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Episodes
Weekly sermons and Bible studies led by a retired pastor of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Episodes
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
The Scripture readings for this week cause us to think about our lives and what we are really focusing on as important. The Psalm is Psalm 100. The author is filled with joy, gladness, singing, thanksgiving, praise, and blessing, as he enters God’s house, because he remembers the goodness and steadfast love of God, who created His people and continues to care for them as His precious sheep.
In contrast, in Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, and 2:18-26, the author of Ecclesiastes, most likely Solomon, is cynical and sees, even as king, a lot of “unhappy business” and vanity in life, like trying to catch the wind. He works hard and yet what he has built might go to someone who is a fool. There is much sorrow, and his heart cannot find rest. Yet he knows that only the hand of God can give him enjoyment and wisdom, as he seeks again to trust in and please Him.
In the Gospel lesson, Luke 12:13-21, Jesus warns about “covetousness” and focusing on the “abundance of one’s possessions.” He then tells a parable of a rich man who finally thinks he has “ample goods laid up for many years” and can just relax and enjoy himself. He was a “fool,” for he died that very night. “So it is,” Jesus said, for anyone who “lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
How can we be “rich toward God?” Our Epistle lesson, Colossians 3:1-11 tells us that by “setting our minds” on “Christ, who is our life” and our guarantee of our eternal future in heaven. Even in this life, “Christ is all and in all” believers, and He can help us live with our “new self” in Him and battle the old, sinful things in our lives that are hurtful to us and others, as we await His “appearance in glory.”
The alternative Gospel lesson, for St. James, is Luke 23:26, 32-46, where we hear of how God’s plan of salvation was completed for us by the work of Christ on the cross. He prayed for the forgiveness of all our sins and earned that forgiveness for us by His sacrificial death in our place. Then, because His mighty resurrection was coming, He could also promise to the criminal and to all us who trust in Him, “You will be with me in Paradise.”
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
As last week’s study closed, Paul quoted from Genesis 15:6: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Galatians 3:6). What does that mean? What Paul wrote later in his Letter to the Romans, Chapter 4, helps us to understand, as he quoted the same passage there, in Romans 4:3, and then commented that someone who works for wages expects to be paid. His wages are not a gift, but are what is due to him or her. He has earned that pay (Romans 4:4).
In contrast, in the spiritual realm, with regard to salvation, a person should not try to earn salvation by doing good works, but simply “believe or trust in Him (God) who justifies the ungodly.” That “faith or trust is counted as righteousness” for people, no matter who they are (Romans 4:5).
What Paul says here just does not sound right to our human reason and way of thinking in this world. It used to be said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” The common perception is that you only get what you have earned and deserved and paid for. (That thinking may be changing, in a culture where people think they deserve a break and deserve more and more for themselves, regardless of their actions. But in general, people still think they should work and earn for themselves in some way if they are capable of doing so.)
In the spiritual realm with God, that will not work, Paul is saying. Go back to Galatians 3, verse 10. Paul writes, “All who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law and do them.’” This is a quotation from Deuteronomy 27:26, and in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, there is a long list of curses and judgments coming even for God’s Old Testament people of Israel if they sinned and rebelled against God’s will. And from what we just read, they would have to do it all correctly to be acceptable to God.
This is a message found throughout the Bible. See, for example, James 2:10-11: “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.’”
See also what Jesus says in Matthew 5:21-22 and 27-28. Who of us has never broken these commandments of God, in the ways that Jesus says are still sins? Hear also what is said in James 3:2: “For we all stumble (sin) in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect person, able to bridle his own body.” Who among us is really that perfect?
See also the story in Mark 10:17-22, where a man asks Jesus what he must do “to inherit eternal life.” Jesus talked about keeping the commandments and then challenged the man about wise use of his “great possessions,” showing him that he was trusting in possessions too much, instead of trusting God. The disciples, who seemed to think that it was always a sign of blessing and favor with God to be very wealthy, asked Jesus, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus answered very bluntly, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God” (Mark 10:23-27). Imagine that! It is impossible for us to be saved by our efforts and work to please God, no matter how hard we try.
