Worship Helps for Pentecost 6

Title: Adoration of the Calf

Artist Jacopo Tintoretto

Year: 1546

Worship Theme: The Christian loves God above all things. The Church prays for the love of God that we might always love him above all things. The lessons warn of the earthly ramifications of such love, but also point to the promised heavenly rewards.

Old Testament: Exodus 32:15-29

Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. ¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp." ¹⁸ Moses replied: "It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear." ¹⁹ When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it. ²¹ He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?" ²² "Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. ²³ They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' ²⁴ So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" ²⁵ Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. ²⁶ So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him. ²⁷ Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'" ²⁸ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. ²⁹ Then Moses said, "You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day."

1. Were Aaron and the elders able to withstand the pressure of the Israelites to worship gods similar to the ones they had seen the Egyptians worshiping?

2. Who alone were the ones willing to stand with the LORD and Moses?

Epistle: 1 John 2:15-17

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For everything in the world-- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-- comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

3. What instruction does John give for true discipleship?

4. What does loving God mean?

Gospel: Matthew 10:34-42

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn "'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-- ³⁶ a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' ³⁷ "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸ and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ⁴⁰ "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. ⁴² And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

5. How does Jesus make us reassess our faith and our relationship with him?

Answers:

1. No, not at all. Aaron had seen God standing on the sapphire pavement. The seventy elders had partaken of a divine banquet on the mountain (Exodus 24). And only forty days later, they lost it all. Unwilling to face conflict for God, they gave in to the people who wanted to love pleasure, flesh, and idols rather than the God who brought them up out of Egypt. Aaron’s feeble excuses remind us of our own shallow rationalizations for failing to love God above all things.

2. The Levites – those men from the tribe of Levi who were destined to work in the tabernacle – rallied to Moses’ call and showed that they loved the LORD even more than they loved their brothers. Total commitment to God did not bring peace, but a sword. Yet their devotion was rewarded by God who gave them the high privilege of being his special servants.

3. John instructs Christians not to love the world or anything in the world. How easy that is to say; how difficult to do!

4. St. John tells us that loving God means total commitment. Love for the world and the love of the Father are mutually exclusive. Loving God above all things means recognizing that our cravings, our lust, and our pride come from this world which will not last. So why do we put our love in things that are so transitory? Empires fall, desire wanes, relationships fail, accomplishments crumble. The Latin phrase “Sic transit gloria mundi!” is very true! It means “Thus passes the glory of the world.” God calls the Christian to love him above all these things and receive a life that will last forever.

5. Persecution reprioritizes life and sharpens faith. However, the further Christians get from the lions’ roar or the martyr’s stake, the easier it is for us to make our faith in Christ merely moderately important in our lives. Family, friends, work, health—these all vie for our time and attention, and our faith gets pushed further and further down the list. When life is not so bad, who needs the promises of a better life to come? How true Luther’s words of warning: nulla persecutio est tota persecutio! (The absence of persecution is total persecution). How false our thoughts that faith can be only moderately important! C.S. Lewis said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” In the Gospel, Christ asserts the all-important nature of faith, and the all-consuming nature of discipleship. Jesus calls us to love him above all—more than family or friends, more than personal safety or even life itself. Such total commitment to Christ will not bring peace to your life, but constant conflict with the sinful world around you. Since he did not come to bring peace, but a sword, he points the Christian to rewards in heaven, kept safe by the One who sent him.

Putting your faith into action

Jesus is always divisive despite the truths that he died for all and wants all to be saved. His divisiveness may be as close as our immediate family. There is no harmony between faith in Jesus and unbelief. We follow Jesus at all costs, even if it means losing our worldly lives. God’s promise is greater than what we may lose by following Jesus. His promise is life, now and forever.

A reading from the Book of Concord for Pentecost 6

13] Thus you can easily understand what and how much this commandment requires, namely, that man's entire heart and all his confidence be placed in God alone, and in no one else. For to have God, you can easily perceive, is not to lay hold of Him with our hands or to put Him in a bag [as money], or to lock Him in a chest [as silver vessels]. 14] But to apprehend Him means when the heart lays hold of Him and clings to Him. 15] But to cling to Him with the heart is nothing else than to trust in Him entirely. For this reason He wishes to turn us away from everything else that exists outside of Him, and to draw us to Himself, namely, because He is the only eternal good. As though He would say; Whatever you have heretofore sought of the saints, or for whatever [things] you have trusted in Mammon or anything else, expect it all of Me, and regard Me as the one who will help you and pour out upon you richly all good things.

16] Lo, here you have the meaning of the true honor and worship of God, which pleases God, and which He commands under penalty of eternal wrath, namely, that the heart know no other comfort or confidence than in Him, and do not suffer itself to be torn from Him, but, for Him, risk and disregard everything upon earth. 17] On the other hand, you can easily see and judge how the world practices only false worship and idolatry. For no people has ever been so reprobate as not to institute and observe some divine worship; every one has set up as his special god whatever he looked to for blessings, help, and comfort. – Large Catechism, 1^st Commandment (paragraphs 13-17)