Second Sunday after Trinity Service

9 views

June 9, 2024

Date: Second Sunday after Trinity Text: Luke 14:15–24 www.kongsvingerchurch.org If you would like to be on Kongsvinger’s e-mailing list to receive information on how to attend all of our ONLINE discipleship and fellowship opportunities, please email [email protected]. Being on the e-mailing list will also give you access to fellowship time on Sunday mornings as well as Sunday morning Bible study. If you'd like to follow along during the liturgy you can get yourself a copy of the Lutheran Service Book HERE: https://a.co/d/7Jyim02

03:28: What's going on? We have the best.
04:31: It's the best. It's the best. Josh, are you okay with this using the container
04:49: Zoom? Or are they going to continue? Yeah. I just want to make sure. We can do
04:58: Zoom and we'll also do YouTube. We'll just use
05:05: Zoom. I guess my only issue with the container is
05:21: I can make the YouTube video private after this. Let's do both.
05:28: Yes. Yeah. I can have it locked down.
05:35: Oh. Yeah. Yeah.
06:06: Yeah. I don't see it. Okay. Can you tell me where it is right now?
06:36: Or at least the video portion? There. Yeah.
06:42: That one's with my lens. I'm in. I'm posting.
06:57: Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah in the name of the
15:25: Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit beloved in the Lord let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto
15:33: God our Father beseeching him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness our help is in the name of the
15:42: Lord I said I will confess my transgressions unto the
15:47: Lord Oh Almighty God merciful
15:57: Father I a poor miserable sinner confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which
16:06: I have ever offended you and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment but I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them and I pray you have your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy innocent bitter sufferings and death of your beloved
16:26: Son Jesus Christ to be gracious and merciful to me a poor sinful being upon this your confession
16:36: I by virtue of my office as a cold and ordained servant of the word I announce the grace of God unto all of you and in the stead and by the command of my
16:44: Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all of your sins in the name of the Father and the Son and the
16:50: Holy Spirit the
17:11: Lord was my support he brought me out into a broad place
17:24: I love you
17:32: Oh Lord my strength for you save a humble people this
17:54: God his way is perfect for this
18:04: I will praise you Oh Lord among the nations glory be to the
18:16: Father and to the Son and to the
18:21: Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever amen the
18:38: Lord was my support he brought me into a broad place he rescued me glory be to God on high the
21:43: Lord be with you let us pray
21:57: Oh Lord since you never fail to help and govern those whom you nurture in your steadfast fear and love work in us a perpetual fear and love of your holy name through Jesus Christ our
22:09: Lord who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit one God now and forever may be seated the
22:25: Old Testament reading for this the second Sunday after Trinity is taken from the book of Proverbs chapter 9 wisdom has built her house she is hewn her seven pillars she has slaughtered her beasts she has mixed mixed her wine she's also set her table she has set out her young women to call from the highest places in the town whoever is simple let him turn in here to him who lacks sense she says come eat of my bread and drink of the wine that I have mixed leave your simple ways and live and walk in the way of insight whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse and he who reprove proves a wicked man incurs injury do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you reprove a wise man and he will love you give instruction to a wise man and he will still be wiser still teach a righteous man and he will increase in learning the fear of the
23:26: Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight this is the word of the
23:32: Lord we'll speak the gradual together in my distress
23:41: I called to the Lord deliver me O Lord from lying lips the epistle is taken from Ephesians chapter 2 but now in Christ Jesus you who were once far have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility and he came and he preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near for through him we both have access in one spirit to the father so then you are no longer strangers and aliens but you are fellow citizens with the
24:40: Saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the Apostles and the prophets and Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the
24:53: Lord in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the
25:00: Spirit this is the word of the Lord the
25:24: Holy Gospel according to st. Luke the 14th chapter when one of those who reclined at table with Jesus heard these things he said to him blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God but he said to him a man once gave a great banquet and invited many and at the time for the banquet he sent his servants to say to those who had been invited come for everything is now ready but they all alike began to make excuses and the first said to him
25:59: I have bought a field and I must go out and see it please have me excused and another said
26:05: I have bought five yolks of oxen and I go to examine them please have me excused and another said