That is exactly what Paul was trying to teach the Galatian Christians as he wrote to them. If they listened to and followed the false teachers, who had given them a bunch of new laws to follow to be a "genuine" Christian, then they were doomed. They would have to keep all these laws perfectly. One failure - and they were unacceptable and condemned as sinners. And who is perfect? No one, according to God’s standard, if they tried to please God by the good things they did. (See Matthew 5:48.)
So Paul said, in Galatians 3:11, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by (keeping) the law,” because the law says, “The one who does them shall live by them” (Leviticus 18:5, Galatians 3:11-12). And who does that, all the time?
Paul is saying that we need to give up on trying to save ourselves by our good works and efforts. That will never work. We need to trust God and what he can do for us, for as Jesus said, “With God, nothing is impossible,” for our salvation (Mark 10:27). Or as the Genesis quotation said, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Galatians 3:6). Abraham was declared and counted as a righteous man simply by faith, by believing God Himself and His promises, and not by doing his own works of the law.
And this was a promise not just for Abraham, but for all people who live by faith in God and especially in the work done for us by Christ Jesus. His work saved us, not our work. Paul said, “Know then that it those of faith who are the sons of Abraham,” as well. For God was preaching this Good News, this Gospel, to all people, including non-Jews, when he said to Abraham, “In you, (in your descendant, Jesus) shall all the nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8). “So then,” Paul said, “those who are of faith (in Jesus) are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:9, 12-14).
Trusting in Jesus and His saving work is enough, Paul is emphasizing. Everyone who trusts in Him is counted as righteous. That is true of the Galatian Christians and that is true of us, as well. Any sin of ours curses us, but Jesus has “redeemed us” (paid the price to rescue us) “from the curse of the law.” What good news for us all!
There is much more that Paul says, in Galatians and Romans, about this, and we will continue on in weeks ahead. Keep reading in Galatians and Romans 4, if you have time. The Lord’s blessings! And keep hoping in Christ alone and what He has done for you!
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
Thursday Jul 28, 2022
Sermon for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered July 7, 2013
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
The Scriptures this week encourage us to pray with confidence as we approach our Lord in our prayers. The Old Testament lesson is from Genesis 18: (17-19) 20-33. The Lord had revealed that He would destroy the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham hoped to have his nephew, Lot, and family spared, though they lived in Sodom.
Abraham asks if it is fair to destroy the righteous with the wicked and bargains with God in prayer about how many righteous people there need to be for the city to be spared. He gets the number down to 10 righteous people, as God is very patient and merciful to him. Sadly, there are not even 10, and we hear later that the cities are both destroyed, but God in His mercy does save Lot and his two daughters, as angels drag them out of Sodom (Genesis 19).
The Psalm is Psalm 138. David knows that God is full of “steadfast love and faithfulness.” God’s Word is true, so he can call upon Him and trust His “ways.” He remembers not only to ask in prayer, but to thank the Lord again and again. David says, “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me” with His everlasting love.
In the Gospel lesson, Luke 11:1-13, a disciple asks Jesus to teach His followers to pray. As He had already done (see Matthew 6:9-12) Jesus taught again a portion of what we call the Lord’s Prayer, the model prayer for our own praying. We pray to our heavenly Father (v.2,13), glorifying His Name and His Kingdom, and asking Him to keep on giving us what we need, day by day, and giving us the greatest gift, the forgiveness of our sins. As we are forgiven, we ask help to forgive one another and to have help in avoiding and battling temptation. Jesus then teaches us to be persistent and almost “impudent” (shameless) in asking and seeking and knocking in prayer, as little children sometimes do with parents, “Daddy, daddy, mommy, can we?… can we?” As parents who love our children, we try to do the best for them, but we often fail and are “evil,” with a sinful nature. Our heavenly Father gives us the great gift of the Holy Spirit, who brings us to faith in Jesus through the Word and baptism, and seeks to keep us in that faith, through Word and Sacrament.
The Epistle continues readings from Colossians - this week, Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19). When we were “dead in our trespasses…" God made us alive in Christ and forgave us all those sins and cancelled the record of all our wrongs and indebtedness toward Him. All our failings have been “nailed to the cross” along with Christ and forgiven by His death and resurrection for us. We now “abound in thanksgiving” in our prayers and ask the Lord to help us “walk in faith” in Christ and “hold fast to the Head,” our heavenly Father, and “grow with the growth” that comes only from Him.
