Fifth Sunday after Trinity Service

The Service Begins With Technical Setup and a Delayed Start

I just, I hit it because we were sharing that, that whatever, we were sharing that screen. Yeah, I'm just trying to make a move. That's my part of the reasoning behind it. Yep, we're on air.

That's awesome.

So, you can probably understand what I'm saying as well.

And the reason why is that the still image, or at least most people know that because of this job, there's still something going on in the background. So you can see why it takes me so long to get everything set up.

So the other thing is that my mom being online,.

And I need to make her a co-host, she'll actually, she'll be able to, she'll be able to do the stuff part of the program. Because I don't have that list actually, and I work five minutes out.

So I'll do a report on that.

Sure, iPad's going to be up the entire time here.

Maybe, because I'll probably be online the rest of the year.

Yeah, talking to people.

See, what I normally do is I use my laptop to sit in on the actual live stream stuff.

This window right here allows me to look at the analytics and everything and see what people are commenting and all that kind of stuff, and I have my laptop.

But that's, you need to be able to use that. I know, I know. I'm just going to set up two operators, so. So you should start sharing the view.

And I'll show you what I do there.

Hi, how are you?

Do you have fun flying?

Yeah.

Good.

How's your finger? Okay. Yeah.

That's probably all you can do for a month.

We'll get to both.

We'll get to both, okay?

Yeah.

What's the number of the craft?

What?

You can either do that or you can try to clean it up. So now what you do in that tab, that part there, this is a new one. This is from the right side. There you go. And now you're still, because if you see in this tab, you don't have access to any of the monitors.

These batteries are running low again.

So that means that if you want to do any of the host tools, you have to go to Blue or anything.

So at least here you still have access to the key. You have access to the key. And also every name. And you can put those back to where they belong.

So it is also an actual breakdown.

I always do make these go host as well.

Zoom just complicates everything. Okay. We're going to be starting a couple minutes late. We're going to be starting a couple minutes late.

Opening the Fifth Sunday after Trinity

I would like to welcome you to the Congregational Lutheran Church.

Today is the fifth Sunday after Trinity. We'll be following the order of Divine Service Setting 3. And we're going to try something a little bit different today. So during the intro, by the way, the psalm tone for the intro is going to be C as in catastrophe.

C as in catastrophe. And what we're going to be doing today, rather than chanting by half verse, we're going to do it by whole verse. So the way it will work, since it's not bolded, I will chant verse 1 the whole verse myself.

You will join me in verse 2. And then in verse 3, I will be by myself. You will join me in verse 4. You kind of get the idea here. So it's a little bit of an exotic attempt here today. And if we don't pull it off perfectly, always remember that the liturgy is a living, breathing thing.

And so like all living, breathing things on this planet, not everything is perfect, at least the first time. So we're going to see if we can mix things up just a little bit today. All right, opening hymn is 826.

If you're physically present at Kongsvinger, please rise.

In the name of the 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 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 Lord.

I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. Almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended you and justly deserve your temporal and eternal punishment.

But I am heartily sorry for them and sincerely repent of them. And I pray you of your boundless mercy and for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter sufferings and death of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to be gracious and merciful to me, a poor, sinful being.

Upon this, your confession, I, by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the Word, I announce the grace of God unto all of you. And instead, and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all of your sins.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Now, we're going to be doing this by whole verse today. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. O you who have been my help, forsake me not, O God of my salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear? Teach me your way, O Lord. And lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. For false witnesses have risen against me and they breathe out violence.

Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.

Amen.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. O you who have been my help, forsake me not, O God of my salvation.

With you.

O God, you have prepared for those who love you good things that surpass all understanding. Pour into our hearts such love toward you that we, loving you above all things, may obtain your promises which exceed all that we can desire.

Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for this, the fifth Sunday after Trinity, is taken from 1 Kings chapter 19.

The Lord said, Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by. And a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broken pieces, the rocks, before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.

And after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and he went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.

And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah? He said, I have been very jealous for the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant. They have thrown down your altars.

They have killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left. And they seek my life to take it away. And the Lord said to him, Go. Return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.

And Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel-Mehaloah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death.

And the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

So he departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him. And he was with the twelve. Elisha passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elisha and said, Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.

