Proper 6
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
The church year theological clue
The eschatological stance of the church year continues to throw its theological aura around the assigned readings for the day. It insists that the call to the ministry of the church and the proclamation of the gospel began with the calling and naming of the disciples, and that the church must establish evangelism as its outward thrust and its reach into the world. The church is evangelical by the work and definition accorded it by Jesus Christ; its business is the Word of God, and particularly the good news, the Gospel of our Lord.
The Prayer of the Day (LBW) - The Gospel for the Day is responsible for the content of this prayer. It defines the church as "a new company of priests," whom God has created and called "to bear witness to the Gospel." The "priesthood of all believers" rests on this evangelical principle; not only may all of the faithful "approach the mercyseat" of God in prayer and devotion, but they also are charged with responsibility for witnessing and proclaiming the gospel in and to the world. Therefore, the prayer's petition asks God, "Enable us to be faithful to our calling to make known your promises to all the world."
The Psalm of the Day - Psalm 100 (R, E, L) - The Good Shepherd/Sheep theme is at the heart of this psalm: "Know this: The Lord himself is God; ... we are his people and the sheep of his pasture," which suggests that it could be used on several other Sundays, too, especially as it relates to the joy and thanksgiving of the people of God. But it is the first part of the psalm that stands out in sharp relief over against the Gospel for the Day: "... serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song." A Gospel theme - "For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age" - has a definite eschatological dimension built into it, so that it sounds the theological motif of the Pentecost cycle/season.
The Psalm Prayer
God our Father, you have created us as your people and you sustain us with your hand. Help us always to give you thanks, for you alone are worthy of thanksgiving and praise and honor now and forever.
Psalm 46 (C) - The key is in the seventh verse, "The God of Jacob is our refuge," which clearly makes contact with the first reading, Genesis 25:19-34. See the commentary on this psalm for Reformation Sunday (L) for more detailed discussion of it.
The readings:
Genesis 25:19-34 (C)
This particular story finds no place in the lectionaries of the other churches. It is the familiar story of the birth and early life of Esau and Jacob. That they were twins cannot be in doubt, nor is it possible to conclude that they were identical twins; far from it, because they were as different as day and night. Isaac's wife, Rebekah, was barren for the first twenty years of their marriage, and this prompted Isaac to pray to God for the birth of a son. His prayers were answered - with twins, who "struggled with one another" in their mother's womb, according to the story. Esau was the first-born; he was covered with red hair and grew up loving the outdoors and becoming a skillful hunter. Jacob was born "with his hand grasping his brother's heel;" he was quiet, a man who loved to stay at home - and definitely "mother's boy." Isaac preferred Esau over Jacob; he was his kind of child. But, while they were still young, Jacob obtained Esau's birthright from him in exchange for a bowl of lentil soup. "That was all Esau cared for his birthright," the story teller informs us. A bittersweet story - that of Esau and Jacob - begins this way.
Exodus 19:2-8a (E, L); 19:2-6 (R)
For the first time, Moses goes up Mt. Sinai to be with God, who instructs him to remind the people of Israel what he did to the Egyptians when they attempted to foil the exodus of the Israelites, and how he "bore them (the Israelites) on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." Without the help of the Lord God, they would still be in Egypt, or they would be dead. And once more, Moses hears God call for obedience to his "voice" and the keeping of his covenant, the terms by which they would be God's "possession" among all peoples. Moses went to the elders and the people and gave them the message that God had delivered to him, and the people and their leaders promised to obey God and keep the covenant he made with them. The connection with the Gospel for the Day comes in verse 6, "... you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
Romans 5:6-11
Paul understood the gospel in terms of a God who loved his unlovable creatures, despite their sin and waywardness; that was nothing short of amazing to him. This is his way of saying what John, later, spelled out in his gospel (3:16), "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...." Through his death, all have been justified and live in hope of spending eternity in the company of God. The death of Jesus, the Son of God, has reconciled us to God, and this makes it possible to live in the hope and expectation of belonging forever to the kingdom of God. This is a brief, but very theologically important pericope; it has no thematic connection to the other readings.