26:10: I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come so a servant came and reported these things to his master and then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant you go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city and bring in the poor the crippled and the blind and the lame and the servant said sir what you have commanded has been done and still there is room and the master said to the servant you go out into the highways into the hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled for I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet this is the gospel of the
26:46: Lord we confess our faith together in the words of the
26:56: Apostles Creed I believe in God the
27:03: Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ his only
27:09: Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the
27:14: Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the
27:30: Father Almighty from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead I believe in the
27:37: Holy Spirit the Holy Christian Church the communion of Saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting you may be seated in the name of Jesus have you ever had one of those moments where you wish you were a fly on the wall it's a term that we use and I'm not talking about like a big ugly fly that needs to be swatted but the term refers to the idea of this that something has occurred there's a meeting that has taken place and that person and that person are going to have a collision if you would and oh you wish you can see the sparks here the conversation and get all the juicy details did you know that in the gospel of Luke chapter 14 we have a fly on the wall perspective of Jesus being invited to a party put on by a ruler of the
31:12: Pharisees I mean what an interesting party that had to be I mean the
31:18: Pharisees outright heretics not only that we're gonna have to fill in a few details here remember the
31:25: Pharisees they did not believe in sola scriptura they believe that God gave an oral
31:30: Torah on Mount Sinai this oral Torah they were in charge of and they can tell you what's in there
31:35: Luther described such oral traditions as the magic bag you know whatever you want you can just make it up because it's in the magic bag it's there in the oral tradition oh look we just found oh well the perpetual virginity of Mary it's right there in the magic bag right and so that's how things like that occur but also keep in mind that the
31:55: Pharisees by adding to the scriptures they were doing so for a very particular reason because they did not believe in salvation by grace through faith they were flat -out self -righteous legalists and always and again they would pick people out of the crowd or the synagogue or whatever who were experiencing problems maybe they were blind maybe they were mute maybe they were crippled maybe they were poor and they would say
32:21: God has given them what they deserve you know but of course the Pharisees being wealthy they looked they pointed to their wealth as proof that they were receiving blessings from God it's terrible when you kind of think about it but on top of all of that in Jesus' day the
32:38: Jews and the Pharisees taught a form of ethnic superiority keep this in mind okay this idea of ethnic superiority does not originate in the
32:49: American South okay it is not exclusive to the Ku Klux Klan instead it also in fact impacts other ethnicities as well and the
32:59: Jews were quite quite versed in this concept and that in fact not only did their ethnic concepts of them being superior because after all they were the direct descendants of Abraham right so they were the blessed of God but it it resulted in like them practicing segregation and it impacted their view of the
33:24: Messiah and as a result of it the popular view of the Messiah at Christ's time was just false and you can hear it with the
33:34: Apostles they're kind of thinking in terms of the expectations created by the Pharisees and their eschatology how did they view the
33:41: Messiah the Messiah was going to be an ethnically Jewish descendant of David who was going to come and reestablish the theocracy in Israel and he was gonna kick out all those
33:54: Gentiles right and so when you think about their ethnic superiority how it was practiced it was horrible when they would travel through Samaria as soon as they left the borders of Samaria they would shake off the dust off their sandals to not bring any of that dirty
34:11: Samaritan dirt into the Holy Land right and then you kind of think about what happened with Peter remember
34:17: Peter God called him to go and preach the gospel to a fellow by the name of Cornelius Cornelius is the first Gentile believer he and his entire household and what ended up happening is in the book of Acts not only do you get the account of God calling
34:33: Peter to go and preach the gospel to Cornelius and all of the details but afterwards you get a regurgitation of all of this and kind of the emphasis yeah
34:42: Gentiles are into but listen to what happened after Peter went and preached the gospel to Cornelius they received the
34:49: Holy Spirit they were baptized and now they're believers and you're gonna note then that in Peter's day somebody who's a believer in Jesus Christ what important meal do believers have together the
35:03: Lord's Supper right so here's how this goes down in Acts chapter 11 now the
35:10: Apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea they heard that the Gentiles also had received the
35:16: Word of God and there should have been much rejoicing in the land yeah right this is how this should have gone down so when
35:23: Peter went to Jerusalem the circumcision party again a party you never want to go to criticize him saying listen to their criticism you went to uncircumcised men and you ate with them let that sink in for a second these people have received the
