Good morning. Well, my back yard is almost ready for our June 20th celebration of my in-laws 50th Wedding anniversary. We will have 30 people at the house for a pig roast. Should be a fun time. And just think, in just over two months verse two of our Psalm will come true, “You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands.” Our tomatos and other fruits will be coming up about then. Hopefully.
But the Psalm is talking about more than gardens. “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.” When we do that, then we shall see the fruit of our labor. Following the Lord has it’s benefits. The Lord will watch over us. The Psalmist goes on to list a few of those blessings, a fruitful wife, lots of children. Those were seen as great blessings at the time, long life as well, “May you see your children’s children.” There are many blessings from the Lord.
In our Old Testament lesson this Balaam guy just appears out of no where. He’s not mentioned previous to Numbers 22. And yet, he appears to be working with the One true God. When Moab wants Balaam to curse Israel, Balaam has to check with God first. Balaam has a reputation of his blessings and curses coming true and that is the sign of a true prophet. And so far, Balaam listens to God and obeys the rules.
It’s Maundy Thursday and our Lord Jesus is celebrating the Lord’s Supper with the disciples. “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Why? Probably because Jesus knew He had a very special gift for the disciples. He had a new sacrament for them, a new way to receive God’s gifts. This is Jesus’ Last Will and Testament. He is giving them His true body and blood in the bread and wine. He is giving them forgiveness and life and salvation. When you have gifts for someone, you can’t wait to give them away.
But this wonderful event has it’s sadness with it because Jesus knows He is going to be betrayed and crucified. But this too is a good thing becasue He is dying for the people so sin, death and Satan can be destroyed.
Thank you Lord Jesus for your Supper and your life.
So, remember your parents asking, “What? Do you think I’m stupid?” We just don’t seem to respect our parents or their intelligence sometimes, especially teenagers. Well, it’s the same with God. “Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear?” Of course, it was our Lord who gave us sight. Of course, He sees what is going on. The Lord knows our every thought. He knows everything that’s going on. Yet so often we think we know better. The Lord knows what’s best for us. He will not forsake us. He will not abandon us. He will take care of us.
Sometimes I just don’t understand. This story needs to be read all at once, not broken up the way it is here. In verse 20, God tells Balaam to go with these men. But then in verse 22 it says that God was very angry with Balaam for going. But God told him to go. I’m not an Old Testament scholar, but here is my guess, Balaam has up to this point only ever said what the Lord wanted him to say. And that’s a good thing. But, the king of Moab who really didn’t want the people of Israel parking at his doorstep, was willing to give Balaam ANYTHING to curse these people. Did God know that Balaam would cave if he wasn’t warned through this whole donkey insodent? That’s my theory. God had to reinforce his point with Balaam.
Jesus tried to do the same thing with Peter. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.” Jesus tries to warn Peter of what is going to happen. In fact, He does tell him that he is going to deny Him three times. And He’s right. But Satan wanted more of Peter. Maybe Satan wanted Peter the way he had Judas. Can you imagine losing two disciples? But God was not going to let that happen. Remember the Psalm? The Lord will not forsake or abandon. He’s not going to leave Peter alone. Even while Peter is denying the Lord, our God is with him and protecting him from Satan. That, my dear friends, is awesome.
Stick with the Lord. He’s going to stick with you.
I like Psalm 1. I find the progression in the first verse interesting. There is a progression to sin. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the cousel of the wicked,” don’t walk near sin. It will draw you in. “Nor stands in the way of sinners,” okay, now we aren’t just walking near it, we are standing by it. It has caught our attention and we have stopped. We are letting it soak in. “Nor sits in the seat of scoffers,” and now sin has totaly absorbed us. We are sitting with it. We are comfortable with it. It has us. That’s why Paul says, “Don’t give Satan a foothold.” Because once sin enters our actions, we get so comfortable with it.
Instead our delight should be in the law of the Lord. The way to avoid sin is to meditate day and night on the law of the Lord: on His Word. If we are in the Word, if our focus is on the Word, if we are filling our head with the Word, then we can’t be sinning. And we will be like the tree planted by the stream that constantly waters it and helps it yield fruit. The Word produces fruit in us. Like I said, this is a great Psalm.
So the story of Balaam continues. Twice more Balaam blesses Israel. I love Balaam’s comment to Balak, “I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord.” In adult Confirmation, we were discussing a few issues and stances of the LCMS, women in the ministry and another one. They didn’t understand why we would not allow women to be ordained. I explained that St. Paul was very clear on women and authority in the church and that we should not go beyond the word of the Lord. But life has changed and situations are different and while I agreed that there are many women with great talents and abilities but that we had a clear word from the Lord and we could not go against it. I may disagree with it, but I can’t go against it.
