holy Spirit given also to them.” Peter admitted that he and his fellow Jews could never do everything expected of them according to Judaism - “a yoke… that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.” But now, Peter said so clearly, “We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they (Gentiles) will” (Acts 15:10-11). In the alternate Epistle, then, 1 Peter 3: 8-15, Peter calls upon his fellow believers in Christ, Jews and Gentiles, to know the unity we have in our Savior, “with sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind, as unworthy but forgiven sinners, called to faith and new life in Him. Peter quotes from Psalm 34:12-16, encouraging us to battle evil and seek to do good, forgiving and blessing one another, but knowing that our hope is not in us and our efforts, but in Christ the Lord, who alone is “holy,” and counts us holy and forgiven through His death and resurrection for us. And we seek to share this amazingly Good News with gentleness and reverence, in gratefulness to our Lord.

One last thought. On this 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, if you have a copy of Luther’s Small Catechism, look at his Table of Duties for “Civil Government” and “Citizens.” Or you can just look up the Scriptures he quotes, listed here: Romans 13:1-4, Matthew 22:21, Romans 13:5-7. 1 Timothy 2:1-3, Titus 3:1, and 1 Peter 2:13-14. We always seek to be guided by our Lord and His Word, even though we are far from perfect, as citizens of a country.

The theme for our readings this Fourth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series, could be the Words of our Lord Jesus in the Gospel lesson: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” We always begin with what our Heavenly Father has done for us, in His love and mercy in Christ, and how that now shapes our own lives, in leading us to seek to be merciful to others, to help them, and to be a witness to them for our Lord.

David speaks of this in our psalm, Psalm 138. He gives thanks to the Lord for His “steadfast love and faithfulness” and how “He exalts His Name and His Word before the gods.” This does not mean that other “gods” are real. (See, for example, the Words of Psalm 135:15-18.) There is only our One True Triune God, and on the last day, as Philippians 2:10-11 says, “every knee should bow, even of the seemingly high and mighty, at the Name of Jesus, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Again, that does not mean that all will be saved, but that even those who have rejected Christ, like the rich man in Jesus' parable in Luke 16:19-31, will finally know what they have missed. David knows that the Lord also “regards the lowly” and has “increased the strength of his own soul” in “the midst of trouble.” David prays that the Lord will never “forsake the work of His hands,” including him, and “will fulfill His purpose for him,” in His “steadfast love that endures forever.” (And of course, the “Son of David,” our Lord Jesus, eventually came and did His saving work for us and for the world.)

Joseph also speaks of God’s merciful plans for good in his own day, in the Old Testament lesson, Genesis 50:15-20. Joseph had shown God’s love and mercy to his brothers and his father and brought them to safety in Egypt, in a time of great famine and other troubles. When their father, Jacob, dies, the brothers are afraid that Joseph will now punish them all for selling him into slavery and bringing him much trouble in Egypt, before he was lifted up to a high position. They appeal to Joseph for forgiveness and mercy, saying that their father wanted this for them. Joseph asks them, “Am I in the place of God?… You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.“ As a result, many people were kept alive during the great famine, and Jacob and his family were shown great forgiveness and mercy by God as well. The promise of God that He would eventually bring a Savior from the line of Abraham and Jacob and the Jewish nation continued on, too, with His mercy and forgiveness, even in their times of sin and evil.

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 6:36-42, Jesus is teaching in His “Sermon on the Mount” and reminds His followers to “be merciful, as the Heavenly Father has also been merciful to them.” He says that they would then be true sons of the Most High, for He has been “kind even to ungrateful and evil people,” including them, at times (Luke 6:35-36). Being merciful is not to earn God’s favor. God had already been merciful to His people, again and again, and would be most merciful in what His Son, Jesus, would do in His sacrificial death for them on the cross, though they did not deserve it. As Jesus was already doing, they were then to seek to be slow to judge and condemn others, be quick to forgive and give to the needs of others, and not to be “blind” to God’s goodness and mercy, available to all. The goal was for the disciples to be “fully trained” by Jesus and be more like their Teacher in showing patience and mercy to others. That meant also looking at their own faults and continually seeking God’s forgiveness for “the logs” in their own. eyes, even as they tried to help remove the “specks” in the eyes of others. Then they can “more clearly” see how to help others in love and genuine concern.

