Worship Helps for Saints Triumphant


Title: Saints Triumphant
Artist: Melanie Schuette, Avignon Studios


Worship Theme: Lord, keep us watchful for our triumph! Today the Church hears strains of the distant triumph song and affirms, “Blessed are they who are called to the marriage feast of the Lamb.” Jesus wants us to be the waiting Church— the Church that watches for her Savior and cries, “Come, Lord Jesus!” As we journey through these latter days, however, our vigilance slips, and our hearts grow drowsy because the bridegroom seems to be taking so long. So while we wait, the Church prays, “Keep us ever watchful for the coming of your Son that we may sit with him and all your holy ones at the marriage feast in heaven.”

Prayer of the Day:
Almighty God and Savior, you have set the final day and hour when we shall be delivered from this world sin and death. Keep us ever watchful for the coming of your Son that we may sit with him and all your holy ones at the marriage feast in heaven; through your Son, Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.


Old Testament: Ezekiel 37:15-28
15The word of the Lord came to me: 16“Now you, son of man, take one writing board and write on it: ‘Belonging to Judah and belonging to the sons of Israel associated with it.’ Then take another writing board and write on it: ‘Belonging to Joseph, Ephraim’s piece of wood, and the whole house of Israel associated with it.’ 17Then hold one board close to the other to make a single board for yourself, so that they are one in your hand.
18“When your countrymen say to you, ‘Won’t you tell us what these things mean to you?’ 19then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord God says. I am going to take the board of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with it, and I will attach them to the board of Judah. In this way I will make them one board, so that they will be one in my hand.’ 20The boards on which you will write should be in your hand for them to see. 21Then say this to them. ‘This is what the Lord God says. I am going to take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from all around, and I will bring them to their own land. 22I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will be king for all of them. Never again will they be two nations, and never again will they be divided into two kingdoms. 23Never again will they defile themselves with their filthy idols, with their disgusting practices, and with all their rebellious actions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
24“‘My servant David will be King over them, and they will all have one Shepherd. They will follow my ordinances and be careful to keep my statutes. 25They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there—they, their children, and their grandchildren—forever, and David my Servant will be their Prince forever. 26I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will establish them, and I will multiply them and set my sanctuary in their midst forever. 27My dwelling place will be over them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28Then the nations will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel when my sanctuary is in their midst forever.’”

1. What was the object lesson Ezekiel was told to give to the people?

2. When would this object lesson be fulfilled? Hint: Look carefully at verse 24.


Epistle: Revelation 19:1–9
After these things I heard what seemed to be the loud sound of an immense crowd in heaven, saying: Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2for his judgments are true and just, because he has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and he has avenged his servants’ blood that was shed by her hand.
3A second time they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke goes up forever and ever.” 4Then the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures bowed down and worshipped God, who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!” 5And from the throne came a voice that said, “Praise our God, all you his servants and you who fear him, small and great.”
6And I heard what seemed to be the roar of a large crowd or the roar of many waters or the sound of loud rumblings of thunder, saying: Alleluia! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. 7Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come. His bride has made herself ready, 8and she was given bright, clean, fine linen to wear. (In fact, the fine linen is the “not guilty” verdicts pronounced on the saints.) 9The angel said to me, “Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.” He also said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

3. Why does the great multitude of God’s people rejoice? (verses 1-3)

4. What do the elders and the living creatures say in response?

5. What does the multitude say in response?

Gospel: Matthew 25:1–13
“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take any oil with them; 4but the wise took oil in their containers with their lamps. 5While the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ 9But the wise answered, ‘No, there may not be enough for us and for you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10But while they were away buying oil, the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. 11Later, the other virgins also came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, let us in.’ 12But he answered, ‘Amen I tell you: I do not know you.’ 13Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

6. Who do the foolish virgins represent in Jesus’ parable? Who do the wise virgins represent?

7. What is the significance of “midnight” (verse 6)?

8. Why did the bridegroom say he did not know the virgins?


Answers:
1. Ezekiel was to take two sticks and join them together. This object lesson symbolized that in the future Israel and Judah would be joined together again.

2. Judah was allowed to return to Canaan, but the northern tribes of Israel were not. Also, David never physically rose from the dead to be king over a united kingdom. Either we would have to look to some future time when David would rise again and Israel would be united (which many do, pointing to the modern state of Israel), or we can accept it as having already been fulfilled in the kingdom of Jesus, the Son of David. The latter option is the right choice. Other elements of this vision show that this is a kingdom built on Christ, which the modern state of Israel is not.

This lesson immediately follows Ezekiel’s prophecy about the dry bones. God had promised Israel that he would raise them up from their graves and settle them in the land. He promised to restore captive Israel to the land of Abraham. The rescue and return of the remnant provides a picture of what the Church waits and watches for. In this lesson God extends that prophecy beyond physical Israel to the Church and to the Messianic kingdom of his Son. Earthly troubles like the captivity or our struggle with sin are temporary. The triumph that’s coming won’t be. Notice that in the last four verses God repeatedly talks about the unending nature of the kingdom waiting for us. It will be a kingdom without divisions caused by sin, but exemplified by oneness (one stick, one nation, one king, one shepherd—forever). How will this be? Look at how many times God says that he will act for us! We are purely passive in acquiring the triumph in store for us. God will act to save and to cleanse and to renew his covenant: I will be their God, and they will be my people. As Ezekiel held his bound sticks before the eyes of his countrymen, so the Church holds God’s promises of pending triumph before us and continually cries, “Wait for it! Watch for it!”

