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[00:00:00] Good morning St. Paul Luther Church. It's a Sunday drive to church podcast Pastor wolfmuller here on June 22, year of our Lord 2025, the second Sunday after Pentecost, the first Sunday in what sometimes we call Ordinary time. I think we'll talk about that a little bit today in Bible class on the church here. And as we finish up our liturgy Bible class, Jonathan has moved into putting the stained glass window pictures on the bulletin cover. So make sure, especially if you have children, well, all of you really, but especially the children, make sure that you point to the picture and have them find it in the window. That'll be a lot of fun. Here's the collect which has this picture of pouring out and pouring in so that it's like your heart is a cup and it's full of sin and evil desire and those are cast out and then in place is poured in the Holy Spirit. It's a beautiful prayer. Lets pray. O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding.
[00:01:06] Cast out all sins and evil desires from us and pour into our hearts your Holy Spirit to guide us into all blessedness through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
[00:01:20] Amen.
[00:01:21] All right, our liturgy is Divine Service 3, page 184, which is great. Our opening psalm is the morning Psalm 3, right next to Psalm 4, which is the evening psalm.
[00:01:32] It's quite nice that the psalms start this way. You have really Psalm 1, which is the kind of preface to the book of Psalms, the wisdom that comes from the word of God. Psalm 2 is the great psalm of Christ, where you are my son today have begotten you. And it talks about Zion. The kings get together and laugh. I've set my king on my holy hill.
[00:01:55] Beautiful hymn of Christ. And then we have the morning hymn three and the Psalm three and the evening hymn Psalm four. I always diagnose Psalm four for people who have trouble sleeping. I will lay down and sleep in peace. It's beautiful. But Psalm 3, that's what we're talking about now. And it talks about like a lot of the Psalms, it talks about how opposed our Christian life is, how we have enemies.
[00:02:21] I think I talked about this before, that if you don't have enemies, you can't understand the Psalms. Or if you read the Psalms then you understand that you do have enemies, even if you don't know them. You have the world, the flesh and the devil that are after you. And probably lots of Other things. But the Lord is also against our enemies.
[00:02:41] So here's the morning I cried to the Lord. This is verse four. And he answered me from his holy heel. I lay down and slept. I woke again. The Lord sustained me.
[00:02:50] And then arise, O Lord, save me. That's verse seven.
[00:02:54] So we awake and the Lord helps us. And then we pray that the Lord would awake and help us. And I think maybe the theme is here in verse seven. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God. For you strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. So the Lord is after the people who are after us.
[00:03:15] God be praised. The Old Testament lesson is from the very end of Isaiah 66 chapters. There in Isaiah, we're reading from chapter 65, and it's very new heaven and new earthy. Once you get to the end of Isaiah, it's starting to sound an awful lot like the resurrection, especially the kingdom of God as we prepare for the resurrection. I think that the reason this passage was picked is because it pairs so nicely with our gospel text. Okay, so I'll just give you a heads up. The gospel is Luke 8.
[00:03:50] Remember, we're in year three, so we're hearing a lot from Luke. And we'll probably hear from Luke all summer. We're going to be listening to Luke preach. This would be a good time to do a nice review of the Gospel of Luke. We're going to hear from Luke 8. And Jesus sails across the Sea of Galilee into the country of the Gerasenes. And the. Remember, the two guys were there. Luke just tells us about one of the demon possessed guys that Jesus rescues. He lives in the tombs and the demons remember going to the pigs. Well, listen to this.
[00:04:21] Isaiah 65. I was ready to be sought by those who didn't ask for me. I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, here I am. Here I am to a nation that was not called by my name. This is the Lord's mercy and kindness for the Gentiles. It says to a people who provoke me to my face, continually sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks, who sit in tombs and spend the night in secret places, who eat pig's flesh and broth of tainted meat in their vessels, who say, keep to yourself.
[00:04:55] So this is a Gentile people who don't seek God and look to God and cry out to God. And the Lord says, I'm ready to rescue you. So I think that connection to sitting in tombs and to eating pig's flesh that is why this is so closely connected to this Sunday in this Gospel lesson. But the Lord is ready to be found, and that's the idea. And he says, I'll bring forth offspring from Jacob and from Judah, possessors of my mountains, my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there. So the Lord says, hey, I'm going to bless you and I'm going to keep you, and I'm going to send the Messiah and he's going to bless you. And also, by the way, all the world Beautiful, our gradual. Two beautiful memory verses from Romans, chapter 10. The word is near, verse 8 and verse 10. The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. The word of faith that we proclaim.