35:45: Holy Spirit they are now believers in Jesus Christ and as a result of it they are full citizens of the kingdom of Jesus and you're upset because Peter ate a meal with them you ate with those uncircumcised men ah you'll note ethnic superiority has reared its ugly head well it's okay that they're in the church but we're not gonna eat with them oh yes you are right oh yes you are so Peter then has to explain himself so explain to them in order listen
36:24: I was in the city of Joppa praying I was in a trance I saw a vision something like great sheet descending being let down from heaven by its four corners and it came down to me looking at it closely
36:35: I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air and I heard a voice saying to me rise
36:41: Peter kill and eat this sounds like a good thing you know there's bacon and lobster you know things like this right but he's but I said by no means
36:51: Lord for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth but the voice answered a second time from heaven what
36:57: God has made clean do not call common and God here isn't referring to food he's referring to human beings
37:06: Christ has bled and died for the sins of the whole world and anybody who is a believer in Jesus Christ doesn't matter if they're
37:16: Norwegian or Chinese or from the Netherlands or German or if all the way down in Malawi or Japan it doesn't matter they have all been made clean by the blood of Christ and how dare you call them come so this happened three times father son
37:33: Holy Spirit I have to point that out and as he was and it all was drawn up again into heaven and behold at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were and sent to me from Caesarea and the
37:47: Spirit told me to go with them making no distinction that's where you have to put that emphasis the
37:54: Holy Spirit told me to go and he made no distinction he gave no restrictions he wanted me to treat them exactly the same way
38:01: I've treated every one of the believing Jews these six brothers also accompanied me and we entered the man's house and he told us how he had seen an angel stand in his house and say send a
38:12: Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved
38:18: God through his angel committed to Cornelius that he and his household would hear a message the good news of Christ bleeding and dying for their sins and through that message they would receive salvation and they themselves would be saved and it says you and all of your household including your infants by the way right and as I began to speak the
38:41: Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning and I remember the word of the Lord how he said
38:47: John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit so if then
38:52: God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the
38:57: Lord Jesus Christ who was I that I could stand in God's way that's a pretty good argument right
39:05: I'm no longer interested in your segregation policies because God's made no distinction and there's no way
39:13: I'm gonna stand in God's way it's not like all of a sudden the Holy Spirit falls on these Gentile believers and Peter goes no no no not like that not them no we want them to go to hell we don't like them they've oppressed us there are occupying force there are a bunch of pagan unbelievable not that right who was
39:36: I to stand in God's way so when the circumcision heard these things they fell silent and then they glorified
39:44: God saying well then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life listen to the words
39:53: God has granted repentance that leads to life keep that verse tucked away in your head because when you explain how
40:03: God makes Christians people will sit there and say I don't understand isn't repentance required of course it is and God is the one who grants repentance to the work of the
40:13: Holy Spirit through the Word of God but all that being said you can now see kind of how the racial segregation the ethnic superiority complex the
40:22: Jews of old had back in the day but that then impacts their view of the Messiah which is important for us to understand as we work our way through our gospel text because they again they thought that the
40:34: Messiah was going to come and set up an ethnic system and this is the reason why Jesus was always really careful when you read throughout the
40:42: Gospels whenever somebody calls Jesus the Christ and they figured it out
40:48: Jesus goes right and he basically says don't speak that out too loud because here's the thing is that that being the case their view is going to lead to all kinds of confusion because Christ hasn't come to set up an ethnocentric theocracy in Jerusalem not in this age and as a result of it you think back when
41:13: Peter made the great confession you know who do people say that I am Peter confesses you are the Christ the son of the living
41:19: God and Jesus blesses and blessed are you Simon Bar -Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and you are
41:26: Peter on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it no sooner does
41:31: Peter get the answer correct that Jesus now has to start giving instructions about what the
41:37: Messiah is legitimately going to do and Messiah hasn't come to kick out the
41:43: Gentiles and create an ethnocentric theocracy and so Jesus says we're going to Jerusalem he's going to be betrayed handed over to the
41:51: Gentiles to the Romans are going to crucify him and on the third day is going to rise again and Peter does the stupidest boneheaded move in all of scripture and I'm surprised he was not put like lightning didn't strike him or like there was just a tiny little bit of smoldering ashes afterwards he rebukes
42:09: Jesus and says Lord this will never happen to you what motivated that his false view that Christ was going to set up a theocracy on earth this is not in keeping with what he was led to expect