The Epistle lesson can be one of two readings from Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Romans 12:18-23 is a long list of how we might live and react to others, as Christ has done perfectly for us already. It could be summarized by Paul’s final words in v.23, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” It is a very high standard that only Christ could fulfill for us, and He has already done for us all that we need. We are counted righteous by Him and by faith in His saving work for us. We try to respond as Christ would, though, in a variety of circumstances; to act toward others peaceably; not to take vengeance; and on and on. God’s love in Christ then shines through them to others.

The alternate Epistle, also from Paul, is in Romans 8:18-23. We are encouraged to remember that current sufferings in this life are “not worth comparing with” the joys of eternal life to come. The whole creation, including us, groans with some of the troubles we experience, but we also live with hope for the future God has prepared for us. The image of childbirth is used - lots of pain, but the joy at last that will come. Paul also reminds us that we have “the firstfruits of the Spirit in us,” promising our coming future” but also making us groan, in expectation of what is to come. The Holy Spirit helps us to carry on, even though now we are in “the bondage to decay and corruption,” until “the freedom of the glory of the children of God,” which we have guaranteed to us through Christ our Savior. May we live in that hope and trust and confidence always, by God’s grace, and in the meantime, share that hope we have in Christ with others around us, who could have that hope, too. in Christ and His Word and the promises of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Last week’s Scriptures contained some challenging passages. John reminded us, “Do not be surprised” since you are a Christian, that “the world hates you" (1 John 3:13). There is opposition from many to our beliefs and standards. “Many are the afflictions” of God’s people, too, and there are times when we are “broken-hearted” and “crushed in spirit.” Yet we are still called to seek to love and care for others around us, as best we can. This week’s readings are full of the Gospel, God’s continuing love for us even in our toughest days, and His strength to help us seek to speak and act in loving ways toward others.

David, in Psalm 103:1-13, reminds us that He knows our sins and failures and is not pleased with them, but He will not always “chide” or hold onto His anger over our sins. “He does not deal with us according to our sins,” as we deserve, but as He brings us to repentance, He is our “compassionate Heavenly Father” and forgives and “removes our transgressions from us, as far as the east is from the west.” He is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” and we are called to “fear, love, and trust in Him” in return.

If you read through the Book of Micah, you see that Micah has many words of judgment for Judah and Israel for their sins and rebellion against God. He says, “I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:5). He warns that as a result, “Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins” (Micah 3:12). At the same time, the Lord gives Micah words of great hope for the future and a Ruler who is from of old and yet will be born from Bethlehem and “shepherd His people and bring them peace” - a reference to the coming Savior, Jesus (Micah 5:2-5). And this prophecy ends with our Old Testament lesson, Micah 7:18-20, and Micah marveling to his Lord, “Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger (for sin) forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us… You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” You are faithful and will keep Your promises given to Abraham, “from the days of old,” of a Savior through whom “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).

This Savior was our Lord Jesus, and in our Gospel lesson, Luke 15:1-10, we hear of Him associating with and teaching “tax collectors” and other kinds of “sinners.” The religious leaders, who thought they were very good, compared with these bad people, grumbled at and condemned Jesus for receiving and even eating with such people, a sign of fellowship with them. Jesus then told two parables. The first is of a man with 100 sheep, who loses one that wandered away. He will go and search for that lost sheep until he finds it and brings it home safely. Jesus then speaks of the joy of rescuing even one lost sinner who is brought to repentance and faith - joy even in heaven. The other is the parable of a woman who has 10 silver coins and loses just one. She will search until she finds it. And what joy there then is. So again, the Lord and the angels rejoice over even one sinner who is brought to repentance and faith. Every single person is important to the Lord, who wants all to be saved and gave His life for all. (The third parable that follows, in Luke 15:11-32, the story of a “prodigal” son who rejects His father and family and goes away into much evil living and trouble, could also be the Gospel reading. This son finally wakes up to his sin and wrongdoing and returns home in repentance, seeking the forgiveness and love of his father, though he did not deserve them. The other son has stayed home and helped with the family, but also has his own sins and problems, and does not want to accept his brother back. He needs his own repentance and forgiveness, as we all do, the Scriptures say. And the father, like our heavenly Father, is full of forgiveness and mercy and love for both of his sons, and for all who are brought to that forgiveness through faith in Christ Jesus.)

