Worship Helps for Pentecost 17

Worship Theme: There are two kinds of preachers.  One pushes worldly glory.  The other pushes the ugly cross where Christ was crucified for us, alone in the darkness.  The former touts worldly success.  The latter knows that those who speak God’s truth will always make enemies.  “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” the Bible says.  So men who preach God’s full truth are bound to experience failure and disappointment.  Following our suffering Savior, though, Christians even sing, “Go, then earthly fame and treasure.  Come disaster, scorn and pain.”  We even pray to God, “In your service, pain is pleasure.  In your favor, loss is gain.”

Old Testament: Jeremiah 38:1-13

Shephatiah son of Mattah, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah had told the people when he said, ²“This is what the Lord says. Whoever remains in this city will die by sword, famine, and plague, but whoever goes over to the Chaldeans will live. He will escape with his life, and he will live. ³This is what the Lord says. This city will surely be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”

⁴Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death because he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in the city. He is demoralizing all the people by saying these things to them. This man is not seeking the welfare of the people. He wants to hurt them.”

⁵King Zedekiah answered, “Very well. He is in your hands. The king cannot do anything to stop you.”

⁶So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They let Jeremiah down by ropes. There was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

⁷Ebed Melek the Cushite, an official in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, ⁸Ebed Melek left the palace and said to the king, ⁹“My lord the king, everything that these men have done to Jeremiah the prophet is evil. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he is likely to die because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.”

¹⁰Then the king gave orders to Ebed Melek the Cushite: “Take thirty men from here under your command and lift Jeremiah the prophet up out of the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹So Ebed Melek took command of the men and entered a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothing from there, and he lowered them with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. ¹²Ebed Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” After Jeremiah did that, ¹³they lifted him up with the ropes and pulled him out of the cistern. After this Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

1. What bad thing happened to Jeremiah? (See especially 38:6)

2. Why did King Zedekiah allow this to happen?

Epistle: 1 Peter 4:12–19

¹²Dear friends, do not be surprised by the fiery trial that is happening among you to test you, as if something strange were happening to you. ¹³Instead rejoice whenever you are sharing in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

¹⁴If you are insulted in connection with the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ¹⁵Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or as a meddler. ¹⁶But if you suffer for being a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God in connection with this name. ¹⁷For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. Now if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who disobey the gospel of God? ¹⁸And if it is hard for the righteous to be saved, where will the ungodly sinner end up? ¹⁹So let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to their faithful Creator while doing what is good.

3. In one word, how does Peter say you should think of yourself if others insult you because of the name of Jesus? (See 4:14)

4. What does Peter mean in 4:17, when he says that it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God, so even worse things are coming for the godless?

Gospel: Mark 8:27–35  

²⁷Jesus went away with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

²⁸They told him, “John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say one of the prophets.”

²⁹“But who do you say I am?” he asked them.

Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

³⁰Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things; be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the experts in the law; be killed; and after three days rise again. ³²He was speaking plainly to them. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But after turning around and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.”

³⁴He called the crowd and his disciples together and said to them, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

5. Why was Peter rebuked for not wanting Jesus to suffer and die?

6. What is meant by taking up the cross? 

Answers:

1. Jeremiah was lowered into a cistern, in which he sank down into the mud.

2. King Zedekiah let Jeremiah be lowered into the cistern because four officials had told him that Jeremiah was discouraging people in Jerusalem.  Jeremiah was telling them that those who stayed in the city during the Babylonian siege would die in terrible ways.

3. If others insult you because of the name of Jesus, you are blessed.

4. In short, Peter means Judgment Day will be hopeless for unbelievers.  Paul Kretzmann answers our question by first quoting Augustine’s analogy: “’’If the sons are being chastised, what will happen to the slaves?’ What will be the fate of the unrighteous, if God does not even spare the righteous, his intention being to instruct and train them?  The believers are hardly, but certainly saved; those, however, that have refused to be obedient to the Gospel, that were unbelievers from choice, will miss the salvation of Christ, will go away into everlasting destruction ….  That is what the apostle calls out in impressive warning: If the righteous is hardly saved, where will the godless and the sinner appear?”

5. Jesus rebuked Peter, we could say, for not understanding what the name “Christ” really meant.  Peter and the other disciples were looking for an earthly king.  Jesus rejected Peter’s well-meant but ill-conceived rebuke.  Without Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, we would still be in our sins and lost forever.

6. Taking up one’s cross means denying oneself. It means to follow the One who carried his cross to Golotha by refusing to make oneself the sole object in one’s life but making God and his will the center one’s life.  That will always involve sacrifices, avoiding everything that might come between us and our Savior (Mark 7:20-23), even being ready to suffer shame and death to remain faithful to him.

A reading from the Book of Concord for the 17^th Sunday after Pentecost

            Catechism study is a most effective help against the devil, the world, the flesh, and all evil thoughts.  It helps to be occupied with God’s Word, to speak it, and meditate on it, just as the first Psalm declares people blessed who meditate on God’s Law day and night.  Certainly you will not release a stronger incense or other repellant against the devil than to be engaged by God’s commandments and words, and speak, sing, or think them.  For this is indeed the true “holy water” and “holy sign” from which the devil runs and by which he may be driven away [James 4:7].

            For this reason alone you ought gladly to read, speak, think, and use these things, even if you had no other profit and fruit from them than driving away the devil and evil thoughts by doing so.  For he cannot hear or endure God’s Word.  God’s Word is not like some other silly babbling… St. Paul says in Romans 1:16, it is “the power of God.”  Yes, it is the power of God that gives the devil burning pain and strengthens, comforts, and helps us beyond measure.

            What need is there for more words?  If I were to list all the profit and fruit God’s Word produces, where would I get enough paper and time?  The devil is called the master of a thousand arts.  But what shall we call God’s Word, which drives away and brings to nothing this master of a thousand arts with all his power?  The Word must be the master of more than a hundred thousand arts. – Large Catechism, Longer Preface, paragraphs 10-12

431  I Walk in Danger All the Way

1  I walk in danger all the way; The thought shall never leave me

That Satan, who has marked his prey, Is plotting to deceive me.

This foe with hidden snares May seize me unawares

If e’er I fail to watch and pray; I walk in danger all the way.

2  I pass through trials all the way, With sin and ills contending;

In patience I must bear each day The cross of God’s own sending.

Oft in adversity I know not where to flee

When storms of woe my soul dismay; I pass through trials all the way.

3  Grim death pursues me all the way; Nowhere I rest securely.

He comes by night, he comes by day, And takes his prey most surely.

A failing breath, and I In death’s strong grasp may lie

To face eternity today. Grim death pursues me all the way.

4  I walk with angels all the way; They shield me and befriend me.

All Satan’s pow’r is held at bay When heav’nly hosts attend me.

They are my sure defense; All fear and sorrow, hence!

Unharmed by foes, do what they may, I walk with angels all the way.

5  I walk with Jesus all the way; His guidance never fails me.

He takes my ev’ry fear away When Satan’s pow’r assails me,

And, by his footsteps led, My path I safely tread.

In spite of ills that threaten may, I walk with Jesus all the way.

6  My walk is heav’nward all the way; Await, my soul, the morrow,

When you farewell can gladly say To all your sin and sorrow.

All worldly pomp, begone! To heav’n I now press on.

For all the world I would not stay; My walk is heav’nward all the way.

Text: Hans A. Brorson, 1694–1764; tr. Ditlef G. Ristad, 1863–1938, alt.