42:24: Christ was going to do from all the popular teachers of his day and so he says Lord may this never be and was
42:30: Christ say to him get behind me Satan you remember Christ was tempted in the wilderness to become the king of the universe all you have to do is bow down and worship
42:41: Satan that's not what Christ has come to do not in his first advent so all of that being said let's go back to the party let's do the fly on the wall thing shall we context shall be fun because what happens here is glorious it's legitimately how do the kids say it nowadays it's chef kiss on the part of Christ he just totally nails it here so we'll back up into the context 14 -1 so one
43:07: Sabbath when Jesus went to dine at the house of a ruler of the
43:12: Pharisees oh this is gonna be good they were watching him carefully and behold there was a man before him who had dropsy and so Jesus responded to the lawyers and the
43:24: Pharisees what a terrible group saying is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not you throw this pitch this question to you but they remain silent so first thing at the party they've kind of set things up in order to ensnare
43:38: Jesus what kind of party is this right so they remain silent so he took him and he healed him and then he sent him away and then
43:47: Jesus said to them so which of you having a son or an ox's that has fallen into a well on a
43:52: Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out hmm but they would not reply to these things oh this is a great party let me grab some more hors d 'oeuvres and just sit down make some popcorn and watch this one play out next
44:06: Jesus go he goes after them so he now he told a parable to those who were invited and when he noticed how they chose places of honor so here we are it's a banquet it's a party put on by one of the rulers of the
44:19: Pharisees and all the important mucky mucks of the pharisaical party are trying to jockey for those important places of honor they want to sit at the right table be seen with the right people and all this kind of stuff and so Jesus he sees them basically doing this and so Jesus said to them hey listen
44:34: I have an idea guys when you are invited by someone to a wedding feast do not sit down in a place of honor lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him and he who invited you both will come and say to you give your place to this person and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place but when you're invited you go and sit in the lowest place so that when your host comes he may say to you friend move up higher then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted and you can just hear all the important people who were jockeying for those important places to sit down at this party or sitting there going did he just say that I was gonna be humbled yeah he did oh it gets better so Jesus said to the man who had invited him so the guy hosting the party listen
45:32: I have a great idea for you buddy listen when you give a dinner or a banquet don't invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbors lest they also invite you in return and then you be repaid but I have an idea when you give a feast why don't you instead invite the poor the crippled the lame and the blind you know all the people you despise and point out in your sermons how
45:55: God has cursed them why don't you invite them instead and then you will be blessed because they cannot repay you for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just this is our awesome this will make a great movie you know just Jesus just like a wrecking ball just going through here with a smile on his face while eating their food being on their ground completely evading the trap that they had set up is now going hard after their false theology but then we get to our gospel text today and this one requires you to keep in mind the ethnocentric views that they had regarding the
46:38: Messiah that he was going to set up a messianic theocracy and get those evil
46:44: Gentiles and slay them and all this kind of stuff so when one of those who reclined at the table with Jesus heard these things and the implication is is that he's become really uncomfortable okay did
46:58: Jesus just say to invite the poor the lame the crippled and you can just hear silence among all the guests there at the party going and going and so this guy breaks the silence and he said blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God what's he referring to the messianic ethnocentric theocracy that's what he's referring to we're gonna be blessed when
47:30: Messiah comes and he kicks out those Gentiles that's what he's referring to so Jesus knowing full well what he was referring to decides he's gonna take it on and boy is this a mouthful so Jesus said to him listen a man once gave a great banquet and he invited many and at the time for the banquet he sent for his he sent his servant to say to those who have been invited come for everything is now ready but they all alike began to make excuses so who's the guy who's putting on the banquet
48:04: God the Father what's the banquet the great wedding feast of the Lamb which is the inaugural banquet of Christ's kingdom here on earth that comes at the end of the age when
48:16: Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead so who were the a -listers who were the first to be invited ah the children of Abraham for sure they were the ones entrusted with the very oracles of God it was they who were the prophets who spoke and prophesied of the coming
48:31: Messiah of him coming to earth bleeding suffering dying for the forgiveness of our sins reconciling us to God and then ultimately in a second coming that he would exact justice and judge the living and the dead but his kingdom is not merely a kingdom for those who are the physical descendants of Abraham and so you'll note the a -listers having then been distracted by the false doctrine of the
