Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
**Please note this service is based on the format of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW). Hymns and other prayers have been sourced to give appropriate credit.
**NRSV translation used for the readings, unless otherwise stated.
Opening Prayer
God of love and mercy, give us clean hands and pure hearts, that we may
walk in innocence and come to your eternal dwelling, to praise you in the
company of your saints for ever. Amen.
Confession and Forgiveness
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God,
who forgives all our sin,
whose mercy endures forever.
Amen.
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from
whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration
of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your
holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.
Most merciful God,
we confess that we
are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in
thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as
ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive
us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your
ways, to the glory of your holy name.
Amen.
In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and
for his sake God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained minister of
the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the
entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Creator, and of the ☩
Redeemer, and of the Sanctifier.
Amen.
Gathering Song – Crown Him with
Many Crowns (ELW #855)
Greeting
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion
of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
And also with you.
Canticle of Praise – Glory to God (page #213)
Prayer of the Day
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray.
Sovereign God, you have created us to live in loving community with one
another. Form us for life that is faithful and steadfast, and teach us to trust
like little children, that we may reflect the image of your Son, Jesus Christ,
our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
Readings
A reading from the Book of Job 1:1, 2:1-10
There was once a man in the land of Uz
whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and
turned away from evil.
One day the heavenly beings came to
present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present
himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking
up and down on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant
Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who
fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity,
although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.” Then Satan
answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save
their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh,
and he will curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, he is
in your power; only spare his life.”
So Satan went out from the presence of
the Lord, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot to the
crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and sat
among the ashes.
Then his wife said to him, “Do you
still persist in your integrity? Curse God, and die.” But he said to her, “You
speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand
of God, and not receive the bad?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Psalm 26
Vindicate me, O Lord,
for
I have walked in my integrity,
and
I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
Prove me, O Lord, and
try me;
test my heart and mind.
For your steadfast love is before my eyes,
and
I walk in faithfulness to you.
I do not sit with the
worthless,
nor do I consort with hypocrites;
I hate the company of evildoers,
and
will not sit with the wicked.
I wash my hands in
innocence,
and go around your altar, O Lord,
singing aloud a song of thanksgiving,
and
telling all your wondrous deeds.
O Lord, I love the
house in which you dwell,
and the place where your glory abides.
Do not sweep me away with sinners,
nor
my life with the bloodthirsty,
those in whose hands
are evil devices,
and whose right hands are full of bribes.
But as for me, I walk in my integrity;
redeem me, and be gracious to me.
My foot stands on
level ground;
in the great congregation I will bless the
Lord.
A reading from the Letter from Paul to the Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in
many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to
us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created
the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s
very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made
purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more
excellent than theirs.
Now God did not subject the coming
world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere,
“What are human beings that you are
mindful of them,
or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while
lower than the angels;
you have crowned them with glory and honor,
subjecting all things under their feet.”
Now in subjecting all things to them,
God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything
in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made
lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the
suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for
everyone.
It was fitting that God, for whom and
through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make
the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who
sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason
Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,
“I will proclaim your name to my
brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Gospel Acclamation – Alleluia (page #216)
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark 10:2-16
Glory to you, O Lord.
Some Pharisees came, and to test him
they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them,
“What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a
certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because
of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the
beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man
shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God
has joined together, let no one separate.”
Then in the house the disciples asked
him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and
marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband
and marries another, she commits adultery.”
People were bringing little children to
him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them.
But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little
children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the
kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom
of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms,
laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O
Christ.
Sermon
May only truth be spoken and truth heard. Amen.
From
now until the end of the Reign of Christ Sunday, with the exception of All Saints
Sunday, I would like to talk about the letter to the Hebrews.
The
lectionary only covers bits and pieces of the letter so, if you haven’t
already, I recommend that you read the Letter to the Hebrews in its entirety as
we move through this series. It’s not a long letter so I think this is
manageable homework.
While
I will try to focus on the excerpts for the week, I would like to cover the
entire letter over the six weeks so you might notice it doesn’t always line up.
I will be concentrating more on the themes in Hebrews, rather than the assigned
readings.
Before
we get into the first theme, let me give you a bit of background.
The
Letter to the Hebrews is a bit of an oddity in the New Testament. It is
labelled as a letter but, based on the style of writing, it might actually be
closer to a sermon than a letter. The main body of Hebrews bears all the marks
of an early Christian sermon, what the author calls a “word of exhortation.”
Hebrews appears to be an example of a sermon that is rabbinical in its design
and Christian in content, a sermon preached from afar and sent through the mail
to those who needed to hear it.
Who
is the audience of this sermon?