In one of the possible Epistle lessons, 1 Timothy 1:12-17, Paul (earlier called Saul) uses himself as a prime example of God’s amazing mercy and forgiveness. He says that what people need to be brought to trust and accept is that God sent His Son into the world not to save all the good people, for there are none, but to save sinners, which we all are. Paul was far from the Lord and from the truth, as a blasphemer, speaking against Christ Jesus, and even as an opponent and persecutor of Christians. He was even present and helped out at the stoning to death of Stephen. See Acts 7:58-8:1  and 9:1-2. Paul called himself the “foremost,” the “chief of sinners,” and the Risen Lord Jesus in His “perfect patience” toward sinners appeared to him and brought him to repentance and faith in Him. If Paul could be saved by God‘s grace in Christ, anyone could, Paul says. People simply needed to be brought “to believe in Him for eternal life” - trusting that by His perfect life and death on the cross in payment for all their sins and His mighty resurrection from the dead, He had rescued them. And to the One True God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit go all glory and honor, now and forever. Amen - this is most certainly true!

The other possible Epistle reading is from 1 Peter 5:6-11. Peter knew the great forgiveness and mercy of Jesus, especially when he was forgiven for denying three times that he ever knew Jesus. He writes in 1 Peter 1:18-21, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like a lamb without blemish or spot… He was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” Peter calls all believers to continue in that faith in Christ, humble before God and casting all of our cares, our anxieties, upon Him, for He truly does care for us, in His love and mercy. He can help us battle all the temptations of the devil, as He helps Christian’s stay in faith throughout the world, even in times of suffering and trouble. He is “the God of all grace” (His undeserved love and favor and mercy for us), and he has already “called us to His eternal glory in Christ.” He will continue to help us throughout our lives, then, and will “restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us in our faith. And to Him be the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (which means this is most certainly true)!

Our great God loves us, even with our weaknesses, and He will help us, even when the sinful world hates us. And when we see again how much He loves us and how much Christ sacrificed for us, He will surely give us the strength to try to love and show His mercy to others who need His care, love, forgiveness, and help, just as much as we do.

The Old Testament lesson for this Sunday is Proverbs 9:1-10. This passage is a call to pay attention to the wisdom of God (v.1-9), which brings life, and not the seductive folly of this evil, sinful world, which leads only to death, physical and eternal (v.13-18). Wisdom is pictured here as a woman who has built on a solid foundation, prepares a great feast, and sends out her servants to invite people to come to receive true “life,” “insight,” “instruction,” “teaching,” and “increase in learning.” This way of wisdom involves being “reproved” and “corrected” in a “loving” way when one is wrong, so that one can become “still wiser.” It begins with “fear of the Lord,” honor and respect for Him, so that one can grow in “the knowledge of the Holy One” and His true insight; and as we heard last week, by faith in Him, one is counted as righteous in His eyes. (Note also that in passages like Isaiah 25:6-9, eternal life is pictured as a time of great joy and feasting with the Lord, and even now, our worship is pictured as enjoying our Lord’s gifts in learning His Word and receiving His Sacraments, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. This reading also parallels the Gospel lesson we hear today and the message and work of Christ our Savior, “in Whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” for salvation (Colossians 2:2-3).)

The Psalm is Psalm 34:12-22. David, too, is teaching “the fear of the Lord,” which involves battling our sometimes “evil and deceitful” tongues, and seeking peace and good. The Lord knows our struggles, even as believers, with temptations to evil all around, and our battles with “those who hate the righteous” and our battles with our own sinful nature. Our Lord knows that there are times when we are “broken-hearted” and “crushed in spirit.” “Many are the afflictions” even of those trying to live in a “righteous” way. But “the Lord redeems the life of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.” There is forgiveness and hope in our Lord’s love. That is especially clear in our Lord Jesus and His sacrificial love for us in the New Testament. Paul writes, in Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” See also how Peter quotes Psalm 34:15-17 in his first letter, 1 Peter 3:10-12. Even if we are “reviled” by others, Peter says, “who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good. But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:13-17).

Go now to one of the Epistle lessons that can be read this Sunday, from 1 John 3:13-18. John says, very bluntly, “Do not be surprised that the world hates you.” That was very true in the ancient world, with Greeks and Romans and many other cultures opposed to Christianity. Remember what was done with Jesus Himself, at the hands of the Romans and Jewish authorities - and that our own sins contributed to His having to die, too, to pay the penalty for them all, as well. John says, “By this we know love, that Jesus laid down His life for us” - and then John says, “And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers,” if we were asked to do so. That is a very high standard for love. We are tempted to say that we would love some people that much if we had the courage, but maybe we think that some are not deserving of our love because of what they have said and done. Remember Paul’s words in Romans 5:6ff: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us…. while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.” None of us deserved the mercy and sacrifice and forgiveness of Jesus, but He gave it to us anyway. “We were justified by His blood and saved by Him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:6-11). Back in 1 John 3:18, then, John says, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk” - though those are important - “let us also love in deed and in truth,” where we can.

The alternative Epistle reading is from Ephesians 2:13-22, where Paul writes about how the sacrifice of Christ has “broken down the dividing wall of hostility” between Jews and non-Jews, the Gentiles. “Now in Christ Jesus, you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace... And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father…. Christ Jesus Himself being the Cornerstone.” Christ died for all, and His love is available to all and is to be shared with all, Jews and Gentiles.

Finally, we come to the Gospel lesson, from Luke 14:15-24. Jesus had been invited to the home of a ruler of the Pharisees, and he noticed how self-centered they were and focused on wealth and power and prestige, and how confident they were, as Pharisees, of “eating bread in the Kingdom of God.” Jesus then told a parable of a man giving a great banquet and inviting many. When the time for the banquet came, though, servants came to tell them, but the people who had been invited “all alike began to make excuses.” They were so wrapped up in their own lives that they could not come. Their business, property, and family concerns were so important that they could not be bothered to fulfill their promise and would not come to the banquet. The master then sent his servants to invite “the poor and crippled and blind and lame” - those who would often be ignored by more important, upper-class people. Still, there was room, and the servants were to go wherever they could, even to unusual places, and compel (strongly encourage) the people they found to come to the banquet, so that the master’s house would be full. Sadly, the master also had to say that none of those originally invited, who then rejected the master and refused to come, would taste of that banquet in the Kingdom of God. Jesus was warning His fellow Jews, as He had in John 6:60ff. and other places, that He was the Savior and His Words were spirit and life, and that through Him and His Words, the Holy Spirit gives life. If Jews continued rejecting Him and His Word of salvation, they would lose out, and His Good News would be shared more and more with non-Jews, the Gentiles, for His saving work was for all people. Thus, the call came to His servants, His followers, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20). God’s saving work in Christ was meant for all. And so we keep hearing the message that “If God so loved us, we ought also to seek to love one another, in deed and in truth.” We want others to know the gift of love we have in Christ, by God’s grace.

This Sunday is the First Sunday after Trinity in the One Year Series of readings. (Note that in the Three Year Series of readings, the readings are counted as the Sundays after Pentecost, not the Sundays after Trinity, as is done in the One Year series. Those using the Three Year Series will call this the Second Sunday after Pentecost, which is also correct. I will stay this year with the terminology traditionally used for the One Year series, though.) This Sunday begins the non-festival part of the church year. We have completed the story of the life of Christ while here on earth, and His return to His Father at His ascension, and the promised coming of the Holy Spirit.

Now we enter a more general season, thinking about what the saving work of our Triune God means for us and our lives and future, as we wait for the return of Christ on the last day or for our being called to eternal life in heaven if our death happens sooner. This season is not highly structured, but covers many topics about Christ and His work and teaching and what all that means for our lives. This week, we hear of God’s great love for us and how that calls us to seek to love one another in return.

