Worship Helps for Pentecost 12

Prophet Elijah in the Desert

Dieric Bouts

Worship Theme: Have you ever faced a frustrating, seemingly impossible task? For Christians, believing all of Jesus’ promises and loving others as he loves us sometimes seems out of the question. In today’s lessons, though, we see how Jesus gives us the ability to fulfill impossible tasks by giving us the Bread of Life. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing (John 15:5).  But with God, nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37).

Old Testament: 1 Kings 19:3-8

³Elijah was afraid, and he ran for his life. He went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. ⁴But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. There he sat down under a broom tree, where he prayed that he would die. He said, “I’ve had enough, Lord. Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” ⁵Then he lay down and went to sleep under the broom tree.

Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

⁶Then he looked around, and near his head there was a loaf of bread baking on coals and a jar of water, so he ate and drank, and then he lay down again.

⁷Then the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, because the journey is too much for you.”

⁸So he got up and ate and drank. Then, with the strength gained from that food he walked for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.

1. What was Elijah grumbling about?

2. Through the angels, what did the LORD command Elijah to do?

Epistle: Hebrews 5:11-6:3

¹¹We have much to say about this, and it is difficult to explain, because you have become too lazy to listen. ¹²In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the beginning principles of God’s word all over again. You have become people who need milk, not solid food. ¹³For everyone who lives on milk is not acquainted with the word of righteousness, because he is still an infant. ¹⁴But solid food is for mature people, who have their senses trained by practice to distinguish between good and evil.

^6:1Therefore, leaving the beginning discussion of Christ, let us press on toward matters that require greater maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith in God, ²of the teaching about baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. ³And we will do this, if God permits.

3. How does the writer to the Hebrews describe the elementary truths of God’s Word?  More advanced truths?

4. The writer to the Hebrews does not seem to be upset that his first readers were not leading godly, moral lives. What is he concerned about?

5. In a word, what did the writer to the Hebrews want his readers to press on to?

Gospel: John 6:41-51

⁴¹So the Jews started grumbling about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They asked, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

⁴³Jesus answered them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the Last Day. ⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. ⁴⁶I am not saying that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He is the one who has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Amen, Amen, I tell you: The one who believes in me has eternal life.

⁴⁸“I am the Bread of Life. ⁴⁹Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that anyone may eat it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

6. With what statement of Jesus were the people have difficulty and why? How did Jesus react?

7. What important truth about our Christian lives does Jesus make clear in verses 44-45?

Answers:

1. Elijah was complaining about his life as a prophet of God. Wicked Queen Jezebel was chasing him (1 Kings 19:2), and now he simply wanted to give up and die.

2. The LORD told Elijah to get up and eat. He sustained Elijah when the prophet thought that his situation was impossible.

3. The writer to the Hebrews describes the elementary truths of God’s Word as ‘milk’ and the more advanced truths as ‘solid food.’

4. The writer to the Hebrews seems concerned that his first readers were not pressing on as believers, perhaps because of their unwillingness to suffer more for the gospel. Like babies, they could not see and work out the deeper implications of the gospel in their lives.

5. The writer to the Hebrews wanted his readers to press on to maturity.

6. The Jews in the synagogue in Capernaum (John 6:59) grumbled at the fact that Jesus called himself the “bread that came down from heaven.” His claim that he was from heaven seemed to be blasphemous. Jesus told them to stop their grumbling.

7. Jesus points out that apart from the working of his heavenly Father, we are unable to believe in him and come to him. (We could even translate, ‘no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me drags him.’) The Father does this work of dragging/drawing us to faith through the Holy Spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 2:9-10.)  The Holy Spirit brings us to faith by supplying us with the Bread of Life, the truth about Jesus our Savior. Apart from the working of the Holy Trinity, we could never trust in Jesus. We would rely on our own goodness.

Putting your faith into action

It has been said, “When God lets us stumble; he does so that we may fall into his arms.” He does this that we might lose faith in our strength and employ his. All that we are, all that we have, and all that we accomplish is for the Lord and because of his strength. “We give thee but thine own, whate’er the gift may be; all that we have is thine alone, a trust O Lord from thee. And we believe thy Word, though dim our faith may be: whate’er for thine we do, O Lord, we do it unto thee” (Christian Worship 485:1,6).

A reading from the Book of Concord for Pentecost 12

It would be very proper to place on the coat of arms of every pious prince a loaf of bread instead of a lion, or impress it on money.  This would remind both princes and their subjects that by their office we have protection and peace.  Without them, we could not eat our daily bread.  Princes are worthy of honor.  We should give to them for their office what we ought, as to people through whom we enjoy peace and quietness.  We should pray for them that through them God may bestow more blessings and goods.

This petition [Give us this day our daily bread] extends through all conditions on earth, like when we ask God to give us food and drink, clothing, house and home, and health of body.  Or when we ask that He cause the grain and fruit of the field to grow and mature well.  Furthermore, we ask that He help us at home with good housekeeping and that He give and preserve for us a godly wife, children, and servants.  We ask that He cause all we are engaged in to prosper and succeed, favor us with faithful neighbors and good friends.  We ask that He give wisdom, strength, and success to emperors, kings, and especially to the rulers of our country and to all counselors, magistrates, and officers.  Then they may govern well and vanquish the Turks and all enemies.  We ask that He give to subjects and the common people obedience, peace, and harmony in their life with one another. – Large Catechism, Part III, Prayer, paragraphs 75-77

406  This Is the Threefold Truth

1  This is the threefold truth on which our faith depends;

And with this joyful cry worship begins and ends:

Refrain:

Christ has died!

Christ is risen!

Christ will come again!

2  Made sacred by long use, new-minted for our time,

Our liturgies sum up the hope we have in him:

Refrain

3  On this we fix our minds as, kneeling side by side,

We take the bread and wine, take him, the Crucified:

Refrain

4  By this we are upheld when doubt or grief assails

Our Christian faith and love, and only grace avails:

Refrain

5  This is the threefold truth which, if we hold it fast,

Changes the world and us and brings us home at last:

Refrain