Worship Helps for Pentecost 4
Artist: Peter Paul Rubens
Date: 1618-1620
Worship Theme: The journey from spiritual death to
spiritual life begins with a recognition of guilt. We have sinned and fall
short of fulfilling the Law of the Lord. Through contrition and repentance God
prepares the heart to receive the gift of the Gospel.
Old Testament: 2 Chronicles
33:1-6, 10-18
Manasseh was twelve years old when he
became king, and he ruled as king in Jerusalem for fifty-five years.
2He did evil in the eyes of the Lord by following the disgusting
practices of the nations which the Lord
had driven out before the people of Israel. 3He rebuilt the high
places which his father Hezekiah had torn down. He erected altars to the Baals
and made Asherah poles. He worshipped the whole army of the heavens and served
them. 4He built altars in the House of the Lord, about which the Lord
had said, “In Jerusalem my Name will be forever.” 5He built altars
for the whole army of the heavens in the two courtyards of the House of the Lord.
6He made his sons pass through the fire in
the Valley of the Son of Hinnom. He practiced fortune telling and sought omens
and consulted mediums and spiritists. He greatly increased the evil deeds he
did in the eyes of the Lord and
provoked him to anger.
10The Lord
spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. 11So
the Lord brought the officials of
the army of the king of Assyria against them. They led Manasseh captive with
hooks. They bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
12When he was in distress, he sought
the favor of the Lord and humbled
himself deeply before the God of his fathers. He prayed to the Lord, and the Lord responded to his prayer and heard his plea for mercy.
He brought him back to Jerusalem into his own kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that
the Lord is the true God.
14Afterward he built an outer wall
for the City of David in the valley, from west of the Gihon Spring up to the
entrance by the Fish Gate. He encircled Ophel with it and raised it to a very
great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in
Judah.
15He removed the foreign gods and the
idol from the House of the Lord.
He removed all the altars he had built on the mountain of the House of the Lord and in Jerusalem and threw them outside
of the city. 16He restored the altar of the Lord and offered sacrifices of fellowship offerings and
thank offerings on it. He commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.
17Nevertheless, the people still
sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord
their God.
18You can find the rest of the acts
of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him
in the name of the Lord, the God
of Israel, in the annals of the kings of Israel.
1.
What kinds of evil things did King Manasseh do?
2.
What changed after the king of Assyria put a hook in Manasseh’s nose and took
him to Babylon in handcuffs?
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 6:9–11
9Or do you not know that the unrighteous
will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually
immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor males who have sex with males, 10nor
thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the verbally abusive, nor swindlers
will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And some of you were those types
of people. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
3. What kind of people will not inherit God's kingdom?
4. What is
remarkable about the Christians in Corinth to whom Paul wrote this letter? (See
the first part of 6:11.)
5. What happened
to the Christians to change them?
Gospel: Luke 7:36–50
36A certain one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with
him. Jesus entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37Just
then a sinful woman from that town learned that he was reclining in the
Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38stood
behind him near his feet weeping, and began to wet his feet with her tears.
Then she began to wipe them with her hair while also kissing his feet and
anointing them with the perfume. 39When the Pharisee who had invited
him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would realize
who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, because she is a sinner.”
40Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell
you.”
He said, “Teacher,
say it.”
41“A certain moneylender had two debtors. The one owed
five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42When they could not
pay, he forgave them both. So, which of them
will love him more?”
43Simon answered, “I suppose the one who had the larger
debt forgiven.”
Then he told him,
“You have judged correctly.” 44Turning toward the woman, he said to
Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house, but you did not give me
water for my feet. Yet she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with
her hair. 45You did not give me a kiss, but she, from the time I
entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not anoint my
head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. 47Therefore
I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that is why she loved so much.
But the one who is forgiven little loves little.” 48Then Jesus said
to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.”
49Those reclining at the table with him began to say
among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in
peace.”
6. When the Pharisee said something snide to himself, what
did Jesus do? (See verses 39–40.) What did this show?
7. In terms of a day’s wage, how much did the two men owe?
(See footnote on verse 41.)