The Old Testament lesson is Genesis 15:1-6. The Lord comes to Abram, assuring him that He will be his “Shield” and bless him. Abram is not so sure, though, for he had been promised to be the father of a great nation and nations. He has no children and no heirs of his own. The Lord renews His promises to Abram and says that, just as he cannot count the stars in the sky, so he will have an uncountable number of descendants. (This includes the people of Israel, the Jewish nation, but especially all who will follow in faith the descendant of Jesus, the Lord and Savior of the world. We, as believers in Christ, are spiritual descendants of Abram, too.) The Lord also renewed the faith of Abram, later calling him Abraham, and Abraham was counted as a righteous man, acceptable to God, by that gift of faith. This is a central teaching in the New Testament as well. We cannot make ourselves righteous in the eyes of our Lord by our good deeds and righteous living. We are saved only by the grace of God, by being brought to trust in Christ Jesus and what he has done for us, in His perfect life and death on the cross and mighty resurrection from the dead, and His forgiveness earned for us. If you have time and energy, look at how Paul takes this Genesis 15:1-6 passage and shows how God’s saving grace is also for us, in Romans 4:1-25 and Galatians 3:1-14, 24-29. The whole first half of the church year showed us how our Lord “justified the ungodly” through the saving work of Jesus. So, Paul says, for “the one who believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:5).

The psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 33:12-22. The Lord is pictured as looking down at the earth. The Lord is not impressed by “great armies,” “strong warriors,” and “war horses.” They cannot ultimately save. Most important is that people “fear” the Lord, honor and respect Him, and “hope in His steadfast love.” He is the One who can deliver from trouble and famine and ultimately from death itself. “Blessed, then, is the nation whose God is the Lord,” and whose “souls wait for the Lord.” As the Lord was the “Shield” and blessing for Abram in the Old Testament lesson, Genesis 15, so He is “our Help and our Shield,” the psalmist says, as “we trust in His Holy Name” and “hope in His steadfast love.”

The Gospel lesson for today is a parable of Jesus from Luke 16:19-31. There was a “rich man,” who “feasted sumptuously every day” and had “the finest of clothes.” He seems to be richly blessed with material possessions, and the Greek indicates that he lived in an “impressively gated” home. In contrast, there was “a poor man” who was laid at his gate by others. This “poor man” seems to be sick and disabled and covered with sores, something like ulcers. (The same word is used in Revelation 16:2.) The hope was that the rich man would at least share with him some scraps, some leftovers, from his food. The rich man seems so selfish and self-centered, though, that he ignores the poor man and does not want to be bothered by him, and helps him in no way. This is the only parable where Jesus gives someone a name, and the poor man was named “Lazarus” - a form of a name which means “God has furnished help.” Though Lazarus was so poor and sick and troubled, the Lord had brought him to faith and trust in Him, no matter what his circumstances. And when Lazarus soon died, he was taken to heaven by angels to be with the Lord, and with Abraham and other believers, also there by God’s grace through the gift of faith. In contrast, the rich man, without trust in the Lord or love and care for anyone but himself, ends up in Hades, in hell, a place of great torment and suffering. The rich man would not help Lazarus, but he now wants Lazarus to come and help him, even with just a drop of water. There is a chasm between heaven and hell, though, so that no one can pass from one place to the other. The rich man finally thinks of some others, his brothers, and wants Lazarus sent from the dead to call them to repentance. Abraham reminds him that the brothers have the Scriptures, Moses, and the Prophets. If they won’t listen to the true Word of God, through which the Lord Himself speaks and works, even someone coming back from the dead would not convince them. How true the Words of Jesus were. Jesus raised others from the dead, including another man named Lazarus (John 11), and Jesus Himself would rise from the dead, yet most of His fellow Jews still rejected Him and His love and His Word, and would miss out on the love and forgiveness and new life the Lord wanted to bring them in Christ.

In the Epistle lesson, 1 John 4:16-21, John reminds us who we are now as Christians. We have come to know, but also to believe and trust in the love God has for us, in Christ our Savior. (See the Words just before this passage in I John 4:9-11. John says, “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”) This is not a way for us to earn God’s favor. We already have His love in Christ. “We love because He first loved us,” and made the greatest of all sacrifices for us. An old Lutheran pastor, Fred Lindemann, wrote, “We are loved undeservedly” by God. We did not deserve His love, but He gave it to us anyway, in Christ, because His love for us is so great, and he wants us now to grow in that love, in gratefulness to Him and in care for others and in certainty about our future, now and eternally with Him, in His love. And so, Lindemann wrote, we can also seek to love those around us, even those who seem to be “undeserving,” as we remember His love, first, for us, who were undeserving. Only Christ has the “perfect love that casts out all fear,” in what He has done for us, and as we “abide in Him” and His love and His Word, our strength to look beyond ourselves and love others can grow, too. After all, Christ died for them, too, and “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” John is not afraid of preaching the Law. He says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.” John, above all, wants to share God’s love and forgiveness in Christ for our own failures, and to strengthen us to share that same love and forgiveness with others, for all people need Him and His Word and love.