And he said to him, Go back again, for what have I done to you? And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people and they ate.

And then he arose and went after Elisha and assisted him. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Speak the gradual together. Behold our shield, O God.

Anointed.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer.

Give ear.

Our epistle is taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 1. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of the sage? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

For Jews demand signs. Greeks seek wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the fifth chapter. On one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them, and they were washing their nets.

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down, and he taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.

And Simon answered, Master, We toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets. When they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

They signaled to their partners on the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.

From now on you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. This is the gospel of the Lord. Now I have a question for y 'all. This is the fifth Sunday in the month of June.

Would you all be opposed to reciting the Athanasian Creed, found on page 319 in your hymnal? I think I should have warned you guys about that. Those of you online, I apologize that I didn't put it into the bulletin.

But we will quote the Athanasian Creed together. Page 319, fifth Sunday, you know. Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the Catholic faith. Whoever does not keep it whole and undefiled will, without doubt, perish eternally.

And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance. For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another.

But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is one. The glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated.

The Father infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal. Just as there are not three uncreated or three infinites, but one uncreated and one infinite.

In the same way, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, the Holy Spirit almighty. And yet there are not three almighties, but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God.

And yet there are not three Gods, but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord. And yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord. Just as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so also are we prohibited by the Catholic religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords.

The Father is not made nor created nor begotten by anyone. The Son is neither made nor created, but begotten of the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding.

Thus there is one Father, not three Fathers, one Son, not three Sons, one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity, none is before or after another, none is greater or less than another.

But the whole three persons are co-eternal with each other and co-equal, so that in all things as has been stated above, the Trinity in unity and unity in Trinity is to be worshipped. Therefore, whoever desires to be saved must think thus about the Trinity.

But it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is the right faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is at the same time both God and man.

He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages, and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age, perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh, equal to the Father with respect to His divinity, less than the Father with respect to His humanity.

Although He is God and man, He is not two but one Christ. One, however, not by the conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of the humanity into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.

For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ, who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

At His coming, all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds. And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire.

This is the Catholic faith. Whoever does not believe it faithfully and firmly cannot be saved. You may be seated. The sermon hymn is 688.

Evangelism as Casting the Net of the Gospel

In the name of Jesus.

So you'll note that the theme of our text today is heavily emphasizing, well, evangelism. Now I can tell you, I've heard some terrible sermons about evangelism, and I assure you today we will not be sharing with each other whether or not we've shared the gospel with our quota for the week of people that we need to be sharing it with.

I would note there's a lot of manipulation that goes along with the topic of, well, preaching the gospel and sharing the gospel. I would instead just encourage you to note that sharing the gospel with somebody else is, number one, the most easiest thing to do in the whole world, and at the same time, one of the most stress-inducing things to do in the whole world.

It's not easy from a point of view emotionally to do it, yet at the same time, the content itself is super simple. So what we're going to do today, we're going to meander through our text. I don't think you guys mind that we do that.

We're going to meander through our text because they're all so insanely good, and I'll even throw in a little bit of extra from the book of Acts just because I can because it's also that good. So you'll note, I want to point something out.

When we look at our Old Testament text, did you see the type and shadow connections in the last part of our Old Testament text with what we read in our gospel? If not, no worries. I'll point it out to you.

I think it's absolutely fascinating. Recently, I taught on Elijah ascending into heaven in a chariot of fire, and that's a type and shadow of Christ's ascension on Ascension Day. And you'll note Elijah's cloak coming down, and Elisha receiving that cloak was a sign of what?

Well, him receiving the same spirit that was on Elijah. What was the spirit that was on Elijah? Well, you know, the Holy Spirit. So that being the case, you'll note that when Christ descends into heaven, after he gets there, what does he do?

He sends the Holy Spirit. So you can kind of see the connections. In our Old Testament text, there's something similar going on here, and the similarity is absolutely fascinating. So there's Elijah. He had just done the thing at Mount Carmel, and you'll note that Elijah is a fellow who is not one who enjoys conflict.

You'll note he didn't do an end zone dance after the victory at Mount Carmel. He ended up putting to death all of the prophets of Baal, and Jezebel was not keen on that, and she threatened to murder him.

