Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity, September 15, 2024
Sixteenth Sunday After Trinity, September 15, 2024
“Fear seized them all, and they glorified God…” (Lk. 7:16). One of the most memorable lines from Luther’s Small Catechism is the introductory phrase at the beginning of the statement of meaning for each of the commandments: “We are to fear and love God….” The crowds here, both the great crowd that followed Jesus and the considerable crowd that followed the funeral bier, both crowds were seized by fear. The people in them didn’t just feel afraid. Their emotion of fear is not the acting agent here. Rather, fear itself is the acting agent… the fear of God seized them. Fear acted by grasping them in its grip. Those crowds did not choose to fear; the fear was imposed upon them by the presence of a great power in their midst… a power so great as to raise the dead… a power so great that the fear of it was incomprehensible as the people suffered in its grasp. This same power… the power to raise the dead… the power to seize you with fear… the power to repent you and bring you to faith… this same power is present in your worship service. Your preacher delivers the Word of God, Jesus Christ, to your ears, putting the old sinner to death and raising you up to walk in newness of life. The power of this Word seizes you (as it seized the crowds in our text) with fear. How can you help but glorify and love your God whose power manifests through his Word?
Prayers from those who have lost the spontaneity of their worship…
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Holy Spirit brings a faith that possesses us. Grant that our response to this faith burst forth spontaneously, glorifying and loving your work upon us. In Jesus name, Amen.
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Holy Spirit brings a faith that possesses us, astonish us with the newness of life that is ours now in this faith that possesses us. In Jesus name, Amen.
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Holy Spirit brings a faith that possesses us. As we are people of such faith, send us out into the world to care for and tend to this creation that will soon pass away. In Jesus name, Amen.
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Holy Spirit brings a faith that possesses us. Grant this faith to permeate the Institute of Lutheran Theology, its staff, students, faculty, and board such that they, too, burst forth with spontaneous prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. In Jesus name, Amen.
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Holy Spirit brings a faith that possesses us. Possess me with such faith that I and the family of God around me wait for the day of fulfillment and carry out our daily work in anticipation of its arrival. In Jesus name, Amen.