Last Sunday was a remembrance of Pentecost and the sending of the Holy Spirit on that day, with His vital work of bringing people to faith and keeping us in faith through the Word of God and the Sacraments. The week following is always Holy Trinity Sunday, a day of remembrance for the true nature of our God, as revealed in Scripture: the only true God, the One True God, yet three Persons or Beings, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The psalm is Psalm 29. David praises the True Lord God and calls upon all heavenly beings to give Him glory for His strength and power, and to worship Him. That majestic power can be seen all over our natural world in thunder and lightning and mighty storms and shaking of the earth. The Lord sits enthroned as King over the waters and the floods, the many waters of this earth, as well. (This psalm is also appointed to be read when we read of the baptism of our Lord Jesus and the Word of God connected with water, by the power of the Holy Spirit, at Jesus’ baptism and at the baptism of thousands at Pentecost and at our own baptism. The Spirit brings faith and new life through water connected with His Word. See Matthew 3:16-17 and Acts 2:38-41 and Acts 22:14-16, etc.) David then closes His song of praise in Psalm 29, asking the Lord to give strength to His people and bless His people with peace - the peace we all need through  Him in our troubled world.

The Old Testament lesson is Isaiah 6:1-7. Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord, with some of His angels, His seraphim. He was sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and yet His robes filled the temple on earth, and He filled it with smoke, too, showing His presence. Isaiah thinks that he will die, as a man with unclean lips, a sinner, with sinners all around him, since he had seen the holy, holy, holy God. Instead, the Lord shows His mercy and sends an angel to touch the lips of Isaiah with a burning coal. And the Lord promises, “This has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sins atoned for.” Isaiah did not atone (pay the price) for his sins. The Lord atoned for Isaiah’s sins, prefiguring the atoning work of His own Son, Jesus, when He came to this earth as a true man to pay the penalty for the sins of all. The fact that the angel said “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord” also gives a glimpse of the Lord being more than one, the Trinity. (See also Psalm 99, which says something similar. “The Lord reigns… Holy is He!… Holy is He!… The Lord our God is holy!”)

The Old Testament often emphasizes that there is only One True God, over against the sinful polytheism and false gods all over the world, the idea that there are many gods and goddesses from which to choose, and which control different parts of the world. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” And the First Commandment warns us against having any other so-called false gods. See also passages like Isaiah 44:6,8: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and His Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god… Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” See also Isaiah 45:21-23: “Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return. To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.”

At the same time, there are many passages and prophecies that point to the Trinity, without explaining it all - One God and yet three Persons, at the same time. We heard last week of God saying “Let us make man in our image” (one image and yet the plural “us” and “our”) and “let us go down” (Genesis 1:26 and 11:7). The Spirit of God appears again and again: Genesis 1:3 and Psalm 51:11 and Joel 2:28 and Ezekiel 36:27 and 37:14 and on and on. There are also prophecies of a “virgin birth” and a Son born (pointing to Jesus) who is Immanuel, which means: “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). And soon after we hear in prophecy again of that Child being born, and “His Name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Here are references to the three Persons of the Trinity: the Father, the Son (the Prince of Peace), and the Wonderful Counselor, (the Holy Spirit) yet there is only One Mighty God. I could go on and on, with more passages, but that is beyond the scope of this study.