In Luke, we see Jesus before Pilate, Herod and Pilate again. Three times Pilate says he finds no guilt in Jesus. Dah, He is the sinless son of God. He is guilty of nothing. But God’s plan has to be played out and Jesus has to die for our sin. You can’t read this passage and then go out and sin. I think that’s why they have paired Psalm 1 with this passage. The scribes and Pharisees were sitting in the seat of mockers here. They are so entrenched in sin that they don’t see that this is God’s only Son who has come to save us and they are the very people who should have seen that.
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. How do you preach a sermon on Trinity when the word isn’t even found in the Bible? I’ve been running this through my head for two weeks now and its not coming together. It will be interesting to see where this ends up Sunday.
I agree with you about Psalm 1. I really like it. I was interested in your comments about women and the church. I know this selection isn’t about that, but you brought it up. Having been brought up WELS, LCMS seems pretty liberal to me as far as what women can and can’t do. WELS is much more restrictive. It would be interesting to have a Bible study or discussion on this topic some time. For instance – why does WELS say that Paul’s words mean that women can’t vote, be on boards, usher, be the principal of a school, etc. while LCMS allows these things. Something I’ve always wondered about.
I knew I shouldn’t have used that illustration here. Because if there is one topic that is going to upen up a whole can of worms its the role of women in the church. And with 95% of the content of the class last night being of the femail persuasion — I should have just known to keep my mouth shut. I’ll learn one of these days. (You should know that I was smiling and basically joking the whole time I wrote this paragraph. More tongue and cheek than anything else)
Because this is a topic better discussed in person, face to face, I will simply answer it with a paragraph found on the LCMS website. I know it doesn’t directly address the WELS/LCMS differences, but it does explain a little the LCMS stance.
Q. Why are women not allowed to become ministers in the Missouri Synod?
A. The LCMS believes that those Scripture passages which say that women should not “teach” or “have authority” in the church (see, for example, 1 Cor. 11 and 14; 1 Timothy 2) mean that women ought not hold the authoritative teaching office in the church–that is, the office of pastor. Women are allowed to hold other offices in the church, as long as these offices do not involve the one holding them in carrying out the distinctive functions of the pastoral office. The involvement of women in non-pastoral aspects of the worship service (for example, reading the lessons, etc.), is left to the judgment of individual congregations. In 1994, the Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations prepared a report on “The Service of Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices” which is helpful in this regard. Nearly half–over 9,000–of the Synod’s professional, full-time church workers are women (serving in such offices as teacher, deaconess, director of Christian education, etc.). At its 2004 convention the Synod adopted Resolution 3-08A affirming the conclusions of this report
For more information, see the Commission on Theology and Church Relations 1985 report “Women in the Church: Scriptural Principles and Ecclesial Practice.”
This is an interesting Psalm to choose to put together with a passage of Jesus’ crucifixion. I also find verse eight to be interesting, “Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.” I didn’t think God needed a resting place. But the author seems to think He does. But it is also interesting that the ark of the covenant is mentioned in connection with God’s annointed, i.e. Jesus. The ark of the covenant represented God’s presence among His people. And Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Interesting (yeah, I know I’ve use that word a lot now).
But again, the Psalm is prophesy that God will send His Son through the line of David. And we see that fulfilled in the Gospel lesson for today.
The theme of the day is death. God is preparing Moses for his death. “You also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was.” But there is also the matter of Moses’ replacement. It’s interesting that Moses brings this up, and not God. But it is God who names the successor, “Joshua the son of Nun.” It’s interesting that Joshua has no father and that Jesus (who was called Joshua by His mother has no earthly father). It’s also interesting that God instructs Moses to, “invest him with some of your authority,” and not all. But we have to remember, look at Exodus 4:16, “He (Aaron) will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.” So Moses has some special abilities and power that he would need to lead those knuckleheads for 40 years. Can you imagine what Moses would have said if God would have told him it was going to be 40 years? But that’s another blog.
Finally, we see the crucifixion of our Lord. It’s amazing to me that through it all, His concern is for everyone else. “Do not weep for me,” “forgiven them,” “today you will be with me in paradise.” It’s all about everyone else.
I never noticed that Luke says, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two,” and then Jesus dies. I thought the curtain was a result of His death, but not according to Luke. However, Matthew says, “At that moment,” as in at the moment Jesus gave up His spirit. It doesn’t really matter. Matthew was there. Luke interviewed people who were there. We would expect Matthew to be more correct.