The alternate Gospel reading for St. James is Matthew 4:3-11, the story of the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness. Where God’s Old Testament people failed in the wilderness and we have failed in our own lives, Jesus did everything right and followed His Father’s will in a perfect way, here and throughout His life. He knew and trusted the Word of God and used it to battle the devil and win victory for us. “Jesus then preached the Kingdom of God” and how we can enter it only through faith in Him, as a gift, and what he has perfectly done for us.
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Tuesday Jul 19, 2022
Last week, we heard Paul laying the foundation for all he would now say to the Galatian Christians. He reminded them that no one, Jew or Gentile (non-Jew), could be declared “righteous” by works of the law, but only by faith in Jesus Christ, by the grace of God. The Jerusalem Council had clearly said that, and Paul knew that was true from what Christ Himself had revealed to him.
He could not “rebuild” a salvation based also on additional works of the law. In fact, he had died to his old life, centered in the law; and Christ, the Son of God, loved him and was crucified for him and now lived in him. If Christ had not done enough for him and he had to add to what Jesus did, then he would be saying that Christ had died for no real purpose, or at least did not accomplish enough fully to save people (Galatians 2:14-21).
As Chapter 3 of his letter began, Paul made some strong statements about the Galatians and gave a series of questions to make them think. He first called them “foolish” in their thinking. Jesus had used the same term for those who would not believe that He had to die for them and rise again, according to God’s saving plan revealed in the Old Testament (Luke 24:25-27). On another occasion, Paul would say that this plan to save by Christ’s death and resurrection might seem like “foolishness” to skeptical Jews who wanted more signs and proofs and to Greeks and other Gentiles who thought that their own human wisdom was superior to this “foolish” plan. In spite of that, Paul simply did what he was to do and preached “Christ and Him crucified” before the eyes of the Galatians (Galatians 3:1). (See also 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:2.)
Paul had spoken the simple truth to the Galatians. He had likely used, in his teaching, the story found in Numbers 21:4-9, when God’s people had rebelled against Him and poisonous snakes were beginning to bite them, and they were dying. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. If the people would look on that bronze serpent, they would live and not die, even if bitten.
Jesus then used this story in teaching Nicodemus in John 3:13-14 that He, the Son of Man, would be lifted up on the pole of the cross, that “whoever believes in Him” and his saving death and resurrection “would have eternal life” (Galatians 3:1). (See also John 3:16-18.).
It was the false teachers, the Judaizers, who had later come and “bewitched” the Galatians by adding additional requirements that they supposedly needed to do for "real" salvation. What Jesus did was not enough, these false teachers were claiming, and the Galatians were believing these additional ideas of what was really needed for salvation.
Paul then asked the Galatians to think back to when they first came to faith. Was it by Paul having them do a bunch of “works of the Old Testament law?” Or was it by the Holy Spirit working simply through what they had heard about Jesus and bringing them to believe in Him and, as we will hear later, receiving the gift of baptism? The Galatians would hopefully not have been “so foolish” as to have forgotten that they came to faith by the Spirit’s power, through the Word of God about Jesus (Galatians 3:2). (See again the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:1-3 and 2:8-10, 12, and 14. See also 1 Corinthians 12:2-3.)
Paul went on to ask, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). The Galatians would remember, reminded by Paul, that they had come to believe through the message about Jesus by the miracle of faith that the Holy Spirit had worked in them and by some other miracles that happened, even though there was persecution from Jewish groups, especially aimed at Paul and any who followed him (Galatians 3:4-5).
See also Acts 14, again, where the joys of people coming to faith in Galatia are described, along with “signs and wonders” by the Spirit’s power, and some severe persecution at times. All along, though, Paul and others “preached the Gospel… strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:3, 19, 21-22).
Notice that more than once, Paul contrasts “hearing with faith” and “works of the law.” He clearly focuses on “hearing” the Good News of Jesus and trusting Him as the way to salvation - and not our doing many other “works of the law” in addition. He asks the Galatian believers if they feel they are now “being perfected by the flesh.” The “flesh” means our own human nature, in the Scriptures, and often is a reminder that our nature is a fallen, sinful human nature, ever since Adam and Eve’s fall into sin.
