Weekly Message & Bulletin

Sometimes there are things that we really long for deep in our hearts and everything else pales in comparison.  Abraham longed deeply for the son promised to him by the LORD, and all his earthly wealth hardly mattered to him in comparison.  In the Old Testament reading, the LORD came to Abraham and reminded him that He was not only Abraham’s shield, but his greatest treasure.  That LORD, who keeps His promises as the all-powerful God of “free and faithful grace,” assured Abraham he would have a son…and through that son’s descendants, most importantly, a Savior. 

Some say, “You just gotta have faith” striving to keep a positive attitude in life.  But that sentence is only half complete.  What makes faith great remains the object of faith, the LORD and His promises in Jesus.  In fact, the birth of God’s Son, Jesus, is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise given and repeated hundreds of times in the Old Testament.  By the LORD’s grace, we have possession of that promise and now with certainty equal to Abraham’s for the fulfillment of the LORD’s other promise—a heavenly inheritance, everlasting life in heaven. 

The Christian’s life is one of prayer. Prayer is an act of worship in which we speak to God from the heart, asking something of Him, or thanking Him for His mercies. We pray because God commands us to pray and promises to hear us.  We pray because we constantly need God’s help and we want to thank Him for His blessings. True, God-pleasing prayer is only to the Triune God—not to angels, saints, the dead, or some other god.  We pray in Jesus’ name, because He assures that through faith in Him as our Savior, our heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will hear and answer our prayers according to what’s for our good.  

After Jesus had silenced a challenge to His divinity by the Sadducees, the Pharisees gave it a try.  One of them, an expert in the law, tested Jesus with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matthew 22:36) Jesus masterfully answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39).  So true!  The First Table of the Law (Commandments 1-3) outlines how we are to love and respect God.  The Second Table of the Law (Commandments 4-10) presents how God expects us to love and respect all other people (“our neighbor”). 

Truly, if we love God perfectly (First Commandment), we would never sin. What’s more, if we could keep that First Commandment flawlessly, we would automatically keep Commandments 2-10. Therefore, we concur with St. Paul, when he wrote this Spirit-directed statement: “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10).  But there remains only One Who loved and loves perfectly: our God and Savior Jesus (John 3:16). 

In keeping with the theme of the growth of God’s Church during Pentecost, today’s lessons point to the fact that the life of a follower of Christ is a life of self-denial.  True faith demonstrates itself in sincere service to the Lord…all to His glory.  Indeed, Jesus comes first in our lives (Matthew 6:33).   

The objective comfort coming from a God-first attitude (First Commandment) remains the gospel.  Since we know God has saved us by His grace in Jesus’ alone, we are free to live for Him.  Out of gratitude, we live to do and to keep His will.  God’s saving gospel moves us to share this “good news” of free salvation with others as well.  

Jesus demonstrated a perfect love that wouldn’t prevent Him from carrying out His saving mission.  God grant that we cling faithfully to Jesus’ word and follow it; it’s the blessed source of our assurance of salvation and the power that alone can bring others, through our faithful witness of that word, to faith in that free salvation. 

As God’s people at Faith Lutheran Church, we rightly include as part of our church’s name the term “evangelical.”  That word means gospel-centered as we focus our preaching and teaching on Jesus: Who He is, what His chief work is and naturally what that means for the life of those who follow Him in faith. 

As we have been discussing, the season of Pentecost stresses the growth of God’s Church, His family of believers.  By no means, however, do we forget that God in His grace achieves that growth.  Salvation rests solely on what our Savior has accomplished on our behalf.  The Holy Spirit specifically causes that growth, first by creating faith through the waters of baptism and then strengthening and sustaining that faith through the gospel in word and sacrament. 

No matter our race, gender or social status, faith in Christ makes us equally members of God’s family.  May we continue to treasure this truth and share it with others!  That’s fulfilling the mission of Pentecost. 

Greetings in our risen and ascended Savior!  Beginning with this Second Sunday after Pentecost, we enter into the non-festival half of the church year.  During this season, the Scripture lessons point to examples of the believer’s life in Christ, and of the Holy Spirit’s power as He brings people to faith and strengthens them in their faith to live for Jesus.   

As we have mentioned several times, the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) focus on the acts of Jesus to build His Church during His earthly ministry.  The book of Acts (as well as the other epistles) reveals the acts of Jesus to build His Church after His ascension into heaven.  Just as we recently read from the book of Revelation for a number of consecutive Sundays, this Sunday we begin reading from the book of Galatians for several Sundays.   

Therefore, we will read how Jesus keeps His promise to build His Church through the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit works through the word and sacraments, the Means of Grace, which faithful followers of Jesus administer in a God-pleasing way.  In summary, then, this non-festival season of Sundays after Pentecost emphasizes the growth of God’s Church as the Holy Spirit calls and gathers believers. 

In our confessional Lutheran Church, which upholds that God’s word is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, we believe in the Divine Call.  When a congregation calls a pastor, teacher, vicar or lay minister, etc., we believe that God controls the process; God is calling that individual through His believers.  Paul reminds us, “He (Jesus) himself the apostles, as well as the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as the pastors and teachers, for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving. In order to build up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11, EVH^TM). 

At other times in biblical history, we see how the Lord took a more “direct” approach in calling individuals to service in His Church.  Today, God directly speaks to us in His word.  But He calls individuals into various forms of ministry to serve as His spokespeople through His believers.  The goal of any spokesperson for God is to faithfully proclaim God’s word in all its truth and purity and thereby glorify God.  When faithfully doing so, any Christian can have the confidence and joy that as we speak God’s word, the Holy Spirit is working to bring people to faith and God’s goal of heaven.