Preparing for Worship - September 7, 2025

The Old Testament lesson for this Sunday is Deuteronomy 30:15-20. The Lord begins with His blessings - life and good - that He is bringing to His people, as He guides them into the Promised Land by Joshua. He has already promised, just before this passage, that “the Word (of God) is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” The Lord calls His people then to love Him and walk in His ways and commandments, for that is the way to life and blessing. The Lord also gives a strong warning from His Law not to turn away and refuse to hear His Word and worship other gods and serve them. That is the way of death and curses. God repeats again the way of life - loving Him and obeying His voice and holding fast to Him alone because of His love first for them. (This is the consistent way and message of our Lord. He forgave and clothed Adam and Eve after their sin. He called Abraham to be the father of a nation from whom our Savior Jesus would come. He raised up Moses and then Joshua to lead and guide His people with His Word. Before He gave the 10 Commandments, He spoke of His mercy for His people: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Only then did he give His root Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:1-3). He had said much the same thing before, too. See Deuteronomy 11:26-28. “To go after other gods” was the root problem. And Moses prays to a merciful God who had “redeemed” this people. Deuteronomy 9:26ff.)

The psalm is Psalm 1. “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the Law, the Word of God.” He is like a tree planted by the Lord with plenty of nourishing water, and not like the wicked, those apart from the Lord, who eventually are like “chaff” and driven away. “The Lord knows the way of the righteous” who worship the true God and trust Him and hope for the coming Savior, Jesus.

In the Gospel lesson, Luke 14:25-35, Jesus sees great crowds following Him and calls them to what one commentator, William Arndt, calls “total dedication.” Jesus is to be more important than our own family or our own lives. He uses the word “hating” our family and ourselves. In the context of other Scriptures, Arndt says that “hate” simply means to “love less.” Jesus says in Matthew 10:37, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy  of Me.” (See Matthew 10:34-39 and Genesis 29:31,33, for example.) “Bearing our own cross" does not mean suffering in general but suffering because we are followers of Jesus. Jesus also calls us to realize the possible cost of following Him in this way. There can be a constant struggle against the forces of evil and a willingness to lose everything for the sake of our Lord. Jesus also calls His disciples “salt” here and in Matthew 5:13 and Mark 9:50. As followers of Jesus, we are intended to be useful for the sake of others, too, and not to become followers in name only and worthless to others. (Ideas here come largely from Arndt’s Commentary on Luke.)

Paul teaches a practical application of these words of Jesus, as he writes in his letter to Philemon, in our Epistle, Philemon 1-21. (Philemon lived in Colossi, and this letter was delivered to him at the same time as the letter to the Colossians. See Colossians 4:1, 7-9.) Paul was “bearing his own cross” for Christ, being in prison in Rome because of his Christian faith and witness. While in prison, Paul had met and become “a father in faith” for Onesimus, a runaway servant of Philemon, who had come to Rome and now had also become a Christian believer. The name “Onesimus” means “useful,” but Onesimus had not been useful to his master, Philemon, but had run away and maybe had done some damage to Philemon in the process. Now, as a believer in Rome, though, Onesimus had been a valuable help to Paul. Paul does the right thing, though, and sends Onesimus back to his master, Philemon, along with this letter. Philemon could do whatever he wanted with his runaway servant - punish him severely, or worse. Paul appeals, though, to Philemon’s own Christian faith and valuable service to Paul and others in the church in Colossi. Paul describes this in Philemon 1-7. Paul then appeals to Philemon to send Onesimus back to him in Rome to continue to help him there while he was still in prison. Onesimus had been useless as a runaway slave, but now he had become very useful to Paul, and above all, had become a brother in Christ to both Paul and Philemon. Onesimus could be of real “use,” real “benefit” to Paul, if he was allowed to return to Paul in Rome as a free man, not a “bond servant.” (Paul still works through the ancient systems of his time, but shows how slavery could be broken down by Christian faith and love and unity in Christ, who died for all and cares about all. See other passages, such as Galatians 3:26-29, 1 Corinthians 7:21-23, and Romans 15:3-7.) Finally, know that our Lord calls for “total dedication” on our part, but He also knows who we are, with a sinful nature in a very sin-filled world. We try to do His will, but we too often fail. We don’t go running after false answers and ideas and false gods, though, but confess our sins and trust our merciful God, through Jesus our Savior. In His mercy is our hope.