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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's Pastor Wolfe. This is the Sunday drive to church for August 11, the 10th Sunday after the feast of Pentecost, Vicar Kruger's installation day. A beautiful day today. In fact, I can't, this text, I was just looking at this first kings 19 text and saw something that I had never seen before and I'm still thinking about what it means. It's an amazing thing. Well, we'll get to it all in due time. This is, we're still continuing in our, just to kind of set the context, continuing through our summer season of. We're in Pentecost season in the year b. That means we're really leaning into the stories of Jesus kind of normal miracles in the gospel of Mark. But we've been for a few weeks and even next week we've been in John chapter six. So we picked up on this after we had the feeding of the 5000 in mark. And we're getting the aftermath of that incident in John chapter six. So we continue on in John chapter six, verse 35 to 51. Today Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Twice in the text. I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. And then I am the living bread, which is pretty amazing. Whoever eats of me will not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. And Jesus says to this, amazingly, he's saying it to this is verse 41. The Jews who grumble about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. Isn't this Jesus, son of Joseph? We know his father. How has he come down from heaven? So this is an amazing parallel with the grumbling of the people in the Old Testament and the grumbling here of the people in the New Testament. And still Jesus, like the Lord did in the wilderness, Jesus is feeding them with his own flesh. But okay, more about that later. But let's get started with the prayer of the day.
[00:01:56] The collect is a beautiful trinitarian collect, I think built just for this Sunday. I'm sure whoever wrote it. Whoever wrote it, you know, you write colics, you write poems and you write books, but you rotate colics. I'm sure that's the official term. Brother, oh brother. Whoever wrote this prayer, I think did it specifically for this Sunday and for this text. It's a beautiful trinitarian prayer. And you'll notice the mention of the Father and the SoN and the Holy Spirit, let's pray. Gracious Father, your blessed Son came down from heaven to be the true bread that gives life to the world. Grant that Christ, the bread of life, may live in us, and we in him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
[00:02:46] A beautiful picture, but, you know, the colic's on the front of the bulletin, and so is the picture. And JonathAn's BeEN giving us these beautiful pictures of our own stained glass windows. I was giving a tour of our church to Pastor Andy Packer, who was down here for the digital catacombs two weeks ago. Boy, that seems like a year ago. And he said that as far as he can tell, our windows are the most beautiful windows, stained glass windows in the Missouri synod that he has ever seen.
[00:03:15] And I'm going to take it as an expert advice. I think it's true, and it's this beautiful.
[00:03:22] You'll notice the picture of the Lamb of God holding the staff of victory standing or sitting on the scripture. That's a beautiful thing. And hopefully it's fun to do with the kids, to show them the bulletin and have them find the picture in the window. That's great. Okay, now we're into it. I'm into the service. We're divine service setting four for our summer liturgy. We've got baptism, late service installation for the vicar, early service recognition in the late service. The psalm is psalm 34. And this is an interesting psalm, because at the beginning of the psalm, you know, some of the psalms will give us the context, not all. I think about a fourth of the psalms will give us the context of when they were written. Those contexts are taken out in the hymnal, so none of those little prescriptive notes are in the hymnal. So you gotta get them in your Bible. And it's important to get them, especially on a psalm like this one, psalm 34, which the preface says of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out and he went his way.
[00:04:31] That already is a very interesting note, because it has to do with one Samuel 21. Abimelech was the high priest that he visited, and then he went to the Philistine town of.
[00:04:44] What was the name of the town?
[00:04:48] Ashish.
[00:04:50] No, that's the name of the king, the king of Gath. Oh. So he goes down to gathe, and King Ashish is there, and David sees the power of the king and all of his soldiers, and he's afraid, which is amazing, because David's hardly ever afraid, but he's in sort of pseudo exile. He's running away from Saul. He's just taken bread from the temple and the sword of Goliath. And now he goes into this Philistine city and he sees the king there and he doesn't want to fight him. And so he's trying to figure out how to avoid fighting him. So he acts like he's crazy and he starts scratching the door of the gate, and he's letting his drool come down his beard. And he's just, he's acting like he's gone out of his mind.
[00:05:38] And the king says it's one of these great lines in the Old Testament.
[00:05:45] This is, I'm looking at one Samuel 20 115. The king ashes.
[00:05:51] King Ashish says, have I need of madman, have I need of mad men that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence?
[00:06:01] Do I need more crazy people around here? Is that what my problem is? I don't have enough crazy people? Send them away.
[00:06:09] So David escapes and praise this psalm 34. So when you're praying psalm 34 in a few minutes when we go into church, that's the context.
[00:06:20] And it's a beautiful profession of faith. In fact, it's a sermon from David. I'll bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad so that David gives all of his credit for his deliverance from the king to the lord. Now, I think interesting is verse five. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. So David says, all those who look to the Lord are glowing. There's a reflective glory, like Moses from the tabernacle. Their faces will never be ashamed. And that's coming from the man who was just drooling all over his face to avoid being conquered by the kingdom. And then two marvelous promises. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fears him and delivers him. And then, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. That's really the thesis of the entire book of psalms. What does it mean to be the blessed man? Psalm 32. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. Psalm one, the very first verse. Blessed is the man who walks not in the way of the wicked and so forth. So blessed is the man who takes refuge in the Lord. That's our confidence. Okay, now to the lessons, the old Testament lesson. And this is the one that is blowing my mind, I just. It's from Elijah. It's one kings 19. And it's Elijah after the contest of the with the prophets of Baal. Remember when he calls down fire? And then Ahab the king and Jezebel are after him. In fact, Jezebel sends a messenger to Elijah saying, so may the gods do to me, and more also if I don't make your life like the life of one of them this time tomorrow. So Jezebel is going to hunt down Elijah, and so Elijah just is running for it. And notice how Elijah is in the north, but he's going to go down to the south to Beersheba. And remember, just to think about where these things are. The promised land is often said from Dan to Beersheba. So Dan is the city of the farthest north, and Beersheba is the city of the farthest south, remembering also that Elijah was the prophet in the north after the split. And so he runs south. He runs past Bethel, past Bethlehem, past Jerusalem, down halfway toward the sea to Beersheba.
[00:08:57] And he lays himself down. He leaves his servant there, and he goes a days journey into the wilderness outside of Beersheba.
[00:09:07] And then he asks to die. In fact, it tells us his prayer. It's enough now, o Lord, to take away my life. I'm no better than my father's. And he lay down under the broom tree and slept.
[00:09:19] And an angel comes to him and touches him and gives him some bread and water.
[00:09:26] And he ate and drank and he lay down again. And the angel of the Lord comes a second time and touched him and says, arise and eat. The journey is too great. So he arose and eat. So he's there under the broom tree, a days journey in the wilderness outside of Beersheba. And twice the angel feeds him bread and water. And then on the strength of that bread, he travels 40 days and 40 nights to horeb, the mount of God.
[00:09:54] Horeb is Mount Sinai. It's. It's where the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush. And then when they came up out of Egypt, where the Lord directed them, and he covered the mountain now with the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. And he gives Moses the Ten Commandments and the instructions for the tabernacle and worship and the people. And so. And so Elijah goes, and it doesn't. And he goes for 40 days to go to this mountain. Now, there's so many things that are here. And this is what's blowing my mind is that it's almost like Elijah is wandering there because it doesn't take that long to get there. I looked it up, I put it into Google Maps. How long would it take to get from Beersheba to horeb? And it's 429. It would take 96 hours to walk there.
[00:10:51] So you could walk there, I don't know, in seven days, probably eight days if you were really hoofing it. It takes five and a half hours to drive there. In other words, it's not a 40 day walk, it's a one and a half week walk. And yet Elijah takes 40 days to wander there. And he does it on the strength of these two meals.
[00:11:13] It's a picture of the 40 years of wandering. In fact, he's. In some ways, Elijah is kind of undoing the wandering in the wilderness to get back to the place where the Lord spoke to his people in the first place.
[00:11:27] And in some ways, it seems like Elijah is just done with this whole business of preaching the word of God. I'm the only one that believes. And so he goes back to where it all started. He goes back. He's going back to the Ten Commandments, back to the mountainous. And he stays in a cave.
[00:11:44] And it's in that cave that he has the whirlwind and the fire and the earthquake, all the things that were happening when Moses brought the people there the first time, and yet it says that the Lord did not speak in those things. And then the Lord speaks in the still, small voice.
[00:12:04] Now this is. It's an. I didn't. I never noticed before that Elijah went back to horeb, to where God gave Moses the ten Commandments. I mean, this is. How many years later is this? God gave Moses the ten commandments in 1445 BC. And now we're at the divided kingdom before the destruction of the north in 722. So we're in like 700. We're like the year 700. So it's 700 years, 750 years later, and he's going back to the start there. I still don't know what to make of it. My mind is kind of. I'm just amazed by that. So that's our Old Testament. What an amazing text. First Kings 19.
[00:12:51] And it's given to us to pair up with the gospel text, which is this continual reading from John, chapter six, where Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Remembering, there's these seven I am statements. I'm the good shepherd, I'm the gate.
[00:13:03] I am the resurrection and the life. I'm the way, the truth and the life. I'm the light of the world. I am the vine. I am the bread of life. Here, over and over. I am the bread of life. And I am the living bread that gives eternal life. Jesus said to them, this is how it starts. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
[00:13:22] I said these things to you. You have seen me. You don't believe. But all that the father gives will come to me. There's, in fact, a lot of theological verses in this text that our faith in God is worked by the Father. That's here in the text that the Lord will keep us until the last day. The perseverance of the saints. That's here in the text that the Father sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, but I will raise it up on the last day.
[00:13:54] That we don't have a will to choose is also kind of hammered in, in verse 44. No one can come to me unless the father who has sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. But here, this is. This is the big point. The simple point that we just can't miss is that if we are hungry and if we are thirsty, and if we are sinful, and if we are dying, and if we are cursed and if we are lost and if we are walking in darkness, if there are things wrong with us, the solution is Jesus.
[00:14:28] He is the light to our darkness. He is the life to our death. He is the holiness to our sin. He is the forgiveness to our guilt. He is life eternal.
[00:14:42] He is bread to our hunger. He is the living water to our thirst. He is the one who will raise us up on the last day when he comes again in glory. Everything depends on Jesus.
[00:14:56] This is this basic doctrine of who Jesus is. That it is Jesus that stands between us and death, and us and condemnation and us and the wrath of God and us and hell, that Jesus is the one who will rescue us.
[00:15:11] The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. And we eat that bread. Bread. When we believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, we also eat that bread in the Lord's supper. But we eat that bread before we come to the supper when we trust in God and we believe his word. And we know that Jesus is our savior.
[00:15:34] Everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life. And I will raise him up on the last day. This is just beautiful stuff.
[00:15:45] And, in fact, goes well with the epistle. Our epistle lesson is we continue to read in Ephesians. We're in Ephesians chapter four, and we're just going to dip our toe into Ephesians chapter five. Two verses from chapter five. That are beautiful verses, Paul continues in the thickness of his apostolic writing. And I think we've mentioned this a few times before on the Sunday drive to church, how.
[00:16:13] How Paul's epistles are like cheesecake. You can't have really big bites, and you got to take your time chewing it up because there's just so much there.
[00:16:23] The basic idea, the section that Paul's in here to kind of give some context, is he's talked about the doctrine, about law and gospel, about what it means to be saved by grace through faith, and not that, not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. And now he's talking about the result of that faith and what it means to live the christian life. And he's wrestling through the difficulty that we have, because while we are born again and we are the children of God, we also still have the flesh that clings to us.
[00:16:58] And so even though we've been rescued from our old, corrupt selves, that old, corrupt self is still hanging around.
[00:17:11] So Paul will describe how it used to be with us, but then talk about the difficulty of how it shouldn't be that way with us, but we have a tendency towards it. I'll just read a few verses starting with chapter four, verse 17.
[00:17:24] This I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds.
[00:17:32] They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them. Due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But this is not the way that you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Oh, there's so much there. That's only the first half of the reading. So that you notice how Paul is describing how it is with the Gentiles. Their minds are futile. They're darkened in their understanding. They're alienated from God's life because of the ignorance and the hardness of heart. They're callous. That has to do with the conscience, the callousness of the conscience. They've given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. This is a description of how it is in the world. But then Paul's saying, but it's not just a description of how things are out there, it's a description of how things used to be with you. That's the flesh that you were born in. And it's not just a description of how it used to be with you, but how it is now with your sinful flesh, so that you and I still have that old self, which is still futile in our minds, still darkened in understanding, still alienated from the life of God. So we have to put that old self off and put on the new self that's created after the likeness of God. This has to do with the Garden of Eden. Remember when Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God? So the new, the spirit is created in the likeness of God. And every day it's like changing clothes. You take off the flesh and you put on the spirit, you take off the old man and you put on the new man, you take off the old Adam and you put on Christ.
[00:19:38] And he goes on to say, therefore, having put away, and he's going to list these things. 8th commandment. Having put away falsehood, be angry, but do not sin. Fifth commandment. That's 8th commandment. Falsehood. Fifth commandment. Anger. Let the thief no longer steal. That's the 7th commandment. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth. 8th commandment. And second commandment, but only that which is good for building up as fits the occasion. And then listen to how he describes the christian life and the spirit.
[00:20:03] Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Oh, that, that would describe us and our interactions with each other today, that we, you know, you're sitting in church and, and the person next to you says, oh, they were so kind and tender hearted and forgiving as God in Christ. Forgive, knowing that Christ is forgiving of us and tender hearted towards us and kind towards us. And then when it dips into the next chapter, chapter five, verse one and two, Paul says, therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children.
[00:20:38] We just had some friends staying with us last couple days from Australia. Pastor and his wife and their little baby from Australia stayed with us for a few days. And she's maybe 14 months old or 15 months old. And so she's at that great imitation stage where mom would do something, or dad would do something and she would imitate mom and dad. This is how it is, that we're the imitators of God, as beloved children walking in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God so that Christ loved us. Christ gave himself up for us on the cross. He offered himself as a sacrifice, so that God's face is now turned to us, not in wrath, but in love and in deep affection. And we know that God loves us and that he's tenderhearted towards us. And now that is reflected in our care and love also for one another.
[00:21:35] Be imitators of God as beloved children. Behold what manner of love I think this, that we are the children of God is something that we probably don't talk about enough. John says, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us, that we should be called the children of God. And such we are.
[00:21:53] We're not God's servants or slaves or minions or whatever. We're his children who. It's beautiful.
[00:22:03] The hymn of the week is this, Lord enthroned in heavenly splendor, first begotten from the dead. It's a 534 debut. Beautiful, kind of rousing him.
[00:22:17] It's really sturdy sounding, but it's beautiful. It's a pretty new hymn. The man who wrote it died, I think, if I'm looking at the notes, right, in 1925. So the hymn's probably not much more than 100 years old.
[00:22:34] It's a hymn of the Redeemer, our Lord Jesus. It talks about his humiliation and exaltation.
[00:22:42] Jesus true and living bread, though the lowliest form now veil you as of old in Bethlehem, here as there your angels hail you, branch and flower of Jesse stim we in worship join with them. That's the heavenly liturgy, where we sing with angels and archangels. Holy, holy, holy. The same heavenly hymn we sing here on earth. Then, paschal lamb, your offering finished once for all wind, you were slain in its fullness undiminished, shall forevermore remain. Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia. Cleansing souls from every stain so that the offering of Christ on the cross and then the giving out of the body of Christ here in the supper cleanses us from every stain of sin.
[00:23:31] Life in parting, heavenly manna stricken rock with streaming. This pulls in the Old Testament texts that talk about how Jesus was the rock that followed them, and from his side flows living water, heaven and earth, with loud hosanna. Worship you the lamb who died. Alleluia. Alleluia alleluia. Risen, ascended, glorified that this is this Jesus who was down in the depths of our flesh, and our sin to redeem us is now in glory. But he still gives us the same gifts that he accomplished in his incarnation.
[00:24:06] Lord enthroned in heavenly splendor. That is beautiful.
[00:24:11] Well, that's what's on the way for you. So hustle up a couple of announcements, I suppose. Oh, so we have the baptism, God be praised in the second service of lorelei anise Fay van der Lohn. That'll be so wonderful. At 11:00 and then at 08:00 we'll have the installation of vicar David Krugere. We'll recognize his installation in the second service. And then we're going to install them again at JDLC this afternoon.
[00:24:39] So that'll be super fun. So make sure to welcome vicar. We're going to try to pick up on Hebrews in our bible class.
[00:24:48] We'll see how that goes. I want to make sure you see the announcement for the barge party. I was told yesterday that there are 24 spots left. We got a double barge, 100 people, and we'll be cooking, cooking hot dogs out there on the, on Lake Travis next Saturday, August 17, 230 to 630. That'll be so much fun. So if you want to come to that, sign up, and there's a bunch of other stuff kind of to note in the.
[00:25:19] To note in the bulletin, talent surveys there, the confessional free conference in Brenham. There's a note for that offering envelopes, notes regarding that. Music ensembles starting in September, choir and handbells and brass, if you want to be part of that. So we're starting to warm up towards the fall. So you can see all that stuff as well. So we'll see you in a few minutes. God's peace be with you.
[00:25:49] Bye.