The
letter reveals a few things about its readers:
-
They
are educated Jewish Christians
-
They
are second-generation, having heard the message of salvation from people who heard
it from Jesus
-
They
have witnessed signs and wonders and various miracles and have received diverse
gifts of the Holy Spirit
-
They
have endured abuse, persecution, and suffering
-
Their
property has been plundered
-
They
are compassionate
-
They
seem to be in danger of apostasy, renouncing their faith, or drifting away from
the truth
The
author of Hebrews is a mystery. The assumption was that Paul had written it along
side all his other epistles, but it’s not written in his style. Many names have
been suggested - Apollos, Barnabas, Luke, Clement of Rome, Priscilla, and Silvanus,
to mention a few – but the arguments are not strong for any candidate.
So
who wrote it?
The
best answer to that question is the comment from Origen in the third century: “But
who wrote the epistle, in truth only God knows.”
Even
though we don’t know the author, we can make a few assumptions:
-
They
were a person of prominence in the church
-
They
knew people who knew Jesus
-
They
were well-educated in the Greek language and in Jewish scriptures
-
They
knew the readers of the letter personally
Honestly,
we don’t know much about the historical circumstances around the letter to the
Hebrews, less than any other New Testament book. The purpose of the
composition, however, is fairly clear: it proclaims the superiority of Christ
as the divine Son of God, attempts to persuade Christians not to abandon their faith,
and encourages perseverance.
One
negative of this letter, in my opinion, is that it promotes supersessionism –
it proclaims the superiority of faith in Christ over all other religions,
especially the Jewish religion. I’ll come back to this shortly.
There
are some major themes that run through the letter to the Hebrews, and that is
what these next few weeks will concentrate on.
The
themes are:
-
Christianity
and Judaism
-
Christology
-
Jesus
as High Priest
-
Rest
-
Christians
as pilgrim people
-
Suffering,
shame, and warnings
This
week, we will begin this sermon series by looking at the theme of Christianity
and Judaism found in the Letter to the Hebrews.
This
will be one of the harder themes to examine because it deals with a term called
supersessionism.
The
word “supersessionism” describes the influential idea that Christians have
replaced Jews as the people of God.
Those
who are in favor of this theological interpretation often refer to Jeremiah
31:31-32:
“The days are surely
coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their
ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring then out of the land of Egypt –
a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.”
This
passage is quoted in Hebrews 8:8-9:
“The days are surely
coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of
Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant that I made with their
ancestors, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land
of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I had no concern for
them, says the Lord.”
Notice
that there is a remarkable difference: instead of the phrase “though I was
their husband,” it reads, “so I had no concern for them.” The words in Hebrews
are a cornerstone of Christian supersessionist theology: the people of Israel
no longer find favor with the God of Israel because God has made a new
declaration of love to the Christian church.
But
is this really the case? Do we truly believe that Christianity replaced Judaism?
As
Christianity came into being, there were two extremely different opinions as to
how this new faith was to be understood.
The
first was that one could not be Christian without first being Jewish, that Christianity
was part of, an extension of, Judaism. Gentiles who became Christians had to
also observe all Jewish law, rituals, and traditions.
The
other end of the spectrum was that Judaism was a false religion, that the
Jewish God was evil, and the Jewish scriptures were to be rejected.
The
Letter to the Hebrews falls somewhere in the middle. The God who spoke through
the Son is the same God who spoke through the Jewish prophets. Hebrews confirms
that both faiths worship the same God and read the same bible because the Jewish
scriptures are quoted throughout the letter.
The
issue is that Hebrews then goes on to emphasizing the supremacy of Christianity
over Judaism.
A
prominent theme in Hebrews is that in Jesus Christ, God has provided “something
better”
-
Better
things (6:9)
-
A
better hope (7:19)
-
A
better covenant (7:22, 8:6)
-
Better
promises (8:6)
-
Better
sacrifices (9:23)
-
Better
possessions (10:34)
-
A
better country (11:16)
-
A
better resurrection (11:35)
-
A
better word (12:24)
But
is it better, or is it simply different?
The
author of Hebrews insists that it is the former, that Christianity is superior,
not just different, from Judaism.
The
author highlights that Jesus is better than every other figure in Jewish
history – Moses, Joshua, Aaron, Levi. Jesus is even more glorious than angels
and brings a revelation superior to that of the prophets.
He
also talks about how the salvation that Jesus brings is superior to that which
Israel gained through the old covenant, that Jesus was the superior sacrifice because
he was the culmination of the prophecies and saved humanity completely.
Ultimately,
the author of Hebrews claims that Jesus is the fulfillment of the new covenant
that historic Judaism had promised, and that Christ offers the true and eternal
salvation for all humankind.
I
am sure you are wondering why I take issue with the supersessionist theology
that is revealed in the letter to the Hebrews?
I
mean, Jesus fulfilling the promises of the new covenant with God is one of our
foundational beliefs, is it not?