Matthew 9:35--10:8
Jesus' early preaching, teaching, and healing ministry was extremely successful; he attracted great crowds of people and, as he surveyed their size, Jesus realized that there was more to do than any one man - even he - could possibly do. He pointed this out to the disciples, adding, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Without any more warning than that, the disciples were assigned to the first missionary effort; evangelism was born there and then. First, they were called, then they were given authority to cast out unclean spirits, to heal every disease and every infirmity. Now they were becoming active participants - not merely learners - in the ministry of Jesus here on earth. After Matthew names the twelve, listing Simon Peter and Andrew first and Judas Iscariot, "who betrayed him," last, he sent them out with a charge: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And, lastly, he "ordained" them to preach the good news, "And preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' " Their preaching and healing ministries were to go hand in hand. And they were not to charge for their services, because they were only giving what had been given freely to them by their Lord. (Verses 9 and 10, with their injunction to take no provisions with them, but to allow - even expect - themselves to be supported by the people to whom they ministered in the name of Jesus, have been omitted, for some unknown reason.)
Sermon suggestions:
Matthew 9:35--10:7 - "The Persistent Call."
Were it not for the fact that women and older persons are accepting the call of Christ to prepare for ordained ministry, enrollment at theological seminaries in America might well be at an all-time low. Women now comprise slightly over fifty-one percent of the student body at one Lutheran seminary; second career students comprise more than thirty-five percent of the student bodies in several theological institutions, fifty percent in one. A typical near-fifty-year-old student, when asked about his decision to become a pastor, responded, "I have been wrestling with the call to the ministry almost all of my life. I finally decided that the time had come to do something about it." Obviously, the traditional source of students for the ordained ministry of the church - young men, who have just been graduated from college or university - has been drying up. Take away the women and older men and women from seminary student rosters and the church would probably be facing a very severe shortage of clergy in the next few years. The church has to be thankful for those who are answering the call to ministry, but it must ask questions and find the reasons why many persons, who ought to be applying to seminaries, are not doing so.
1. Ministry and evangelism are the business of the church. That's the way that Jesus determined that it had to be; believers had to witness and preach the good news so that the Church could become a living, growing, celebrating reality in the world. Evangelism is the never-ending business of the church, not merely another program to be planned, followed for awhile, and then put on the shelf. Every believer is called - in baptism - to be an evangelist!
2. Jesus' call to ordained ministry is a command, not merely a career choice. The Twelve, who followed the Lord and became the nucleus, the leaders, of the church, were not given a choice by Jesus when he called them to ministry. Jesus sent them out, charging them to preach to the "house of Israel," "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus ordered them to go - and they did - teaching, healing, and preaching as Jesus himself had done. Some go, some do not. Ordained leaders are critical to the mission of the church.
3. Young men and women are being called by Christ to the ordained ministry of the church. Why do many refuse to accept Jesus call, his command? Is the call to the things of the world stronger than the call to the business of proclaiming the good news to the world? (Jim Fuller, Staff Writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, wrote an article, "Will retirement be a dream come true?" [September 18, 1988] about today's baby boomers. He quotes Mark Jares, a Minneapolis investment advisor, who says, "Baby boomers have the attitude that they should have the cars, the $300,000 houses, the clothes every day, that it's not something they should wait for, or have to give up when they retire." They want what the world has to offer - now. A survey in California last year, showed that forty-six percent of the baby boomers expect to retire before they are sixty, another seventeen percent want to retire before they are fifty. All want to have as much and do as much after retirement as they do now. Is this the main reason for the decline in seminary enrollment by the baby boomers? Could the problem be that most of us have become materialists?
4. The concerted effort of the church, lay ministers, as well as ordained ministers, is required to evangelize the world. When all believers not only comprehend that everyone is an evangelist - and that they have no choice in the matter - evangelism will become the main business of the church, as it should be, and the gospel will be a force to be reckoned with by the entire world. And, in the process, the faithful will discover the eternal riches of the kingdom of heaven.
Genesis 25:19-34 (C) - "The Buy-out of a Birthright."
1. The backward twins. Jacob and Esau were born in the wrong order; Jacob should have been born first, because he appreciated Esau's birthright more than did Esau.
2. A birthright for a full belly. Esau was easy to deceive because he thought more of his stomach, his hunger, than he did of his birthright, so he sold it to Jacob for a bowl of lentil soup.
