Church Expansion -week 12

Gathering space

Sidewalks

Geothermal wells

Pentecost 12 - Proper 18 Time in the Word

Christian Obligation to Sinners

In the Lessons for this week we encounter sinners. What shall we do with our fellow sinners and how shall we deal with them? In the Gospel lesson Jesus teaches what we should do to be reconciled to those who sin against us. Ezekiel in the Old Testament lesson reports that God expects us to warn the sinner, who, if he repents, will live. Paul in the Epistle lesson urges obedience to the officials and law of government and teaches that love is the way to obey the law. The Hymn of the Day speaks of the power we as Christians posses to carry out this task. It is found in the mercy and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who has called and saved us according to His grace and favor.

Collect for Pentecost 12 –Grant, merciful Lord, to Your people pardon and peace that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve You with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

A prayer before we study the Word -Almighty God, our heavenly Father, without Your help our labor is useless, and without Your light our search is in vain. Invigorate the study of Your holy Word that, by due diligence and right discernment, we may establish ourselves and others in Your holy faith.

For Schools Almighty God, our heavenly Father, since You have committed the care and nurture of children to Your people, graciously enlighten those who teach and those who are committed to their instruction that they may know the truth and trust in You all the days of their lives; through Jesus 

Christ, our Lord.

For Home and Family Visit, we implore You, O Lord, the homes in which Your people dwell, and keep far from them all harm and danger. Grant us to dwell together in peace under the protection of Your holy angels, and may Your blessing be with us forever, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Monday, August 29, 2011 – Psalm 37:3-5,39; Antiphon, Psalm 92:1 -The theme of next week’s propers is the description and obligation of the Christian living in the world. The Introit tells us that trusting in the Lord enables us to serve Him, and to have courage in the face of a world that is hostile to the Lord and His people. We place our confidence in God and enjoy His blessings, even in times of trouble.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011 – Psalm 119:113-120 - The first letter in each verse of this portion of Psalm 119 is the Hebrew letter samekh (2). As in the other sections, the psalmist her extols the goodness of God in giving us His holy Word. His devotion to the Word of God moves him to reject the counsel of evildoers. Take note that when the psalmist write, “I love Your law,” this is not the opposite of the Gospel, but a term which encompasses the whole of God’s communication to man.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011 – Ezekiel 33:7-9 - The Lord told Ezekiel that He would restore Jerusalem, yet this did not remove Ezekiel’s obligation to warn sinners to turn from their wicked ways and repent. Likewise, we who live in the post-resurrection time, when Christ has restored mankind by His death and resurrection, have an obligation to warn sinners to turn from their wicked ways and repent, that they may partake of fellowship with God.

Thursday, September 1, 2011 – Romans 13:1-10 - Civil governments have been given their authority by God. Thus, the Christian submits himself to that rule which God has established, and exhorts others to do the same. St. Paul also tells us how we are to live with our fellow man: letting love for the neighbor guide all our actions and dealings. This love is not of ourselves, but flows from Christ, who first loved us.

Friday, September 2, 2011 – Matthew 18:15-20 - Since we have been reconciled to God through Christ Jesus, the Christian life is one that strives for reconciliation with our fellow man. If our brother sins against us, we will try to restore him privately.

Only if that fails will we bring it before others, and before the Church as a last result. Throughout, the goal is the restoration of the erring brother, and his reconciliation with us.

Saturday, September 3, 2011 – Hymn 373, By Grace I’m Saved, Grace Free and Boundless - How is it that we have been set free from the bondage of sin, to live a life pleasing to God, with love toward our neighbor? Only by the grace of God. Our salvation is a free gift; our works could never begin to secure our salvation. But, through the love of God poured out upon us in the person of His Son, Jesus, He has made us His own. Tomorrow’s chief hymn is a jubilant recounting of the goodness of God in graciously providing for our salvation.