I know I never really write about the Writing section of the Treasury. But I find it interesting that they include a writing of the account of Martin Luther’s death here. I think it would be wrong to do that during Easter and Good Friday, but here it seems appropriate. I had never read this account of his death before. It doesn’t surprise me that Martin Luther quote the Psalm and Jesus, “Into your hands I comment my spirit.” That’s very appropriate.
The beginning of this Psalm reminds me of Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.” When I was a kid, we had a vacancy pastor who seemed to quote this passage all the time. And when I say all the time, I mean all the time, like in every sermon. So much so that I still remember him quoting it to this day. I have no idea what the point of his sermons were, but I remember him quoting this passage. Basically, the message of the Psalm is that creation itself is proof that God exists and that He is a marvelous God because all that He created is awesome. Our response? To thanks and praise Him for all He has done.
Numbers is self explanatory. Reuben and Gad find this cool land and want to stay there. But it wouldn’t be fair for them not to fight with the rest of Israel. So they promise to fight if they can have this land. Everyone agrees and life is fine.
What can one say about the resurrection? Yeah! Jesus is alive!! And because He lives, we shall live also. I still find it weird that the women return and tell the disciples, but, “these words seemed to them an idle tale.” Why would they make up a story like that? Jesus had been telling them for a while that He would raise. They saw Him raise others! Still, Peter hears them and runs to the tomb. We know John did too. And later in the day, Jesus appears to Peter and then to the 10 in the upper room. It would have been strange to live through that.
Jesus greets these two people on the road to Emmaus. I wish the disciples were named. That would have been more interesting. Oh, I see now that one of them is Cleopas. So, not so interesting. I don’t know him. But it’s interesting that they recognize Him with the breaking of the bread. And then He leaves. That would have been awesome, to have been a witness to Jesus alive again. Absolutely awesome.
MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2009 — MONDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Psalm 128
Numbers 22:1-20
Luke 22:1-23
Good morning. Well, my back yard is almost ready for our June 20th celebration of my in-laws 50th Wedding anniversary. We will have 30 people at the house for a pig roast. Should be a fun time. And just think, in just over two months verse two of our Psalm will come true, “You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands.” Our tomatos and other fruits will be coming up about then. Hopefully.
But the Psalm is talking about more than gardens. “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.” When we do that, then we shall see the fruit of our labor. Following the Lord has it’s benefits. The Lord will watch over us. The Psalmist goes on to list a few of those blessings, a fruitful wife, lots of children. Those were seen as great blessings at the time, long life as well, “May you see your children’s children.” There are many blessings from the Lord.
In our Old Testament lesson this Balaam guy just appears out of no where. He’s not mentioned previous to Numbers 22. And yet, he appears to be working with the One true God. When Moab wants Balaam to curse Israel, Balaam has to check with God first. Balaam has a reputation of his blessings and curses coming true and that is the sign of a true prophet. And so far, Balaam listens to God and obeys the rules.
It’s Maundy Thursday and our Lord Jesus is celebrating the Lord’s Supper with the disciples. “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Why? Probably because Jesus knew He had a very special gift for the disciples. He had a new sacrament for them, a new way to receive God’s gifts. This is Jesus’ Last Will and Testament. He is giving them His true body and blood in the bread and wine. He is giving them forgiveness and life and salvation. When you have gifts for someone, you can’t wait to give them away.
But this wonderful event has it’s sadness with it because Jesus knows He is going to be betrayed and crucified. But this too is a good thing becasue He is dying for the people so sin, death and Satan can be destroyed.
Thank you Lord Jesus for your Supper and your life.
TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2009 — TUESDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Psalm 94:8-14
Numbers 22:21-23:3
Luke 22:24-46
So, remember your parents asking, “What? Do you think I’m stupid?” We just don’t seem to respect our parents or their intelligence sometimes, especially teenagers. Well, it’s the same with God. “Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear?” Of course, it was our Lord who gave us sight. Of course, He sees what is going on. The Lord knows our every thought. He knows everything that’s going on. Yet so often we think we know better. The Lord knows what’s best for us. He will not forsake us. He will not abandon us. He will take care of us.
