Thy Strong Word - Looking Ahead: Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 8)

Hosted by Rev. Will Weedon, LCMS Director of Worship and International Center Chaplain.

With guest Rev. Dennis McFadden from Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Introit: Psalm 89:15-18

¹⁵Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
    who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,
¹⁶who exult in your name all the day
    and in your righteousness are exalted.
¹⁷For you are the glory of their strength;
    by your favor our horn is exalted.
¹⁸For our shield belongs to the Lord,
    our king to the Holy One of Israel.

Antiphon: Psalm 89:1

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord

A Maskil^[a] of Ethan the Ezrahite.

89 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;
with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

Footnotes:

Psalm 89:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term

Gradual: [Romans 11:33, 36]

³³Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Old Testament: Jeremiah 28:5-9

⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord, ⁶and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. ⁷Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. ⁸The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. ⁹As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”

Psalm 119:153-160 (antiphon: v. 154)

Resh

¹⁵³Look on my affliction and deliver me,
    for I do not forget your law.
¹⁵⁴Plead my cause and redeem me;
    give me life according to your promise!
¹⁵⁵Salvation is far from the wicked,
    for they do not seek your statutes.
¹⁵⁶Great is your mercy, O Lord;
    give me life according to your rules.
¹⁵⁷Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
    but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
¹⁵⁸I look at the faithless with disgust,
    because they do not keep your commands.
¹⁵⁹Consider how I love your precepts!
    Give me life according to your steadfast love.
¹⁶⁰The sum of your word is truth,
    and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

Epistle: Romans 7:1-13

Released from the Law

7 Or do you not know, brothers^[a]—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?²For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.^[b]³Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

⁴Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. ⁵For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ⁶But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.^[c]

The Law and Sin

⁷What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”⁸But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹²So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

Footnotes:

Romans 7:1 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 4
Romans 7:2 Greek law concerning the husband
Romans 7:6 Greek of the letter

Proper Verse: Matthew 10:39

³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Gospel: Matthew 10:34-42

Not Peace, but a Sword

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Rewards

⁴⁰“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. ⁴¹The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ⁴²And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

Lutheran Heritage Foundation - Underwriter of Thy Strong Word — Underwriter of Thy Strong Word

Rev. William Weedon

We have the distinct privilege of borrowing LCMS Director of Worship and International Center Chaplain Rev. William Chancellor Weedon for an hour a day to add Host of Thy Strong Word to his list of titles. Native to the central Maryland area just outside of Washington D.C., he enthusiastically enjoys his coffee, playing piano, and singing heartily, as well as spending time in the pool with his wife Cindi, three children and their spouses, and seven grandchildren. He’s one of those people that listens to Christmas music year-round, but we still let him in our studios. You may find him reading a good murder mystery or some writing by Johann Gerhard, Joseph Ratzinger, or Alexander Schmemann while eating a chocolate torte made by his wife Cindi. When he’s read all the books he can manage, he escapes outside to hike, bike, or even run in his Vivobarefoot shoes that Andy Bates, his favorite famous person, told him to buy.