48:59: Pharisees are thinking in terms of worldliness and we can see this very clearly because it's all about the places of honor it's all about being returned these guys are as shallow as shallow gets and so Christ here pointing out that the religion has has caused them to not think about the things of God instead think about the things of earth he describes three fellows who were invited and each of them provided excuses as to why they should not come only one of the excuses
49:32: I kind of get the other two I don't get at all so the first guy said to him well I I bought a field and I must go out and see it please have me excused what do you need to see didn't you look at it before you purchased it it has dirt probably has some weeds and some rocks and stuff what are you gonna have a survey done here okay what's so important about this dirt that you're gonna skip out on the great wedding feast of the lamb so another one said well
50:03: I bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them just just hire a vet he'll take a look at them he'll give you a report on their health okay is that more important than being at this great feast so please have me excused now the third guy this is the only one
50:24: I get said well I've married a wife and therefore I cannot come now listen okay wives at times can be very opinionated
50:32: I get this but all he needs to do is put his big -boy pants on and say honey we're going okay and and that's all that needs to happen here but apparently we now know who's really in charge okay so as a result of says
50:45: I can't come she's not gonna let me right mm -hmm you need some counseling after that so having said all these things the servant came and reported these things to his master so then the master of the house became angry and said to a servant you go out quickly to the streets in the lanes of the city and listen to who gets invited next and you bring in the poor the crippled the blind and the lame
51:10: Christ practices what he preaches by the way right and we know this is true because all these people the poor the crippled the blind and the lame those who were despised by the false doctrine the heresies of the
51:25: Pharisees now the heresies of the Pharisees that kind of rhymes right that all those people who were despised by them they are the people who
51:32: Christ ministered to constantly oh you say this guy was cursed well I'm gonna heal him right you say he was he was born blind because of sin
51:41: I'm gonna make him able to see to show that you are completely the ones who are blind that Christ would do stuff like that all the time and so all the poor the marginalized the crippled those who the
51:52: Pharisees hated and pointed out as object lessons of those who weren't living up to their standards they're the first ones to be invited isn't that fascinating well the servant goes and then does that and says well there's still room all right so the master said to the servant
52:10: I want you to go out into the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in so that my house may be filled well um and you could see him going just anybody
52:22: I mean if I do that I mean I'm gonna run into Gentiles yep they're invite them okay what about tax collectors yeah they can come to the town hooker yep she's invited what what this is what about the butcher the baker and the candlestick maker yeah okay attorneys just one just one we just need one that's it no he didn't say that did he right right and so you can see the scandal of what
52:55: Christ is saying here he's basically saying listen this ethnocentric theocracy that you think the
53:03: Messiah has come to set up it's completely bogus it is not true it is false the
53:11: Messiah has come to call people from all nations did God not tell
53:17: Abraham that through his seed the entire world would be blessed he did so Jesus here just upsets all the apple carts tosses them all over and then he says of those a -listed descendants of Abraham who were so worldly minded they had no clue what was really going on he says
53:41: I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet at all which then gives us a great intro into our epistle text that explains what's going on here so think of it this way back in the day the way
53:58: Jews kind of thought about things they didn't think of terms like racially is it like you have like Africans and you have people from Ethiopia then you have the
54:08: Egyptians and then you have the Greeks and the Romans didn't think of these terms at all there was only two races according to the minds of the
54:17: Old Testament Jews there were those who were descendants of Abraham through Isaac the
54:22: Israelites and then there was everybody else the Gentiles that's it full stop you kind of think about Gentiles is kind of like the big junk drawer then of all the ethnicities y 'all have a junk drawer in your kitchen it's like the best drawer ever
54:39: I don't know where this goes let's just throw it into the junk drawer right so where does the rest of humanity if you're not somebody who's a direct descendant of Abraham and Israelite go you go into the junk drawer known as the
54:50: Gentiles the nations is kind of how it gets translated but note then here this then creates a little bit of consternation for us who are part of the
54:59: Gentiles I remember when I got my DNA results back you know I was curious as to you know what my
55:05: DNA would show my heritage was and it turns out there's a lot of Irish and there's a lot of Welsh in me there's a little bit of German not as much as I thought and when
55:12: I looked at my Irish and Welsh DNA I came to the conclusion that I was as Jewish as the lucky charms leprechaun you know but that being the case