Sources:

Artwork © by Ed Rojas © Higher Things© Higher Things  
Lutheran Worship, © 1982, Concordia Publishing House

Pentecost 11 - Proper 17

Proper 17 (28 Aug—3 Sept)
Almighty God, Your Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption. Grant us courage to take up our cross daily and follow Him wherever He leads; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Love covers a multitude of sins - In love Jesus predicts His death - Matthew 16:21-28

Peter tries to dissuade Jesus from going to Jerusalem, but Jesus calls his disciples to take up their crosses and follow Him to death. We are still at Caesarea Philippi. Peter had just made his famous confession that Jesus is the Messiah. Thereupon Jesus announces that He must go to Jerusalem to suffer, die, and rise again. For Peter this was a denial of Jesus’ being the Christ, Lord, and King. It did not fit at all into the concept of the Messiah who as God’s Son would be victor over any and all enemies, even death. But, Jesus saw in Peter’s rebuke a temptation of Satan not to fulfill His mission. He called upon His disciples to similarly deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow Him to death and resurrection. For the principle of life is to lose it in order to find it. When Christ returns, every disciple will be rewarded for what he has done with his life.

We have no difficulty accepting the fact that each life is a creation of God. But, we have trouble understanding the fact that God made each for a purpose. He sent us into the world, as Jesus was sent, for a purpose, to accomplish some work for God. Jesus knew why God sent him. At Caesarea Philippi the disciples through Peter confessed that he was the Messiah who was sent to redeem the world. Today’s Gospel tells us of the temptation not to fulfill the destiny and of the Christian’s similar destiny. The need for this sermon is rooted in the fact that many Christians have no idea why God placed them on earth; they are goal-less, without purpose in life.

God has a destiny -

1. For Jesus — the cross
— vv. 21-23. From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

Jesus felt His going to the cross was a divine necessity. God had a destiny for His life. He came to the world to save it. Since he was the Christ, as Peter had just confessed it, the world would be saved only by his sacrifice on the cross. This reminds us that the cross was not the work of man, a stroke of bad luck, or an accident. Since it was God’s intention for him to suffer and die, then we can understand why Jesus considered Peter’s protest as a temptation of the devil not to fulfill his mission. The cross was rooted in eternity, planned by God from the foundation of the world to redeem humanity.

Jesus know that His going to the cross was a divine necessity. The Father had a destiny for His life. He came to the world to save it. Since He is the Christ, as Peter has confessed it, the world would be save only by His sacrifice on the cross. The cross was not the work of man, a stoke of bad luck, an accident. The cross was rooted in eternity, planned by the Father from the foundation of the world – to redeem humanity.

Peter is both the mouthpiece of both God and Satan. After his confession Jesus called him “blessed.” Not Peter is Satan incarnate. Peter, leader of the Apostles, could be Satan’s agent. Satan can possess church members and even in the church Satan can be active. It is important to ascewrtain whether God or Satan is speaking when Christians speak.

2. For the Christian — cross-bearing
— vv. 24-26. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

As Jesus loses his life on the cross for the world to be saved, Jesus expects his followers to do the same. Life is meant to be given, expended, sacrificed for Jesus’ sake. Life cannot be “saved” or it will be lost. When we try to save our lives, we waste it on gaining the world. Here is a sound, universal principle of life: life is at its best, is most meaningful when it is invested in a cause greater than self, the cause of Christ. Giving one’s self to Christ’s cause takes us out of ourselves and we lose ourselves in the attainment of the cause. This results in happiness and purpose in life.

The path and journey of faith is to walk where Jesu has called us to be His disciples to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him to death of self and resurrection and new life in Him.

Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcuts © WELS permission granted for personal and congregational use

Church Expansion -week 11

Drains

Gathering space

North door steps

South door steps

Geo wells – 1 per day – 10 will go in the new construction, 5 in the main body of the church

Drop off and landing

Front first row of bricks set

Cat inspectors

Pentecost 11 - Proper 17 Time in the Word

The Glory of God is the Passion and Cross of Christ Jesus

After St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, our Lord “began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matt 16:21). Upon hearing this “theology of the Cross,” Simon Peter stumbled into a satanic “theology of glory.” But the glory of God is revealed in the Passion and Cross of His incarnate Son. The faithful prophets, such as Jeremiah, suffered persecution and rejection in anticipation of Jesus’ Cross. Yet the Lord did not abandon them; He remembered them, and He was with them to deliver them (Jer. 15:15–20). By His Cross Jesus has redeemed the world, and in His Resurrection He has vindicated all who trust in Him. Thus the Christian life is a discipleship of self-sacrificing love. Since Christ Jesus has reconciled us to God, we “live peaceably with all” (Rom. 12:18). By the certainty of His Cross and Resurrection, we “rejoice in hope,” and we are “patient in tribulation” and “constant in prayer” (Rom. 12:12).

