The Seventh Sunday after Trinity

Hymns: 26, 385, 276, 47

Jeremiah 31:23-25 — “Thus Says the Lord of Hosts”

      Grace, mercy, and peace to you all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

      The Old Testament reading for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity is Jeremiah 31:23-25:

     Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!’ And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

      In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Introduction

      In this text we encounter what the Church has always known about true worship. True worship always originates with the Lord and never with us. True worship is a liturgical activity created by and continued in the Word of God. The Lord speaks, and when the people listen, they respond with what He has spoken. True worship is as the Lord Jesus declared: In spirit and truth the true worshipers of God are to worship. (John 4:24) God speaks. We hear and repeat with gladness what we have heard. What God gives we receive and in our lives together we return to Him with the gifts that He has given. This is the life that is ours in His Holy Communion.

I.      Thus Says the Lord of Hosts

      Our text begins with the everlasting reminder: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.”

      This is the beginning of all things, the Word of God.

     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1-4)

      Concerning Himself the Word of God says,

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:8)

      For those who know the Lord as their God, all things begin and end with Him and with what He says. The Lord spoke the cosmos into existence and through His Word created all things. The Word of the Lord was made to be flesh for us to redeem us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. The Word of the Lord has given Himself to His Church for our salvation and for our nurturing within His Holy Communion. He calls us to Himself through the continual working of the Holy Spirit so that we receive Him in the preaching and in the Sacraments of the Gospel. From beginning to end the Lord speaks to us His Word of Life, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He speaks. We hear. His Word generates faith within us and keeps us in that faith all the days of our lives.

II.      They Shall Again Use this Speech

      Thus we come together in the name of the Lord and we call upon His name as the pastor speaks the Invocation. Thus we depart from the assembly with His name spoken over us as the Lord gave it to Moses to give to Aaron and the everlasting priestly office in the Benediction. This is what the Lord declares through His prophet Jeremiah in our text today:

     Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!’

      As is herein declared, this is the Lord’s doing from beginning to end. The Lord declares it from eternity before it is observed by us in time. He says it, and in the fullness of time, it is. This is the way of the Word of the Lord.

      The Lord of hosts, Yahweh Sabaoth. He is known by the legions of angels who serve God in holiness. He is known by all who have died trusting in the promise of the Christ. He is known by all who live here and now, partaking of the Holy Communion of God in His Church on earth. He is the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel.

      When Jacob encountered the Lord and wrestled with Him, he desperately clung to the Lord. All night Jacob held on, refusing to let go until the Lord blessed him. Jacob was filled with fear. All of his past sins were weighing upon him and threatening to destroy him. He could see no way out of his predicament. Thus, when the Lord came to him, Jacob clung to the Lord, demanding in the name of the Lord that he receive the promised blessing of the Lord. It was not that Jacob was bold on his own. It was not that Jacob thought that he could make a demand upon God by his own strength. No! Far from it. Jacob realized his weak and helpless condition, but heard the Word of the Lord and trusted in the faithfulness of God to His Word. Thus Jacob clung to the Word and would not let go until the promised blessing was spoken.

      This is why the Lord gave Jacob the name, Israel, or Prevails with God. Yes, all who hold on to the Word of the Lord receive the name of Israel, Prevails with God. For the Word of God cannot fail. The Word of God accomplishes that for which God sends Him. He has won for us the victory and as we abide in Him, He gives us the victory, too.

      This is what the Lord has declared and promised. Thus we hear and we believe. Thus we hear and we repeat that which we have heard, for through the hearing the Holy Spirit produces faith and that faith moves us to recite what we have heard.

      And what have we heard? We have heard the holy name of God spoken over us in our baptism. We have heard God’s promise of forgiveness and life that He has spoken in connection with the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. We have heard the Lord declare us to be the true Israel of God, true sons who are coheirs with Christ. We have heard that in Christ God has brought back those who were captives and slaves of sin, death, and the devil.

III.      Together

      We also have heard God’s promise to be with us always in His Holy Communion. We have heard His promise that with the bread and the wine that He gives us His body and blood for us to eat and to drink. We have heard that His body is given to us that we may continue in the unity of the one true faith, abiding in the doctrine and practice that has been set before us in the Holy Scriptures. We have heard that His blood of forgiveness and life is given to us to drink and to have flow through us in the unity of His body.