[00:05:48] For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
[00:05:55] Romans 10 is this beautiful discussion from St. Paul about how we can have faith. And he says, those who believe in their hearts and confess with their lips, Jesus as Lord will be saved. But how can you believe in the heart and confess with your lips? You have to first hear. So he says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And how can you hear? Well, someone has to preach. And how do they preach? Well, they have to be sent. And this is where he says, how beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news. So Paul talks about the office of the ministry, the power of preaching, the efficacy of the Word, and how faith is a gift and how we're saved by that faith. That's all right there. It's Beautiful. Romans, chapter 10.
[00:06:40] The Epistle lesson. I'm moving kind of fast because I was trying to go fast last week, and then I looked down when it was done and it was 30 minutes later.
[00:06:49] Whew, that's too much.
[00:06:51] I mean, hopefully traffic's not so bad on Sunday morning, so we'll see how it goes. I'm going to go a little bit faster. Galatians, chapter three. Now, this is normal in the One Year lectionary. This is interesting.
[00:07:04] In the One Year lectionary, this is the text for New Year's Eve, or the eve of the circumcision of Jesus.
[00:07:10] And I remember it because this text is the text of one of Luther's most famous sermons on the proper distinction between law and gospel. It was a sermon that C.F.W. walther, when he wrote the book, the Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel. He basically uses this sermon that Luther preached for, plus his Galatians commentary and a few other things. But he really leans into this sermon and Luther Was going crazy. This is one of my.
[00:07:38] I maybe shouldn't say this, but I'll tell you. Luther was working like crazy. And so he went and he preached this brilliant sermon on this text, Galatians 3, 23, 4 7. And then he walked out of the pulpit there at the St. Mary's Church and he collapsed. He passed out. And they took him home and they kind of nursed him to hell. He was just exhausted. He was preaching every day, teaching every day, going, just going, going, going. So he didn't preach from like New Year's Eve until Lent started. He had to take like two months, three months off. So I'm trying to, you know, it's one of my goals to.
[00:08:13] Luther cracked a couple times. Cfw, Walther cracked a couple times. It seems like the good pastors, they all have a crack or two here and there. So I haven't cracked yet, but I don't even think I've gotten close to cracking. I need to get busy anyhow. It's a beautiful text because of the untils. Never mind. Someone tell Carrie. Make sure she doesn't listen to this. She's trying to keep me from cracking. So Paul says, before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then our law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we're no longer under a guardian. Paul's using the picture of a child in the ancient world. If you had a big estate, you had a tutor, and that tutor was teaching the children of the household and also the children of all of the workers.
[00:09:11] So there would be like, if you imagine a big farm, like imagine the prodigal sons estate. And here's the father, and he's got two sons, but he's got lots of workers. And he's taking care of all these workers, servants and their families. So the sons would have gone to school with the other children of the servants. They would have all gone to school together and they're all under the tutor. But then when the time comes for their graduation, they're no longer under that tutor, under the pedagogue. They now are. Well, they're graduated. And the sons take over the management of the estate while the servants move into their different offices of service. So they have the same teacher. But there's an until, there's a graduation.
[00:09:51] And this is an important concept for Paul and for our understanding of law and gospel, is that there's an until of the law, the Pedagogue. The teacher has the purpose of bringing us to graduation so that we no longer need the teacher. And the same is true for the law. It has the purpose of bringing us to Christ.
[00:10:12] But when Christ comes now, we're no longer under it says it in the text. We're no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.
[00:10:22] So the law has an until it has a point that it's pushing to. To show us, well, what God's will is and to show us that we haven't kept his will so that we know that we need salvation in Christ.
[00:10:35] And then when Christ comes, the law has done its work so that it can no longer condemn you.
[00:10:42] There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That's how Paul starts his Beautiful Romans, chapter 8.
[00:10:49] There's no condemnation for you. Now. The law can still do its other work, can keep things in order. It can tell you how to love your neighbor, but it can't do that accusing work. Not for you. It can't judge you. It's not its job.
[00:11:03] In this great sermon that Luther preaches on that I should find it, because I wrote an essay at some point, we published a book of essays for our Professor Pless, and in that book I wrote an essay on this Luther sermon, the proper distinction between law and gospel, and spent a couple of months just working on this great Luther sermon. It was so much fun. One of the things that he talks about in there is that the law always wants to do more than it should.
