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Psalm

122

 

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD!" Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem - built as a city that is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD. There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! "May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!" For my brothers and companions' sake I will say, "Peace be within you!" For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good. (ESV)

Nice Service, Pastor

Friday of Pentecost 18

5 October 2012

Often when people greet me at the door of the church after divine service they will say, "Nice service, pastor." I always took this to mean "Good sermon." Despite the easy confusion between "sermon" and "service," maybe I am still overestimating my preaching skill. The confusion between "service" and "sermon" might be appropriate given the fact that we should see the intricately interwoven relationship among the sermon, the propers, and the ordinaries in the divine service. The people of Martin Luther's time, instead of saying "Let's go to mass (service)," said, "Let's go to sermon." They thought of the proclamation of the Word as the center and focus of the whole service's activity. How right this is. The whole was known by its most important part.

 

The greatest service to God which could be rendered is the hearing of the Word of God. It is a strange form of service; it is a service that benefits us more than it benefits Him. When we hear the Word of God in the service, we receive all the divine benefits it confers on us. Yet, many souls neglect this Word of God, to their own harm. Humans have an enormous capacity for self-immolation; like the diabetic who declines to take his insulin because it is painful and inconvenient to do so. The results of such neglect are not good. Yet we do it. This service, if neglected, will separate us from the love of our God and the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. The results of such neglect are not good.

 

This Word of God is always applied in the "now" (Rm 3:21, 26; 2Co 6:2) of our lives, through which the Word of God is new every morning (Lam 3:23). It is new when we come to hear it this Sunday. It deals with the problems of the today into which it is preached. It is an old Word, as old as God, but it is a new Word because it is ever new to us. Its ancient grounding makes it a sure foundation. Its present applicability makes it immediately useful and consoling. It responds to our need today, just because it is the Word of our God, delivered to us by the messengers that He sends. This is a great comfort to preachers, because they are not trying to refresh or gussy up the Word of God for the hearers because the divine Word is delivered into the eternal now every time it is delivered.

 

The service of the church is nothing other than the delivery of the Word of God in word and song, chant and prayer, sermon and readings. Every moment it is applicable and may well resound within us as the living and active Word of God; healing some deep hurt, comforting a soul troubled by weakness, salving a conscience seared by depravity, leading the heartbroken back to fields of joy, and assuring of eternal salvation. How could we not come to service to hear it, say it, sing it, recite it, and finally live in it? Of course it is a "nice service, pastor."

 

Martin Luther

 

"It would be beneficial if we could accustom people to understand that when they say they are 'going to sermon' this means 'going to divine service,' and that preaching means serving God, and that all who are assembled together are assembled in real and high service of God. Just as in former times the beloved apostles and ancient fathers expressed it (and it is from them the expression came and remained to this day), we say 'go to mass' and 'hear mass,' as the pope himself strictly commanded in his decree that everyone should 'hear' mass every Sunday.

 

"No one has the custom of saying 'I am going to see a mass,' but rather 'I am going to hear a mass,' and this really means the same as to go to divine service and hear preaching or God's Word, which is the best and most necessary part of the mass, not as the pope does with his secret sacrificial masses in which there is no preaching nor hearing of God's Word, especially in that part which they consider the greatest and is called the canon of the mass. For the little word 'mass,' which appears to have been taken from the apostles, means in Hebrew the equivalent of a tribute or required labor, as a peasant or tenant brings his lord his portion, that is, his due tribute or service, or serves his lord, thus acknowledging him to be his lord and rendering his obedience. So here too they said, 'I am going to mass,' or 'to hear mass,' as much as to say, 'I am going to give or pay God his tribute and present and perform his service in the highest and most acceptable service.' Therefore, to hear mass means nothing else but to hear God's Word and through it to serve God."

 

Martin Luther, Sermon on the Sum of the Christian Life

 

Prayer

O Lord, our creator, redeemer, and comforter, when we worship You, we humbly pray that You would open our hearts to the preaching of Your Word so that we may repent of our sins, believe in Jesus Christ as our only Savior, and grow in grace and holiness. Hear us for His sake. Amen.

 

For those who make their living in the building trades, that they would be safe and successful in everything to which they set their hands

 

For President Brian Friedrich, the faculty and staff of Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska, that the Lord would support them in their callings

 

In thanksgiving to God for the gift of pleasant weather, that we might rejoice in the gifts of His creation

Art: D�RER, Albrecht  The Adoration of the Trinity (1511)

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