7.7.24 Sunday Drive to Church

[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. This is a Sunday drive to church for July 7, year of our Lord, 2024, the 7th Sunday after Pentecost. Pastor Wolf Muller here you're driving to church and thanking the Lord that there's no traffic. I hope that's how it is, praying that that problem would be solved, that we would have more traffic on the way to St. Paul Lutheran Church on Sunday morning. This is. We're deep into our Sunday sermon. Wait, we're deep into our summer Sundays. That's what I want to say. Where we're working our way through the gospel of Mark, mostly thinking about the church and the life of the church in the miracles of Jesus. But interestingly, today is the Sunday of the few miracles, which is it's interesting moment in the ministry of Jesus. He goes from Capernaum, probably Jairus House, where he healed the daughter, raised her from the dead, and then he goes back to Nazareth, his own hometown, and can hardly perform any miracles there because of the unbelief of the people. So we'll think about that as we think about this text. Beautiful scriptures and music ready for us today. But let's begin with the collect of the day. [00:01:12] There's a line in this collect that I think shows up in a number of collects, I'm not sure, but it's so familiar. Maybe it's because it's so stark. That's this line that your almighty power is made known chiefly in showing mercy. I think that line comes into a number of collects and prayers in the church. [00:01:36] And I imagine it's probably from a famous church. Father, I just don't, I don't know it. Maybe I could track it down. But it's a beautiful thought that the Lord's power is seen not in his power, but in his mercy. [00:01:53] His glory is seen in his humility. [00:01:57] His strength is seen in his weakness. [00:02:01] We in fact have that as the last line of our epistle lesson not to get too far ahead of ourselves. Two corinthians twelve. When I'm weak, then I'm strong, my grace. My power is made perfect in weakness. That's reflected in this prayer. Your almighty power is made known chiefly in showing mercy. Well, here it is, the whole prayer. [00:02:23] O God, your almighty power is made known chiefly in showing mercy. [00:02:29] Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we may be called to repentance and made partakers of your heavenly treasures through your son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. [00:02:45] Looking first at our psalm. Psalm 123 is a really interesting psalm. I hope you'll have some time before the service to take a look at it. [00:02:55] It's a psalm about. Where are your eyes? In fact? Eyes. Eyes. Eyes, eyes. There's four times eyes. And then mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. So this. It's just a quick four verse psalm. So I'll read the whole thing, but you can hear it. It's a prayer about where we're telling the Lord where we're going to put our. How we're going to fix our eyes on him. [00:03:20] To you. Verse one. To you. I lift up my eyes. O you who are enthroned in the heavens, behold, as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid servant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, o Lord. Have mercy upon us. For we have had more than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease. The contempt of the proud. Amen. So this is. It's a. It's a lord. I'm. We're looking to you like the manservant to his master, like the maid servant to her mistress, like. Like the worker to their boss, like the parent to the children to the parents. We're looking at you, and we're gonna look to you till you have mercy. Until you deliver us. And then the Kyrie. Oh, Lord, have mercy upon. Have mercy. Have mercy. A beautiful, beautiful psalm. And while we're in the hymnal, the hymn of the week, hymn of the day, O Christ, our true and only light, is a marvelous hymn. I don't know if I'd really paid that much attention to it. [00:04:34] I kind of looked at the words until I was looking at them this week. [00:04:38] We know that faith comes through hearing and hearing by the word of God. We know that faith is God's work in us, that conversion is God's work, that turning us from death to life is his, that we confess that we cannot, by our own reason or strength, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or come to him, but that the Holy Spirit calls us and guides us and enlightens us. And that enlightening work of God is what this hymn is about. That the Lord is the one who comes and enlightens the darkness of our minds and our hearts and our lives. And the words of the hymn, it's almost like it just makes a list of all of the weaknesses and failings and darknesses and deaths that we have. And talks about how the Lord is the antidote to each one of them. So for example, O Christ, our true and only light. Enlighten those who sit at night. Let those afar now hear your voice and in your fold with us rejoice. So the Lord brings light to those who sit in darkness. He brings near those who are far off. Here's the second stanza. Fill with the radiance of your grace. The soul's now lost in error's maze. So you're lost and now you're found. [00:05:55] You're in the confusion of error. Now God's grace is made known. Enlighten those whose inmost minds some dark delusion haunts and blinds. So our minds are darkened. The Lord is the light. Oh, gently call those gone astray. So we've gone astray, we're called back, that they may find thy saving way. Let every conscience soar, oppressed in you find peace. In heavenly rest, so the oppressed conscience finds peace. You see how it's like every problem that we have, Jesus is the antidote to that problem. Shine on the darkened and the cold. Recall the wanderers to your fold. Unite all those who walk. Apartheid. Confirm the weak and doubting heart that they may, that they with us may evermore. Such grace with wondering. Thanks, adore and endless