55:23: I what am I supposed to do with that right I mean I'm not I'm not a descendant of Abraham in the genetic sense
55:31: I can't find any proof that I am but watch then what happens in our epistle text because this has everything to do with what
55:38: Christ the Messiah truly came to do he did not come to set up an ethnic theocracy not in Israel not in Germany not in the
55:48: United States of America or anywhere and anybody who would tell you otherwise is lying to you says this but now in Christ Jesus y 'all who were once far off you have been brought near by the blood of Christ the picture is actually beautiful if you think about it here at if you go back into the
56:11: Bible at the Tower of Babel humanity rebelled against the command that God gave them when humanity came off of the ark
56:16: God said to go and fill the earth and subdue it and to be fruitful and multiply and what did humanity do they played clumpball and they all stick together in one place and built themselves a big tower to their own glory disobeying
56:29: God's command to go and subdue the earth and as a result of it God said no you guys are gonna go and do what
56:34: I told you to do and so to make it to make sure that's gonna happen he confused all the languages of humanity and so as a result of it all these people truly descendants of Adam and Eve and descendants of Noah were all descendants of Noah by the way and all descendants of Adam and Eve God dispersed them sent them throughout the different places in the regions of the earth and they were far off most of them live their lives with no knowledge of the covenants of the promise of the
57:04: Messiah no understanding that God was going to send his son to bleed and die for their sins it's sad and tragic and so each and every one of us we are descendants are among those people but God through the blood of Christ has brought us who were far off he's now brought us near he's brought us so near that we're now all touching each other he himself then is our peace who has made us both and here's the category
57:34: Jew and Gentile he's now made us one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two and so making peace when it says here create in himself one new man he's talking about one new humanity one new mankind so you'll note that in Christ because of what he has done these ethnic distinctions
58:06: I'm German I'm Chinese I'm this I'm that they have no bearing whatsoever in how we are to look at each other because Christ has taken all of us and made us into one humanity and so that being the case
58:24: I think it's fascinating that y 'all know that I conduct services on Saturdays for people around the globe and so every
58:32: Saturday we conduct services for people in Western Europe and down in New Zealand and Australia and Japan and other places around the world and I've had the fortunate experience to be able to travel to meet with the people that were serving online and what's interesting is that serving people who are outside of the
58:51: United States gives me a very unique perspective because when I pray when I do the prayers of the church during the
58:57: Aletheia services I don't pray for just the president of the United States I have to pray for King Charles I have to pray for the king of the
59:04: Netherlands I forget his name from time to time I have to pray for I have to pray for the members of parliament in Sweden I have to pray for the prime minister of Australia and the thing when you do that you recognize that the one thing that we all have in common as Christians is our singular citizenship in the kingdom of God my passport says
59:29: United States of America on it but the people we serve around the world their passports don't say that and so you'll note this text teaches us that in Christ God himself has created one new mankind out of Jews and Gentiles and as a result of it he's broken down the hostility and you're gonna note that Christ and the scriptures especially in the
59:57: New Testament says that we are to love our neighbors as ourself and you sit there and ask the question the stupid question well who's my neighbor look it up look at the way it's being used when it says in the
01:00:09: New Testament that we are to love our neighbor as ourself neighbor is just another way of saying fellow human being it doesn't matter if their skin color is white or if it's black or some shade in between by the way that's no way to determine the race of a hit of a human color is not the basis on which we decide somebody's race we are all humans we are all part of the human race right and so you'll note
01:00:41: Christ is created in himself one new mankind in place of Jew and Gentile and he is the one who has made peace he on the cross did not bleed and die only for ethnic
01:00:54: Jews or Germans or Norwegians he bled and died for the sins of the whole world yours and mine and so he has made peace with God and through his blood on the cross more importantly he's also made peace between us
01:01:11: I love the fact that here at Kongsvinger we look like the earth we have the same amount of variety as the human race itself does and we all come together and we eat a meal with each other every single
01:01:34: Sunday Christ has made peace between us and it's sad but there's a lot of rancor and hatred in our world today especially as it relates to racial tensions and it's only getting worse and it's sinful for Christians to foment that kind of hate instead we are to be ambassadors of the peace that Christ brings to the whole world to the forgiveness of sins won by Christ on the cross you see
01:02:02: God reconciled us both to God in his own body through the cross therefore he killed the hostility
01:02:09: Paul says and he came and he preached peace to you who are far off and preach to those who were near peace to those who were near for through him both