3. The multitude rejoices over the destruction of the prostitute, who corrupted the earth. It gives God glory for the justice of his judgments and for avenging the blood of his servants.

4. They say “Amen” to this. Amen expresses agreement: It shall be so! They also sing “Hallelujah”—Praise the Lord!

5. The multitude praises God, rejoicing in his reign and anticipating the wedding feast of the Lamb that is about to begin. The destruction of the prostitute is an event that will happen right before the end. The destruction of the beast and the false prophet and the destruction of Satan himself all happen at the same time, even though they are described one by one.

What kind of triumph are we watching and waiting for? For the persecuted Church, Jesus gave the Apocalypse of St. John to let his people know: Jesus will win. Revelation 18 foretold the Fall of Babylon and the destruction of every enemy of the Church. “After this...” John heard the reaction of the saints and angels and all creation—they cried, “Hallelujah!” The word used so prevalently in the Old Testament was not heard in the New Testament until its final vision of the saints triumphant. George Handel tried to capture the glory of what John witnessed with his Hallelujah Chorus, but his work will certainly pale by comparison to that distant triumph song. John lets us see behind the shut door of the parable in our Gospel for the Sunday—he lets us see what we watch for: the consummation of the marriage of Christ and the Church. Blessed are they who are called to the marriage feast of the Lamb! Keep us watchful for our coming triumph!

6. It seems best to consider all the virgins as being Christians. The foolish virgins are those Christians who fall away and do not remain spiritually awake. The wise virgins are those remain awake and aware of the Bridegroom’s return on the Last Day. The parable is applied to the Church, to you and me. Jesus is warning believers not to be like the foolish virgins.

Jesus pictures the time before his return as virgins waiting for a bridegroom and the start of a wedding feast. The parable divides all people (ten virgins) into two groups: foolish and wise. They weren’t described that way because of what they did in the parable, but their actions showed what they were. The foolish virgins acted utterly foolish, bearing empty lamps. The other virgins’ actions showed that they indeed were wise. The wise went into the joys of wedding banquet, but the foolish lost both invitation and even recognition. Jesus’ central instruction in this parable calls for the waiting Church to be the watchful Church. Keep watch for you do not know the day or the hour!

7. It was late. Perhaps the foolish virgins had given up any hope of meeting the bridegroom that evening. We must never think it is too late for Jesus to return.

8. Note Matthew 7:22,23, where the same expression is used. They seemed to profess Christ, but their hearts were far from him.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version® (EHV®) copyright © 2017 The Wartburg Project. All rights reserved.
www.wartburgproject.org



Putting your faith into action


A reading from the Book of Concord for Saints Triumphant
Now we have the Ten Commandments, a summary of divine teaching about what we are to do in order that our whole life may be pleasing to God.  Everything that is to be a good work must arise and flow from and in this true fountain.  So apart from the Ten Commandments no work or thing can be good or pleasing to God, no matter how great it is in the world’s eyes.  Let us see now what our great saints can boast of their spiritual orders and their great and mighty works.  They have invented and set these things up, while they let these commandments go, as though they were far too insignificant or had long ago been perfectly fulfilled.

I am of the opinion that one will find his hands full ‹and will have enough› to do to keep these commandments: love, meekness, patience, towards enemies, chastity, kindness, and other such virtues.  But such works are not of value in the world’s eyes.  Therefore, they are not highly regarded.

But the other works cause people to open their eyes and ears wide.  Men waft incense, they sing and ring bells, they light tapers and candles.  For when a priest stands there in a surplice garment embroidered with gold thread, or a layman stays all day upon his knees in Church, that is regarded as a most precious work, which no one can praise enough.  But when a poor girl tends a little child and faithfully does what she is told, that is considered nothing.  For what else should monks and nuns seek in their cloisters? – Large Catechism, The Ten Commandments (paragraphs 311-314)


1  Behold a host, arrayed in white,
Like thousand snowclad mountains bright;
With palms they stand. Who is this band
Before the throne of light?
These are the saints of glorious fame,
Who from the great affliction came
And in the flood Of Jesus’ blood
Are cleansed from guilt and blame.
Now gathered in the holy place,
Their voices they in worship raise.
Their anthems swell Where God does dwell
Mid angels’ songs of praise.

2  Despised and scorned, they sojourned here;
But now, how glorious they appear!
Those martyrs stand, A priestly band,
God’s throne forever near.
So oft in troubled days gone by,
In anguish they would weep and sigh;
At home above The God of love
Fore’er their tears shall dry.
They now enjoy the Sabbath rest,
The heav’nly banquet of the blest;
The Lamb, their Lord, At festive board
Himself is host and guest.

3  O blessed saints, now take your rest;
A thousand times you will be blessed
For keeping faith Firm unto death
And scorning worldly trust.
For now you live at home with God;
You toiled and sowed the Word abroad.
Rejoice and bring Your fruits and sing
Before the throne of God.
The myriad angels raise the song;
O saints, sing with that happy throng!
Lift up one voice; Let heav’n rejoice
In our Redeemer’s song.

Text: Hans A. Brorson, 1694–1764; tr. composite. St. 3 © 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship.
All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Augsburg Fortress.


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