8. Have you been forgiven much or little? How are you
responding to this forgiveness (verse 47)?
Answers:
1.
Manasseh, king of Judah (the southern part of Israel), worshiped idols and
helped other Jews to be idolaters too. He sacrificed his sons in the fire to an
idol. He tried to contact the dead and find out about the future.
2.
In his old age, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled
himself greatly before the God of his fathers. Manasseh got rid of altars to
idols and tried to re-establish worship of the true God.
3. People who do not repent but keep practicing
homosexuality and other things that change God’s holy plan for marriage, as
well as idolaters, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, slanders and swindlers
will not inherit God’s kingdom.
4. Some of the Christians in Corinth were former thieves.
Some were former homosexuals, etc. (Today people often claim that with certain
sins they are born that way, and they cannot change.)
5. Paul says they were baptized. Its results were amazing.
They were made holy and declared innocent in God’s courtroom through their
trust in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
6. Jesus “answered” the Pharisee, even though Simon had
said nothing out loud. This shows that Jesus knows all things. He knows the
thoughts we may think are secret.
7. One man owed
500 days’ wages, the other 50 days’ wages. If an unskilled working man in our
day might make about $50 a day, these two men would have owed $25,000 and
$2,500 respectively.
8. This question
deliberately is for you to ponder, not to find a definitive answer.
Putting your faith into action
What
motivates you to bring your gifts to the Lord? For the woman in today’s reading,
the motivation was forgiveness. Of all the gifts God gives to us, forgiveness
in Jesus Christ is the most precious. No gift we could give back to God for
what he did through his Son Jesus Christ could ever balance the debt we owe for
what our Lord accomplished for us on the cross. Yet Jesus says in today’s
reading that the debt we owe has been canceled. That means that we do not give
out of obligation but as an act of worship and thanks to God.
Scripture
speaks about terrors: My iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy
burden, they are too heavy for me. I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of
the tumult of my heart. (Psalm 38:4, 8) Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am
languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But You, O Lord—how long? (Psalm 6:2–3)
In these
terrors, conscience feels God’s wrath against sin. This is unknown to secure people living
according to the flesh. The conscience
sees the corruption of sin and seriously grieves that it has sinned. It runs away from God’s dreadful anger. Human nature, unless sustained by God’s Word,
cannot endure His anger. Paul says, “For
through the law I died to the law” (Galatians 2:19). The Law only accuses and terrifies
consciences. In these terrors our
adversaries say nothing about faith.
They present only the Word that convicts of sin. When this is taught alone, it is the doctrine
of the Law, not of the Gospel. By these
terrors, they say, people merit grace, as long as they love God. But how will people love God in true terrors
when they feel God’s wrath? What besides
despair do those people teach who, during these terrors, show forth only the
Law? – Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XIIA, Repentance (paragraphs
31-34)
1 Salvation unto us has come By God’s free
grace and favor.
Good works cannot avert our
doom; They help and save us never.
Faith looks to Jesus Christ
alone, Who did for all the world atone;
He is the one Redeemer.
2 What God does in his law demand And none to
him can render,
Brings wrath and woe on ev’ry
hand For man, the vile offender.
Our flesh has not those pure
desires The spirit of the law requires,
And lost is our condition.
3 It is a false, misleading dream That God his
law has given
That sinners can themselves
redeem And by their works gain heaven.
The law is but a mirror
bright To bring the inbred sin to light
That lurks within our nature.
4 Yet as the law must be fulfilled Or we must
die despairing,
Christ came and has God’s
anger stilled, Our human nature sharing.
He has for us the law obeyed
And thus the Father’s vengeance stayed
Which over us impended.
5 Since Christ has full atonement made And
brought to us salvation,
Each Christian therefore may
be glad And build on this foundation.
Your grace alone, dear Lord,
I plead; Your death is now my life indeed,
For you have paid my ransom.
6 All blessing, honor, thanks, and praise To
Father, Son, and Spirit,
The God who saved us by his
grace—All glory to his merit!
O Triune God in heav’n above,
You have revealed your saving love;
Your blessed name be
hallowed!
Text: Paul Speratus,
1484–1551, abr.; tr. composite.
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