I
am Christian because I believe in Jesus Christ and the salvation we received by
his sacrifice on the cross. This is the choice I made. By you being present
with me today, I believe you made that choice as well.
I
was not Jewish first and Christian second. Nor do I believe Judaism is a false
religion.
For
the sake of argument, I will assume you feel the same way.
So,
as with Hebrews, we fall in the middle, yes? But…and here’s the big but…I, and
I hope you, do not believe that Judaism is wrong, nor inferior, in any way.
As
I said before, we worship the same God and we read the same bible, the same
Hebrew scriptures.
We,
as Christians, believe that Jesus is the Messiah, sent by God to give himself up
on the cross and provide salvation to humankind. Jesus is the answer to the
prophecies found in the Hebrew scriptures.
Those
who follow Judaism believe the Messiah has yet to come. They are still waiting.
My
point is this…the letter to the Hebrews has a lot of good stuff in it, as we
will learn over the next few weeks. There is substance in this letter,
teachings that reveal who Christ is and who we are, and can be, in relation to
him.
However,
the lesson that Christ is better than all other Jewish figures, that Christianity
is superior to Judaism, that the existence of Jesus and the creation of the
Christian religion somehow cancels out Judaism and everything that Jewish people
believe… It is just preposterous!
Supersessionism
understands Judaism not as a distinct religion from Christianity but rather as
its prologue. Judaism paved the way, and now it should make way.
But
does Hebrews really compare Christianity and Judaism?
Perhaps
it is actually comparing the future and perfect to the earthly and fragmentary,
or heaven and earth?
The
author of Hebrews states that the heavenly is perfect and the earthly is
deficient. The new is better than the old because the kingdom of heaven is
better than earthly life.
The
message in Hebrews is perhaps not that Christian services are better than those
that take place in synagogues. It’s that the celestial service is heavenly
compared to earthly services.
Next week we will talk about Christology, the Divine and Human Christ found in Hebrews.
Hymn of the Day – Will You Come and Follow
Me? (ELW #798)
Creed
Let us confess the faith of our baptism, as we
say the Apostles’ Creed:
I
believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator
of heaven and earth.
I
believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who
was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born
of the virgin Mary,
suffered
under Pontius Pilate,
was
crucified, died, and was buried;
he
descended to the dead.*
On
the third day he rose again;
he
ascended into heaven,
he
is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and
he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I
believe in the Holy Spirit,
the
holy catholic church,
the
communion of saints,
the
forgiveness of sins,
the
resurrection of the body,
and
the life everlasting. Amen.
Prayers of Intercession
Made children and heirs of God’s promise, we pray for the church, the
world, and all in need.
Silence
Holy One, you have raised up faithful leaders throughout history.
Empower those discerning a call to ministry and all seminarians, that they
continue to be formed for the sake of the gospel.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
You have established a diverse and beautiful creation. Revive declining
species and preserve endangered lands. Cultivate in us a sense of wonder for
the world you created.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
You desire for us not to be alone and to live in community with one
another. Strengthen relationships between nations and peoples, that we
celebrate and support one human family.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
You share in our experiences and struggles. Bless all who live with any
mental or physical disability. Inspire creative communities, spaces, and
environments that are accessible and hospitable.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
You have established and nurtured relationships that extend beyond those
gathered here today. Bless members who can no longer travel to worship with us
and remind us of their continued role in this community of faith.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Please take time to offer your own intercessions or pray in silence.
You promise eternal life to all your children. Thank you for the people
of faith who have gone before us. Strengthen our trust we have in you.
Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
Receive these prayers, O God, and those in our hearts known only to you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Peace
The peace of Christ be with you always.
And also with you.
Hymn
of Thanksgiving – Blessed Assurance (ELW #638)
**Although
not physically at our church buildings to share our offering together I would
encourage you to set your offering of money aside so that it can be dropped off
or placed in the church once services resume, to mail your offering to the
church, or to make donations online. Please remember ministry is still taking
place.
Thanksgiving for the Word
Let us pray.
O God of justice and love, we give thanks to you that you illumine our
way through life with the words of your Son. Give us the light we need, awaken
us to the needs of others, and at the end bring all the world to your feast;
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy
Spirit, be honor and glory forever.
Amen.
Lord’s Prayer
Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus taught us.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our
daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those
who sin against us.
Save us from the time
of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the
power,
and the glory are yours,
now and forever. Amen.
Blessing
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord’s face shine on you with grace and
mercy.
The Lord look upon you with favor and ☩ give you peace.
Amen.
Sending Song – Here I Am, Lord
(ELW #574)
Dismissal
Go forth into the world to serve God with gladness; be of good courage;
hold fast to that which is good; render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the
fainthearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honor all people; love and
serve God, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thanks be to God.
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