And of course, the Triune God is most clearly seen in the New Testament, in fulfilling the many prophecies of the Old Testament. Even there, though, there is no nice, neat, humanly understandable explanation of the Trinity. Our Epistle lesson for today, Romans 11:33-36, simply speaks of the “depth” and “riches” and “wisdom” and “knowledge” of God. He and His ways are “unsearchable” and “inscrutable.” The Greek word for “unsearchable” means literally that - something that cannot be searched out and explained. The same word is used a few times in the Greek version, the Septuagint, of the Book of Job, where Job speaks of God, “who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things without number” (Job 9:10). The word “inscrutable” literally means, “not to be tracked out.” The only other place it is used in the New Testament is in Ephesians 3:8, where Paul speaks of “the unsearchable, unfathomable riches of Christ” - for as Paul also says in Romans 11:36, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” In contrast, in the Old Testament, the only place in the Greek Septuagint where this word appears is in Jeremiah 17:9, where the Lord speaks of the incomprehensible sinfulness of the human heart left on its own. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” So Paul refers, in Romans 11:34-35, to Isaiah 40:13-14, which says, “Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows Him his counsel? Whom did He consult, and who made Him understand?” No one, of course! So Paul writes, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him, to God, that he might be repaid? God owes us nothing, but He has given us everything we really need, including our salvation, as a gift through His saving work as our Triune God.

Even in the New Testament, then, there is no neat, perfectly understandable definition of the Trinity. We do hear that “there is no God but one” (1 Corinthians 8:4), and yet that we are to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19-20). Paul blesses us with the words, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). The Scriptures simply describe the One Triune God at work for us and our salvation. I wish that the One Year Series of readings included the second half of Acts 2, where Peter preaches, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing… Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus who you crucified… Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself” (Acts 2:30-33, 36, 38-39).

As Christians, we have three creeds that faithfully express key elements of what we believe. The longest of these, the Athanasian Creed, speaks the most about the nature and unity of the Trinity, One God and yet Three Persons. It is long and complicated, though, and we tend to use it only once a year, on this Trinity Sunday. Just keep listening, above all, to the Scriptures themselves and how they reveal to us God’s saving plan.

The Gospel this week is John 3:1-15 (16-17). I will write only briefly about this, as it is familiar to most of us. Nicodemus comes to Jesus, thinking that He is a great teacher, sent from God. Nicodemus is confused, though, by Jesus saying that everyone needs a whole new birth, because of the reality of sin and the sinful hearts we all have, left on our own. Jesus speaks of being born again, from above, through “water and the Spirit” in the gift of baptism and the Word of God, the “testimony” of Christ that He is “the Son of Man” and the true “Son of God who would be lifted up” on the cross, “that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” For God, in His love, even for us sinful people, sent His Son, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through the gift of faith in Him. Jesus, again, simply speaks of the One True Triune God - the saving plan of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work for us. There is our hope. We can’t fully understand it, but we believe it, and, by the gift of faith, the Triune God works in us through the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.

This Sunday is known as Pentecost Sunday. Originally, this was a Jewish Spring harvest festival, seven weeks after the Passover celebration. (You can read about this in Deuteronomy 16:9-12, Exodus 34:22-24, and other places in the Old Testament.) Three times a year, all Jewish males were to be in Jerusalem for some of these festivals, and that is why many extra people were in the city on the day the Lord chose to send His Holy Spirit in the very dramatic way we read about in today’s readings. Some also call this WhitSunday, suggesting the Holy Spirit's wit and wisdom in bringing many people to faith in Christ on this day through the Word of God proclaimed to them. Others refer to it as White Sunday because some churches later had large numbers of people wearing white baptized on this Sunday, remembering that 3,000 people were baptized on that first Pentecost.

The Old Testament lesson is Genesis 11:1-9. After the fall into sin, sinful people, “the children of man,” thought that they could control their own destiny and tried to make a name for themselves by building a great city and a tower reaching into the heavens themselves, as rivals to God. They had one language and thought they could do whatever they wanted. Nothing seemed impossible for them. The Lord humbled them by confusing their language into many languages and scattering them all over the earth, with divisions and rivalry, people living out and reflecting their sinfulness. (Note that the Lord says in v. 7, “Come, let us go down” and do this, showing the nature of the one true Triune God already, and in other places in the first book of Scripture. See Genesis 1:26, for example.) The Pentecost story is then, as we will see, a reversal of this division and confusion, as people with many different languages are brought to one faith in the One true God, in the saving work of Christ, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The psalm for Pentecost is Psalm 143, another psalm of David and a penitential psalm, as Psalm 51:1-12 was last week. David knows his sinfulness and pleads for God’s mercy. He knows that we all deserve judgment, because “no one living is righteous before Him.” (That rules out saving ourselves in any way by our own good efforts.) David also has enemies and other troubles that give him much difficulty. He says of himself, “My spirit faints and fails.” He knows that he must “meditate on God’s works” and what He has said and done in His Word, and simply seek to “trust Him.” The Lord is his “Refuge,” and alone can “teach” him and show him His “will” and “ways.” David and all of us therefore need to pray, “Let Your Good Spirit, the Holy Spirit, lead us on level ground,” through the Word of God. “In Your righteousness” (and especially the righteousness of Christ our Savior), “our souls are brought out of trouble.”