Paul is asking, do you think that your nature is being perfected by the new rules and regulations being required by the Judaizers, including being circumcised? Do you think that you are more likely to be saved by doing all these additional things? Getting the people to think about all this will hopefully get people ready for what Paul will be discussing next.
Paul ended this section by quoting one more Scripture, from Genesis 15:6: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” He will say much more about this passage in what we look at next week, in its context in Genesis. On what basis was he “counted” as a righteous man? Why is this important? What would this mean for non-Jews who came to believe, also? Finally, what does Paul mean when he says that “those of faith are also sons of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7).
Keep reading ahead, if you have time, for more understanding. The Lord’s blessings on your week.
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
Sunday Jul 17, 2022
Sermon for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered June 30, 2013
Thursday Jul 14, 2022
Thursday Jul 14, 2022
The Scriptures this week remind us to keep listening to the Word of God. That is also a key reason for regular worship - to hear and receive that Word. The Old Testament lesson is from Genesis 18:1-10a, (10b-14). Abraham and Sarah had been promised a child from the Lord, from whose line of descendants all people would be blessed - through the coming of Jesus. Years went by and nothing happened. Abraham and Sarah seemed to ignore God’s Word and tried to provide a child by their own ideas and power. When the Lord came again, with two angels, and renewed the promise of a child, Sarah laughed at what seemed impossible, as Abraham himself had done a year earlier (Genesis 17:17). Yet the Lord fulfilled His Word to them, and Isaac was born.
In the psalm, Psalm 27:(1-6) 7-14, David knows that the Lord is “his Light and his salvation.” He prays that he may always be able to come to “the house of the Lord” to “seek the face of the Lord” and be “taught” by Him. He encourages all of us: “Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
In the Gospel lesson, Luke 10:38-42, Jesus comes to the home of Martha and Mary. Martha is very busy in preparing to serve Jesus, but Mary just sits and listens to Jesus. Martha is upset with her sister. Jesus reminded her (and us) very simply, “Martha, you are anxious and troubled by many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” May we take time to listen to the Word, too!
The Epistle lesson continues a reading from Colossians 1:21-29. Paul encourages early Christians to “continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel that you heard.” The Gospel centers in Christ and what He has done for us and His continuing to live in us, as the Hope for our future glory in heaven. “Him we proclaim,” Paul says. He and His Word are what we need to keep hearing about.
The alternate Gospel reading being used at St. James is Matthew 3:13-17. The One promised from the line of Abraham and Sarah is Jesus, as clearly proclaimed at His baptism. The Triune God is at work. Jesus was being baptized to “fulfill all righteousness” - to do everything needed by us, but in a perfect way, for which we get the credit and blessing. The Father spoke from heaven and said of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Are we always pleasing to God? Obviously not!. Yet we get the credit for what Jesus did, in our place.) The Father repeated the same thing at the transfiguration of Jesus. He added the message of our readings today: “Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5)! May we keep listening! The Holy Spirit also came upon Jesus in the form of a dove to strengthen Him for His ministry and to battle temptations coming and for dealing with the cross He would later bear in our place, that we might be forgiven and counted acceptable to Him.
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Last week, we heard of Paul’s confrontation with Peter because Peter was backing down on the freedom of the Gospel, in Christ (Galatians 2:11-14). That problem was resolved, and then Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, in Syria (Acts 12:25). We now need to review a little more history in the Book of Acts before we continue with Galatians 2.
The Holy Spirit communicated to prophets in Antioch that Saul (Paul) and Barnabas were to be sent out on a missionary journey to share the Gospel with as many people as possible (Acts 13:2-3). This, the first of Paul’s three missionary journeys recorded in Acts, probably lasted from about 46-48 AD. You can read about it in Acts 13:4-14:28.
