09 Pentecost 7th Sunday

FROM LUTHER’S PRAYERS: O God and Father, give us graciously what belongs to the body and its life. O Son of God, free us from sin and mercifully grant us your spirit. O God the Holy Spirit, heal, comfort, and make us strong against the devil, and finally give us the victory and the resurrection from the dead. Amen.

SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

FROM LUTHER’S SMALL CATECHISM: The Lord’s Prayer: And deliver us from evil. What is this? We ask in this prayer, as in a summary, that our Father in heaven may deliver us from all kinds of evil-affecting body or soul, property or reputation-and at last, when our final hour comes, may grant us a blessed end and take us by grace from this valley of tears to himself in heaven.

O God, you see how busy we are with many things. Turn us to listen to your teachings, and lead us to choose the one thing which will not be taken from us, Jesus Christ our Lord.

GOSPEL: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about the whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:11-22 Remember that one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”— a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in the place of two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him both of us have access on one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the

household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN ? That they shall be one. John xvii. 21.

For everyone who believes through the words of the Apostles, the promise is given for Christ’s sake and by the power of this prayer, that he shall be one body and one loaf with all Christians; that what happens to him as a member for good or ill, shall happen to the whole body for good or ill, and not only one or two saints, but all the prophets, martyrs, apostles, all Christians, both on earth and with God in Heaven, shall suffer and conquer with him, shall fight for him, help, protect, and save him, and shall undertake for him such a gracious exchange that they will all bear his sufferings, want, and afflictions and he partake of all their blessings, comfort, and joy. How could a man wish for anything more blessed than to come into this fellowship or brotherhood and be made member of this body, which is called Christendom? For who can harm or injure a man who has this confidence, who knows that heaven and earth, and all the angels and the saints will cry to God when the smallest suffering befalls him? If a sin attacks him to frighten, bite, and oppress his conscience, threatening him with the devil, death, and hell, god speaks with the great company of heaven: ‘Sin, leave him to Me unmolested! Hell, leave him endeavored; Death, leave him unslain; But this cannot be done without faith, because to the eyes of the world and of reason the opposite appears to happen. Sermon on John xvi-xx, 1528.

W.A. 28. 182.

Taken from the book: Day by Day We Magnify Thee by Martin Luther Page 353