Devotions for the Fourth Week after Pentecost
Monday of Pentecost 4 – Prayer of the Week
Almighty God, You have built Your Church on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. Continue to send Your messengers to preserve Your people in true peace that, by the preaching of Your word, Your Church may be kept free from all harm and danger; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
If walk into most churches in the US, you will find a cornerstone. It will usually have a date and be a large granite or marble block set into the foundation or brick of the church. If you are ever there for a cornerstone laying or when a church is demolished, you also probably know that these contain a time capsule, a repository of mementos of the parish when the church was founded.
But this is not the cornerstone of which this prayer speaks. These words are taken from the end of Ephesians 2. In the ancient world and into the medieval times which followed that, a cornerstone served a very different purpose. The cornerstone was the block of stone against which the whole building was measured and aligned. If you read a little earlier in that second chapter of Ephesians, Paul simply says that Jesus is our peace. He means it in the very wholistic Hebrew sense of Shalom. Jesus is the forgiveness which makes that peace possible.
We pray that God preserves us in true peace (Shalom). That peace is not the peace of this world, for this world’s peace is measured by a different cornerstone. Even the apostles and prophets are measured by Jesus. Our peace, the peace for which we pray, is the peace which is measured from the divine lines of Christ our Lord. It starts not with making the other guy conform to my life, but when all of us are conformed to God’s justice and living in the holy forgiveness and love which Christ both lived and gave to us in His death and resurrection. You can live in line with that Jesus, your Peace, today. Forgive someone in His name, as He has forgiven you.
Tuesday of Pentecost 4 – Isaiah 66:10-14
10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
all you who mourn over her;
11 that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
from her glorious abundance.”
12 For thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream;
and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip,
and bounced upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice;
your bones shall flourish like the grass;
and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants,
and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.
My college friends had come home with me for a break. We had driven past my house a couple of miles, stopped the car and now stood next to the freeway in wonder. Before us a stretched not the normal continuance of I-70, but a very substantial lake. The confluence of the Davis and Blackwater rivers, just south of the freeway, had been inundated by recent rains, pushing the water over the banks and over the freeway itself. The leaden, overcast skies threatened more rain. Across the rippling water we could see the little town of Sweet Springs, which now was on an island, the last county road into the town having been overtopped by the flood a few days earlier.
Isaiah likens the peace which God will bring us to a river and the glory which shall flow into Jerusalem to a stream which has overflowed its banks. Standing next to that freeway, the normally sedate Davis creek had become a wild and powerful thing. There was no stopping it. It is an interesting image for our Lord to use to describe His blessings to his people, especially His peace. We tend to think of God dribbling out blessings in response to our prayers, a tame and gentle flow which we might enjoy and consider at our leisure. But Isaiah sees a mighty flood of peace, a glory of God which flows and will not be stopped. It sweeps away our objections and all that is in its path.
While we stood there with our mouths agape at the spectacle before us, we heard a car drive up behind us. The doors flew open and out jumped the local doctor. Sweet Springs was the location of the only nearby hospital. He cheerfully greeted us, walked over to the edge of the water, got into a little boat which had been drawn up on the shoulder of the highway, and soon was making his way across the flood toward town and his patients who were in the hospital there. God had given this man to the community to care for them. He was part of that flood.
Wednesday of Pentecost 4 – Psalm 66:1-7
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.” Selah
5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
When she was a little girl, my mother grew up on a farm in northwestern Iowa in the 1930’s. One of her favorite tasks was to bring lunch to her father in the fields adjacent to their home. She would stand at the end of a row while her father was cultivating or mowing hay or one of the many other things that farmers do. One day she was standing on the edge of the field when her father was mowing hay. He stopped the tractor but before they sat down to lunch, he motioned for her to follow. They came to a spot in the field where it had already been mowed, but there was a patch of standing hay.
Slowly they crept forward, and my grandfather pushed the standing grass aside to show my mother a meadowlark nest, with the mother bird sitting on her eggs in that little island of unmown hay. He had seen the nest and swerved his machinery around it to preserve this spot for the bird and her eggs. I have this image in my mind of my mother as a little girl and her robust father smiling at this wonder in a hayfield together.
