Video and Sermon for Divine Service of Wednesday of the 19th Sunday after Pentecost

Video of Divine Liturgy at St. Luke, Rensselaer


Wednesday of the 19th Sunday after Pentecost

 

Collect of the Day: O God, because without You we are not able to please You, mercifully grant that Your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. 

 

The Epistle for this 19th Wednesday after Pentecost is from First Corinthians, the first chapter. (1 Corinthians 1:1-9)

1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— 6 even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the Word of the Lord

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 22nd chapter. (St. Matthew 22:34-46) 

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” 41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he? ”They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, 44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? 45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. This is the Gospel of the Lord

Sermon: O Lord, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. 

The question asked of Jesus is a reasonable one. “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment?” There are 613 commands in the law of the Old Testament. As Jesus is recognized as a teacher of God’s Word, it is reasonable for an inquiry to be made by those who study God’s Word, how Jesus ranks those commands. In any set of laws, religious or not, there is a priority, a ranking, of what is more important and what is of less concern. 

We note that Jesus goes ahead and answers the next logical question without being asked. He tells inquiring minds that the second most important law is to love your neighbor as yourself. 

Jesus has very nicely summed up the two parts of the Ten Commandments. Loving God with all of your heart, mind, and soul is the first commandment. The first command naturally leads to the next two commands to use God’s name reverently and to observe the Sabbath. Loving your neighbor is commandments 4-10. Love begins at home with the parents and then extends outward into the neighborhood and then toward anyone in need. The fourth through tenth commandments can be summarized into words such as respect and cherish authority, life, possessions, reputations, and relationships. 

The pharisees are impressed with Jesus’ focus on the Ten Commandments. For them, piety and pious living begins and ends with those chief ten words. But, there is no conversation about faith. Nor is there a willingness to learn what they do not already know. 

Wouldn’t that have been a remarkable moment in the spiritual life of these Pharisees if they asked Jesus the simple question, how do you explain the conundrum of Psalm 110:1? This is the Psalm of David that Jesus quotes. “The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.” Who exactly is David referring to? How can the son also be the Lord? 

We meet Nicodemus in John 3. He is a courageous Pharisee who goes to Jesus with questions for which he does not have ready answers. But these pharisees are not courageous. They do not dare to ask. If they had, they would have to admit that the Messiah is standing right before them. Not only that, Jesus the Messiah is eternal. 

Jesus is the Messiah. For he is a son of David. Jesus is Lord over David because he is before David. Jesus, the Son of God, has always been. David, moved by the Spirit, recognizes that the Father sends the son of David to defeat the enemies of men. The only one who could defeat these enemies is also the Lord. The Son of David is greater than King David.

So, to the great embarrassment of the Pharisees, they must grow quiet just like the Sadducees were reduced to embarrassed silence. 

Thankfully, we are not reduced to silence. Nor are we afraid to ask questions of Jesus, the Father, or Holy Spirit. We approach them with faith. We receive the good news that Jesus is our Messiah who has died as a sacrifice on the cross in our behalf. David’s son is our Lord who has from eternity always been. God’s love for us, moves the Son to die for us.    On account, of our Messiah’s action for us, we have peace with the Father. In gratitude, we respond to his grace by loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, and soul and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. 

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