Worship Helps for Epiphany 6
Art: David and Bathsheba
Artist: Lucas Cranach the Younger
Worship Theme: The
Savior’s Sermon: Live a holy life! Jesus came to free us from sin. He did not come to free us to sin. The commands in the lessons today remind us just how holy
our God is, and their dire warnings remind us just how holy he wants us to be.
Old Testament: 2 Samuel
11:1-17, 26-27
Springtime arrived, the time when kings go
out to war. David sent Joab out with his officers and with all
Israel. They ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David
stayed in Jerusalem.
2One evening
David had gotten up from upon his couch and was walking on the
roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The
woman was very good-looking. 3David sent to inquire about the woman, and he was told, “Isn’t this Bathsheba daughter
of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
4David sent messengers and took her. She
came to him, and he lay down with her. (She had been purifying
herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house.
5The woman became pregnant. So she sent a
message to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6David sent a message to Joab, “Send Uriah
the Hittite to me.” So Joab sent Uriah to David, 7and
Uriah came to him.
David asked how Joab and the troops were
doing, and how the war effort was going. 8Then David said
to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.”
When Uriah went out from the palace, the
king sent a gift to him. 9But Uriah
slept at the door of the palace with all the servants of his master. He
did not go down to his own house.
10David was informed, “Uriah has not
gone down to his house.” So David
said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come a long distance? Why didn’t you go down to
your house?”
11Uriah said to David, “The ark and
Israel and Judah are living in shelters, and
my master Joab and the servants of my master are camped in the open field.
Should I go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie down with my wife?
As surely as you are alive, I will not do such a thing.”
12Then David
said to Uriah, “Stay here today also. Tomorrow I will send you
back.” So Uriah remained in
Jerusalem that day and the next. 13David summoned him, and he ate as
his guest, and David got him drunk. But in
the evening he went and slept on his mat where the servants of his master were.
He did not go to his own house.
14In the morning David wrote a letter
to Joab, and he sent it in the hands of Uriah. 15In the letter he
wrote, “Station Uriah in a dangerous spot on the front lines. Then withdraw
from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16So when Joab was besieging the
city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that the enemy’s strongest
warriors were. 17The men of the city came out and fought against
Joab and some of the troops of David fell. And Uriah the Hittite also died…
26The wife of Uriah the Hittite heard
that her husband was dead. So she mourned for her husband. 27When
her mourning was completed, David sent and brought her to his house, and she
became his wife. She gave birth to a son for him. But
what David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.
1. What lessons can we learn about the power and
progressive nature of sin from the example of King David?
Epistle: 1 Thessalonians
4:1-12
Therefore, beyond this, brothers, just as
you received instruction from us about how you are to walk so as to please God (as indeed you are doing), we ask
and urge you in the Lord Jesus that you do so even more. 2To be
sure, you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3Indeed,
this is God’s will: that you be sanctified, namely, that you keep yourselves
away from sexual immorality. 4He wants each
of you to learn to obtain a wife for yourself in
a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in lustful passion like the
heathen, who do not know God. 6No one is to overstep and take advantage
of his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these
things, just as we said previously and solemnly testified to it. 7For
God did not call us for uncleanness, but in sanctification. 8Consequently,
whoever rejects this is not rejecting a man, but the God who gives you his Holy
Spirit.
9Concerning brotherly love, there is no
need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God, with the
result that you love one another. 10In fact, you are doing so toward
all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we encourage you, brothers, to do
this even more, 11and to make it your ambition to live a quiet life,
to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, just as we
instructed you. 12Do this so that you are conducting yourselves
decently toward outsiders and are not lacking anything.
2. How do you think you are similar to the Thessalonian
Christians when it comes to your life of sanctification, that is, living the
holy life Christ commands?
Gospel: Matthew 5:21-37
21“You have heard that it was said to
people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to
judgment.’ 22But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his
brother without a cause will be subject to judgment, and whoever says to his
brother, ‘Raca,’ will have to answer
to the Sanhedrin. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of hell fire.
23“So if you are about to offer your
gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something
against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar and go.
First be reconciled to your brother. Then come and offer your gift.
25“If someone accuses you, reach an
agreement with him quickly, while you are with him on the way. Otherwise your
accuser may bring you to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the
officer, and you will be thrown into prison. 26Amen[1] I
tell you: You will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
27“You have heard that it was said,
‘You shall not commit adultery,’ 28but I tell you that everyone who
looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his
heart. 29If your right eye causes you to fall into sin, pluck it out
and throw it away from you. It is better for you to lose one part of your body
than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30If your right
hand causes you to fall into sin, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is
better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be
thrown into hell.
31“It was also said, ‘Whoever
divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32But I
tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, causes
her to be regarded as an adulteress. And whoever marries the divorced woman is
regarded as an adulterer.
33“Again you have heard that it was
said to people long ago, ‘Do not break your oaths, but fulfill your vows to the
Lord.’ 34But I tell you, do not swear at all: not by heaven, because
it is God’s throne; 35and not by earth, because it is his footstool;
and not by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. 36And
do not swear by your own head, since you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Instead,
let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes,’ or ‘No, no.’ Whatever goes beyond these is
from the Evil One.
3. What is Jesus doing with the law that the Lord had
given to his Old Testament people through Moses?