During this journey, Paul and Barnabas visited areas of the Roman province of Galatia (part of the country of Turkey, today) and established churches, gatherings of believers, most likely in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. They then returned to Antioch in Syria and rejoiced that God “had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”
Those Jewish Christians who thought that all people should be circumcised and follow Old Testament laws were still around, though. Some of them went all the way to Galatia and visited the churches that Paul and Barnabas had started. They stirred up trouble and said that Paul was wrong in saying that faith in what Jesus had done for them was enough for salvation. Some also came to Antioch in Syria and insisted that all Gentile believers had to be circumcised and follow other Jewish laws. Paul and Barnabas challenged and debated them, and finally a delegation of believers, including Paul and Barnabas, was sent to Jerusalem to a meeting of all leaders to discuss this dispute. This “Jerusalem Council” happened about 49 AD (though some date it a little later).
You can read about this, again, in Acts 15, with the Judaizers, Pharisees, and the “circumcision party” insisting, “unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1-6). There was “much debate,” but Peter and James and finally the whole Council agreed that “we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” They asked that Gentile Christians avoid a few things that were especially offensive to Jewish Christians, but they did not have to be circumcised or keep all the old Jewish rules (Acts 15:6ff).
It was likely soon after this that Paul wrote his Letter to the Galatians. He could not go back to Galatia right away, as he and Barnabas were to keep working in Antioch in Syria, which was becoming a strong church and a base for more missionary outreach. Paul’s letter would be his defense and clear proclamation of the Good News of salvation purely by the grace of God through faith in Jesus (Acts 15:30-35). This was likely the first of Paul’s letters that we have preserved in the Scriptures.
Go back now to Galatians 2:14. Paul affirmed what was said at the Jerusalem Council. If Jews could not do everything expected in the Old Testament laws, how could they require non-Jews to do all these things that they could not do? Instead, they all had a new freedom in Christ, now that He had come as their Savior. (See again Peter’s words in Acts 15:7-10.)
Paul went on to write, in Galatians 2:15, that Jews had great privileges in knowing God’s will and expectations for them in the Old Testament. The problem was that they still never could or would keep and obey that Law as they should have. They could not be “justified by the works of the law,” no matter how hard they tried, since they were still sinners, falling short of God’s Law, His expectations (Galatians 2:16). Three times in this one verse, Paul says the same thing. (“A person is not justified by works of the law… not by works of the law… by works of the law no one will be justified.”) Salvation could only come by faith in Christ Jesus and all He did perfectly for them.
It is important also to remember that the word “justified” was a legal term, a courtroom term, in the ancient world. A judge or a jury needed to “declare” someone “justified” or “not guilty.” The commentator, Lenski, says, “The sense is 'to declare righteous' and never 'to make righteous.'" The sense is not that in Christ we “become righteous” and are now good enough and capable enough that we can now please God by what we do and can do enough to make ourselves fully acceptable to God. That can never happen by our works of fulfilling God’s law.
That is the problem whenever we say that it is Christ’s work, plus our work that we do, that really saves us. But that is what the false teachers, the Judaizers, the circumcision party, were trying to tell the new Christians in Galatia and in other places. They were being told that they must also become “Jewish” in terms of being circumcised and doing other things according to old Jewish laws and ceremonies.
Paul responded more to these false ideas in the verses that follow. In Galatians 2:17, he asked, “What if we are trying, as Christians, to do the right things and still find ourselves to be sinners? Does that mean that Christ is implicated in our sin, and is somehow a 'servant of sin?'" “Certainly not!” Paul says, very strongly.
We are not “made perfect” by Christ, but are “counted” or “declared perfect” and acceptable in God’s eyes, simply through what Jesus has already done for us. We try to follow God’s moral law, as Christians, but we do not lose our salvation by failing and sinning, at times; and we bring those sins to Jesus for His forgiveness, already earned for us.
In addition, Christ has already freed us from many of the old Jewish ceremonial laws. (See Mark 7:18-19 and Romans 14:2-6, 14, and Colossians 2:16-17, for example.) It is not a sin if we eat pork or do some work on a Saturday or even are not circumcised - which would have been sins under Old Testament Judaism.
So, in Galatians 2:18, Paul said, “If I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.” We are sinning if we teach people that it is sinful to do things that God Himself has said are acceptable in the New Testament. Paul could not go back and change what God clearly said was OK in the New Testament, the New Covenant God gave His people. It was also sinful to add our own requirements for salvation to what Jesus has already said and done for us.