praise to you be given by all your church in earth and heaven. [00:06:46] So it's kind of like our conscience is troubled. Jesus is our peace. We're lost. Jesus finds us, we're dark. Jesus lightens us, we're dead. Jesus gives us life. We're sinful. Jesus forgives us all the problems. The solution is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's a beautiful hymn. Okay, now I'm into the scripture text. Pairing up. Interesting pairing up the speaking of Jesus in Nazareth and then sending out the twelve. We have the Old Testament pairing, Ezekiel two. [00:07:19] I wonder sometimes if the. [00:07:22] Now this might be impious. [00:07:24] Well, I guess I started. You know how if you, like, go to a super fancy restaurant and they will suggest like, wine pairings for the meals? Like, here's the fish, and they think you should have the Chardonnay to go with the fish or something? I don't actually know what that is, but like there's a pairing so that you can, you can kind of taste the difference. You know, when we had the Cita, the deaf institute a couple of last winter. Pastor Dunseth has made it kind of a habit of his of like, wine tasting. So he did this thing where he went to the store and he got all these different things. Like he got some dried fruit and some chocolate and some pretzels and some other stuff, and, like, four different kinds of wine. And he. And he paired them up. So you'd take the. You'd have a sip of the wine, and then you'd take, like, some chocolate and have another sip. And you'd take. Anyway, I think in some ways, that's how the lectionary committee did this. They're like, what old Testament wine pairs well with this New Testament meal. [00:08:37] So we're reading through the Gospel of Mark, and then they're like, I wonder what passage in the Old Testament pairs well with that. Well, the pairing that they've given us today is Mark six and Ezekiel two. Now, Ezekiel two is the calling of Ezekiel. And it's pretty amazing that the major prophets, these would be the four. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel, all give us an account of their calling into the prophetic office. [00:09:05] The minor prophets sometimes do, but not all of them. But all the major prophets have their calling, and they're normally right up front, like Jeremiah, chapter one. Ezekiel, chapter one and two. It's late in Isaiah. It's Isaiah, chapter six. Holy, holy, holy. Which is interesting that he kind of writes about the beginning, not at the beginning. That's a thing and of itself. But here we are in Ezekiel two. When Ezekiel the priest is called to be a prophet, it's when he sees this vision of the throne of God, the ark of the covenant with wheels, and he's by the river in Babylon, and he sees the vision of the temple. And then chapter two, verse one says, he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak with you. Now, notice this. It's easy to miss, but here God gives the command to Ezekiel. He says, stand on your feet, and then look what happens in verse two. As he spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And I think those two verses are a marvelous illustration of this idea that the Lord is the one who gives us faith. In fact, these two verses were a huge help for me when I was becoming Lutheran, because we see over and over in the Bible the command to believe, the command to repent, the command to follow Jesus. And you think, well, if God gives the command, then that's something that we have to do. But here, look at how God gives Ezekiel the command to stand up. And then the spirit comes and enters in, enters into him and sets him on his feet so that the spirit fulfills the command that God gave to Ezekiel. You see, he said to me, stand on your feet and I will speak with you. And as he spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet. And I heard him speaking to me. Wow. See, how wonderful. And then he calls them to preach. These people have rebelled against me. I send you to them, you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God. And whether they hear or refuse to hear their rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them. So I've stood you up. I've given you my spirit. Now you go and speak. Now. This is also so helpful a place for us to remember that the Lord gives the spirit as he gives the office. [00:11:29] So all of us have the Holy Spirit by virtue of our baptism. How beautiful to have Jeremiah and Sophia's baptism last week. We have the spirit to be, to be christians by our baptism, by the word, by faith. But then when the Lord gives us another calling, he gives us the spirit to do what's needed according to that calling, and especially the calling of preaching the word. That's why we lay hands on pastors when we ordain them. The calling of confessing Christ to the world. That's why we lay hands on the, on the kids when we or whoever, when we confirm them. [00:12:01] It's why it's for the gift of marriage. It's why we had, we laid hands on, on Peter and Hannah on Friday as they were married in the Lord's name before his altar and prayed for the Spirit, for that gift that needed for the office. So the Holy Spirit comes for those gifts of offices as well. We have to pray like Jesus says in Luke, chapter eleven, the Father will give the spirit to all who ask. And we should daily be praying for the Holy Spirit for strength and patience and wisdom and energy to do what we are called to do. Beautiful. Now that Ezekiel text, they want to be paired with Mark, chapter six. So let's see how it does. And then we'll circle back around to the epistle. [00:12:43] Jesus went away from there and came to his hometown. Remember, that hometown is Nazareth. Now, it's not where he was born. He was born in Bethlehem. [00:12:51] But when the holy family fled to Egypt to avoid Herod, when Herod died, they came back. But instead of going back to Bethlehem, they went up to Nazareth hometown, where they