[00:11:29] So the law has a job, and that is to show you when you sin. But the law thinks, hey, if I can show you when you sin, then I can judge you because of your sin. But that's not the law's job. Jesus is judge. And so you have to say to the law, hey, just do your job and don't do more than that. Don't get carried away here, buddy. You can tell me when I sin, but to determine if I'm guilty or innocent, to determine if I'm holy or not, to determine if I'm going to go to heaven or not, that's not your job, buddy. That job belongs to Jesus. And he's got other criteria that he keeps in mind. Not just my obedience to the law, but also his suffering and death. That's why we have hope.
[00:12:10] It says this.
[00:12:12] I mean, there's so much in this text that the heir, this is what Paul, he talks about. This picture that we talked about, the heir, that means the son of the householder, the heir, as long as he's a child, is no different from a slave, though he's the owner of everything. But he's under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.
[00:12:29] In the same way also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born under woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, you and I, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father, so you are no longer longer a slave, but a son.
[00:12:57] And if a son, then an heir through God.
[00:13:01] That is so good you are no longer a slave. We always want to be God's slaves. This is our temptation.
[00:13:07] I'm not worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants. All these years I've worked for you, slaved for you, done everything you asked.
[00:13:16] We always want to be God's slaves. And he says no, I don't want slaves, I want sons, I want children, I want heirs. I'm going to adopt you. I'm giving you my name. That's why baptism is in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
[00:13:29] So we no longer come to God as slaves, servants, but as children. Now you say. But hold on, hold on, Pastor. There's lots of times that Paul, for example, St. Paul, will call himself a servant of God. What's going on there? I thought you said he didn't want servants. Well, according to our vocations, we are servants of God and of each other.
[00:13:48] But according to our baptism, we are children.
[00:13:52] So I'm a servant of God for your sake, to bring the word of God to you. So the Lord has called me into his service and I'm his man. And now he's given me this job to bring the word to you. God be praised. It's great. What a great calling. But anyway, this is what the Lord has given to me to do. And so I'm according to my office as pastor, I'm God's slave. Also according to my office of husband and of father, and pretty soon grandfather, I also am bound to serve those people that the Lord has given me. So I'm also a servant to carry in the kids. And this is a call of service.
[00:14:30] But according to my baptism, I am not God's slave or servant. I am his son.
[00:14:35] See the difference?
[00:14:37] So according to our vocation, we serve, but according to our faith. According to our being Christian, we are servants, we are sons. We are not servants, we're children of God. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God. And such we are.
[00:14:58] Then we get to the gospel.
[00:15:01] Oh, the alleluia verse is from the gospel.
[00:15:05] It's what Jesus says to the man, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. The story is again of Jesus sailing with his disciples over to Gerasene.
[00:15:14] And there's a guy over there who's been living in the graveyard. He's naked.
[00:15:20] He's possessed by this legion of demons.
[00:15:27] The old books tell us that a legion in Rome was 6,000 soldiers. Pew.
[00:15:35] So he would break chains.
[00:15:37] They tried to put him in shackles and keep him under guard, but he would break the chains. Wow.
[00:15:44] Jesus says, what's your name? And he said, legion. How amazing. Okay. It's an amazing thing that here the devil wants us to claim him as our identity.
[00:15:55] He would have us speak on his behalf.
[00:16:01] Ay yai yai. It's going to be amazing that Jesus is going to take this mouth of this man that's been co opted by the devil and is going to purify it and set it free and now send him to speak of all the things that he's done.
[00:16:19] But these demons have an idea that bad things about to happen to them. In fact, in Matthew it says, are you here to destroy us before the time?
[00:16:30] It's an amazing indication that the demons know that the judgment day is on the way. They're not so excited about that. And they see Jesus and they're like, wait a minute, we weren't expecting this so soon.
[00:16:41] They said, could we go to the pigs? Okay. So they all left the man and went into this herd of pigs. Shows you how many demons they are and they go plunging over the hill. Which also shows you when what the devil wants to do. He's a murderer.
[00:16:56] And from the beginning he was a murderer.
[00:16:59] And he can't stand any gift of God, including life. And so he goes to, as soon as he's in the pigs, blah, he murders the pigs.
[00:17:07] And then the herdsmen, the pig herders go and tell everyone what happened. And they come and they run out to see what's going on and they found.
[00:17:17] I'll read verse 35. The people went out to see what had happened and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demon had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.
[00:17:28] And what was the result? This is amazing.
[00:17:31] They were afraid.
[00:17:33] And those who had seen it told them how the demon possessed man had been healed. And all the people of the surrounding country of the garrisons asked him to depart from them. So Jesus cast out the demons, and then they cast out Jesus.