The psalmist urges us to come and see what God has done. He points us toward the mighty deeds of the Exodus, the crossing of the Red Sea and the mighty deeds which He did through Moses. I “see” those deeds through the accounting of them in the book of Exodus. But those are not the only mighty deeds of God that I get to see. My grandfather wisely stopped his tractor quickly when the mother meadowlark burst up in front of him. He carefully preserved her nest so that he could show his daughter another sort of work of God. She loved birds her whole life.
My grandfather was always a gentle and faithful man. He lived his whole life in a small community of people. They were not always easy to get along with. Neighbors sometimes can be difficult, and his neighbors were no exception. But he showed my mother another mighty work of God as and elder in his congregation he forgave and loved and built a community on the love of Jesus, the mightiest work of all.
Thursday of Pentecost 4 – Galatians 6:1-10, 14-18
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5 For each will have to bear his own load.
6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
17 From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
Not long after the Saxon immigrants arrived in Missouri under the leadership of Martin Stephan, Pastor Loeber heard the tearful confessions of several of his young female parishioners. The community’s leader, Bishop Stephan, was having sexual affairs with these young women. Pr. Loeber realized that this was a powder keg, but he did right the thing. It was painful and scandalous, but he exposed the abuse and publicized it. There was strong pressure to hush things up, to keep it quiet. But he did not. He believed that the forgiveness and love of Christ were larger than the sins committed. The sin would always have power if it was kept secret. Exposed to the light of day and the Gospel, sin could be put away forever.
After it all came out and Martin Stephan was banished from the community, Pr. Loeber then did something else which was equally important. Within his congregation remained this small group of young women whose reputations had been tarnished. In 19th century society, the social stigma which went with such an affair might have followed them for the rest of their lives. He wrote a letter to his parish. He told the whole congregation that these women had come to him, confessed their own participation, repented of all their sins, and had been forgiven. It was now incumbent on the whole community to live out that strong forgiveness for these young women. Jesus had died for them. Forgiveness was given to them.
I spoke the other day with a woman who was a sixth-generation descendant of one of those young women in Pastor Loeber’s congregation. She herself is a student of Lutheran history. When she studied this event, she had been surprised to find that her own ancestor had been one of those young women. That was news to her. Her grandmother had gotten married and lived a full life inside that very community, having multiple children and a faithful loving husband. Pr. Loeber’s letter had worked, so much so that she did not even know this about her own ancestor, even though it was public knowledge. It had not mattered so much anymore.
Paul enjoins us to restore the sinner in a spirit of gentleness. He warns us against another temptation, the temptation of a spiritual pride which pays only lip service to the idea of forgiveness but never lives it out, holding oneself above the sins of another person. Pr. Loeber’s letter reminded his congregation that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and all of us need the forgiveness of Jesus. He freely gives to you and me and freely gave to those young women too. He has forgiven everyone you will ever know.
Friday of Pentecost 4 – Luke 10:1-20
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades.
16 “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
My father served a rural parish in Nebraska when I was a young child. One of my classmates invited me to his home one day to play. It was everything you might imagine a farm to be. There were animals, there were barns, tractors, and much more. There was also a dog, a very large and quite ferocious dog. He was quite gentle with the members of the family, but he had issues with anyone who was not part of the family on the premises. This worked well for the farmer and his family, most of the time. Playdates were not such a good time. The dog had a collar and on the collar was a ring, and that meant the dog could be chained to the side of the barn. He was chained for my whole visit.
My friend explained this to me. There was a danger zone, a semicircle of area which the dog could reach. Outside of that, we were safe. Inside of that, I was not. We were careful to stay well outside of that zone. The dog would bark and strain against the chain, but he could not reach us.
Jesus tells his jubilant disciples upon their return from this mission that they indeed have something to rejoice about. It is not that the demons were subject to them; although, they were subject to them. Rather, he tells them to rejoice because their names are written in heaven, far beyond Satan’s reach, safely in the book of life. Christ saw Satan fall from heaven like a bolt of lightning, never more to return. His chain will not allow it (Rev. 20:1-3). In baptism your name was written in heaven. This mortal life we live now is well within the reach of our enemy. He may torment you with disease, terrorize you with violence, or darken your world in an effort to make you despair, but he cannot touch that name which Christ wrote in heaven in His blood in that book of life. Eternal life and God’s favor are forever yours.