And so Elijah decides he's going to skedaddle and leave town, and he goes on Israel's most wanted list yet again. But you're going to note when he leaves town, he tells God, this is enough. I want to die.

I'm done, Lord. Just kill me now. I'm finished, is kind of his attitude. So what does he do? He travels all the way back to Mount Sinai, which is an odd thing to be doing, by the way. It's an odd thing to be doing.

And when he gets there, he finds a cave at Mount Sinai. He stays there for a little bit, and God shows up and says, what are you doing here, Elijah? You can't go back to Mount Sinai. It doesn't make any liturgical sense, if you know what I mean.

It's just one of these weird things. And so, of course, he gives his complaint to God. I'm the only prophet left. Everybody's bowed the knee to Baal, and Jezebel's trying to kill me. You get the idea.

And God says, listen, all right, so here's the deal. I want you to go back, and I want you to anoint Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha, and don't worry. I'm going to keep a remnant of people who haven't bowed the knee to Baal.

And so he pats Elijah on the back, sends him back to Israel. When he gets back, it says he departed from there. He found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing, with 12 yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the 12.

Coincidence? I don't think so. God doesn't play with dice. How many patriarchs were there? There were 12. How many apostles were there?

12.

You'll note the number 12 here seems to have that kind of significance with it. So Elijah passed by Elisha, cast his cloak on him, which is, again, kind of a symbolic act representing him receiving the Holy Spirit.

All right? That's the idea here. And so Elijah left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, go back. What have I done to you?

And so he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen, sacrificed them, boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Well, you're going to note here Elisha left everything behind, and he's left himself no ability to go back to being a farmer.

I don't know what the equivalent of this would be nowadays. Elisha shows up, there's a farmer, he's out in his combine, and what does the guy do? He sells his combine to the next-door neighbor or something like that, basically ensuring that he's got nowhere else to go except for to go ahead.

But here's the thing. Bad preaching on text like this and our Gospel text will then go something like this. So what have you sacrificed to follow the Lord today?

Hmm?

Have you given up sugar yet? I haven't.

Right?

What have you given up? What is it God calling you to sacrifice? What do you need to sacrifice so you can follow God? And every time I hear a sermon like this, I go, talk about confusion of law and Gospel.

I would note that this is a historical account, and God isn't calling you to leave anything. You don't need to sacrifice your oxen. You don't even own any. And if you do, I apologize. But you get the idea here.

This is not a call for you to sacrifice your oxen. Sufficient is the note that in this historical narrative, that Elisha did leave everything in order to follow Elijah. Note that. So in our Gospel text today then, similar thing is going on.

Old Testament type and shadow. You can see the fulfillment now. And it says in our Gospel text, on one occasion while the crowd was pressing in on Jesus, where's Jesus? He's on the Sea of Galilee, probably Capernaum.

And pressing in on him, they were wanting to hear the word of God, and he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. That's the Sea of Galilee. Now, a little bit of a note. I've never been to Israel, but I continue to travel there regularly using other people's vacation photos and 3D photos and things like this in my VR headset.

It's very fascinating. I'm becoming very familiar with Jerusalem and all the different sites. And it's a lot safer to travel that way there right now. I just want to say. But all that being said, I've seen this place in VR.

I've stood at this place in VR. And when you read the story about this particular site, it's very fascinating. They believe that this is the actual place where it took place. We know where this is. If you go on a tour of Israel and you go on one of those bus tours, this will be one of the stops.

And one of the fascinating bits about it is it's a little cove. And it just happens to be a perfect little amphitheater. And Jesus, at this point, because the crowd is pressing in on him, gets into a boat.

We'll talk about the details of that. But where he ends up acoustically is like the perfect spot to be in so that his voice can carry and the people can hear what he had to say. And they prove it over and over again.

I've seen videos of people on tours where somebody's standing out at that spot where Jesus was apparently. And everybody can hear him, not only on the shore, but all the way up the hill that is right there next to it.

It's a fascinating spot. All that being said, here the people are pressing in and Jesus just, well, he helped himself to Peter's boat. He just went and sat down in it. And then he asked him, put out a little from the land.

Okay.

I mean, can you imagine somebody just getting in your car and saying, I need you to take me to Walmart.

Okay.

