Worship Helps for Pentecost 6

Artwork: The Repentance of Nineveh

Artist: John Martin

Worship Theme: Following seems easy. We just go behind the person in front of us. But following Jesus daily for our whole lives requires endurance. It is a struggle between our old and new selves.

Old Testament: Jonah 3:3-4:4

³So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh just as the word of the Lord had commanded. Now Nineveh was a great city to God. It required a three-day walk. ⁴Jonah walked through the city for a day, and he called out, “Forty more days and Nineveh is going to be overthrown!”

⁵The men of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. ⁶When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh.

By the decree of the king and his leading officials:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything. Do not let them eat food or drink water. ⁸Instead let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call fervently to God. Let them turn from their evil way and from the violence that is in their hands. ⁹Who knows? God may turn and relent. He may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.

¹⁰When God saw their actions, that they had turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster which he said he would bring on them, and he did not carry it out.

^4:1But to Jonah all this seemed very bad, and he became very angry. ²He prayed to the Lord, “Lord, wasn’t this exactly what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I previously fled to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and you relent from sending disaster. ³So now, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

⁴But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

1. When Jonah finally got to the city where God had sent him and preached there, the people on Nineveh believed God. When he saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, what did God do? (See 3:10.)

2. How angry was Jonah, as a result?

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 11:21–30  

²¹I am ashamed to say that we were too weak for that!

²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s seed? So am I. ²³Are they ministers of Christ? (I am speaking in a crazy way.) I am even more. I’ve done more hard work, been in prisons more often, been whipped far more, and I’ve been close to death many times. ²⁴Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. One time I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day on the open sea. ²⁶I have often been on journeys, in danger from rivers, in danger from robbers, in danger from my own people, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the wilderness, in danger on the sea, in danger among false brothers. ²⁷I have worked hard and struggled. I’ve spent many sleepless nights. I’ve been hungry and thirsty. I’ve gone without food many times. I’ve been cold and lacked clothing.

²⁸Besides those external matters, there is the daily pressure on me of my concern for all the churches. ²⁹Who is weak without my being weak? Who falls into sin without my being distressed?

³⁰If it is necessary that I boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

3. When Paul compared himself to the “super-apostles” in Corinth, he did not list all his success. What did he list?

4. What other constant pressure did Paul feel? (See 11:28.)

5. About what then, did Paul boast? (See 11:30-32.)

Gospel: Luke 9:51–62   

⁵¹When the days were approaching for him to be taken up, Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵²He sent messengers ahead of him. They went and entered a Samaritan village to make preparations for him. ⁵³But the people did not welcome him, because he was determined to go to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?”

⁵⁵But he turned and rebuked them. “You don’t know what kind of spirit is influencing you. ⁵⁶For the Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s souls, but to save them.” Then they went to another village.

⁵⁷As they went on the way, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

⁵⁹He said to another man, “Follow me!”

But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

⁶⁰Jesus told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

⁶¹Another man also said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to those at my home.”

⁶²Jesus told him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

6. As the time approached for Jesus to be taken up to heaven, what did he do? (See verse 51.)

7. Why didn’t one Samaritan village welcome Jesus? (See verse 53.)

8. What is the main point for us, as Jesus talks with three men separately about following him (verses 57–62)?

Answers:

1. When God saw how the Ninevites repented and turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

2. Jonah was so angry at God’s patience and mercy—which Jonah knew by heart from God’s description of himself in Exodus 34:6-7—that Jonah got irate. He told God he wanted to die. He refused to answer God when God asked him if he had a right to be so upset. (How similar we can be to Jonah! How opposite Jesus was!)

3. Paul listed as his credentials all the trials he had gone through, including imprisonment, frequent floggings and many dangers. He had often been near death.

4. Paul also felt daily the pressure of his concern for all the Christians in the churches he had helped start and had visited. When the people were weak, he felt weak. When believers fell into sin, it tore Paul up inside.

5. Paul boasted about his weakness, not his strengths. Final case in point: Paul began his ministry by narrowly escaping death in Damascus.

6. As the time approached for Jesus to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Literally, he “fixed his face for Jerusalem.” He was determined to die for us.

7. The people of the Samaritan village did not welcome Jesus, because he was heading for Jerusalem. Jews and Samaritans in Jesus’ day usually had strong dislike for each other. (Yet Jesus had mercy on these people.)

8. The main point for us, as Jesus talks with three men about following him, is full dedication to Jesus and his kingdom. Halfway? No way.

Putting your faith into action

Corporations today often run what is known as a cost-benefit analysis. Before spending millions of dollars the company wants to know what real benefits will result. If the ultimate benefits to the company don’t outweigh the expenses, the project is killed. Most of us, at least subconsciously, do a cost-benefit analysis of our giving. To give time, energy, and money to church costs us something personal. If all we do is weigh the physical evidence, we will concentrate too much on what we are giving up. However, our relationship to the Lord is spiritual. If we look with spiritual eyes, we will see that the rewards of being part of God’s kingdom far outweigh the earthly cost.

A reading from the Book of Concord for Pentecost 6

This heresy is that the Mass justifies by the outward act, that when applied it merits the pardon of guilt and punishment even for the unjust if they do not present an obstacle.  We object to these deadly errors, which divert people from the glory of Christ’s passion and overthrow the doctrine about the righteousness of faith.  In the [Old Testament], the godless believed they merited the forgiveness of sins, not through faith, but through sacrifices. They increased these services and sacrifices, set up the worship of Baal in Israel, and even sacrificed in the groves in Judah.  Therefore, the prophets condemn this belief and war against not only the worshipers of Baal, but also other priests who made sacrifices ordained by God with this godless belief [1 Kings 18:1–40].  Carnal people cannot tolerate that the honor of an atoning sacrifice belongs solely to Christ’s sacrifice because they do not understand the righteousness of faith.  The godless priests in Judah held a false belief about such sacrifices; Baal worship even continued in Israel.  Nevertheless, a Church of God was there that objected to these godless services [1 Kings 19:18].  Baal worship remains in the realm of the pope: the abuse of the Mass.  They think they can merit the pardon of guilt and punishment for the unrighteous.  All who believe the Gospel should condemn these wicked services. – Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXIV, The Mass (paragraphs 96-98)

465  Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken

1  Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow you.

Destitute, despised, forsaken, You on earth once suffered, too.

Perish ev’ry fond ambition, All I’ve ever hoped or known;

Yet how rich is my condition! God and heav’n are still my own.

2  Let the world despise and leave me; They have left my Savior, too.

Human hearts and looks deceive me; You are not, like them, untrue.

And since you have smiled upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might,

Foes may hate and friends may shun me—Show your face, and all is bright.

3  Go, then, earthly fame and treasure! Come, disaster, scorn, and pain!

In your service pain is pleasure; With your favor loss is gain.

I have called you Abba, Father! You my all in all shall be.

Storms may howl, and clouds may gather; All must work for good to me.

4  Haste, my soul, from grace to glory, Armed by faith and winged by prayer.

All but heav’n is transitory; God’s own hand shall guide you there.

Soon shall end this earthly story; Swift shall pass the pilgrim days,

Hope soon change to heav’nly glory, Faith to sight and prayer to praise.

Text: Henry F. Lyte, 1793–1847, abr., alt.