3. A buy-out by the world. The "Life is just a bowl of cherries" attitude that many of us pursue results in the danger of a complete sell-out of our baptismal birthright, the kingdom of heaven. Can the world buy out our claim to the kingdom?
4. The kingdom-birthright is God's gift to everyone. Appreciate it, claim it, and cling to it in true faith forever.
Exodus 19:2-8a - (R, E, L) - "A Necessary Reminder."
1. The ascent to Mt. Sinai. Moses needed to reconnoiter with God, not to survey the surrounding terrain. A great human leader needed to go on a spiritual retreat - as all do, from time to time.
2. The voice of the mountain - God. God spoke to Moses, ordering him to remind the people that the Exodus succeeded because he put down the Egyptians. From that time right to the present day, the children of Israel have remembered and celebrated the Exodus. It is their most memorable feast.
3. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." And the church remembers another exodus - somewhere - every day of the year in the breaking of the bread.
4. An ever-lasting covenant. God made it with Israel, and Jesus makes a new covenant with us - in our baptism. Ours is to keep it and be kept by the maker of the covenant - forever.
Romans 5:6-11 - "The Bloody Reconciliation."
1. Reconciliation between God and humanity, required a bloody sacrifice. The powerful grip of sin upon the human race had to be broken. God had to be satisfied that this had happened - through a perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ.
2. It is always Good Friday, as well as Easter, for the church. Cecil Alexander's hymn, "There is a Green Hill Far Away," has been retained for Holy Week in the LBW, but it was reduced to three verses by the deletion of the last two verses. This is one of them:
There was no other good enough,
To pay the price of sin,
He only could unlock the gate
of heaven, and let us in.
3. Our salvation was won wholly by the blood of Jesus. Ours is to know this, to believe it, and to accept it with thanksgiving, "This is my blood, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins."
4. We rejoice and live in the miracle of his love. He loved God and us enough to die to accomplish the reconciliation of God and his people. The last verse of Alexander's hymn announces:
O dearly, dearly has he loved,
And we must love him too,
And trust in his redeeming Blood
And try his works to do.
The eschatological stance of the church year continues to throw its theological aura around the assigned readings for the day. It insists that the call to the ministry of the church and the proclamation of the gospel began with the calling and naming of the disciples, and that the church must establish evangelism as its outward thrust and its reach into the world. The church is evangelical by the work and definition accorded it by Jesus Christ; its business is the Word of God, and particularly the good news, the Gospel of our Lord.
The Prayer of the Day (LBW) - The Gospel for the Day is responsible for the content of this prayer. It defines the church as "a new company of priests," whom God has created and called "to bear witness to the Gospel." The "priesthood of all believers" rests on this evangelical principle; not only may all of the faithful "approach the mercyseat" of God in prayer and devotion, but they also are charged with responsibility for witnessing and proclaiming the gospel in and to the world. Therefore, the prayer's petition asks God, "Enable us to be faithful to our calling to make known your promises to all the world."
The Psalm of the Day - Psalm 100 (R, E, L) - The Good Shepherd/Sheep theme is at the heart of this psalm: "Know this: The Lord himself is God; ... we are his people and the sheep of his pasture," which suggests that it could be used on several other Sundays, too, especially as it relates to the joy and thanksgiving of the people of God. But it is the first part of the psalm that stands out in sharp relief over against the Gospel for the Day: "... serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song." A Gospel theme - "For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age" - has a definite eschatological dimension built into it, so that it sounds the theological motif of the Pentecost cycle/season.
The Psalm Prayer
God our Father, you have created us as your people and you sustain us with your hand. Help us always to give you thanks, for you alone are worthy of thanksgiving and praise and honor now and forever.
Psalm 46 (C) - The key is in the seventh verse, "The God of Jacob is our refuge," which clearly makes contact with the first reading, Genesis 25:19-34. See the commentary on this psalm for Reformation Sunday (L) for more detailed discussion of it.