      This is what He declares in our text.

And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

      Through preaching of the Gospel, administered in the Sacraments, the Lord has satiated the weary soul and has replenished every sorrowful soul. All whom the Holy Spirit calls and gathers into the body of Christ are made to be communicants together of this mighty miracle.

      Did you hear the words given to Jeremiah? Judah is the forefather of Jesus. In Judah and in all the cities, that is, in all the places that are guarded by a watch or an opening of the eyes, TOGETHER, the farmers and those going out with flocks shall live.

      This is truly a marvelous promise! In Judah and in all the gathering of Judah, that is, in all the gatherings where a watchman has been appointed to preach the Gospel of Christ so that an awakening from the sleep of death has occurred, all those who have been gathered shall live together united as one in the body of Christ.

      Who are those who shall live in such unity of faith together? The farmers and those going out with the flocks shall live together as one. This takes us way, way back in time. Remember the first two brothers, Cain and Abel? Cain was a farmer and Abel was one who went out with the flocks. Cain rose up in jealousy and murdered Abel. And what was the cause of Cain’s jealousy? Cain did not worship the Lord in spirit and truth and therefore the Lord did not acknowledge Cain as a true worshiper of God. Unlike Abel, Cain trusted in his own faith rather than in the faith that the Holy Spirit produces through the means of grace. Abel heard the Word and trusted in the faithfulness of the Lord. Cain heard the Word and believed that he had to commit his life to God. Abel trusted in God. Cain made every effort to believe in God. The Lord made it clear that Cain’s efforts to believe were unworthy and that the faith that the Holy Spirit worked in Abel was accepted for Christ’s sake. Cain refused to repent and thus he could not live in unity with his brother.

      In our text from Jeremiah we have heard God’s promise that this disunity has been undone and that the farmer and the one going out with the flocks shall be made to be one again through true faith in Christ.

Conclusion

      Yes! This is the Lord’s doing from beginning to end. This is how true worshipers worship. All of this is declared to be because:

I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.

      Our souls are sorrowful because of the consequences of sin. Day after day we encounter in the world and in our own lives the sorrows that sin causes. Moreover, having heard the condemnation of the preaching of the Law of God, we also are made to be sorrowful on account of our own sinfulness. We grieve over the fact that according to our own efforts we never please God but sin against Him in every thought, word, and deed. We are weary from fighting within ourselves against our own sinful nature.

      But in Christ God has taken our sorrows and our afflictions and has carried them into death for us. He has risen from the dead to guarantee the victory for us. He has provided the Gospel for us so that we may hear from Him that He has accomplished all that is necessary so that we may be restored in His holiness. He has established and maintained His holy catholic Church on earth through His means of grace, wherein He unites us in His body and covers us with the holiness of His blood. He keeps us in His grace as we eat of His body and as we drink of the Cup of the New Testament in His blood. The forgiveness that He purchased with His own blood is given to us as we drink the forgiveness in the unity of the faith that is of His body. Truly He has satiated the weary soul and has replenished every sorrowful soul. This is the true worship for which He seeks us and calls us by the Gospel and unites us through Holy Baptism and keeps us through the Holy Supper. Thus says the Lord of hosts! In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

      The peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus forever. Amen.

The Seventh Sunday after Trinity

Hymns: 26, 385, 276, 47

The Introit      (Ps.47:1,3)

The Collect     

O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth, we humbly beseech Thee to put away from us all hurtful things and to give us those things which be profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.

The First Lesson      Jeremiah 31:23-25 (NKJV)

      Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ‘The Lord bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!’ And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

The Gradual     (Ps. 34:11, 5; 47:1)

The Epistle     Romans 6:19-23 (NKJV)

      I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Sentence for the Season     (Ps. 119:124)

The Holy Gospel      St. Mark 8:1-9 (NKJV)

Jeremiah 31:23-25 — “Thus Says the Lord of Hosts”

Introduction

I.      Thus Says the Lord of Hosts

II.      They Shall Again Use this Speech

III.      Together

Conclusion