4. What is the ultimate purpose of God’s law for sinners
like us?
Answers:
1. Our Savior’s call
to holy living leads us to have a healthy fear of sin. What a warning God
provides us in David! When the king was at the height of his power and full of
God’s blessing, his great fall began. Why? Because he toyed with sin. He let
lust fester and morph into adultery. He spoke lies until deception ruled his
heart. He let selfishness metastasize into a godless disregard for any life but
his own. He thought he could toy with sin, but in the end it was sin and Satan
that toyed with him. Jesus’ call to live a holy life is like a mother warning
her child to beware of a hot stove. It is a call motivated by love and meant
for our safety.
2. Paul’s
encouragement to live a holy life serves as a great model for preaching
sanctification to a congregation. He does not speak to them as heathens, but as
people who are in fact living in order to please God. Paul’s words, then,
instruct and admonish them to do this more and more. The authority behind his
preaching of sanctification did not come from Paul’s life but from the authority
of Christ himself. This is what Christ wants! The Thessalonians faced the same
problem we do: we know what God wants; we understand it; we just don’t do it
consistently. Paul applies the warning of God’s Law and the calling of God’s
Gospel. Paul repeatedly emphasizes this: You know it, so now we urge you to do
it more and more.
3. Jesus is taking the
divine law into his hands and explaining it spiritually. Sinful human beings
naturally have a shallow and corrupted understanding of what God created us to
be and what he now demands of sinners. Jesus teaches us that the fulfillment of
the law is more difficult than simple, outward actions.
4. The ultimate
purpose of God’s law for sinners is to make us conscious of our sin and our
desperate need for a perfect Savior from sin. The message of the gospel then
graciously and perfectly supplies our need by proclaiming that Jesus has done
everything to save us from our wickedness.
Jesus commands us to
be holy in our relationships with our brothers, our adversaries, our bodies,
our spouse, and our God. Hearing his instructions for the Christian life, we
see that God is far holier than we can imagine! How high Jesus sets the bar
here: not just acts, but thoughts—not just words, but attitudes, are judged by
our God! In the place of a pharisaical form of godliness, Jesus calls for true
spiritual righteousness. God’s demands of holiness only highlight the depravity
of our sinful nature. Let the preacher bring God’s Law in all its severity and
preach his hearers down to hell, until the flesh despairs of itself and can
only cry, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!” boldly proclaim that the Savior
who preaches the holy life is the Savior who lived the holy life as our
Substitute. Proclaim forgiveness that is greater than our depravity and mercy
that far outweighs our wickedness.
Putting
your faith into action
There’s so much more to righteousness than we thought! How
many people have felt good about themselves for never murdering, stealing, or
cheating on their spouses—and then Jesus says we’re not just stewards of our
bodies; we’re also stewards of our thoughts! It sure is a good thing he paid
for all our sins! With that kind of righteousness from him, we get the happy
motivation to work on our deeds, words, and thoughts as thank offerings to him
who loves us and freed us from our sins.
182] Now this commandment is easy enough, and has
been often treated, because we hear it annually in the Gospel of
St. Matthew 5:21ff, where Christ Himself explains and sums it up, namely,
that we must not kill, neither with hand, heart, mouth, signs, gestures, help,
nor counsel. Therefore it is here forbidden to every one to be angry, except
those (as we said) who are in the place of God, that is, parents and the
government. For it is proper for God and for every one who is in a divine
estate to be angry, to reprove and punish, namely, on account of those very
persons who transgress this and the other commandments.
183] But the cause and need of this commandment is
that God well knows that the world is evil, and that this life has much
unhappiness; therefore He has placed this and the other commandments between
the good and the evil. Now, as there are many assaults upon all commandments,
so it happens also in this commandment that we must live among many people who
do us harm, so that we have cause to be hostile to them.
184] As when your neighbor sees that you have a
better house and home [a larger family and more fertile fields], greater
possessions and fortune from God than he, he is sulky, envies you, and speaks
no good of you. Thus by the devil's incitement you will get many enemies who
cannot bear to see you have any good, either bodily or spiritual. When we see
such people, our hearts, in turn, would rage and bleed and take vengeance. Then
there arise cursing and blows, from which follow finally misery and murder.
Here, now, God like a kind father steps in ahead of us, interposes and wishes
to have the quarrel settled, that no misfortune come of it, nor one destroy
another. And briefly, He would hereby protect, set free, and keep in peace
every one against the crime and violence of every one else; and would have this
commandment placed as a wall, fortress, and refuge about our neighbor, that we
do him no hurt nor harm in his body. – Large Catechism, 5th
Commandment (paragraphs 182-184)
Hymns: 471; 283; 285; 459
1 Renew me, O eternal Light,
And
let my heart and soul be bright,
Illumined
with the light of grace
That
issues from your holy face.
2 Destroy in me the lust of sin;
From
all impureness make me clean.
Oh,
grant me pow’r and strength, my God,
To
strive against my flesh and blood.
3 Create in me a new heart, Lord,
That
gladly I obey your Word.
Oh,
let your will be my desire
And
with new life my soul inspire.
4 Grant that I only you may love
And
seek those things which are above
Till
I behold you face to face,
O
Light eternal, through your grace.
Text:
Johann F. Ruopp, 1672–1708, abr.; tr. August Crull, 1845–1923, alt.
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