Pentecost XIV
Here is the handout from Bob and Cathy Mattson for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
From Luther’s Prayers
Dear God, in this command you teach me to keep your name excellent, bright, and holy. I am not to curse, swear, lie, or deceive by it. Nor shall I seek my own honor and name, but humbly call upon your name, worship you, praise and glorify you. Let me boast and glory in that you are my God, and I am your poor creature and unworthy servant. Amen.
From Luther’s Small Catechism
The Second Commandment
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.
What is this?
We are to fear and love God, so that we do not curse, swear, practice magic, lie, or deceive using God’s name, but instead use that very name in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give thanks to God.
Gospel: Luke 14:1, 7-14
1 On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely.
7 When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 ”When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
12 He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid.
13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. 14 And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
What does this mean?
Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. (Psalm cx. 2)
That is not among your friends, not in the midst of roses and lilies, but in the midst of thorns and foes I have appointed your rod. And thence it follows that all who want to serve God and follow Christ must suffer much disappointment and pricking, as Christ Himself says, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulations, but in me alone is peace’. Thus it is ordained by God and will not be otherwise; Thy reign shall be in the midst of thine enemies. And whoever will not suffer this will not be found in the kingdom of Christ. He wants to be in the midst of friends, to sit among lilies and roses and not live with wicked people but with saints.
O, you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done as you are doing, who would ever have been saved? He emptied Himself of His Godhead, His piety, and His wisdom, and He desired to be with sinners, that He might make them full; yea, and He took them to Himself, and did not wish to have to do with the spiritually minded, the pious, and the just. And what are we doing? The very opposite. You are unwilling to hear your brother’s sin, and load yourselves with your own justification and wisdom, but Christ emptied Himself of His own justice and wisdom and burdened Himself with the sin and iniquities of others. Behold, how faithfully you follow Christ!
The children of God do not flee the company of evil men, rather do they seek it that they may help them. They do not want to go to heaven alone, they want to bring with them the greatest sinner, if they can.
Exposition of Psalm cx, 1518. [W.A. I. 606] via Day by Day We Magnify Thee p. 314.