Collect for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost: Almighty God, Your Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption. Grant us courage to take up our cross daily and follow Him wherever He leads; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Collect for the Feast of St Bartholomew (24 August): Almighty God, Your Son, Jesus Christ, chose Bartholomew to be an apostle to preach the blessed Gospel. Grant that Your Church may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

Prayer for patience: O God, by the patient endurance of Your only-begotten Son You beat down the pride of the old enemy. Help us to treasure rightly in our hearts what our Lord has borne for our sakes that, after His example, we may bear with patience those things that are adverse to us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord,

Prayer in times of affliction and distress: Almighty and most merciful God, in this earthly life we endure sufferings and death before we enter into eternal glory. Grant us grace at all times to subject ourselves to Your holy will and to continue steadfast in the true faith to the end of our lives that we may know the peace and joy of the blessed hope of the resurrection of the dead and of the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord,

Prayer for humility: O God, You resist the proud and give grace to the humble. Grant us true humility after the likeness of Your only Son that we may never be arrogant and prideful and thus provoke Your wrath but in all lowliness be made partakers of the gifts of Your grace; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord,

Monday, 22 August 2011—Psalm 37:5–7; Antiphon, Psalm 37:4—Those who trust in the Lord and in His promises may sometimes be frustrated and tempted to question the goodness and righteousness of God when they suffer trials, tribulations, and afflictions in this life. David exhorts us here to ‘trust in the LORD . . . delight in the LORD . . . commit your way to the LORD . . . be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him.’ We Christians should remind ourselves that the Lord has demonstrated His goodness and righteousness in many ways, but especially by sending His only-begotten Son to be our Savior. Through Christ, He has already ‘brought forth our righteousness and . . . justice.’ He has given us ‘the desires of our heart’ in the person of our Savior, Jesus, and will, at the Last Day, deliver us out of this vale of tears and take us to himself in heaven.

Tuesday, 23 August 2011—Psalm 26—The psalmist, David, asks the LORD to vindicate him—clear his name—of false accusations. For what reason? Because David has ‘trusted in the LORD without wavering’—he belongs to the LORD by faith. Though Christ has died to forgive every one of our sins, the devil will try to throw our transgressions in our face, and make us despair of salvation. In such situations, we must call upon the LORD to vindicate us—not because we are without sin, but because Christ has redeemed us from sin and its eternal consequence and, by faith, we belong to Him. ‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ (Rom 8:1)

Wednesday, 24 August 2011—Jeremiah 15:15–21—Jeremiah calls upon the LORD to deliver him from the assaults and slander of his enemies. On what basis—his own righteousness? No; like David in the psalm for Sunday (above), Jeremiah pleads on the basis of his trust in the Lord: ‘I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.’ We can call upon the LORD in our times of trouble for the same reason: we belong to Him. Though the proclamation and preaching of His Word, and through the holy Sacraments, God makes us His own and delivers us from the tyranny of sin.

Thursday, 25 August 2011—Romans 12:9–21—St Paul has spent much of his letter to the Romans showing how we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. But faith always manifests itself in love, especially toward our neighbor. Here, Paul illustrates what Christian love, borne of faith, looks like. This is a description of the Christian—not in order to earn our salvation, but because our salvation has been earned for us by Christ.

Friday, 26 August 2011—Matthew 16:21–28—In Sunday’s Gospel account, Jesus tells the disciples very clearly what must become of Him: ‘suffer many things . . . be killed, and on the third day be raised.’ This is the plan of God for our salvation, which is why Jesus speaks so harshly to Peter when he contradicts Him. The theology of the cross—that salvation entails suffering—is difficult for the natural man to accept. This is why so many Christians in our world are theologians of glory—looking away from the cross and focusing on temporal blessings, rather than seeing the blessings we have by the cross and by suffering.

Saturday, 27 August 2011—The hymn of the day, Hail, Thou Once Desipsed Jesus (LSB #531), connects the suffering of Jesus with our salvation and shows that the glory of God is revealed in the suffering and death of His Son. ‘Worship, honor, power, and blessing / Thou art worthy to receive’ because ‘Thou didst suffer to release us . . . Thou universal Savior, Bearer of our sin and shame.’

This week’s Time in the Word written by Pr, Jeffrey Keuning
Lectionary summary on front page from LCMS Commission on Worship
Woodcut by Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld, © WELS
Prayers from Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House

Church Expansion - week 10

How it will look when it’s all done

Moving to NCY

Lydia will be attending Mannes School for Music in New York.