The readings:
Genesis 25:19-34 (C)
This particular story finds no place in the lectionaries of the other churches. It is the familiar story of the birth and early life of Esau and Jacob. That they were twins cannot be in doubt, nor is it possible to conclude that they were identical twins; far from it, because they were as different as day and night. Isaac's wife, Rebekah, was barren for the first twenty years of their marriage, and this prompted Isaac to pray to God for the birth of a son. His prayers were answered - with twins, who "struggled with one another" in their mother's womb, according to the story. Esau was the first-born; he was covered with red hair and grew up loving the outdoors and becoming a skillful hunter. Jacob was born "with his hand grasping his brother's heel;" he was quiet, a man who loved to stay at home - and definitely "mother's boy." Isaac preferred Esau over Jacob; he was his kind of child. But, while they were still young, Jacob obtained Esau's birthright from him in exchange for a bowl of lentil soup. "That was all Esau cared for his birthright," the story teller informs us. A bittersweet story - that of Esau and Jacob - begins this way.
Exodus 19:2-8a (E, L); 19:2-6 (R)
For the first time, Moses goes up Mt. Sinai to be with God, who instructs him to remind the people of Israel what he did to the Egyptians when they attempted to foil the exodus of the Israelites, and how he "bore them (the Israelites) on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." Without the help of the Lord God, they would still be in Egypt, or they would be dead. And once more, Moses hears God call for obedience to his "voice" and the keeping of his covenant, the terms by which they would be God's "possession" among all peoples. Moses went to the elders and the people and gave them the message that God had delivered to him, and the people and their leaders promised to obey God and keep the covenant he made with them. The connection with the Gospel for the Day comes in verse 6, "... you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
Romans 5:6-11
Paul understood the gospel in terms of a God who loved his unlovable creatures, despite their sin and waywardness; that was nothing short of amazing to him. This is his way of saying what John, later, spelled out in his gospel (3:16), "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son...." Through his death, all have been justified and live in hope of spending eternity in the company of God. The death of Jesus, the Son of God, has reconciled us to God, and this makes it possible to live in the hope and expectation of belonging forever to the kingdom of God. This is a brief, but very theologically important pericope; it has no thematic connection to the other readings.
Matthew 9:35--10:8
Jesus' early preaching, teaching, and healing ministry was extremely successful; he attracted great crowds of people and, as he surveyed their size, Jesus realized that there was more to do than any one man - even he - could possibly do. He pointed this out to the disciples, adding, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." Without any more warning than that, the disciples were assigned to the first missionary effort; evangelism was born there and then. First, they were called, then they were given authority to cast out unclean spirits, to heal every disease and every infirmity. Now they were becoming active participants - not merely learners - in the ministry of Jesus here on earth. After Matthew names the twelve, listing Simon Peter and Andrew first and Judas Iscariot, "who betrayed him," last, he sent them out with a charge: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." And, lastly, he "ordained" them to preach the good news, "And preach as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' " Their preaching and healing ministries were to go hand in hand. And they were not to charge for their services, because they were only giving what had been given freely to them by their Lord. (Verses 9 and 10, with their injunction to take no provisions with them, but to allow - even expect - themselves to be supported by the people to whom they ministered in the name of Jesus, have been omitted, for some unknown reason.)
Sermon suggestions:
Matthew 9:35--10:7 - "The Persistent Call."
Were it not for the fact that women and older persons are accepting the call of Christ to prepare for ordained ministry, enrollment at theological seminaries in America might well be at an all-time low. Women now comprise slightly over fifty-one percent of the student body at one Lutheran seminary; second career students comprise more than thirty-five percent of the student bodies in several theological institutions, fifty percent in one. A typical near-fifty-year-old student, when asked about his decision to become a pastor, responded, "I have been wrestling with the call to the ministry almost all of my life. I finally decided that the time had come to do something about it." Obviously, the traditional source of students for the ordained ministry of the church - young men, who have just been graduated from college or university - has been drying up. Take away the women and older men and women from seminary student rosters and the church would probably be facing a very severe shortage of clergy in the next few years. The church has to be thankful for those who are answering the call to ministry, but it must ask questions and find the reasons why many persons, who ought to be applying to seminaries, are not doing so.
1. Ministry and evangelism are the business of the church. That's the way that Jesus determined that it had to be; believers had to witness and preach the good news so that the Church could become a living, growing, celebrating reality in the world. Evangelism is the never-ending business of the church, not merely another program to be planned, followed for awhile, and then put on the shelf. Every believer is called - in baptism - to be an evangelist!
