09 Pentecost 15th Sunday

FROM LUTHER’S PRAYERS: Dear Father in heaven, for the sake of your dear Son Jesus Christ grant us your Holy Spirit, that we may be true learners of Christ, and therefore acquire a heart with a never-ceasing fountain of love. Amen

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

FROM LUTHER’S SMALL CATECHISM: The Lord’s Prayer: The First Petition Hallowed be your name. What is this? It is true that God’s name is holy in itself, but we ask in this prayer that it may also become holy in and among us. How does this come about? Whenever the Word of God is taught clearly and purely and we, as God’s children, also live holy lives according to it. To this end help us, dear Father in heaven! However, whoever teaches and lives otherwise than the Word of God teaches, dishonors God’s name among us. Preserve us from this, heavenly Father! O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity. Grant us the fullness of your grace, that, pursuing what you have promised, we may share your heavenly glory; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. .

GOSPEL: Mark 8: 27-38

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ?

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on his way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say I am?”28 And they answered him, John, the Baptist, and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 He asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” 34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

The sorrow of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Psalm cxvi. 3-4.

Psalm 116:1-8 I love the Lord, because he hears me; he listens to my prayers. 2 He listens to me every time I call to him. 3 The danger of death was all around me; the horrors of the grave closed in on me; I was filled with fear and anxiety. 4 Then I called to the Lord, “I beg you, Lord, save me!” 5The Lord is merciful and good; our God is compassionate. 6 The Lord protects the helpless; when I was in danger, he saved me. 7 Be confident, my heart, because the Lord has been good to me. 8 The Lord saved me from death; he stopped my tears and kept me from defeat. 1

When God has given us true faith, so that we walk in firm trust, having no doubt that He, through Christ, is gracious unto us, then we are in paradise. But before we do anything wrong, all that may be changed and God may allow our heart to faint, so that we think it is His will to snatch the Savior from our heart. Then is Christ so veiled that we can have no comfort in Him, and the devil pours into our hearts the most terrible thoughts about Him, so that our conscience feels it has lost Him, and is cast down and disquieted as if there were nothing but God’s wrath towards us, which we by our sins have well deserved. Yea, even if we know of no open sins, yet the devil has the power to make sin out of what is no sin, and thus he frightens our heart and makes us anxious so that we are tormented by such questions as: Who knows whether God will have you and give Christ to you? This is the direst and deepest temptation and suffering with which God now and again attacks and tests even His greatest saints, so that the heart feels that God has taken His grace away from us; that He longer wills to be our God, and whithersoever man turns he sees nothing but wrath and terror. Yet is not every soul sorely tempted, nor does any man know what it is like unless he has experienced it. Only the strongest spirits could endure such blows. Sermons from the year, 1524.

W.A.17. II. 20 f.

Taken from the book: Day by Day We Magnify Thee Page 126

by Martin Luther