Sometimes I just don’t understand. This story needs to be read all at once, not broken up the way it is here. In verse 20, God tells Balaam to go with these men. But then in verse 22 it says that God was very angry with Balaam for going. But God told him to go. I’m not an Old Testament scholar, but here is my guess, Balaam has up to this point only ever said what the Lord wanted him to say. And that’s a good thing. But, the king of Moab who really didn’t want the people of Israel parking at his doorstep, was willing to give Balaam ANYTHING to curse these people. Did God know that Balaam would cave if he wasn’t warned through this whole donkey insodent? That’s my theory. God had to reinforce his point with Balaam.
Jesus tried to do the same thing with Peter. “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.” Jesus tries to warn Peter of what is going to happen. In fact, He does tell him that he is going to deny Him three times. And He’s right. But Satan wanted more of Peter. Maybe Satan wanted Peter the way he had Judas. Can you imagine losing two disciples? But God was not going to let that happen. Remember the Psalm? The Lord will not forsake or abandon. He’s not going to leave Peter alone. Even while Peter is denying the Lord, our God is with him and protecting him from Satan. That, my dear friends, is awesome.
Stick with the Lord. He’s going to stick with you.
THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2009 — THURSDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Psalm 1
Numbers 24:1-25
Luke 23:1-25
I like Psalm 1. I find the progression in the first verse interesting. There is a progression to sin. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the cousel of the wicked,” don’t walk near sin. It will draw you in. “Nor stands in the way of sinners,” okay, now we aren’t just walking near it, we are standing by it. It has caught our attention and we have stopped. We are letting it soak in. “Nor sits in the seat of scoffers,” and now sin has totaly absorbed us. We are sitting with it. We are comfortable with it. It has us. That’s why Paul says, “Don’t give Satan a foothold.” Because once sin enters our actions, we get so comfortable with it.
Instead our delight should be in the law of the Lord. The way to avoid sin is to meditate day and night on the law of the Lord: on His Word. If we are in the Word, if our focus is on the Word, if we are filling our head with the Word, then we can’t be sinning. And we will be like the tree planted by the stream that constantly waters it and helps it yield fruit. The Word produces fruit in us. Like I said, this is a great Psalm.
So the story of Balaam continues. Twice more Balaam blesses Israel. I love Balaam’s comment to Balak, “I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord.” In adult Confirmation, we were discussing a few issues and stances of the LCMS, women in the ministry and another one. They didn’t understand why we would not allow women to be ordained. I explained that St. Paul was very clear on women and authority in the church and that we should not go beyond the word of the Lord. But life has changed and situations are different and while I agreed that there are many women with great talents and abilities but that we had a clear word from the Lord and we could not go against it. I may disagree with it, but I can’t go against it.
In Luke, we see Jesus before Pilate, Herod and Pilate again. Three times Pilate says he finds no guilt in Jesus. Dah, He is the sinless son of God. He is guilty of nothing. But God’s plan has to be played out and Jesus has to die for our sin. You can’t read this passage and then go out and sin. I think that’s why they have paired Psalm 1 with this passage. The scribes and Pharisees were sitting in the seat of mockers here. They are so entrenched in sin that they don’t see that this is God’s only Son who has come to save us and they are the very people who should have seen that.
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. How do you preach a sermon on Trinity when the word isn’t even found in the Bible? I’ve been running this through my head for two weeks now and its not coming together. It will be interesting to see where this ends up Sunday.
Have a blessed day.
I agree with you about Psalm 1. I really like it. I was interested in your comments about women and the church. I know this selection isn’t about that, but you brought it up. Having been brought up WELS, LCMS seems pretty liberal to me as far as what women can and can’t do. WELS is much more restrictive. It would be interesting to have a Bible study or discussion on this topic some time. For instance – why does WELS say that Paul’s words mean that women can’t vote, be on boards, usher, be the principal of a school, etc. while LCMS allows these things. Something I’ve always wondered about.
I knew I shouldn’t have used that illustration here. Because if there is one topic that is going to upen up a whole can of worms its the role of women in the church. And with 95% of the content of the class last night being of the femail persuasion — I should have just known to keep my mouth shut. I’ll learn one of these days. (You should know that I was smiling and basically joking the whole time I wrote this paragraph. More tongue and cheek than anything else)
Because this is a topic better discussed in person, face to face, I will simply answer it with a paragraph found on the LCMS website. I know it doesn’t directly address the WELS/LCMS differences, but it does explain a little the LCMS stance.