01:02:18: Jews and Gentiles have access in one spirit to the father so then you are no longer strangers y 'all are no longer aliens and he's talking to us
01:02:32: Gentiles we're included we are now members of the household of God which is built on the foundation of the
01:02:39: Apostles and the prophets that's talking about the scriptures old and new Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone and in whom in Jesus the whole structure is being joined together and grows into a holy temple in the
01:02:56: Lord it's a beautiful picture of you to think of it if you have you all ever seen like a beautiful like old -school ornate building we don't have a lot of those here in Grand Forks if we have any at all but I've traveled the world and seen some pretty amazing buildings and you sit there and you just stand back and some of these buildings they just gorgeous to look at they are awe -inspiring you know maybe it's an old -school
01:03:20: Cathedral with the spire that reaches up into heaven with all the details that go off in the front of it and the facade and the beautiful stained glass and all that kind of stuff if you were to think of it that way that's what
01:03:33: Christ is building we're all being built together into a holy dwelling place a temple for the
01:03:39: Lord and you'll note that requires a variety of stones a variety of colors and the idea then is that what
01:03:47: God is making is beautiful could you imagine if stone started getting uppity and say well I don't want to be next to that stone right how long would that building stand in fact it cannot house divided against itself cannot and so you'll note coming back to Christ teaching a house divided against itself cannot stand and that's the reason why then
01:04:11: God's Holy Temple that he's building out of us living stones is so glorious because Christ himself has made peace with the
01:04:19: Father through his death on the cross for us so that the hostility that we had with God is forgiven and through his cross he has killed the hostility that we've had with each other and as a result of it we are not a house divided against itself we are house united around the love the mercy the grace of Christ his forgiveness his means of grace and word and sacrament today we will all receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins and that forgiveness is given without measure and we don't check your
01:04:58: DNA before we feed you the Lord's Supper we are united together because Christ has made us all one citizens of his kingdom through his work on the cross so in him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the
01:05:17: Spirit so brothers and sisters let us embrace this beautiful love and unity that Christ has given us let us not look with disdain on anyone among us whom
01:05:27: Christ has bled and died for regardless of where they come from or where they reside on the earth but let us understand that Christ has bled and died for all and that he's made us all one in him let us rejoice in that unity in the name of Jesus amen we rise for the offertory in peace let us pray to the
01:07:03: Lord for the mission of the church in our land and throughout the world that through the proclamation of the gospel many may be brought near by the blood of Christ and built together with us into a dwelling place for God let us pray to the
01:07:16: Lord we pray for the empty seats at the Lord's table this day that the
01:07:22: Lord's invitation in the mouths of his people would invite many from every place in this world to Christ's feast of forgiveness and love until this house is full let us pray to the
01:07:32: Lord for the outpouring of Christ's love and the Spirit's aid to abide in it that we would not become murderers and cast away the gift of eternal life through the hatred of our brothers let us pray to the
01:07:45: Lord for all who serve in the high duty of father or mother together with all who guard and rear children that they may show forth in word and deed the blessings of Christ the certainty of his mercy for sinners and the primacy of the means of grace which create strengthen and preserve faith let us pray to the
01:08:05: Lord we pray for our nation and its leaders especially Joseph our president and walls our governor that God would uphold us in peace and enable our leaders lawmakers and judges to govern according to his will and the order of creation knowing that all authority under heaven comes from him let us pray to the
01:08:25: Lord we pray for our afflicted brothers and sisters today we especially pray for Elizabeth Carol Susan Sheila Jana and Luca we pray for Patricia David Roger Robin and Bonnie Pat Heather Jonathan Jeff Wendy Renee Louise Deborah Rachel and Gloria we pray for those who mourn today we remember the family of mrs.
01:08:59: Lawson the family of Linda Jean and the family of Julie Judy Hollander we ask
01:09:06: Lord that those who we prayed for that you would hear their cries for help deliver them out of their troubles for the sake of his righteous son let us pray to the
01:09:16: Lord for pardon in our weakness and a hunger and thirst that only
01:09:21: Christ can satisfy that we would neither decline his invitation to this Holy Supper nor his kingdom's eternal banquet let us pray to the
01:09:29: Lord Heavenly Father we give you thanks that through the Holy Word that you've called us to your great supper enliven our hearts by your
01:09:39: Holy Spirit that we may not hear your word without fruit but prepare ourselves rightly for your kingdom and not allow ourselves to be hindered by any worldly care through Jesus Christ your son our
01:09:50: Lord who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit one God now and forever amen congregation may be seated and if I can have the