[00:17:46] This is servile fear. This is not the fear that the Lord wants us to have. Because the fear that the Lord wants us to have would be. Stay, please stay. But this is a terror. Depart from me. Ah, we don't know what to do with you. We were more comfortable. Can you imagine? The people of the Gergesenes were more comfortable with this man who was breaking chains and living naked in their graveyard.
[00:18:09] They were more comfortable with that than Jesus. And this man healed.
[00:18:13] Boy, if there's not a lesson there, how we can accommodate ourselves to the demonic and to the wicked in this world.
[00:18:22] So Jesus leaves, But the man wanted to go with him.
[00:18:26] The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him.
[00:18:30] I imagine he says, hey, look, if you leave me alone, how am I going to keep this from happening again? I'm not strong enough on my own.
[00:18:40] But Jesus is going to prove his divinity in this command. Return your home and declare how much God has done for you.
[00:18:47] So now you're no longer preaching Legion, but you're preaching Christ and telling all the people all that Christ has done.
[00:18:54] And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. So that even if Jesus leaves, how about this is pretty cool. The people are afraid of Jesus. And he says, okay, fine, I'm not going to be here to preach myself, but I am going to leave you a preacher.
[00:19:08] And the preacher is going to be this man who was so troubled and terrified, he's now going to be your preacher boy. Oh, boy, is that something.
[00:19:18] Our hymn is this Rise, shine you people. It's a pretty new hymn. It just says the year that the guy was born. So I wonder if he maybe still is alive. The second stanza really matches with what we're talking about, but you remember the first. Rise, shine you people. Christ the Lord has entered our human story. God in him is centered. He comes to us by death and sin, surrounded with grace, unbounded. Then see how he sins. The powers of evil reeling.
[00:19:50] He brings us freedom, life and light and healing. All men and women who by guilt are driven now are forgiven.
[00:19:59] Ronald a. Klug, born 1939. He'd be pretty old today.
[00:20:05] Tell how the Father sent his son to save us.
[00:20:08] Tell of The Son who life and freedom gave us tell how the spirit calls from every nation his new creation, so that just like the man rescued in the story, we also are rescued and now telling all the good things that the Lord Jesus has done for us.
[00:20:27] Pretty good. Pretty good, Pretty good. And there's a lot of kind of demon hymns. That's probably another way to talk about them. But during the distribution away from us, the demon cried, praise the one who breaks the darkness. Your hand, O Lord, in days of old. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. So we're singing about how the Lord has victory over the world and our flesh, and most especially the devil. Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal.
[00:20:53] That's the first hymn.
[00:20:55] There might be something to say about that. I hadn't thought about it, but let's see how we're doing on time. How fast did I go? Are you guys there? Pulling up. 20 minutes.
[00:21:04] Look, if you would have asked me, I would have said that was about three minutes.
[00:21:08] Jesus has come and brings.
[00:21:11] You guys are like, no, Pastor, that is not three.
[00:21:15] Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal. Alpha, omega, beginning and end, Godhead, humanity, union, supernal. O great Redeemer, you come as our friend heaven and earth. Now proclaim his great wonder. Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal.
[00:21:30] That's fantastic.
[00:21:32] There's a. Oh, yeah, here it is. Jesus has come now see bonds rent asunder. Fetters of death now dissolve, disappear. And then the devil. On Stanza 3. Jesus has come as the mighty redeemer. See now the threatening, strong one disarmed Jesus breaks down all the walls of death's fortress, Brings forth the prisoners triumphant unharmed. Satan, you wicked one own now your master, Jesus has come. He the mighty redeemer. We should not miss it when the hymns do this switch. And instead of singing to God, we're singing to the devil, like in God's own child. Satan, hear this proclamation. I'm baptized into Christ. There's a few times when our hymns will teach us to curse the devil, and that'll be part of it in the third stanza for opening hymn. Satan, you wicked one, own now your master Jesus has come. He's the mighty redeemer. And this is the wisdom of God being made known to the demons through the church. That's Colossians, chapter two. How marvelous. All right, all right, all right. Bible class is on the liturgy. I think we'll finish today, Lord willing, and maybe even start leaning into our Augsburg Confession study.
[00:22:47] Although we'll have to see how far we get in the liturgy stuff. We might do a little bit of Q and A after that. And I think this week is a pretty normal week, so. God be praised for the gifts that he gives in his word. May he grant us his spirit and his wisdom which comes down from above. See you soon.