And I'm not talking about your spouse. I'm talking about like some random person, right? It's like, so what does Peter do? Okay, fine. I'll put out a little bit from the land. And so Jesus sat down and he taught the people from the boat.

Jesus finishes his sermon, his lesson. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, go ahead and put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.

Hmm.

Could you imagine you farmers here in Kongsvinger if I gave you advice on where to plant crops and stuff? How well would that go over?

Right?

And despite all of my time flying flight simulators on my computer, do you think for a second that Jeff Kenny would let me fly?

No.

Would you let me land the plane?

No. Okay.

There we go, right? You're gonna know.

Jesus is a little out of his league here.

He's the son of a carpenter. And I need to remind you when the word that's used for carpenter is it relates to Joseph, who's not Jesus's biological father, but his legal father. The word actually is probably better translated day laborer construction guy.

Okay.

Day laborer construction guys are not known for their fishing prowess. And Peter, who is in business, he's in the fishing business with the Zebedee boys.

Okay?

He's in business with them on the Sea of Galilee. He knows a thing or two about fishing. So Jesus says, put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch. This ain't the time for catching fish, Jesus.

We do that at night. So Simon says, Master, we toiled all night and we took nothing. Now, I don't know what Jesus did at this point, if he just had a smirk on his face or he just kept looking him in the eyes.

And basically, I don't know, but Peter just completely folds and goes,.

All right, but at your word,.

I'll let down the nets. And you can just see him at this point going, this is the ridiculous thing ever, takes his net, maybe has to take off his shirt in order to get ready to cast this thing and gets ready, gets the current, throws the net out.

And he enclosed a large number of fish. So much so that their nets were breaking.

Hmm.

So what does he do? He signaled to his partners in the other boat to come and help him. Now, this is a wonderful little detail that good commentators will point out that shows the veracity, the historical veracity of this text.

Because the reason being is this, is that in the time of Jesus and Peter, fishing was a competitive business. And you'll note, it doesn't say that Peter then whistled and said, hey, get over here and help.

I've got this thing of huge fish over here. No, you don't want your competitors to get in on it and steal your fish. And so he signals to the Zebedee boys. You know, right? He signals to them. The fact that he doesn't vocalize it actually adds to the historical veracity of it because he would have never like whistled or vocalized it because you don't want to alert your competitors.

So they take their boat and they go out there and they fill both boats with the fish so much so that both the boats begin to sink. Now, a little bit of a note here. If Jesus wanted to go into the fishing business with a power like this, Jesus would have had a monopoly.

He would have been the wealthiest fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. And that's kind of the point. Could you imagine like, you know, somebody coming to you and say, hey, what are this week's lottery numbers gonna be?

And you give it to them and they win the lottery. It's like, why didn't you do that for yourself, Jesus? Well, you're gonna know, Jesus isn't into catching fish. He's got a bigger fish to fry, pun intended, all right?

And so this really sits hard in Peter's conscience because seeing that Jesus has this power, seeing that Jesus could have been the wealthiest man in all of the Sea of Galilee, he recognizes just how wicked he is.

And so he says to Jesus, well, falling down at his knees, depart from me, I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who were with him, they were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

So Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men. Other translations say, do not fear, you will now be a fisher of men, right? You've ever heard that? And when they had brought their boats to the land, what did they do with that big haul of fish?

Nothing, they left it. How much money did they leave in those boats? My competitors, you can have it. We're out of here. And now we're following Jesus. They left everything. And so you can see the connection between Elisha now and the apostles.

And again, you're not being told that you have to leave everything. You don't need to quit your job. You don't need to leave your wife or your husband. You don't need to kick your kids out of the house, at least until they're 18, right?

None of that is required here. What is sufficient is to know that these men did leave everything to follow Jesus, which tells us that the accounts that we have in the Gospels, that they are written by men who were not only eyewitnesses, but they sacrificed and left everything in order to follow this Jesus.

Their actions speak to the veracity of the testimony that they give. But fishers of men, now here's the thing. I would note, not everyone in the body of Christ is called to be an evangelist. And so you do not need to feel guilty that you're not out there street preaching every other week.

You don't need to feel guilty about that. And you'll note that pastors are given the job of making their living by preaching the Gospel. So if you were to kind of think of it this way, when we talk about fishermen, there are fishermen who are pros, and there are fishermen who are hobbyists, right?