Preparing for Worship - June 26, 2022

The Scripture readings for this 3rd Sunday after Pentecost have to do with ongoing commitment to the Lord, as He leads us on the path of life eternal. The Psalm is Psalm 16. King David knew that he had “no good apart from the Lord.” He knew “the sorrows of those who run after another god.” He prays that the Lord would “give him counsel” and “instruct him” and be “at his right hand.” David even gives prophetic words that were eventually fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. (See Acts 2:25ff.) Only in the Lord is “the path of life.”

The Old Testament lesson is 1 Kings 19:9-21. Queen Jezebel vowed to kill the prophet Elijah, and he had run away to Mount Horeb (Mt. Sinai) in great fear. God appeared to him in two powerful ways, but then with “a low whisper,” assuring him that He would judge evil and was preserving other believers who had not bowed down to false gods. God also gave Elijah another prophet, Elisha, as a successor - though Elisha had trouble following him right away.

The Epistle lesson is Galatians 5:1, 13-25. Paul reminds us that we have freedom in Christ, but a freedom by which to help and serve others, not to “gratify the desires of our sinful nature, our sinful flesh.” Paul then describes some of the “works of the sinful flesh,” which are dangerous to us and others, and could even cut us off from the “Kingdom of God,” if we keep on and on doing them. Instead, the Lord wants to produce in us “the fruit of the Spirit,” which Paul also describes. God has already brought us to new “life” in Christ by the Holy Spirit. He calls us also to keep walking by the Spirit’s guidance and in His ways, by His power.

The Gospel lesson is from Luke 9:51-62. Jesus was headed to Jerusalem, for He had just predicted (Luke 9:22) that he would suffer and die and rise again there. He went in mercy and love for people, including Samaritans who were rejecting Him; and He rebuked His own disciples for wanting to destroy the Samaritans. He wanted “followers,” but not those who would just say in an emotional moment that they would follow Him anywhere, or those who kept looking back to past people and past events. Family and friends were still important, based on other Scriptures, but Jesus and His way was a transforming way that meant sacrifice, but also new life and new joy in trusting Him.

The Old Testament lesson for people at St. James, Lafayette, is the alternative, Exodus 12:1-13, the story of the Passover Lamb. God was going to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt and to a new life in a Promised Land. The escape involved the sacrifice of a lamb, which would protect them, and judgment for their enemies; and they were to were trust the Lord and be ready, at any moment, to leave and be rescued. This event was prophetic of the coming sacrifice of Jesus, God’s own Son and “the Lamb of God, Who would take away the sin of the whole world” (John 1:29) - as Jesus also predicted in our Gospel lesson.