The Gospel lesson is John 14:23-31. Jesus says that people who love Him and love the Father are keeping the Word of God, but if people do not love Him, Jesus, who brings the Word of God, they are not keeping the Word. And when the Helper, the Holy Spirit, is sent by the Father in the Name of Christ, He will teach the disciples all things they need to know and bring to remembrance all that Jesus told them. That is how they could recall and record the long speeches of Jesus and accurately teach what he said - by the power of the Holy Spirit. Though Jesus was going away, He would leave His peace with them through His Spirit and help them through their troubles and fears. “The ruler of this sinful world, Satan, was coming, but he would have no ultimate claim on Jesus, though it might seem like it when Jesus suffered and died. Jesus was simply doing what His Father commanded, in submitting to suffering and death, but also in His resurrection. His love for His Father and for us was evident in all this, and through Him and the Holy Spirit, many would be brought to believe in Him for eternal life. Jesus says one surprising thing, though: “the Father is greater than I.” Jesus was true God, equal to the Father and the Spirit in the One True Triune God. At the same time, He had humbled Himself and become also a true man, not using all of His Godly power and choosing to live with some human limitations. For example, Jesus said that “no one know the day and hour that heaven and earth will pass away, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son (Jesus Himself, here on earth), but the Father only” (Matthew 24:35-36). How that all worked and still works, we do not understand, but we can “rejoice” that Jesus has returned to His Father in heaven, and He was glorified again, culminating in His ascension. (See John 17:4-5.)

The Epistle lesson is from Acts 2:1-21, the story of Pentecost. Jesus had ascended to heaven 10 days earlier, and the early Christians, about 120 persons, were waiting to be “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). They were together in one place when suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. In the Greek, the word can mean either wind or Spirit. Then “tongues as of fire rested upon each one of them.” In the Old Testament, God often showed His presence with fire - as He did this day, with the presence of God the Holy Spirit, with tongues of fire. Then these disciples “were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues,” other languages that they had never learned, as the Spirit enabled them. Verses 5-13 indicate that there were Jews from many different countries in Jerusalem for what for them was the annual Jewish harvest festival. They spoke a number of different “native languages” and came from many different places, as listed in this passage. Many were Jews, but some were “proselytes“, converts to the Jewish faith. They realized that these speakers were largely Galileans, from a backward, less educated part of the land, and yet the hearers were amazed and perplexed and said, “We hear them telling in our own native tongues the mighty works of God.” Some mocked these speakers as drunk, but most were simply saying, “What does this mean?” Peter then spoke on behalf of the other disciples and said this was the fulfillment of what the prophet Joel had predicted in Joel 2:28-32. Peter quotes from Joel’s prophecy that the Holy Spirit would be at work among many people, young and old, with the goal that many would be brought to faith in the Lord, for salvation. This text ends here, but it is good to read on and see that Peter also preached the Word very clearly that Jesus Christ was Lord and Savior, by His life, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead, with prophecy about all this from Scripture. Peter also called for people, young and old, to be brought to repentance and faith in Christ and the gift of baptism, through the Holy Spirit’s work through the Word. And we hear that these old and new believers were called to “devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (through the Word), which is what we are doing in Bible study still today. And those believers were to continue in fellowship and the breaking of bread (in the Lord’s Supper) and in prayers. May the Holy Spirit still lead us and guide us in this way, in our worship and daily life in Christ. In this way, the Holy Christian Church is the reversal of the Genesis 11 Old Testament passage. People from many nations and languages were now being united in one faith in Christ as Savior, through the One True Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Lord said, Let us now go down and do this uniting, saving work, through Christ Jesus, sent from the Father, and the Holy Spirit, working through Word and Sacraments, to this very day.