In Galatians 2:19-20, Paul went on to say that he had died to his old life, under the curse of the law, and Christ now lived in him, as he now lived by faith in Christ, the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. It was by the sacrifice of Christ for him on the cross that Paul had been declared justified, forgiven and not guilty.
Paul’s efforts added nothing to Christ’s completed work for his salvation, purely by His saving grace and work for him. If Paul’s ultimate justification depended still upon his own efforts to fulfill the law in his own life, then Christ’s work was incomplete, and “Christ died for no purpose.” If we still have to depend on more that we need to do to be saved, then our eternal future is always uncertain and in jeopardy. Our confidence is simply in God’s grace, His undeserved love and favor for us, and in what Jesus has done for us.
Paul said much more about this that we will see as we continue to look at Galatians. What he talks about is at the center of our Christian faith. I will try to explain more as best I can, using other Biblical examples, too, but in a simple and concise way, though it may not seem like it. (Martin Luther’s commentary on just the first four chapters of Galatians is 416 pages long in its English translation!)
The Lord’s blessings, as you study Galatians and think about these things. Just try to follow the Word of God.
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Tuesday Jul 12, 2022
Sermon for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost, based on:
Sermon originally delivered June 23, 2013
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
Wednesday Jul 06, 2022
The Scripture readings for this Sunday center around love for our neighbor, in response to God’s love for us, first given to us. The Old Testament lesson, Leviticus (18:1-5) 19:9-18, specifically says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” and gives a number of examples of how a person might show such love. Several times God also says, “I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord.” We seek to love, in response to Him, our Lord, who first loved us.
The Psalm is Psalm 41. It has similarities to Psalms 38, 39, and 40, all psalms of David, in times of trouble. These psalms complete the first “book” or set of psalms, which ends with the blessing: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen!” In Psalm 41, David admits that he is poor and weak, and his own sin has contributed to his problems. Yet the Lord has sustained him “on his sickbed;” and he prays that the Lord would also be gracious to him and “Heal my soul.” He still has enemies, though, and even “a close friend” who turns against him. (This passage is quoted by Jesus in John 13:18, regarding what Judas would do, betraying Him into death.)
In the Gospel lesson, Luke 10:25-37, a teacher of the Law asks Jesus, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus asks him what he thinks, and the man quotes passages from the Old Testament about loving God and loving one’s neighbor, including the passage from Leviticus 19 in the OT reading. Jesus agrees and says, literally, ”Keep on doing this, and you will live.” The expert in the Law must sense that he does not always do this and tries to lessen what Jesus says by asking, to justify himself, “And who is my neighbor, whom I am to love?” Surely there are limits on such love! Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man is robbed, beaten, and left for dead along a road. A priest and Levite come by and avoid any contact with the man who needs help. Only a hated Samaritan helps, in a very generous way, and offers to do more. Then Jesus asks not "who is the neighbor" but "who is being a neighbor." Even the lawyer knew it was the Samaritan, an enemy who actually gave help. Jesus said again, “You go and keep on doing likewise.”
The Epistle lesson is from Colossians 1:1-14. The reality is that none of us keeps doing good and loving God and our neighbor all the time. We are all sinners, who fail often and cannot ever do enough to be able to inherit eternal life on our own. We cannot qualify ourselves. That is why Paul emphasizes so strongly what God the Father has done for us through the perfect love and life of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. “The Father has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His Beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
The alternate Old Testament reading that St. James will use is Daniel 6:1-24, the story of Daniel being delivered from the lions’ den. Daniel had certainly sought to love and serve his neighbor by being the best leader he could be for King Darius and his people. Daniel also loved the One True God and kept praying to Him, even when he was to pray only to King Darius himself. Daniel was caught and thrown into a den of lions as punishment. King Darius respected him so much, though, that he hoped that Daniel’s God could save him - and God did! Daniel was one more in the line of prophets preparing the way for Jesus. While Daniel was rescued, Jesus was not and willingly died on the cross - and only then rose in victory to qualify us to receive the gift of eternal life through trust in Him.