Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity, September 22, 2024
Seventeenth Sunday After Trinity, September 22, 2024
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk. 14:11). Jesus’ statement here is not one of automatic reciprocity. Those self-exalted do not always receive their humiliation in this sinful and broken world. Sometimes that reckoning must wait until the Lord’s Day. Likewise, those who self-humiliate are not automatically eligible for an exaltation beyond their promoted humility. Later, the Apostle Paul would come to echo Jesus’ words when he wrote to the Romans saying, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rol 12:3). Neither self-promotion nor self-abasement are worthy of the children of God. Sinners, however, will always seek an advantage: promoting themselves, if that seems advantageous, or abasing themselves, if that has advantages. To live without self-exaltation and without self-denigration means finally coming to grips with the blessing Paul received, “I have learned to be content in all things” (Ph. 4:11).
Prayers from the discontent…
Father Divine, you have apportioned to each of us a measure of faith, grant that, as that measure of faith takes hold of us, we receive contentment from the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ our Lord. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen
Father Divine, you have apportioned to each of us a measure of faith. As we rest in the contentment found in the presence of Christ, grant that his peace surrounds us and ours. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen
Father Divine, you have apportioned to each of us a measure of faith. Out of such peace, let us look upon our neighbors with mercy and love as you have looked upon us. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen
Father Divine, you have apportioned to each of us a measure of faith. Grant to those of the Institute of Lutheran Theology—its students, faculty, staff, and board—that they, too, enjoy the measure of faith assigned to them as the Holy Spirit drives your Word through their ears and into their hearts. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen
Father Divine, you have apportioned to each of us a measure of faith. As this measure of faith takes hold of us during these days of our baptism, grant us contentment in our daily work and satisfaction with our daily bread that we may wait in peace and joy for that coming day, the great day of the Lord. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen