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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran church pastor Wolf Muller. And this is the Sunday Drive to church podcast for August 25, year of our Lord 2024. 14th Sunday after Pentecost. I will warn you, this is going to be a shorter one today. Just a few thoughts. Even though the texts deserve a lot more, this Sunday is a loaded theological Sunday, but I'm just running out of time with Hayden's service on funeral service on Saturday.
[00:00:33] So a few thoughts on today's text, but we'll start with the prayer.
[00:00:39] It's a beautiful colic. The colics lately have been quite wonderful.
[00:00:44] It seems to me that the colics, when they have this broad application, but then also match up with the scriptures, that's when they really are serving well. And this one is another one we'll pray almighty and merciful God, defend your church from all false teaching and error, that your faithful people may confess you to be the only true God and rejoice in your good gifts of life and salvation through Jesus Christ your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
[00:01:19] Our psalm today is psalm 14. Psalm 14. And again, this is really, I mean, starting with a psalm. We have a lot of theology happening. In the text. You'll recognize this psalm, a number of famous passages that are in there. The first, very first one, the fool says in his heart, there is no God.
[00:01:42] Verse three is part of the collection that Paul has of psalms in Romans chapter three. Remember romans chapter three, when Paul's busy proving that everybody is a sinner, that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, he quotes psalm 14 in there. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There's no one who does good. No, not one.
[00:02:08] They have no knowledge. They are all evil doers.
[00:02:12] That's also quoted there as well.
[00:02:16] Again, a psalm of our sinful estate, of our sinful birth.
[00:02:22] But then it finishes like most of the psalms do on this high note, that, oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people. Let Jacob rejoice. Let Israel be glad. It's beautiful.
[00:02:38] Onto the readings. The Old Testament is from Isaiah 29. You'll notice the Isaiah window on the front of the bulletin as well. Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus. That means holy, holy, holy. And this will be the last of our window bulletin covers for a little while from our stained glass window.
[00:02:59] We're going to switch back to some of the art after this, but I know, I think Jonathan was ready to switch this week. But Pastor Davis said, no, let's keep it, because we have the Isaiah text, and we do for our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 29, another famous passage, because it's verse 13 in Isaiah 29 that's quoted by Jesus in the gospel lesson. So you'll notice that as you're reading or as you're listening, Isaiah 29, because this people draws near with their mouth, honor me with their lips. Their hearts are far from me. That verse is quoted right over on the right side by Jesus. It's there. But there's a couple of other really interesting things.
[00:03:43] Remember Isaiah when he was called in chapter six, says, you're going to preach, but the people aren't going to understand. Well, that theme is picked back up here. You're going to say, read the book, but you're going to hand them a book that's sealed, and then you're going to say, we'll read this one, and you're going to hand it to a person who can't read.
[00:04:01] And so this idea of having a sealed book or giving a book to a person who can't read is going to be like preaching to a person with a hardened heart who has neither repentance, contrition, or faith.
[00:04:22] And then it's gonna talk about this. You turn things upside down. Should the potter be regarded like the clay? The thing that made should be talk of its maker. He didn't make me. So it talks about how the unbelief turns everything upside down. Instead of being the potter. Sorry. Instead of being the clay and got the potter, we reverse it like we're the potter and God is the clay, but Jesus is going to restore things. And again, here we get to the end of this verse with other famous verses that will recognize that when the messiah comes, he's going to take this turned upside down world by us and turn it right side up.
[00:05:05] In a little while, Lebanon will be like a fruitful field. The deaf will hear the words of a book out of gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.
[00:05:17] The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord. That phrase always jumps off the page. Fresh joy.
[00:05:25] And the poor among mankind shall exalt in the holy one of Israel. That's Isaiah 20 911 and 19. The epistle lesson we're continuing to read through Ephesians. And we get to Ephesians chapter five. This is table of duties. So this is how to live. And this is Paul talking about husbands and wives. Ephesians 522 33.
[00:05:46] Starting with wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So it's a beautiful passage about how the christian marriage, a husband and wife, is a reflection of how it is with Jesus and the church. It's really beautiful. In fact, Paul, it's almost like he wants to be talking about being husband and wife, but he just can't quit talking about Jesus and the church. And he has to keep kind of interrupting himself and saying, this mystery is profound. And I'm saying it refers to Christ in the church. But let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Now, there's a lot in this passage, but maybe just a couple of things to make note of. One is that the vocation of wife is different than the vocation of husband, and that the way that we care for each other and bless each other and serve each other is different.
[00:06:45] There's submission and respect that the wife is offering to her husband, and there's love and sacrifice that the husband is offering to his wife.
[00:06:57] And that difference should be well noted. The Lord does not call us to be a spouse, but to be a husband or to be a wife. And to also note that it looks also different. I mean, each, each individual case is also different. In other words, the way that I love Carrie as her husband is going to be different than all the, you husbands are called to love your wives.
[00:07:22] But noting here, and this is advice, and also it's true for the wives, noting that whenever I'm doing pre marriage stuff with couples, I'll say, okay, if you can only have one of these things from your spouse, which would it be? Love or respect?
[00:07:42] And it's an interesting thing that 90% of the eves will say love and 50% of the atoms will say love and the other 50% will say respect.
[00:08:01] And I think that's, that's a really marvelous way to think about the difference, that slight difference in the way that husbands and wives care for each other.
[00:08:16] Also, I think we talked about this last week, but the key import in the text is not that wives are to submit to their husbands and husbands are to love their wives, but rather, what does that submission look like? How are wives to submit? What's the shape of submission? Because does the wife submit to her husband like a citizen submits to the ruler, or like a child submits to their parent, or what?
[00:08:48] And Paul says, no, the submission of the christian wife to her husband looks like the submission of the church to Christ. It's so beautiful. And then it's not that husbands ought to love their wife. But what does that love look like? Are husbands supposed to love their wives? Like what? Like a father loves his children, or like a teacher loves his students or what? And it's. No, it's like Jesus loves the church. That's the shape that the love of a christian husband is supposed to take for his wife.
[00:09:21] Beautiful.
[00:09:23] Finally, Mark. Chapter seven, verses one to 13. This is the controversy about the washing of hands. And so the Pharisees are. And some of the scribes see the disciples eating grain without washing their hands.
[00:09:40] And Mark tells us about how the Pharisees had all these rules about washing. And so they're complaining. The disciples aren't following any of those rules. And so Jesus comes right at them and quotes Isaiah. The people honored me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me. Teaching doctrine, the commandments of men.
[00:10:02] And then this is Jesus assessment of the Pharisees. You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. So you've replaced God's word with human tradition. And then he goes on, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition, he says. So not only do you do this, but you've also developed a way to argue it theologically.
[00:10:26] For Moses said, honor your father and mother. And whoever reviles father and mother will surely die. But you say, if a man tells his father and mother, whatever good you would have gained from me is Korban that is given to God, then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father and mother. Thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.
[00:10:46] So that they have taken God's word, which has us care for our father and mother in this example. And saying, no, no. More important to give to the temple, to give to God. So that they act like they're honoring God when they're really not.
[00:11:07] They're disobeying God, who's busy telling them to love their neighbor.
[00:11:12] So that the more secular, less godly activity looks more godly, because it's acting like it's directed toward God.
[00:11:24] And Jesus applies this text from Isaiah 29 perfectly to the Pharisees also, remembering that we have a Pharisee living in our own heart. And so we need to hear this preaching as well. That we wouldn't be those that honor the Lord with our lips, but have our hearts far from them, but rather that we draw near with a true heart.
[00:11:49] Rejoicing in the Lord's mercy and forgiveness.
[00:11:52] All right. That's a little Sunday drive. I'm sorry so short today, but just ran out of time. So hopefully you'll forgive me. We did rejoice together with Hayden's family in all the gifts of God and the sure hope of the resurrection. Yesterday, I was so happy to see so many of you there.
[00:12:11] God be praised for that. Today, on Sunday school, the first ten minutes or so, the kids will be there to give a. A summary of what they've done. They've been learning some catechism stuff, some Bible stories, some hymns, and even some hymns in sign language. So they'll do that. And then we'll continue talking about Hebrews today as well. So hope to see you there for that. God's peace be with.