Q. Why are women not allowed to become ministers in the Missouri Synod?
A. The LCMS believes that those Scripture passages which say that women should not “teach” or “have authority” in the church (see, for example, 1 Cor. 11 and 14; 1 Timothy 2) mean that women ought not hold the authoritative teaching office in the church–that is, the office of pastor. Women are allowed to hold other offices in the church, as long as these offices do not involve the one holding them in carrying out the distinctive functions of the pastoral office. The involvement of women in non-pastoral aspects of the worship service (for example, reading the lessons, etc.), is left to the judgment of individual congregations. In 1994, the Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations prepared a report on “The Service of Women in Congregational and Synodical Offices” which is helpful in this regard. Nearly half–over 9,000–of the Synod’s professional, full-time church workers are women (serving in such offices as teacher, deaconess, director of Christian education, etc.). At its 2004 convention the Synod adopted Resolution 3-08A affirming the conclusions of this report
For more information, see the Commission on Theology and Church Relations 1985 report “Women in the Church: Scriptural Principles and Ecclesial Practice.”
FRIDAY AFTER PENTECOST — JUNE 5, 2009
Psalm 132:8-12
Numbers 27:12-23
Luke 23:26-56
This is an interesting Psalm to choose to put together with a passage of Jesus’ crucifixion. I also find verse eight to be interesting, “Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.” I didn’t think God needed a resting place. But the author seems to think He does. But it is also interesting that the ark of the covenant is mentioned in connection with God’s annointed, i.e. Jesus. The ark of the covenant represented God’s presence among His people. And Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Interesting (yeah, I know I’ve use that word a lot now).
But again, the Psalm is prophesy that God will send His Son through the line of David. And we see that fulfilled in the Gospel lesson for today.
The theme of the day is death. God is preparing Moses for his death. “You also shall be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was.” But there is also the matter of Moses’ replacement. It’s interesting that Moses brings this up, and not God. But it is God who names the successor, “Joshua the son of Nun.” It’s interesting that Joshua has no father and that Jesus (who was called Joshua by His mother has no earthly father). It’s also interesting that God instructs Moses to, “invest him with some of your authority,” and not all. But we have to remember, look at Exodus 4:16, “He (Aaron) will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.” So Moses has some special abilities and power that he would need to lead those knuckleheads for 40 years. Can you imagine what Moses would have said if God would have told him it was going to be 40 years? But that’s another blog.
Finally, we see the crucifixion of our Lord. It’s amazing to me that through it all, His concern is for everyone else. “Do not weep for me,” “forgiven them,” “today you will be with me in paradise.” It’s all about everyone else.
I never noticed that Luke says, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two,” and then Jesus dies. I thought the curtain was a result of His death, but not according to Luke. However, Matthew says, “At that moment,” as in at the moment Jesus gave up His spirit. It doesn’t really matter. Matthew was there. Luke interviewed people who were there. We would expect Matthew to be more correct.
I know I never really write about the Writing section of the Treasury. But I find it interesting that they include a writing of the account of Martin Luther’s death here. I think it would be wrong to do that during Easter and Good Friday, but here it seems appropriate. I had never read this account of his death before. It doesn’t surprise me that Martin Luther quote the Psalm and Jesus, “Into your hands I comment my spirit.” That’s very appropriate.
SATURDAY AFTER PENTECOST — JUNE 6, 2009
Psalm 97:6-12
Numbers 32:1-6, 16-27
Luke 24:1-27
The beginning of this Psalm reminds me of Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.” When I was a kid, we had a vacancy pastor who seemed to quote this passage all the time. And when I say all the time, I mean all the time, like in every sermon. So much so that I still remember him quoting it to this day. I have no idea what the point of his sermons were, but I remember him quoting this passage. Basically, the message of the Psalm is that creation itself is proof that God exists and that He is a marvelous God because all that He created is awesome. Our response? To thanks and praise Him for all He has done.
Numbers is self explanatory. Reuben and Gad find this cool land and want to stay there. But it wouldn’t be fair for them not to fight with the rest of Israel. So they promise to fight if they can have this land. Everyone agrees and life is fine.
What can one say about the resurrection? Yeah! Jesus is alive!! And because He lives, we shall live also. I still find it weird that the women return and tell the disciples, but, “these words seemed to them an idle tale.” Why would they make up a story like that? Jesus had been telling them for a while that He would raise. They saw Him raise others! Still, Peter hears them and runs to the tomb. We know John did too. And later in the day, Jesus appears to Peter and then to the 10 in the upper room. It would have been strange to live through that.
Jesus greets these two people on the road to Emmaus. I wish the disciples were named. That would have been more interesting. Oh, I see now that one of them is Cleopas. So, not so interesting. I don’t know him. But it’s interesting that they recognize Him with the breaking of the bread. And then He leaves. That would have been awesome, to have been a witness to Jesus alive again. Absolutely awesome.