2. Jesus' call to ordained ministry is a command, not merely a career choice. The Twelve, who followed the Lord and became the nucleus, the leaders, of the church, were not given a choice by Jesus when he called them to ministry. Jesus sent them out, charging them to preach to the "house of Israel," "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus ordered them to go - and they did - teaching, healing, and preaching as Jesus himself had done. Some go, some do not. Ordained leaders are critical to the mission of the church.
3. Young men and women are being called by Christ to the ordained ministry of the church. Why do many refuse to accept Jesus call, his command? Is the call to the things of the world stronger than the call to the business of proclaiming the good news to the world? (Jim Fuller, Staff Writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, wrote an article, "Will retirement be a dream come true?" [September 18, 1988] about today's baby boomers. He quotes Mark Jares, a Minneapolis investment advisor, who says, "Baby boomers have the attitude that they should have the cars, the $300,000 houses, the clothes every day, that it's not something they should wait for, or have to give up when they retire." They want what the world has to offer - now. A survey in California last year, showed that forty-six percent of the baby boomers expect to retire before they are sixty, another seventeen percent want to retire before they are fifty. All want to have as much and do as much after retirement as they do now. Is this the main reason for the decline in seminary enrollment by the baby boomers? Could the problem be that most of us have become materialists?
4. The concerted effort of the church, lay ministers, as well as ordained ministers, is required to evangelize the world. When all believers not only comprehend that everyone is an evangelist - and that they have no choice in the matter - evangelism will become the main business of the church, as it should be, and the gospel will be a force to be reckoned with by the entire world. And, in the process, the faithful will discover the eternal riches of the kingdom of heaven.
Genesis 25:19-34 (C) - "The Buy-out of a Birthright."
1. The backward twins. Jacob and Esau were born in the wrong order; Jacob should have been born first, because he appreciated Esau's birthright more than did Esau.
2. A birthright for a full belly. Esau was easy to deceive because he thought more of his stomach, his hunger, than he did of his birthright, so he sold it to Jacob for a bowl of lentil soup.
3. A buy-out by the world. The "Life is just a bowl of cherries" attitude that many of us pursue results in the danger of a complete sell-out of our baptismal birthright, the kingdom of heaven. Can the world buy out our claim to the kingdom?
4. The kingdom-birthright is God's gift to everyone. Appreciate it, claim it, and cling to it in true faith forever.
Exodus 19:2-8a - (R, E, L) - "A Necessary Reminder."
1. The ascent to Mt. Sinai. Moses needed to reconnoiter with God, not to survey the surrounding terrain. A great human leader needed to go on a spiritual retreat - as all do, from time to time.
2. The voice of the mountain - God. God spoke to Moses, ordering him to remind the people that the Exodus succeeded because he put down the Egyptians. From that time right to the present day, the children of Israel have remembered and celebrated the Exodus. It is their most memorable feast.
3. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." And the church remembers another exodus - somewhere - every day of the year in the breaking of the bread.
4. An ever-lasting covenant. God made it with Israel, and Jesus makes a new covenant with us - in our baptism. Ours is to keep it and be kept by the maker of the covenant - forever.
Romans 5:6-11 - "The Bloody Reconciliation."
1. Reconciliation between God and humanity, required a bloody sacrifice. The powerful grip of sin upon the human race had to be broken. God had to be satisfied that this had happened - through a perfect sacrifice, Jesus Christ.
2. It is always Good Friday, as well as Easter, for the church. Cecil Alexander's hymn, "There is a Green Hill Far Away," has been retained for Holy Week in the LBW, but it was reduced to three verses by the deletion of the last two verses. This is one of them:
There was no other good enough,
To pay the price of sin,
He only could unlock the gate
of heaven, and let us in.
3. Our salvation was won wholly by the blood of Jesus. Ours is to know this, to believe it, and to accept it with thanksgiving, "This is my blood, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins."
4. We rejoice and live in the miracle of his love. He loved God and us enough to die to accomplish the reconciliation of God and his people. The last verse of Alexander's hymn announces:
O dearly, dearly has he loved,
And we must love him too,
And trust in his redeeming Blood
And try his works to do.