started, where Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit, where Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. That's Nazareth. So they're back there, and he begins to teach in the synagogue. And many are astonished. And they say, where did this man get this thing? How are so many mighty works done by his hands? And how come he's not doing these mighty works here? And they say is the carpenter, Mary's son, brother James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, our sisters are right here. And they took offense at him. Rather than rejoicing in them, they take offense. [00:13:34] And jesus says, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his relatives, in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled at their unbelief. I was reading. [00:13:52] Hmm? Who was I reading about this? Christopher Wordsworth. [00:13:57] He made a very interesting note about that little line. He marveled at their unbelief. He says, here we have another indication of the divine inspiration of the holy scriptures, because only the Holy Spirit would know what the Lord Jesus is thinking. [00:14:13] So as his thoughts are unfolded for us in the scriptures, it's an indication that it's a, it's the Holy Spirit who's making these things known. That's pretty nice. So jesus leaves there and he goes about the village teaching, and he calls the twelve and he sends them out two by two, and he gives them authority over the unclean spirits, tells them, at this first mission, don't take anything, just go and house to house, etcetera. So that they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they casted out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. So that, it's kind of an amazing picture, isn't it, that Jesus goes to his hometown and hardly is able to do any miracles. And then the disciples go to all these strange places and they're able to cast out demons and heal people and do miracles. And so the ministry of Jesus is being expanded in the apostolic work of preaching and spreading the good news. That's probably the big picture of this text. Now some people say, how is it that he couldn't do mighty works? Isn't Jesus omnipotent? It's true, he is. He can do whatever works he wants to do, but he comes to bring healing to those who believe. [00:15:27] So there is always, I'm just thinking here, if there's an exception to this, there's always a connection to faith and healing. Your faith has made you well. [00:15:41] Your faith has saved you. Sometimes it's the faith of those who bring their loved one to Jesus, the faith of the friends who lower the man paralyzed, man through the roof. Or the faith of the syrophoenician woman who comes praying for her daughter, I suppose the faith of Jairus, who comes pleading for his daughter as well. [00:16:02] But there's always faith connected to healing, because this is how Jesus wants to be apprehended by us, that we believe his promises, then that is faith, so that when Jesus sees their unbelief, they don't have that gift of being able to receive the things that Jesus wants to give. [00:16:27] Now, this brings us to the epistle lesson. We're also doing this continual reading through two corinthians. [00:16:33] We arrive here in chapter twelve, so skipping through a number of chapters. So if you wanted some homework this week, it might be nice to read through, like, two corinthians, chapter 910 and eleven. [00:16:47] Paul, especially in those chapters, is recounting that it's kind of a catalog of his own suffering. And he had it rough, but he's getting to the end of this long section of. [00:17:00] Well, it's kind of funny because it's a long section of all these terrible things that happened to Paul. I'll read some of them to you. Hold on. [00:17:10] I got to stop doing that. I keep telling you guys to hold on as if you know that time will pass when I pause the recording. Anyway, let me. I'll read you chapter eleven. This is so great because this is. Paul is using this rhetorical device that was common in the ancient world where. Where kings would, like, list their victories. Then I destroyed artaxerxes, and then I went and I captured Babylon, and then I went and I destroyed this wall, and then I went and I built this thing, and they'd have all these lists of accomplishments. Well, Paul's talking like this, except for rather than being a list of actual accomplishments, it's actually a list of times that he was defeated. He says, would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly. This is chapter eleven, verse one. And indeed, bear with me, for I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste version to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Oh, that's a beautiful phrase, the simplicity of Christ. Whenever people, by the way, ask me why I'm lutheran, I say, because the lutheran doctrine confesses the simplicity of Christ. [00:18:20] It's right there. Two corinthians eleven four, verse four. For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a whit behind in the very chiefest apostles. But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you. In all things have I committed myself in abasing myself that ye might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely. And then I'm going to skip down to. I'm going to skip down to verse 16. I say again, let no man think me a fool. If otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast in myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly in the confidence of boasting, seeing that many glory after the flesh, all glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer. If a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalteth himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit wheresoever any is bold, I speak foolishly. I'm also bold. Are they Hebrew? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I'm speaking like a fool. I'm more in labors, more abundant in stripes, above measure, in prisons, more frequent in deaths, often of the Jews. Five times I received 40 stripes, save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck night and a day I've spent on the deep. In journeyings, often in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings, often in hunger and thirst, in fasting, often in cold and nakedness. Besides all these things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of the churches. Who is weak? Am I not weak? Who is offended? And I don't burn. [00:20:30] If I must needs glory, I will. Glory of the things which concern my infirmities. The God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I don't lie in Damascus. The governor under Ardas, the king, kept the city of Damascus with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me. And though a window in a basket, I was let down the wall and escaped his hands. [00:20:53] Now, do you see? This is amazing. Actually, this whole section is just amazing. But Paul here, he says, you want to know how? You want to know how great I am? I'll tell you how great I am. I was one time in Damascus, and the king was trying to arrest me, and I snuck out the wall in a basket. [00:21:11] Who would boast of such a thing? You know how brave Paul is, how strong Paul is, how mighty Paul is. No. How weak Paul is, how lowly Paul is. How. [00:21:24] How. He's nothing. This is. This is it. Now, that's the section, right before the section that we're going to hear tomorrow or no, today, right about now, you're on your way to church. You're about to hear it. [00:21:40] He goes into chapter twelve. He says, I'll go on boasting. There's nothing to be gained by it. I'll go on to visions and revelations. I know a man in Christ, 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven. In the body, out of the body, I don't know. God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows. [00:21:59] And he heard things that can't be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man, I'll boast, but on my own behalf, I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. [00:22:09] Now, this man is Paul, and this was the vision that the Lord gave him on the way to Damascus. [00:22:16] Amazing that the thing he takes credit for is not that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and said, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? But rather that he escaped out of the city in a basket. [00:22:29] So he has this vision, though, and he says now, to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded to the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. So I'll boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so the power of Christ may rest upon me. [00:22:59] This is. [00:23:01] I'm looking at. I'm sitting at my desk at home, and I'm. I'm looking at this note card that's on the wall in front of me that says, my strength is made perfect in weakness. This verse from St. Paul. [00:23:16] And I wrote that card when I was so sick with COVID a couple of years ago. Put it there on the wall. [00:23:28] And it was during the time that I could. I couldn't barely finish sentences. And, you know, my head was all over the place, crazy. [00:23:39] And I feared that I would never be able to preach again or pastor again or serve the Lord in the church again, that all my own strength was gone. [00:23:49] And hear this verse echoed through my mind over and over. [00:23:55] The Lord says, my strengthen is made perfect in weakness. [00:24:02] So that Paul, stunningly, doesn't talk about what's revealed to him in the vision, but rather he talks about the thorn that's given him in the flesh to make sure that that vision doesn't destroy him, but that the Lord keeps him humble. [00:24:22] That's just amazing. Now, this thorn in the flesh is a great comfort for us. Paul doesn't tell us exactly what it is. Some people think Paul was a weak man, short, kind of ugly man. That he was deformed from all of the abuse that he took, that he had bad eyesight, that he was crippled. [00:24:41] I think, by the way, that it's what it says here in the text, a messenger of Satan. [00:24:47] So that the Lord lethem a demon to have particular access to St. Paul, to harass him, so that he had constant demonic oppression, and he couldn't escape it. [00:25:03] And no matter how much he prayed, it stuck with him. And that came to him as a. [00:25:09] Well, he receives it here as a gift from God to keep him from being too elated and to help him in the sanctification or really to help him in the stewardship of the gift of this great revelation. [00:25:20] Well, there's a lot more. Here's how Paul ends this text. There's so much for us to think about. For when I am weak, he says, then I am strong. I'm content with weaknesses. [00:25:32] I'm content with insults. I'm content with hardships. I'm content with persecutions. I'm content with calamities. For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. [00:25:43] That is a profound spiritual wisdom. And we pray that the Lord would give it to us. [00:25:50] All right, Sunday school is going to be on Hebrews. We're into Hebrews, chapter ten. And hitting a particularly difficult section where this is one of the hard parts of Hebrews that made a lot of the early church fathers look at it and say, oh, boy. Not sure what to think about this. So we'll try to wrestle with that tomorrow. God be praised for the baptisms last Sunday. For Peter and Hannah's wedding last week. We look forward to Rachel and Aaron's wedding in the Lord's name this next week. We also received word Saturday that the Lord has called home the soul of our sister, Maxine Burnrudder. And, oh, I have it here. [00:26:32] The Lord gave her 81 years, five months and 26 days in this mortal life. We pray for all those who mourned, all to bereaved. That they would be comforted by the Lord with the hope of the resurrection. I think that's all. I can't wait to see you in a few minutes. God's peace be with.